GS News - Halo 5 Gameplay Arriving; Nintendo Planning New Console?

Can't wait for Halo MC Collection! What Nintendo really needs to do is start making games for the PS4 and XBox One, and focus on handheld gaming where they excel. There are SO many great Nintendo IP characters they could port (or allow others to port) to other systems, including remakes of all the Zelda and Mario games with HD overhauls (seriously, Nintendo wouldn't even need to pay to have these done; other devs and studios would pay them for the privilege of porting these guaranteed hits).

But if Nintendo persists in the console market themselves, they should bring their focus to online communities. In addition to the Mii system, give every system an "Avatar reader" and throw 4 plastic (Skylanders-style) figures in the box - Mario, Luigi, Peach and Zelda - then let them choose their avatar by which character is on the reader. That will virtually guarantee sales of more figurines since people will quickly not want to look just like everyone else but might not want to be limited to just their Mii, and Nintendo eats that kind of marketing up. All the pokemon characters, Zelda characters, Mario Characters, Metroid, etc. Then throw people into a "PS-Home-like-but-doesn't-suck" virtual world environment to move between games, media, ads and DLC. If the whole thing looked like Hyrule or Mario World people would eat it up.

The most important thing is that Nintendo could make online kid-friendly. It really isn't like that today, but by letting kids play online without chatting (voice or text) but selecting inoffensive emoticons and actions that crossed language boundaries, they could really pull gamers together in a way that hasn't been done yet. Kind of a Destiny "always-online" experience even when all you're doing is watching Netflix or playing a single-player game. Get rid of menus and think "virtual candy store" with aisles and end-cap displays.