Nintendo’s WiiWare channel is reported to be doing well (says Nintendo) and their Virtual Console games continue to invoke nostalgic downloads. Now, as Networked based gaming slowly starts to crawl on the console Nintendo has begun to realize they’re going to hit some storage issues.
The 512MB of internal flash memory is a bit lacking, especially considering you can purchase a 2GB flash drive for under USD $50.00 in todays market. While Sony and Microsoft work to increment their disk capacities in 20GB intervals Nintendo’s still trying to figure out how to solve their internal storage issues.
Although we initially heard that geeks would be the ones to hit the storage limitations Nintendo’s North American President and COO is readily admitting the pending issue, “we have a consumer base who loves virtual console. We have a userbase who really is enjoying WiiWare content. So for us really our challenge really is how do we satisfy all these consumers who are loving all of the product we make available on a download basis?”
The challenge in being a Japanese based company is understanding how American users consume your product. We’re much more likely to download content and spend money on products we’ve purchased 20 years ago. This is why we’ve got an American based Nintendo HQ to understand the ways of American thinking and trending.
While Nintendo Europe’s Europe’s Laurent Fischer sees only “geeks and otaku” utilizing the minimal disk capcity we here in the States can consume this space overnight. Imagine if we had downloadable content for Rock Band or Guitar Hero to pull down and play!?
As this becomes, as Reggie put it, a “mainstream problem” Nintendo is going to find their harder core demographic moving to other consoles that do it right and allow for expandability. There is a reason, after all, the other consoles cost a bit more to buy.
(Thanks, IGN)
The World of Warcraft community can be harsh if you don’t know what you’re doing, which is one reason why I haven’t played it for years now; it requires specific actions for certain events during raids for example, and you are often required to watch videos beforehand and have voice chat for choreography among your guild. Another reason for my absence from WoW is addition of unprecedented content requiring time to learn new functions, and it can take away from core gameplay, in my opinion. A lot of people like “Vanilla” WoW.
While all FPS games are point and click based, Counter-Strike for example requires strategies for map positions except pubs. I recall trying to run around maps not obeying orders back when I was in a clan/guild, while the leader was barking at me.
I’m anticipating Doom’s plain Deathmatch mode, unlike Team Deathmatch, so that I can be solo, but we don’t know when it’ll be released…