There’s a fascinating article on Eurogamer about the launch of the WiiU from the perspective of a games developer. It’s interesting for a number of reasons, but one comment really stands out:
At some point in this conversation we were informed that it was no good referencing Live and PSN as nobody in their development teams used those systems (!) so could we provide more detailed explanations for them?
It’s staggering that Nintendo didn’t have a handle on what their competitors were doing in the online space, especially as they had no online offering to speak of. One could argue that Nintendo’s uniqueness is what makes them stand out and allowed them to launch the hugely successful Wii that defied industry conventions. Unfortunately, this “head in the sand” approach will inevitably drive them in to the ground.