Nintendo under the impression gamers like friend codes

We’ve seen, in the feedback we’ve gotten, that people don’t mind the friend codes. They like them, because it keeps them playing with the friends that they do know, and it keeps their games “undisturbed,” if you will. (Go Nintendo)

Is there anything I can even say in response to this that will do this comment justice? I had been digging the internets trying to find an interview that had a response from nintendo to the complete mess that are friend codes. For those of you not in the know to play a online game with a friend on the wii. One needs to get said friend to add your friend number to their friend registry and you need to add their number to your registry. There are two big problems with this.

1.) Friend codes are GAME specific. What this means is everytime a gamer buys another game that supports online play she has to go through the process of adding each one of her friends again and getting them to add her back.
2.) Friend codes are a series of 12 digits. This makes it kind of hard to remember and tedious to enter in.

But the fact that Nintendo thinks that we are okay with friend codes. Nay that we LIKE them amazes me. One of the first loudest complaints on the nsider forums (Nintendo's now dead attempt at an community) was in fact the friend codes. What complicated matters further was that exchanging friend codes on the nsider forum was a ban-able offense.

Slashdot Comments and Nintendo

A anon comment I made on slashdot about Nintendo:

I think that in total numbers sold the Wii could end up being the most popular console ever.

There I fixed your sentence for you.

:) If Nintendo can keep up their momentum till launch they will be breaking sales figures all over the place. Nintendo finally has the right idea. Stop targeting the super small hardcore gamer market. Lets look at some recent system sales numbers coming out of japan [onnintendo.com]:

PSP: 24,457

DS+lite: 177,049

(5/15- 5/21)

With the release of such games like Brain Age and Nintendogs, Nintendo's sale figures have been going through the roof. There is a huge void out there of games for non gamers and Nintendo is being and will continue to be rewarded for filling it.

MS and Sony are welcome to throw a bunch of tech into their machines so they can churn out a couple million more polys per second, so the new GTA game can have more realistic gore. I am sure there are still people out there that are looking for exactly that. But if you are looking to drastically increase sales numbers... that is not the route to take. The people who bought your console/games last time may buy them again, but the people who passed your product up last gen will pass it again for the same reasons.

DS Outsells PSP by 50%

I recently got in a argument with someone over how the DS was doing. He seemed to be under the impression that the DS was a market flop. Well looky here, it seems that the ds is still massively outselling the PSP.

Next Generation - Japan: DS Outsells PSP by 50%

I really was cheering for sony when I originally heard about the PSP. The system is very well designed. But they really messed up the games. Take a look at the different games that are coming out for the psp. Really go look, none of them are that exciting. More sports and racing games and a few standard build action games.

Sony needs a Halo if it wants to pull itself out of the water. By halo I mean a game that will motivate people to go out and dump 250$ so they can play it. Currently Nintendo has a halo. Nintendogs is selling like hotcakes in japan.