discuss: next-gen down under

[Generosity of God]

this thread is mainly for the gamers in Australia. but if your interested in saying something constructive then by all means say it.

now most of us know the state nintendo is here in australia. its pretty horrible and i'd like to see a change next-gen. but how? the average casual gamer in australia is worse than anywhere else i hear about. here Nintendo is kiddy and uncool is an understatement.

so the question i want to ask is what do Nintendo need to do to change their current last place home console standing?

i think marketing needs to be constant (at least let there be some none store related advertisement [eg more tv commercials]).

australia may be a small market but its still an important one. nintendo need to do something soon otherwise they home console market here will be lost to them.

what do you all think?

[Lynk Former]

Nintendo, down here in Australia, has its ups and its downs. Its ups are mostly the GBA and Pokemon, which is pretty much like that around the world with Nintendo... Pokemon Emerald is in great demand and it's not even out, Fire Red and Leaf Green sold extremely well down here... other GBA games don't fair as well compared to Pokemon, but the GBA still sells well enough for the more younger audience.

The Nintendo DS had a great launch down here. However the thing that's holding it back right now is the lack of games. I don't know about the US, but in Japan we're seeing a lot of new games being released and they're making quite the impact. Here we have around 17 games, which is fine and they're selling aright... but none of those games are MUST HAVES. No real killer apps among them. But still, the younger audience who aren't aware of the PSP still love their NDS, and the older audience who otherwise wouldn't get into handhelds are getting into handhelds. But even better, those who you would think that wouldn't get into gaming at all have bought themselves a Nintendo DS... The PSP is coming out on the 1st of September down here and I'm hoping that the NDS will have enough great games behind it to combat Sony. While I have faith in Nintendo, I also know that there are a lot of people down here who want a PSP despite the price of 430AUD.

The GameCube... *sighs* this is the worst part of Nintendo's line-up... it's getting killed down here. You can compare it to the Xbox getting killed in Japan. But maybe that's just me being a little too grim about the situation... The purple Lego brick only sells to those who have stayed loyal to Nintendo and those who have parents who buy the cheaper brand. The GameCube is the cheapest console on the market, and really, that's the only thing that's going for it with the parents. It does have a lot of good games, but most of these good games are being ignored...

I say, bring on the Revolution, because the GCN is already dead. The Legend of Zelda 2005 will be a great game when it comes out, but 10 bucks it'll be played more on the Revolution than it will on the GameCube.

[aman]

I think that nintendo really needs to ditch kiddy games to change its image. This will lead to more people buying it because of the "Cool" status attached to it, especially in Aus.

Nintendo also needs more games, preferably violent, Basically all the shit that Genorisity of god said.

The gamecube is dead in Aus, The new upcoming zelda is the only thing keeping it hanging in.....

[SuperLuigiBros]

I like to think its not dead here. Although im probly wrong. It has gotten ownd by the other two, but quite a few of my friends who dont have a gamecube are going to get one soon (mainly for the new Zelda) or have gotten one recently.

I was talking to my friends only a couple of hours ago about this and one of them thinks that if the Revolution flops then Nintendo will pull out of the console race. The other thought that they need to stop using mario as much, and pointed out that choose a sport, put mario infront of it and they have made it into a game. I think mario tennis is cool, and so is mario golf (to some extent, havnt played it much).

Anyway, if Nintendo of Australia dont get their act together then they are in for a rough time I think. Unless the Revolution lives up to my expectations (and considering Nintendo, that isnt that hard). Next-Gen could be the last chance for Nintendo down here, I think they have learned enough this Generation to not fuck up so bad. I really is unfortunate that the Gamecube is so damn cool but no one has given it a chance because they mightve been seen as uncool. (something of which i pride myself on; casual gamers suck ass)

[Generosity of God]

ok so far:

-Nintendo is doing great in the portable area no doubt about it and the PSP will take a tiny bit of its market.

-console area isnt so flash though. GC has been getting slaughtered though i'm sure its not the same slaughter as xbox in japan but still a slaughter.

-Revolution is nintendo's chance to get more market share.

i dont think that just releasing the Rev will do anything for them.

sure it will probably great and blow us away but we are not the gamers who decide if it does as well as it should. the mainstream wont buy it unless they know more about it. if nintendo continue with their attitude towards the australian market then the mainstream wont know about the revolution until they actually go to the shop and buy their PS3 or Xbox360. and thats only if they see the small Nintendo section in the back/corner. nintendo really need to step up their advertising. have tv adds a couple of weeks before and after the release of the console and each of its killer apps. they need to get more POS advertisments into those stores. if those stores refuse Nintendo Australia should report it to ACCC (i think thats who would need to be contacted).

they way people see nintendo as kiddy is the result from peoples lack of knowledge of their products. the thing is what's so kiddy about it? its games? the same kiddy games that can be found on the PS2? getting rid of kiddy games wont help. that just means less games being produced and a loss of a good target market. and so the only thing means more games. i dont agree about violent games being whats needed but i hate to say that its what sells. with nintendo recently improving its 3rd party relations i am positive that there will be a good steady flow of 3rd party games at the start of revolutions life. the rest of its life will depend on how well those games sell.

another think i think nintendo needs to do with revolution is have the launch dates for each region close together. that means Japan two weeks later North America then two weeks later Europe and Australia.

Xbox360 will be getting a headstart in all regions but this would significantly decrease its headstart in Europe and Australia and give the Revolution a significant start it needs over the PS3. the way Nintendo needs to release the Revolution before PS3 is more important in Australia than any other region.

i've really lost where i was going with this now so that is all.

[Lynk Former]

It's not really a Nintendo of Australia thing though, the only thing they really need to worry about is marketing and supporting their products down here. In reality most of the hard decisions in terms of hardware and software is overseas...

Another thing about the GameCube that set it back is the fact that it can't play DVD movies. For me that's no problem, I don't buy gaming sonsoles to watch movies... but those budget families out there would think it's better to spend that extra bit of cash to get a PS2 cause then they get an instant DVD player as well... a really crappy DVD player if they knew the truth, but in the end it still hurts the GCN a little more that way...

@ Generosity of God: Yes, Nintendo needs to get the Revolution out there, Nintendo of Australia will have to market this until every man, woman child and the family pet knows about the Nintendo Revolution. But it's also up to Nintendo of Japan and Nintendo of America with their efforts on the Revolution as well.

Reports are that we'll be getting the Xbox360 some time in 2006. If Nintendo were to release the Revolution in a similar time frame to what they did with the Nintendo DS then the Revolution could easily compete with the 360 head to head down here.

EDIT: Oh, and in that Silicon Knights interview thingy, the guy (like I can be bothered remembering who he is XD lol) mentioned that Nintendo was trying to revitalise the Japanese gaming market, trying to get more people to play games... well down here with the release of the Nintendo DS, a lot of people who I would never have thought would actually play a videogame have started playing videogames thanks to the Nintendo DS. Because of its unique gameplay features it has attracted girls who would never have touched a videogames console to peoples mothers and grandfathers. It's nuts the way it's suddenly given nongamers a chance to play games like it has. If Nintendo are to get anywhere, they'll have to convince people that the Revolution is like that as well, something that will attract nongamers while still attracting those "hardcore" gamers... it's a tough thing to do but it's possible ^^

[Nexus]

Nintendo has a mixed bunch of responses from its consoles down here.

On one hand we have the GBA. The GBA has been doing an excellent job down here and sells by the truck load. I think that the Pokemon series really contributed towards such strong sales in that department. Down here you will find a Pokemon game where ever you see a GBA. IMO the shelf space for the GBA is relatively small which is weird because it sells so much.

The DS, as Lynk said before sold well to start off with. The launch was the best laucnh for a console in Austrailia's history. In the last few months though it has gone down a bit. This is probably because the lack of games and the PSP is coming later in the year.

The Gamecube is going really bad. The image is the worst part about it. I rarely go to game stores or the shops but when I do I find that many stores are still stocking them despite the lack of sales.

Now for the Revolution. I agree with some of you that we need it really soon. I think though that Nintendo should not release it until there is a sufficent amount of launch titles. If they don't they better make sure that there is some killer apt titles at launch. The Revolution will probably be more successful than the Gamecube. Look at how Nintendo of Austrailia is already doing more advertising. Take a look at Nintendo.com.au and you will see some of the "mature" DS advertsing that Nintendo of Aus have been up to.

Also guys don't forget that Nintendo said a while ago that they are working on mature titles for the Revolution and as Viper has said countless times 85% of the Perfect Dark team was Nintendo and Nintendo came up with the idea for Conker. So thay can do mature games well.