Age of the Geek

New System, Same Old Nintendo

     This year is Nintendo's 125th Anniversary.

     Founded on September 23, 1889 (we share a birthday, though it's 95 years apart), by Fusajiro Yamauchi, the company was created to produce playing cards. Which they still do today.

     Over the next hundred years Nintendo branched out in several directions, from taxi service, to selling instant rice, to love hotels. Yes, family-friendly Nintendo once operated a chain of hotels where people could rent windowless rooms by the hour.

     Most of these endeavors failed, but one didn't. It took them 86 years to find their place in the world (take note, new college students) but eventually they discovered it in the video game market.

     Following the North American video game market crash of 1983, Nintendo drug the industry out of the rubble and, by 1989, had become its most powerful force. They were so dominant in the marketplace that people mistakenly called any video game console a "Nintendo," regardless if it was made by Nintendo or its competitors.

     But here we are, 25 years later. Nintendo is no longer the dominant force in the industry and haven't been for quite some time now.

     And they really have nobody to blame but themselves.

     The history of Nintendo's fall from grace is one of hubris and a chronic misunderstanding of the industry they built. For nearly two decades they've been fostering a love/hate relationship with their customers. Every time they take a step forward, they take another step back.

     The most recent example can be found in their handheld department, the one area of the gaming industry where Nintendo still reigns supreme.

     In 2011, Nintendo released the 3DS. It did not take the world by storm. Sales were so dismal that Nintendo did the unthinkable and slashed the price of the system less than a year after it launched.

     It wasn't until last year that the 3DS started hitting its stride. Today there are 44 million units out there, 10 million of which have been bought in the last year.

     So imagine how that quarter of the 3DS user base felt a couple weeks ago when Nintendo announced the New 3DS, a next-generation handheld nobody was asking for. After three years of practically begging consumers to buy a 3DS system, Nintendo has now turned around and crushed any incentive for new 3DS sales from now until next year when the New 3DS comes out.

     In the meantime, game developers will have to decide between making a game for the newest system, or the one already in the hands of millions of people.

     And yes, "New 3DS" is what it's actually called. So when you go to a store to buy a new game, you'll have your pick of a new 3DS game, a new New 3DS game, a used 3DS game, or a used New 3DS game.

     I feel incredibly sorry for the retail workers that are going to be stuck explaining this to confused parents. It'll be like an Abbott and Costello bit playing out in video game aisles across the country.

     You would think that after the Wii U branding disaster they would have learned their lesson. A not-insignificant number of Wii owners still don't understand that the Wii U is a whole new system, not an accessory.

     That the New 3DS will be region locked, preventing North American systems from playing Japanese games, or vise versa, is another needless frustration. This policy is a relic from a by-gone era that Nintendo's competitors have moved away from, again leaving poor retailers to explain to grandparents why they shouldn't buy a Nintendo system for an overseas grandchild.

     This is Nintendo's pattern. Every time it seems like they've got it figured out, they go and repeat their same old mistakes. They do things that you can only get away with if you are an industry leader, and they aren't anymore.

     Don't get me wrong, I still love Nintendo, but they don't make it easy. They're like a sports team that has everything they need to be champions, but won't stop making unforced errors.

     It'd be so easy to write them off all together if they didn't make such great games.

     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and will wait for the second generation of New 3DS before upgrading.