Hier ein toller text von IGN und wieso eigentlich nicht? Das ist alles viel zu logisch um nicht realität zu sein ;-)
Zitat:
June 29, 2004 - I have a question for you and I want you to roll it over for a second. What will be the biggest game of this year? Throw away your prejudices this once and realistically consider the contenders. Whether you're a Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony fan, I believe there's a good chance that your answer will be the same: Halo 2.
The first-person shooter sequel was, after all, the talk of the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2004, winning a number of awards for its acclaimed Xbox Live-enhanced multiplayer mode, and it dazzled crowds with its single-player element last year. The hype has not died down since May, either. Halo 2 continues to dominate the rankings at GameStats. It's clear the game has the hardcore audience hypnotized with anticipation.
But it doesn't stop there. Walk into your local game retailer and the guy behind the desk, the one with the sweat stains under his arms, will tell you all about it. "Halo 2 is going to kick your ass," he'll say, with a not-so-bright grin on his face. At least, that's what he told me.
Justin Timberlake also wants Halo 2 and he doesn't have any sweat stains under his arms. He's got groupies there -- or, that is, Cameron Diaz. The pop superstar recently traveled to developer Bungie's office to catch a first glimpse of the sequel in motion, and Microsoft was right there to promote that truth. I read about it in Entertainment Weekly along with millions of others. That mainstream audience is there and it has taken notice. Master Chief has become a Microsoft juggernaut.
When you think about it -- when you really stop to examine what Microsoft and Bungie have done -- you can't help but be impressed. Here you had this developer that was originally popular for its Macintosh games. You had this publisher that was completely new to the console market. And the two of them created a title that outsold every last offering on GameCube by at least a million units, including a game with all of Nintendo's mascot powerhouses combined.
But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself so let me hit the rewind button. Three years ago Nintendo, just before the launch of GameCube and Xbox, was sitting in what it thought was a pretty position. It had a powerful, robust piece of hardware. It had a decent launch lineup. But mostly, it had mascots. And to be more specific it had Super Smash Bros. Melee, which was billed as its flagship game -- and, I think, for damned good reason. The fighter, a sequel to the N64 hit of the same series, was absolutely packed full of classic and wholly popular Nintendo icons. Mario. Luigi. Link. Samus. Pikachu. Something for every Nintendo fan, really.
When Nintendo showcased Super Smash Bros. Melee for the first time at 2001's E3 event, fanboys cheered as if their favorite football team had scored the Super Bowl-winning touchdown. This enthusiasm carried over to the Regular Joes. Consumers bought GameCube not because they wanted to play Luigi's Mansion, but because they wanted to fight it out against friends with some of their favorite Nintendo superstars.
Just look at the data. Super Smash Bros. Melee is, even today, GameCube's most popular game. The title has sold through some 2.3 million units in the US alone, according to NPD tracking through May. That figure doesn't quite compete with the success of Halo, which has sold more than 3.3 million copies through the same period, but it's no slouch either, especially when you factor in Xbox's larger installed base. Super Smash Bros. Melee outsold Super Mario Sunshine. Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Pikmin, and Metroid Prime. It outsold every Resident Evil title on GameCube. It outsold every Madden title on GameCube. I could go on.
So my question is, in the midst of all this Halo 2 hype, where the hell is my Super Smash Bros. Melee sequel?
Nintendo cannot cling to old answers. It cannot say that it's not a company interested in making "cookie-cutter sequels," a catch phrase company president Satoru Iwata has used in the past. After all, the majority of its big 2004 and 2005 games are, in fact, sequels. Metroid Prime 2. Pikmin 2. Resident Evil 4. A new Zelda for 2005. And sometime after that, a new Mario game.
Has Nintendo chosen to consciously ignore what has been its most successful franchise this generation, and if so, why? I certainly can't come up with a logical answer. I try to imagine the scenario and my brain immediately reminds me that there are 80-plus people working at Hal, the company that created the hit fighter, and there are no announced titles in development by the studio. This leads me to suspect that it could, dare I say it, be working on a major Super Smash Bros. Melee sequel.
It would certainly make sense from a business standpoint. SSBM continues to be one of GameCube's more popular titles on a monthly basis, regardless of its age. But even if a sequel is underway, I can't understand Nintendo's decision to keep quiet on the subject, especially when Microsoft is trumpeting the arrival of Halo 2. Why not do the same? Why not generate some hype? Why not let Nintendo fans know that GameCube's most popular franchise has not been forgotten?
It's not as if Nintendo fans have lost interest. All it took was the inclusion of Link as a playable fighter in Namco's Soulcalibur II to make the GameCube version of the game the highest seller. That's right, it beat out both the PS2 and Xbox builds in sales. In fact, GCN Soulcalibur II outsold the Xbox version by nearly 200,000 units, according to NPD data through May.
Perhaps Nintendo believes that if it shows a Smash Bros. sequel too early, competitors will copy its ideas. Like they did, I guess, for Super Mario Sunshine. Do you all remember the wave of water-backpack-themed games that hit the market after Nintendo released its platformer? Oh, you don't? Well, there's a reason for that. How about all of the real-time strategy games with cute critters that flooded retail shelves after Nintendo released Pikmin? Wait -- that didn't happen.
Whatever the reason, any way you slice it this is bad news for Nintendo and its fans. Nintendo's biggest franchise has seemingly been put away, stored in the closet as it works on something else, and the fans who gobbled up the fighter shortly after system launch can only wait. And why, I have no idea. I can only hope that somewhere a sequel is being worked on, or mulled over, or at least contemplated, and that Nintendo does have a plan to maintain interest and to build hype.
What would be scary to me is the alternative: that Nintendo could simply forget about the franchise that single-handedly sold GameCube to consumers.
-- Matt Casamassina
Zitat:
June 29, 2004 - I have a question for you and I want you to roll it over for a second. What will be the biggest game of this year? Throw away your prejudices this once and realistically consider the contenders. Whether you're a Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony fan, I believe there's a good chance that your answer will be the same: Halo 2.
The first-person shooter sequel was, after all, the talk of the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2004, winning a number of awards for its acclaimed Xbox Live-enhanced multiplayer mode, and it dazzled crowds with its single-player element last year. The hype has not died down since May, either. Halo 2 continues to dominate the rankings at GameStats. It's clear the game has the hardcore audience hypnotized with anticipation.
But it doesn't stop there. Walk into your local game retailer and the guy behind the desk, the one with the sweat stains under his arms, will tell you all about it. "Halo 2 is going to kick your ass," he'll say, with a not-so-bright grin on his face. At least, that's what he told me.
Justin Timberlake also wants Halo 2 and he doesn't have any sweat stains under his arms. He's got groupies there -- or, that is, Cameron Diaz. The pop superstar recently traveled to developer Bungie's office to catch a first glimpse of the sequel in motion, and Microsoft was right there to promote that truth. I read about it in Entertainment Weekly along with millions of others. That mainstream audience is there and it has taken notice. Master Chief has become a Microsoft juggernaut.
When you think about it -- when you really stop to examine what Microsoft and Bungie have done -- you can't help but be impressed. Here you had this developer that was originally popular for its Macintosh games. You had this publisher that was completely new to the console market. And the two of them created a title that outsold every last offering on GameCube by at least a million units, including a game with all of Nintendo's mascot powerhouses combined.
But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself so let me hit the rewind button. Three years ago Nintendo, just before the launch of GameCube and Xbox, was sitting in what it thought was a pretty position. It had a powerful, robust piece of hardware. It had a decent launch lineup. But mostly, it had mascots. And to be more specific it had Super Smash Bros. Melee, which was billed as its flagship game -- and, I think, for damned good reason. The fighter, a sequel to the N64 hit of the same series, was absolutely packed full of classic and wholly popular Nintendo icons. Mario. Luigi. Link. Samus. Pikachu. Something for every Nintendo fan, really.
When Nintendo showcased Super Smash Bros. Melee for the first time at 2001's E3 event, fanboys cheered as if their favorite football team had scored the Super Bowl-winning touchdown. This enthusiasm carried over to the Regular Joes. Consumers bought GameCube not because they wanted to play Luigi's Mansion, but because they wanted to fight it out against friends with some of their favorite Nintendo superstars.
Just look at the data. Super Smash Bros. Melee is, even today, GameCube's most popular game. The title has sold through some 2.3 million units in the US alone, according to NPD tracking through May. That figure doesn't quite compete with the success of Halo, which has sold more than 3.3 million copies through the same period, but it's no slouch either, especially when you factor in Xbox's larger installed base. Super Smash Bros. Melee outsold Super Mario Sunshine. Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Pikmin, and Metroid Prime. It outsold every Resident Evil title on GameCube. It outsold every Madden title on GameCube. I could go on.
So my question is, in the midst of all this Halo 2 hype, where the hell is my Super Smash Bros. Melee sequel?
Nintendo cannot cling to old answers. It cannot say that it's not a company interested in making "cookie-cutter sequels," a catch phrase company president Satoru Iwata has used in the past. After all, the majority of its big 2004 and 2005 games are, in fact, sequels. Metroid Prime 2. Pikmin 2. Resident Evil 4. A new Zelda for 2005. And sometime after that, a new Mario game.
Has Nintendo chosen to consciously ignore what has been its most successful franchise this generation, and if so, why? I certainly can't come up with a logical answer. I try to imagine the scenario and my brain immediately reminds me that there are 80-plus people working at Hal, the company that created the hit fighter, and there are no announced titles in development by the studio. This leads me to suspect that it could, dare I say it, be working on a major Super Smash Bros. Melee sequel.
It would certainly make sense from a business standpoint. SSBM continues to be one of GameCube's more popular titles on a monthly basis, regardless of its age. But even if a sequel is underway, I can't understand Nintendo's decision to keep quiet on the subject, especially when Microsoft is trumpeting the arrival of Halo 2. Why not do the same? Why not generate some hype? Why not let Nintendo fans know that GameCube's most popular franchise has not been forgotten?
It's not as if Nintendo fans have lost interest. All it took was the inclusion of Link as a playable fighter in Namco's Soulcalibur II to make the GameCube version of the game the highest seller. That's right, it beat out both the PS2 and Xbox builds in sales. In fact, GCN Soulcalibur II outsold the Xbox version by nearly 200,000 units, according to NPD data through May.
Perhaps Nintendo believes that if it shows a Smash Bros. sequel too early, competitors will copy its ideas. Like they did, I guess, for Super Mario Sunshine. Do you all remember the wave of water-backpack-themed games that hit the market after Nintendo released its platformer? Oh, you don't? Well, there's a reason for that. How about all of the real-time strategy games with cute critters that flooded retail shelves after Nintendo released Pikmin? Wait -- that didn't happen.
Whatever the reason, any way you slice it this is bad news for Nintendo and its fans. Nintendo's biggest franchise has seemingly been put away, stored in the closet as it works on something else, and the fans who gobbled up the fighter shortly after system launch can only wait. And why, I have no idea. I can only hope that somewhere a sequel is being worked on, or mulled over, or at least contemplated, and that Nintendo does have a plan to maintain interest and to build hype.
What would be scary to me is the alternative: that Nintendo could simply forget about the franchise that single-handedly sold GameCube to consumers.
-- Matt Casamassina
