Michael Pachter Takes a Shot at Nintendo President Satoru Iwata

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Grand Master

compl3x

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Speaking at the Game Monetization USA Summit in San Francisco this week, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata should be fired for his handling of the Wii U and the company in general.


"I don't know why Iwata is still employed," Pachter said during his presentation, according to a GamesIndustry International report, adding that the Wii U?s commercial performance has been "underwhelming? and that he believed it was ?possible but unlikely? that new titles could help the system to recover.


He also said that Nintendo is ?missing a huge opportunity? by not releasing its portable titles on smartphones and tablets.


At the same event, Pachter said that the reason Sony is beating Microsoft is solely because of the price.


"The reason Sony beats Microsoft is solely the price," Pachter said. "Microsoft loses the next generation unless they cut price. If Microsoft drops its price to $399, I expect the sales to be equal to the PS4."


"The next generation of consoles is probably the last," he added. "We expect frequent model updates instead of new consoles. I think the PC is going to make a comeback, the PC will be the hub of all this stuff."


Source: GII


 


http://gamepolitics.com/2013/12/06/michael-pachter-takes-shot-nintendo-president-satoru-iwata#.Uqbeh_QW0n8


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Grand Master

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"The next generation of consoles is probably the last," he added. "We expect frequent model updates instead of new consoles. I think the PC is going to make a comeback, the PC will be the hub of all this stuff."

Huh? Where is he getting that idea from?
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Grand Master

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Huh? Where is he getting that idea from?

 

Well, considering that the new console ARE mostly PC, the only thing being different is the OS. So, you can probably port this OS to plain compatible PC and make it work.

 

The new AMD APU "Kaveri" sound exactly like the APU built into the One and PS4, if not better.

 

The SteamBox will probably offer a real challenge to the traditional console.  And guess what, it's a PC....

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Grand Master

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Speaking at the Game Monetization USA Summit in San Francisco this week, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata should be fired for his handling of the Wii U and the company in general.

"I don't know why Iwata is still employed," Pachter said during his presentation, according to a GamesIndustry International report, adding that the Wii U?s commercial performance has been "underwhelming? and that he believed it was ?possible but unlikely? that new titles could help the system to recover.

He also said that Nintendo is ?missing a huge opportunity? by not releasing its portable titles on smartphones and tablets.

At the same event, Pachter said that the reason Sony is beating Microsoft is solely because of the price.

"The reason Sony beats Microsoft is solely the price," Pachter said. "Microsoft loses the next generation unless they cut price. If Microsoft drops its price to $399, I expect the sales to be equal to the PS4."

"The next generation of consoles is probably the last," he added. "We expect frequent model updates instead of new consoles. I think the PC is going to make a comeback, the PC will be the hub of all this stuff."

Source: GII

 

http://gamepolitics.com/2013/12/06/michael-pachter-takes-shot-nintendo-president-satoru-iwata#.Uqbeh_QW0n8

 

 

Right, okay, the majority, if not all, of this "opinion piece" is absolutely ridiculous. Let's break this down.

 

Speaking at the Game Monetization USA Summit in San Francisco this week, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata should be fired for his handling of the Wii U and the company in general.

"I don't know why Iwata is still employed," Pachter said during his presentation, according to a GamesIndustry International report, adding that the Wii U?s commercial performance has been "underwhelming? and that he believed it was ?possible but unlikely? that new titles could help the system to recover.

 

Firstly, this is utter tosh. Nintendo has one bad year (yes, just ONE) and all of a sudden we're off to chop off his head. Did we sack Howard Stringer when the PS3 first lagged at launch? Or Kuturagi? Nope. Was the whole Xbox team fired when sales were lack-luster upon the arrival of the Xbox original? Nope. So why does one bad year all of a sudden equate to Iwata being a useless CEO? While this guy - or more to the point, Nintendo in general, a slow moving company what a lot of people forget is that Nintendo is streamlining how their business works - first they've now unified there handheld and home console divisions into one R&D division, meaning the two teams can collaborate together to produce a more cohesive Nintendo experience across handheld and home console - the first fruits of this being Miiverse being universal across the 3DS and Wii U, as well as eWallets being universal too.

 

Iwata is slow moving, but not stuck in the mud, by any means.

 

He also said that Nintendo is ?missing a huge opportunity? by not releasing its portable titles on smartphones and tablets.

 

No, no they're not. I don't see Sony making a big push for their portable titles coming to Android, and Microsoft have only one or two major titles out on their Windows 8 platform (the only one that comes to my mind is Halo: Spartan Assault). Has Pachter even used a 3DS? A lot of the games that are on the 3DS would require a major UI overhaul due to the way the UI is balanced over two screens, and in a lot of cases would be a dumbed down experience. This is even taking into account if the phone in question has a gamepad attached - it would be a nightmare using just a touchscreen. The thought of playing Link Between Worlds on just a touch screen is nightmarish. 

 

Could Nintendo perhaps release a couple of dumbed down titles of their key franchises (Mario, Pokemon) on Android or iPhone? Perhaps. However, why would they do that to the detriment of the 3DS? Pachter bangs on about sacking Iwata for low Wii U performance, but then directly in the next line asks Iwata to put a massive hole in 3DS sales by making its games and apps non-exclusive, when the 3DS is the best thing going for Nintendo right now! It simply makes no sense. The 3DS is what's keeping Nintendo afloat, weaken that strength and Nintendo will capsize, play and simple.

 

At the same event, Pachter said that the reason Sony is beating Microsoft is solely because of the price.

"The reason Sony beats Microsoft is solely the price," Pachter said. "Microsoft loses the next generation unless they cut price. If Microsoft drops its price to $399, I expect the sales to be equal to the PS4."

 

Undercut the price at the expense of profit. I'm sure Microsoft have had enough of haemorrhaging money and are more focused on just making profit right now. Sure, the X1 is tailgating the PS4 right now, but only by a small margin. Given the massive price margin, I'd say Microsoft are doing alright for now. Install base isn't everything in business, it's better to sell 50 million and make 65 million in profit then it is to 70 million but lose 65 million in profit. Microsoft isn't Amazon, their shareholders want profit, which is what the X1 is doing. Price will come down naturally over time, games will still flow regardless, and install base will have significant growth. Cutting the price down now is a smack in the face to early adopters and would significantly damage Microsoft's profits. Very bad judgement call.

 

 

"The next generation of consoles is probably the last," he added. "We expect frequent model updates instead of new consoles. I think the PC is going to make a comeback, the PC will be the hub of all this stuff."

 

Nope, nope and more nope. Maybe the PC not as we know it, perhaps, but then, aren't consoles essentially powerhouse tablets these days anyway? I mean, as far as the Xbox One goes, that UI and the Windows 8 Metro UI on the Surface are very similar. The X1 even has the same processor architecture as a PC. As far as frequent model updates goes... still nope! The only reason why people are okay with frequent model updates with smartphones is due to the low-barrier to entry with subsidised contracts. That's great, and you get the latest hardware, but the problem is that developers appeal to the bigger install base (hence the issue with the Wii U) and most developers won't target newer platforms just because they have newer hardware.

 

In fact, we already have this model, it's called the PC. New hardware comes out every 12-18 months and hardcore users purchase it. However, how many games actually drive this new hardware performance bump? 2, maybe 3? It's even the same with smartphones and tablets - how many games take advantage of the Snapdragon 800? And how many will run with decent performance on the SD600? Or even the 400? I remember buying a Nexus 7 and playing Dead Trigger on it and being wowed by the visuals. Then, a friend of mine gave me her Arnova 9.7in tablet to play with and naturally, being a geek, wanted to test the performance in a non-scientific test, so I slapped Dead Trigger on it. The result? Slightly worse lighting, but overall very similar visuals and still a silky smooth framerate, despite the lower performance.

 

Now, imagine what happens when people shell out another $400 on a console with marginally better lighting effects on a small handful of games? People aren't going to be happy! Instead, console manufacturers do what they already do - cut down the price, shrink the boards inside and release a slim version in a few years, with the exact same hardware spec as before. This way, the developers get to target and refine their code for one specific hardware, making it seem like they get the same performance boost they would have got with newer hardware, except nobody pays $400 every 2 years, and instead, the existing install base gets better graphics and a bigger library, and new users get a lower entry price-barrier. Not only that, but nowadays, consoles can even get software updates making the console feeling fresh year on year. It's been this way for years and years, and the system still works, and in fact, the 7th gen has proven this system is not only tried and true, but works on scale, with the 7th gen selling way, way over 200 million consoles total, more then any other generation to date. 

 

Aaaand, that's my rant over! I had to get that off my chest, this one paragraph really, really annoyed me!!

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Grand Master

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analysts are actually comedians

from 2009

 

"I think we've seen the last generation of consoles," Pachter said at the GamesBeat conference today. What Pachter saw in his crystal ball was this: Nintendo might release an upgraded Wii with HD and more storage, but Sony and Microsoft probably won't release another console. That's because there's just no more money in it, and third parties won't want it either.

"[Third party publishers] are not going to support a PS4 or Xbox 720," he said. "The content is not going to change in any meaningful ways because the publishers can't afford it."

The developers of OnLive are on the same wavelength as Pachter. "This is the last major console cycle," OnLive's Steve Perlman said. "If not this one, then definitely the next one."

David Cole of DFC Intelligence thinks that by 2012, the PS3 will be king of the software sales hill and Nintendo and Microsoft will be forced to put on new consoles.

LAWL

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90443-Pachter-This-Is-The-Final-Generation

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