People could be losing jobs? I can only speak from personal experience. I haven't bought a new game in ages and I use to be a real regular purchaser of games. My new hobby is to try and collect these things:
http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/...oys_yamato.htm
I consider myself one of the casual gamers he refers to and I spend less and less time each week on games. Maybe I just need a break from them? I think a lot of what he says is true. I now spend more money buying stuff second hand than buying stuff new because I know I can just wait and bargain hunt for cheap prices. But if something revolutionary or interesting comes out, then I'd be interested again. I'm not quiting just reducing the time playing games. Part of this has to do with the fact that I'm getting less patient as I get older. I prefer playing an old game like metal slug for a quick fix beating it in 1 man, and then watching a dvd and relaxing. There are other things to spend money on too, you know!
Nintendo are going to need money if they arre going to stay alive. What happens when/if sony's portable destroys thier GBA market and DS flops like VB? They need a new megaton!! :D
Look man, lets not get all cocky, we all saw what happened when sony pretty much took nintendo's rpg market from right under thier nose after square defected all those years ago and nintendo didn't think rpgs were a major deal. Nintendo don't like listening to thier own fans. They can be arrogant and never consult the people supporting them for any new developments. (GBA for eg. lack of lights etc) Casual gamers outnumber hardcore fanatics and increase competition by bringing prices down.
From my own personal view if 50 joe averages sell thier copy of metal gear solid 5 for cheap, and it prevents me from needing to pay full price than I can use this extra money to spend on other things. Nintendo are smart for thinking ahead. As the market is more flooded, competition is heavy, and less people are going to keep buying new stuff at the same rate they used to.
Unlike some of you guys, I can't afford a neogeo cartridges for $500 bucks. Or to spend huge amounts of money on GBA carts that could just as well be on cheaper mediums. I want the casual market not to decline and other companies to succeed to force creativity from thier rivals.
You know that feeling you get when you use some new pc application that is really really bloated and has 10000 new features that you'll never really use? It is complex to learn and takes time to get used to as opposed to the older version which could get work done faster?
That's kind of how I feel with sequels to games with old themes. Complexity doesn't automatically translate to more fun. Cut the complexity, increase the crucual gameplay elements that enhance the game, and the gamer can start to play immediately using intuitive control systems where you jump right in.
Most 2d games had that intuitive control system which allowed you full control of everything around you. Everything onscreen could be seen at once and it was a test of your instant reflexs. I'm sorry to say that no camera system in 3d is really perfect. There will always be a blind spot and the camera can't be in 2 places at once.
Think about it like this: You are playing a platform game. A bird swoops down to atack you from above while simiulataneously a crocodile is jumping at you from below to bite you. What do you do with the camera while avoiding both obstacles? Nothing! Because you try to avoid both, making rough estimate of where you are and where you should be all the meanwhile trying to move the camera in a perfect postion to see it all. There are limits to what you can do based on the poor controls and cam AI. But having 2 screens may give you the instant information you need to see what is going on. Your brain can be trained to process that information in a meaningful way that changes the nature of what a player can do in a 3d game.
In a 3rd person action beat em up game you would have all the information about what is going around you simulatanesouly so you can do combos on your opponents offscreen with a good degree of accuracy. There are all sorts of things you can't do with current controls as well you could in a 2d game unless you have a decent camera angle view.
In a tekki-like mech sim instead of having 1 hud, you could have a touch screen of virtual buttons bringing up different information in realtime. There would be no delay in figuring out what buttons on a controller do what, instead all the buttons on the hud touchscreen look a certain way for instant reactions. All this new information could be processed by the brain without it cluttering the main view like in normal single screen sims. And it will all hopefully effect gameplay and how we play games. These are just ideas but current games have limits in what you can do in them. Anything to make a game more intuitive has to be a good thing for all. If casual gamers come back to gaming and start spending at the same rate they used to then it will be good for all.
