(This is just my opinion because I'm not sure how things work in the industry.) I'm not one for playing sports on a video game console, (I have owned a few but I'm just not that big into them), but even I think this is stupid. As far as I can tell, (this is just how it seems in my eyes mind you), sports seem to be a good seller in the video game market and this looks like another blow against Nintendo. I don't know how things work with getting a game on a console but Nintendo has gotta figure out how to convince other companies to put their games on the Wii U. Maybe it's Nintendo's fault, maybe it's not, all I know is something has to change somewhere.

R.B.I. not coming to WiiU or 3DS was a low blow.I mean the 3DS is selling well. There is no good excuse not to bring it to at least that system.

I would be all for a Ken Griffery reboot, or a Baseball Stars reboot, or something. Heck at this point I just want a better Virtual console option on WiiU and 3DS (again, Baseball Stars 1 from the NES, please to celebrate opening day in 2 weeks)!

I was with Neal in that I was a rare serious sports gamer who did it on Nintendo system. I have MLB the Show, but well I want a Nintendo option as well.

"First they came for the big third-party games, and I said 'I'll be fine with Dead Space: Extraction.'
Then they came for the first-person shooters, and I said 'I'll be fine with The Conduit. Sequel's supposed to be good.'
Then they gave us some third-party games but they all sold bad and like Mass Effect 3 came out for the same price as Mass Effect Trilogy on other systems, and I said 'Whatever, dude.'
Then they came for the sports games, and I said 'Meh. Never really played them much.'
Then they came for the RPGs, and I said 'Well, at least we had Bravely Default that one time.'
Then they came for the platformers, and there was no one left."

That's more of my point here. Not that it is 100% imperative that Nintendo makes sports games, but more that sports games are essentially a dead genre on Nintendo platforms and that sucks. It's a problem. Maybe a solution is Nintendo funding a new sports game? Maybe? I don't know. That'd be cool.

I was like you in that I was a sports gamer and only owned a GameCube during that generation. I remember trying to track down the NCAA 2K3 Basketball title which was so rare for the system that I ordered it from some guy in Iraq on eBay. A funny thing happened in that GCN/PS2/XBOX generation - sports games stopped advancing. I bought Madden 2011 on PS3 and realized that outside of graphics and a tweak here or there, it's essentially the same game as Madden 2002. MLB The Show doesn't do much that wasn't done on MVP Baseball 8 years ago.

As I've grown older, I've realized that I just don't have time for sports games any more. As a kid, a game of Ken Griffey Jr Baseball on the SNES took 15-20 minutes so a full 162-game season took 40-50 hours. A game of MLB The Show takes 40-minutes just for the on-field stuff. Likewise, a full-season takes 120 hours or more. I can play 3-6 regular games in their entirety in that amount of time. Until a sports game comes out that is described as "changing the way you view base/foot/basket-ball games," I can safely set them aside.

I haven't played a sports game in years. I didn't know they were still a reason to buy a console.

I played the heck out of NBA Street V3 on my Gamecube. That game ROCKED!!!  Nintendo let EA put Mario Luigi and Peach in that game. Maybe it they just need to go to EA and offer Nintendo Characters again. What if they decided to forego paying the licencing fees for LeBron James, Peyton Manning, ect and EA did entire sports games just on Wii U/3DS. We could have Mario Madden, Donkey Kong Street Basketball (or Luigi Live U/3D (think NBA Live), and instead of doing what Mario Strikers did to soccer (although I enjoy that game) just have them take the existing sports games they already make and replace the names faces and logos with Nintendo names faces and logos. Done. It'll cost only a little more than a port costs, but not licencing fees with the NFL or NBA and you get the Nintendo Characters to help it sell.


What about Star Fox Jam/Blitz (NBA Jam/NFL Blitz)


If EA says no go to 2K and offer DK2K Basketball/Football. I had a ton of fun playing NBA 2K13 on my Wii U if 2K sports changed names faces and logos for the entire spectra of Nintendo IP, but it was a the same game I'd buy it without hesitation.


Do any of you NWR guys have good contacts at Nintendo? Plant the idea!

While they may not be "traditional" sports games, maybe a reboot of Wave Race or 1080 might whet people's appetites

I really liked Ken Griffy and would like to see that return, but he probably isn't a well known athlete like he used to be. I really like the idea for nintendo to get back into the sports game series. Maybe Mario Football (american) is more likely now that madden is never coming back

I don't think "make another Mario/Nintendo themed arcade sports game" is an actual solution to Nintendo's sports game problem. Nintendo doesn't need third parties to do these kinds of games because Nintendo is already pretty good at making them for the most part.


My solution is simple and even though it involves throwing money at the problem (honestly, what other suggestion doesn't involve throwing money at it?) I think it can help Nintendo in the short run: help out the third parties by establishing a shared cost (50/50) in porting over a Wii U version of FIFA, Madden, NHL, and NBA 2k. Third parties take care of porting over the basic game, and a small team at Nintendo work on making Wii U and GamePad-specific features for it. Not only do you ensure a game that uses the Wii U's features uniquely, you also keep the base experience level with the other consoles by having the folks at EA scramble for excuses to use the GamePad and just have them working on what they want.

Your opinion, it's wrong but you're entitled to your opinion.

Then why comment on a genre that you clearly don't like?  I don't go filling all the FPS threads with isn't this the same thing as the original Halo, it hasn't advanced at all in 10 years. 

Clearly you don't like simulations, but prefer arcade type games.  That's not a reason to knock simulations.  I liked Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball too.  I played a 26 game season last year.  The gameplay is terribly repetitive and I don't think I could ever make it through a 162 game season.  I never did when I was 12 and I thought it was the best game ever so I certainly won't now. 

If you don't care, then why comment?  Obviously other people care and there is no reason to pretend like you are better than others because you like more "sophisticated" games.  This is likely one of the big reasons why Sony/Microsoft control the market over Nintendo whether you care or not.  Sports and of course the very popular FPS.  But you should care.  I get that Nintendo has piles of money, but their console strategy is fatally flawed.  I don't see how they can ever become relevant again in the console market, it's not like another Mario game is going to excite the market to buy Wii U's.  They need lots of games.  Games that you like, and games that other people like that you may not like.  They can either acquire a few dozen studios and start producing several times the games they produce now (including genres they don't make and mature games) or they can play nice with third parties.  Neither strategy is likely.  So you'll be happy getting Nintendo games until they decide consoles aren't worth it and stop producing the games you like. 

If Nintendo was willing to make the investment in a good NBA game, it'd be nice to have a version that isn't fee-to-pay bullhockey (sup NBA 2k14 adding in always-online DRM POST-LAUNCH) or clearly thrown out as an experiment (NBA Live: the developers have admitted this).

There's a good number of baseball fans who buy Sony systems strictly for The Show, so a quality basketball title that did something with the Gamepad beyond the obvious drawing of plays could actually help. (Just... don't get Kevin Durant to be the endorser... I suspect the employees at NOA will be none too pleased.)

The problem is that just a good game isn't going to draw people to the Wii U.  They either need a game that is generally regarded as superior to those available on other consoles or they need equivalents to most sport genres available on other systems.  People aren't buying a Wii U for one basketball game.  They might buy a Wii U for the definitive basketball game, or very good selection of comparable sports titles (football/basketball/baseball/hockey).  That's where Nintendo messed up.  At one point they were equal with the other systems.  Then they started to fall behind and it didn't affect their sales so they didn't push to stay equivalent.  But now they are so far behind that many people don't look at Wii U as a competitor at all on the sports front. 


Also... why would Kevin Durant be a bad spokesperson?  I tried to google, but couldn't really find why NOA would be upset with him.   

OKC stole the Seattle Sonics a few years back just as Durant was unleashing his full potential. I don't really think Seattle folks should hold ill will towards him though. It's more an ownership thing.


Nintendo could easily reboot Ken Griffey presents MLB, they could have it include the next hot superstar (Mike Trout). Or if it has to be Mariner, then you can get Robinson Cano.


NBA Live was a good experiment though. I had fun with that game. But arcade sports games are too much of a niche when everyone buys the simulation games, even if just to create arcade elements there (example: NHL's "94 control scheme")


The collaboration strategy would be the best deal short term. Then you can decide if you want to go full on in-house for the future. 

Heh, good luck.

What we really need is some unlicensed, high quality sports game like AE games are doing with Mad Men Football.  Anything a sports organization has touched lately suffered the heavy use of attention to detail and rosters at the expense of fun.  Mario and Wii Sports were right all along.

I think they should just take the Wii Sports Club idea and expand on it.  Add in a bunch more sports and flesh the games out a bit more.  If that had 10 or so sports that were each a fairly in depth experience, it would at least give Wii U owners a decent sports experience.  I still don't understand how they don't have at least the original five sports from Wii Sports available yet.  They're obviously never going to have the full sports experience that the other systems have, but they could at least provide something that's different.

I spent 150+ hours with FIFA 13 on Wii U, and I'd have really loved to be able to do that with this year's version. I bought a PS4 largely because of that game, but would've much rather gotten it on Wii U again.

I don't personally care about sports games, but I understand why they would be important for a healthy platform to have. Gotta have variety. That said, I wonder if there's loyalty to sports brands that would prevent any Nintendo sports effort from any sort of success. After this long, people are familiar with series like Madden and Sony's The Show, and they continue to buy those games because they know what they're going to get out of them. Would sports videogame fans be willing to try something totally untested on the Wii U? And even if there are a few people, would it be enough to drive sales and be worth the investment over using those resources for other Nintendo games? I'm not convinced it would help much, but it's a tough question to answer.

Not only that, but Nintendo's effort would have to be able to at least match the feature set of competing sports games. Given Nintendo's track record with online, I don't think they would be offering the same robust online features that the other sports games get. And that wouldn't fly.

I think this is like looking at someone with all their limbs broken and focusing on a small cut on their forehead.  Yeah the Wii U needs sports games but it also needs a whole bunch of genres.  If Nintendo had decent third party support then this wouldn't be an issue.  All major sports titles, as well as most major third party games period, would be on their console.

What Nintendo needs is a console that the general public wants to buy and third parties want to support.  The Wii U fails on both.  A baseball game is a drop in the bucket in comparison.  They fix the big picture stuff and the lesser problems like a lack of sports games will correct themselves.

If Nintendo was to focus on filling a specific genre gap I think FPS would make much more sense.  Nintendo being without that genre is like a console from the 8 and 16 bit eras not having sidescrolling platformers.  I would be in favour of Nintendo making more of an effort (and by that I mean any effort at all) to target specific genre gaps and fill them.  That would be much better than their "focus on platformers and ignore all else" approach they've seemingly taken on with the Wii U.  I think that would be a good step to recovery and something to do to tend the fort until third parties get back.  But this won't matter on the Wii U.  It's one of the many things to do with the Wii U successor.

I agree for the reason given, but also because I was actually really hyped about Pennant Chase Baseball back in the day.  I'd be even happier if Nintendo would just pay Konami to make or localize MLB Power Pros again.  I own all 3 NA releases and it is by far my favorite baseball series.  I know that wouldn't do much, the games sold terribly if I'm not mistaken, and given their art style I don't think they ever would.  Oh well, just my own selfish desire.

That's pretty much the problem with any discussion of the Wii U's problems, there are so very many that any one is but a drop in the bucket.  It also doesn't help that, as you note, any real solutions will only affect the Wii U's successor given that "solutions" for the Wii U would have needed to have been started 3-5 years ago.

I agree that FPS' are probably a better route to go but even they amount to only a few drops in the bucket, they really need a total rehaul at all levels.  Anyhoo, I get the feeling that this is all whistling past the graveyard at this point.

Wait, what?  There is a third Power Pros game?  I have Power Pros and 2008 for the Wii, are you talking about the DS game? 


Back on point, anything is going to start as a drop in the bucket.  I'd just be happy if Nintendo did something because it would acknowledge a problem exists and then there may be a point in the future where changes/momentum put Nintendo in a point where they are competitive again.  Right now, I have little hope for Nintendo's future consoles on a competitive front.  It used to be hyperbole to say you only buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games.  Now it's reality. 

Yeah, I mean the DS MLB Power Pros, which I own.  It has all the gameplay fun of the console versions just not anything other than single game or small tourney play.  Turned out to be worth it for the multiplayer single cart download fun.

On point, I agree fully, babies and badly injured people need to start somewhere even if it is a single step.  I'd be more than happy to hear any serious talk from Iwata that he is moving in the proper direction, but so far it seems he just wants to chase the ephemeral DS/Wii casuals into QoL rather than taking a serious thought at what needs to be done to survive in the video game industry long term.