Mr. GOH!

Watch Dogs Wii U might be canceled. Bad sign that Ubi won't comment on these reports. It suggests it's still figuring out how it wants to make the announcement, http://www.computerandvideogames.com/446613/wii-u-version-of-watch-dogs-rumoured-to-be-scrapped/ Edit: According to the hated Kotaku, US Gamestops are calling folks who foolishly preordered Watch Dogs on the Wii U to tell them the game is canceled. I'll link to a non-Kotaku source so as not to sully this pure forum with a link to the dastardly Gawker media property: http://gamesided.com/2014/01/24/report-watch-dogs-wii-u-pre-orders-cancelled-usa/ I guess Nintendo fanboys will have one fewer game to point to when they say that the Wii U has a decent library.

Works well over my wifi. I stream from my living room PC to my laptop at 720p and it performs well, aside from the occasional hiccup.

I thought it was well-known that there are factions at MS that think the console business is a money pit.

Absolutely. I'm just surprised that MS gave up "most powerful" title to the cheaper PS4.

Didn't see the date on your post. My mistake! Edit: I'm surprised that MS made the Xbone such that it would not run games as well as the PS4. I guess they're counting on its non-game features to keep sales steady in the long term.

Fair enough. I put it in this thread because I consider the Ninty stuff to be documenting how the Wii U is losing the console wars hard. edit: Nintendo has much more cash on hand than Sony, at least compared to its overall exposure to risk, IIRC. That pumps up its valuation a ton, since it's literally money in the bank. That article is before the January 16th announcement from Nintendo lowering sales estimates across the board , though, so I think we'll see lower valuations of Nintendo soon to take its floundering into account.

Just got into the home streaming beta. Fuck YES!

The stuff I've read from non-gaming and business-focused media suggest that Iwata and the old guard must all go. I tend to agree; Iwata presided over every single of the Wii U's failures, from the technological development, to third-party relations, and to the branding and marketing. Iwata was a poor leader any way you slice it; if he was preoccupied with battling the old guard, then it was his failure to keep them around and let them wreak havoc. If he agreed with the old guard, then he shares the blame for their terrible mismanagement. He's really taking the only option he has, and that's to fire a lot of management and restructure. Better late than never, but we'll see if it improves or if he's truly as out-of-touch as many fear.

Here's the best article I've found about what Nintendo could or should do to get back in the black. It's far from perfect, but the author is much, much smarter about the games business than either the fanboy reactions or out-of-touch investor-targeted articles. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/446277/blog/nintendo-must-reinvent-itself/

Wasn't able to vote in the poll. It said "You must cast your vote in each question of the poll." #10355 I had to delete my non-existent vote before I cast one in this poll; I think that if you change the poll on a topic, it still records users as having voted on the new poll if they voted on the old one.

Callous disregard for other human beings is sociopathy, though. I suppose just targeting one's callous disregard to a particular subset is better than targeting all of humanity, though. I'm not saying you guys are sociopaths; just that it's fucking frightening how you dehumanize prisoners. I'd support inmate voluntary suicide under certain conditions (like psychological evaluations to make sure the inmate is mentally stable). The inhumanity of suicide is that the person whose life is at issue doesn't make the choice. What if the state decides that there should be more executions for crimes other than murder (as is the case in the USA; treason and espionage are federal capital crimes, and in FL you can be killed for smuggling drugs)? Drug dealing? Fraud? Membership in an illegal political party? I think it's better to take execution off the table altogether than to allow the state to make the decision that some people just don't get to live, even if it democratically decided. People have popularly decided before that certain folks just have to die for what we would now consider minor crimes. What if the mechanism of determining guilt isn't fair or 100% accurate? Or what if capital punishment were not equally applied to those found guilty of equal crimes (as is the actual case)? Most of all, what end does execution serve? It has not been found to be a very effective deterrent; fucked up crazies will be fucked up crazies whether they'll face execution or not while sane folks commit crimes when they think they'll get away with it anyway. Is the purpose vengeance? Is vengeance really something you want as a legitimate end of public policy decisions? Not caring whether criminal are killed by the state is one thing, actively supporting the state killing people is another. MaliciousH: why is it worth it to keep executing guilty people if you know some innocent people will also be executed?

Killing another human being is among the most vile things one can do. A state execution is a determination by the state that a given individual does not deserve to be alive any longer. It's fucking frightening the state has the power to make that determination, as the criteria are subject to popular determination. I do not think that is a determination anybody should make. Vengeance is an inhuman reason to do anything. We make ourselves into animals when we decide who lives and who dies. One innocent person executed makes us all murderers in the first degree, as well as kidnappers and psychological torturers. That said, there are times killing is justified to prevent other deaths directly, but an execution is never a justified killing. Edit: Prison food sucks. And the argument that prisoners have three squares and a place to sleep ignores the essential dehumanization that occurs when one is kept confined against one's will with every aspect of one's life determined by the penal system. Fuck, the way you guys are talking about prisoners as if they're less than human is sociopathic. Furthermore, just because they get basic healthcare and food when you and yours don't isn't a reason to dehumanize them further or, scarily, advocate for their deaths; it's a reason to be FUCKING FURIOUS with the powers that be that law-abiding people must struggle to meet their basic needs.

That's not really a political issue, though.

You misunderstand me; I do not hate Nintendo. I read and write and talk about Nintendo's ongoing failure because I have an abiding fascination with products, companies, services, whatever in their death throes. Open source does not mean free for commercial use. The vast majority of open source licenses (including snes9x's) require permission if you're going to use the code to make money. It's always fun litigating against folks who steal open source code then integrate it into their commercial products. Copyright claims and unjust enrichment are just the beginning. Yum yum YUM! That said, it doesn't matter. It still costs money to make sure everything works emulated on a variety of different mobile devices with radically different control schemes than the original game was intended to work with. I don't think it will necessarily fail, I'm just skeptical that releasing their back catalog will do much to 'save' Nintendo. Nintendo's IP is more valuable in new games that are accessible by a wide audience (without comprising quality; Angry Warios will not cut it). Re-releasing the same old school games on the platforms of the moment forever and ever is not a very good use of Nintendo IP.

N64 games are not really ideal for tablet/smartphone controls for the masses. If you're dedicated, yes, you can learn to use them. But why bother when there are so many other entertainment options on your tablet or phone without such high barriers? And I missed where you pointed out the stopgap in your last post. Also, should Nintendo steal the emulation tech or buy it? How much do you think it will cost? Does Nintendo want people to associate it with 8-bit games that look good through nostalgia goggles but were actually wonky, ugly and had awful music and sound effects? And how much of the great Nintendo games of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras were actually 3rd party? I mean, I'd love to rebuy Final Fantasy IV and VI for my phone. Oh wait! I already can! Squenix owns the rights and ported the games! Awesome!

Adapting Nintendo's back catalog to work on phones is expensive and I'm not sure it would be worth the investment for every single game. Just adapting the control scheme would cost a good chunk of change, and even then bad controls may limit sales. I mean, how well would Twilight Princess play on a phone? Or any Mario platformer? Even if that worked, for individual games, the margins may be low unless millions of folks are willing to shell out lots of case for old-ass games.

I don't think they're really thinking about abandoning the 3DS. I think they're more looking at how they can leverage their brands using smartphone and tablet apps to sell more 3DS games. The moment Nintendo makes their new core games available on other platforms is the moment they've given up on being a hardware company. The 3DS death wouldn't be immediate, but it would come. Making their entire back catalog available on smartphones might work, depending on how they do it. If they can make it so that the apps are both entertaining AND make the users want to buy a 3DS (or Wii U, hahahahahahahaha), then it would work. If they just release their old games and phones, well, good for me, bad for Nintendo as their hardware divisions will continue to bleed money. I do not think Nintendo should take any half-measures. Its business is in free fall, but they have oodles of cash. Nintendo is in exactly the sort of crisis for which it's been saving all its cash. They need to do some research and planning and then commit to a new strategy, whatever it is. Releasing its back catalog in dribs and drabs on smartphones while the Wii U limps to its death and the 3DS continues to weaken won't improve things in the long run. Edit: Consider this; the Wii U has been out for about the same length of time as the Dreamcast was when Sega discontinued it. Though the Dreamcast's lifetime sales were around 10 million, only 6.5 million were sold before it was discontinued. (source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/sto... ) Sega was also facing its third consecutive year of losses. But look at that number; more Dreamcasts were sold in its first year and change. The Wii u has sold fewer units than the Dreamcast had at the same point in its life. This does NOT bode well at all for the Wii U. I would not buy a Wii U anytime soon, as they'll be much cheaper once Nintendo discontinues them later this year.

The 3DS is doing below expectations, but it's not doing terribly. Nintendo would be foolish to develop games for competing mobile devices at this point. 27 million 3DS units in the wild is healthy. It's not the success the DS was, and Nintendo should be looking at a different business strategy in the medium- and long-term, but abandoning the 3DS would be a mistake. On the other hand, Nintendo has apparently announced it will be reviewing new business strategies: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-17/nintendo-forecasts-net-loss-on-stagnating-sales-of-wii-u-games.html Here's another good writeup: http://on.wsj.com/1b83Ry2 Then again, on the pure money side of the analysis, this is the third year in a row Nintendo's posted an operating loss. That is very, very, very bad. Expect to see Nintendo's stock take a nose dive, especially considering that it rose so much in December because investors are idiots. I truly wonder about that rise; there are some very, very bad analysts, or if there was just a shitload of short selling activity in anticipation of bad news. The bottom line is that the Wii U is a failed console. Nintendo is putting off announcing how they plan to deal with their abject failure until March. I wonder how Nintendo would fare as a pure developer and publisher. Its extreme incompetence when dealing with 3rd parties does not bode well for any plans to publish on other company's devices and ecosystems.

Astoundingly, Iwata is not stepping down. But I think it's time to realize that the Wii U will be dead soon. I wouldn't expect to see many more games released on it.

Anyone want Reus on Steam? Great game, got an extra code.

Sadly, I bet the most salient lesson EA has taken from the whole SimCIty debacle is that it's just better to develop shitty free-to-play mobile games. I fear we will never see a real SimCity again. As far as Disney shutting down online digital sales of Marvel games, why would it be ethical to pirate them just because the digital sales are temporarily halted? Or are there no physical copies for sale? Also: I do not encourage anyone to break any laws, including copyright laws. Your personal liability for copyright infringement could be potentially high.

Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition. Just imported my final save. Time to fire up the save editor to give Imoen the right classes. I hear they added a ton more to BG2 for the EE than they did to BG1. Looking forward to it.