I love looking up game FAQs online now, rather than having to do an actual call to someone...
And as a note: For all the fussing in this video by the "other" companies... Nintendo must've been doing something right, because they're still a major player today, even with Microsoft and Sony giving them a run for their money in this latest generation of consoles.
Well actually, Nintendo's greedy bastard ways directly lead to Sony making the PlayStation after Nintendo stabbed them in the back over a potential CD-ROM expansion for the SNES.
Then Sony went on to totally dominate the next two iterations of consoles and forced Nintendo to take a gamble with the motion controls of the Wii after most 3rd party publishers had dumped them.
ECONOMICS IN ACTION: Competition breeds innovation and helps the overall growth of an industry. Especially when said competition is motivated by revenge.
Dr. Lobotomy: That's only half the story. The reason Nintendo 'stabbed Sony in the back' was because they found a loophole in the contract that meant they wouldn't be getting royalties off Nintendo Playstation CDs due to a cunning little clause Sony put in.
They pretty much invented the shitty tradition of paying up the butt in kick backs to publish a game on home hardware. The seal of quality meant absolutely nothing outside of a developer/publisher paying their dues to Nintendo.
and yeah, the Nintendo/Sony SNESCD situation is a legendary little "he said, she said" industry tale. Both sides claim the other back stabbed first. ...and thus we have the Sega CD (screw you cynics, that system wasn't that bad).
Conversationally, Nintendo raked in big time off their Pokemon IP and the portable systems during their weakest home system offerings (N64/GBA). If it wasn't for mobile phones now threatening their portable system dominance, I'd say they could do a handful of flop home systems and still be a power house.
Anyone that has dealt with Nintendo from a business end will tell you they are tough as fucking nails. They haven't survived by doing all these romantic "design first philosophy" things people with rose colored glasses will sell you on. These guys are straight up bidness.
"Doing something right" is pretty much "milking Mario, Zelda, and every other game IP they've been doing since the days of the NES."
About the most original thing they've put out in the last decade that everyone played was Wii Sports. And their new console, while interesting, is just going to be another way to play Wii Sports; few devs are going to make a completely different version of their hit titles so it can be used with that new iPad controller in an exclusive manner.
I can name every game shown in this piece, and I find it hilarious that Cabal was shown the most.
Also, that Nintendo settlement was hilarious. "We're sorry for charging consumers too much for games. We'll give them coupons so they'll buy MORE games."
Check out "nintendomanwill"'s wall of text in the youtube comments. I wish these people would get a grip and realize Nintendo isn't going to publish their game. :(