As we all know, Nintendo once ruled the video gaming skies. Titles were published for their systems or fell into the abyss. Soon, however, there came a time when the almighty Nintendo looked around in confusion as its once-loyal companions deserted them for greener pastures. The Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, though still playing host to some of the finest games of all time, fell by the wayside due to lack of third-party support. It is a problem that has plagued Nintendo to this day, and something they are desperately trying to correct with the Wii.
There were, of course, numerous reasons for the desertion. The N64's stubborn refusal to switch from a cartridge-based format, lack of online support, and high licensing fees all took their toll on the gaming giant. But fundamentally, when a true competitor came along, third parties sought to leave the most frightful prospect of publishing for a Nintendo system: Nintendo themselves.
It is an interesting problem, and one that cannot be easily corrected. Whereas Sony and Microsoft publish very few (and even fewer decent) games developed internally for their systems, Nintendo is both a hardware and software company in one. Their franchises are the most revered in gaming history, they sell systems, and cause ordinarily rational folk to transform into raving lunatic fanboys. If a third-party decides to publish for a Nintendo system, regardless of the quality of the game in question, it has to directly compete against the best in the business. Why bother? Why not head to another system, and have the top spots all to themselves?
This is a fundamental issue with Nintendo as a company. In recent months, numerous reports have cited this as a problem in the industry, and a primary reason why many companies are hesitant to jump on the Wii bandwagon despite the rampant excitement and hype. Make no mistake: The Wii launch will be dominated by Nintendo titles. Twilight Princess, the most anticipated game in years, will easily sell multiple millions before years end; Metroid Prime 3 will also hit that seventh digit before too long. Though games like Red Steel and Dragon Quest: Swords have the potential to do well, there's no questioning they'd do far better in the absence of first-party titles.
Further down the line? It gets worse. Super Mario Galaxy should be released within six to nine months of launch, starring the most famous Italian this side of Da Vinci. Sometime shortly after, Super Smash Bros. Brawl will release, sequel to the best-selling Gamecube game of all time, sucking up gamers' dollars and time in a fashion reminiscent of a black hole. It's murder to have to compete directly against triple-A titles like these...for a bit of past reference, note the sales of the critically acclaimed Beyond Good and Evil as it was released amongst heavy-hitters such as Prince of Persia, Mario Kart: Double Dash, and Need for Speed: Underground in 2003. A beautiful and brilliant game, ground to dust by the competition. If you look at the Gamecube's top-selling games, you have to go nine spots down just to find a game that wasn't made by a first or second-party.
It's no secret that throughout the life of the Wii console, Nintendo will continue to push out million-seller after million-seller. So what can they do to coerce the publishers to return to their side? Easy ports are no longer an option, and Nintendo can hardly make development costs much lower than they currently are. It comes down to trust: can Nintendo leave gaps in their release schedule and trust third-parties to keep the stream of decent games coming? Certainly, they couldn't in the N64 and Gamecube eras. However, this time it's less of a risk: even going a month or longer without any high-caliber releases, Nintendo has the ability to draw upon their past catalog for distribution over the Virtual Console service. They need to approach Ubisoft, EA, Namco, and Capcom; they need to tell these companies that this quarter is yours to rule, and yours alone. Develop your game, set it free in a period of relative calm from the internal development studios at Nintendo, and watch your sales soar.
The Wii's launch lineup is powerful, as discussed earlier. While it may push third-party games to the wayside early on, the importance of a large install-base for a system is paramount. Even for the Gamecube, a relatively easy system to port to, companies simply didn't bother; there weren't enough units and buyers out there to warrant the extra programming costs. If the Wii sells comparably to (or, my gosh, even exceeds) one or both of the PS3 and Xbox 360, the industry can no longer ignore Nintendo's consoles as a viable source for profit. While straight ports may not be possible, the Wii is far more suited to simpler, cheaper games. The Wii doesn't require advanced graphical engines or a permanent connection to an online service, though those options are available; if Nintendo embraces the distribution of original, smaller-scale games via the Virtual Console, it becomes even easier for publishers to crank something out for a low price. It's working for Xbox Live Arcade, and Nintendo should follow suit.
Now, gaming industry at large, is the best time for you to jump in. Take your time and develop your games; lead the post-Galaxy/Brawl era on the Wii. Compared to the competitors, the risk is lower, the audience more receptive, and your programmers will enjoy the ease of coding on a familiar architecture. Your game won't need to sell at Halo levels to turn a profit, it just needs to be fun. It's a whole new ballgame.
No one wants Nintendo to cease updating their franchises or leading the pack in innovation...it's what they do best. But as we've seen in the past two generations, no matter how much Nintendo can pull out of their hat, it simply won't be enough without help. The success of the Nintendo DS is largely due to excellent third-party offerings: Sonic Rush, Trauma Center, Phoenix Wright, Meteos, and many others. Nintendo needs to gain this kind of support in the console business, and compliment their own incredible games with another line-up, just as amazing. You can do it, Nintendo. We believe in you.
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_thumbnail.jpg "Smash Bros. Brawl Snapshots")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-31-2006 @ 8:33AM
himwhoknows said...
its not that nintendo get it wrong ITS EVERY BODY ELSE WHO GETS IT WRONG, the decition to stay with carts on n64 was based on whats right for a GAMES DEVICE cd roms were very very very slow we are talking 1xspeed/2xspeed cd drives cough ps1 cough meggadrive etc THERE WAY TO SLOW FOR GAMES (LOADING TIMES DESTOY GAMES SONY PSP SONY P1 SONY PS2 THIS IS A FACT NINTENDOS DESIGNERS OF HARDWARE ALLWAYS PUT 1ST)N64 ZERO LOADTIMES PS1 10MINUTE LIFE DRAINING LOADTIMES EVERY 5 DAM MINUTES fact fact fact......THEN WE HAVE PIRASY WHO LOST MORE THRU PIRASY SONY OR NINTENDO I GUESS ITS SONY JUST A QICK EXAMPLE OF NINTENDO GINIUS AGAINST JOURNALIST IGNORANCE NINTENDO DO IT THE CURRECT WAY ITS THE MASSES AND THERE IGNORANCE THAT ARE WRONG
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7-31-2006 @ 8:44AM
CUBEBOY101 said...
agreed himwhoknows,people are defenatly ignorant to nintendos ginius take online play ps2 has a PAYFORPLAY buggy crashy online play set up thru EA games etc its rubbish its unplayable xbox gets a better online set up but again you pay extra for it and its more microsoft brainwash fodda than a great gamers hub then we have nintendo DS and soon wii both free both stable and secore and free of bugs and lag YET AGAIN NINTENDOS WAY IS THE CURRECT WAY
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7-31-2006 @ 9:18AM
matt said...
Aghh!!
Enough with illegible comments! Seriously! Do people actually talk like that??
Anyway, I think this article brought up some good points. As the frenzied first comment tried to point out (But was frothing with massive fanboyism), carts were a good idea (still are, if costs could be brought down). Solid state rules the day, as does zero loading time. Now if only SD cards could be inexpensive and expand to 8 gigs of space... then we'd be talking.
Anyway, I do think Nintendo needs to do a lot more to assist 3rd parties at being sucessful, but I think this time they're actually aware of the problems they've caused themselves, so I expect a pretty solid platform for the next 5 years...
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7-31-2006 @ 9:29AM
Patrick said...
wow good read. pretty sensible too. nintendo should really read this and take it to heart o.o
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7-31-2006 @ 10:04AM
Loban said...
Wow, we apparently have 2 toddlers who read this site and like to try to post comments. SIRIUSLY, HOO TOKS LIK THAT.
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7-31-2006 @ 10:13AM
Vincent said...
I'm sorry, I'm a Nintendo Fanboy... but those first two posts hurt me. What a stereotype for you to toss out there for us.
Anyway, I agree with most points in this post, and the comments.
1) Nintendo's titles (Mario, Zelda, Metroid...) have always been my games of choice (minus Wind Waker and the Prime series... they aren't terrible, I just dont like sailing, and I dont like FPS Console controls, God be praised when Wii finally changes that.)
2) Mario Sports. That's all you need to know. Mario Strikers is 50x better than any FIFA, so much fun! Yes, you can turn items and power shots off... Mario Baseball was OK, but still better than any MLB game on the shelves. But IMHO Mario Kart has seen better days. DoubleDash! was alright, if you had two really good people in one kart, and one knew when to attack/use items.
3) Carts. The production costs for cartridges is not through the roof anymore. But anyone that says flash memory is faster than 12x DVD is a fool. Inexpensive flash rom is ~8-11MB/s, you pay more for more speed. 12x-DVD? That's ~17MB/s, and its a literal FRACTION of the cost of a cartridge. Seek times are getting better for optical. Does anyone know the BD-R transfer rates? Mind you, CD was terrible because 48x-CD is only ~7.2MB/s, and seek times were terrible.
4) Internet gameplay on consoles has been around forever, but it was never used by the mass market until Halo, really. Honestly, I hate the game, its a terrible remake of Tribes, with less weapons/vehicles, and smaller maps, but I can't deny that it revolutionized console online multiplayer, and I thank God for that. (I'm getting a SmartJoy Frag so I can play Halo2 with keyboard/mouse on XBox, just because my friends like it so much, and I refuse to play an FPS with a controller.)
5) It's entirely true that third parties would make more money by not competing on GC, let's just hope that changes. Third party support = more money for third parties, more money for Nintendo, and more games for us. It's a no brainer!
/myfivecents
~Vincent
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7-31-2006 @ 10:14AM
brian said...
i think this article gives a lot of good points. Nintendo needs it's third party developers. the virtual console helps, and that in itself is a signal of how nintendo has matured in this arena.
What I'd love to see for nintendo to do is probably the easiest. When they make the packaging for the Wii, and they have screenshots of available games for the Wii, they should put the hot, wii exclusive titles on the box, no matter the developer or publisher.
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7-31-2006 @ 10:44AM
turtleboy said...
I see some nice points made in this post. I agree that while it may be good for Nintendo to have a time for third parties to bring out their games. I still think it is good for publishers to have to compete. I see games like beyond good and evil and it was a great game. I could see publishers taking time to make good games because they know they have competetion. I'm thankful we have xbox and Sony. They push Nintendo to try to be better. I agree with this post but my pont is hasn't competetion made things better for all of us. I think if third party publishers want to run to another company it just shows their game couldn't even compete with Nintendo anyway. I want games to compete with Mario Galaxy and other big titles. I found on the ps2 and xbox there was alot more crap games from third party publishers. However I found crap on the gamecube from Nintendo themseves could be due to the lack of third party competition. Having games to go up against only helps us consummers in the end. It's called capitlism. People shouldn't be afraid of it we should embrace it.
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7-31-2006 @ 10:53AM
Loban said...
turtleboy, it's not that third party publishers COULDN'T compete with Nintedo's games, I think the point of the article is to say that many publishers don't want to risk it. It's easier and less risky for them to simply not even TRY to compete with Nintendo, even if their games are just as good or even better than 1st party Nintendo games. There are a lot of great games that never make it to Nintendo hardware simply because noone would buy them when they can't see past Mario, Zelda and Metroid.
And no, i'm not talking about the GTA series. Those games aren't good on any system.
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7-31-2006 @ 11:35AM
ProxyToaster said...
Good article...
I especially agree with the comments made regarding the recent success third-parties have seen with the DS. The reason players and third-parties alike should be excited about the Wii is this: The DS has a unique control scheme, and so does the Wii. Rather than be off put by the DS control scheme, third-parties have seen it as an opportunity to design games with renewed creativity. I think the same will be true of the Wii.
Seeing development resources pay off with DS titles should be encouraging to third-parties looking to create games for the Wii. It should be clear that simple ports are not the key (see the PSP for examples), and if the Wii sells with numbers proportionate to those of the DS, the third-parties could see nice profits plugging into the Nintendo release gaps with solid games designed with the Wii control scheme in mind.
I think the thing that both the DS and the upcoming Wii have in common, and that other consoles do not, is the wow-gadget-wacky factor of their control schemes. It's an added benefit for game developers, as their game is not just another console release; it is tied directly to the new control: "I wonder what THAT game is like to play with the touch screen/wiimote?" Therein lies an inherent value-add to any DS or Wii game that the other consoles just don't have.
The next year is going to be a great thing to watch.
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7-31-2006 @ 11:42AM
turtleboy said...
Loban you are right I don't mean it's not that they can't compete but as a consumer their actions tell me otherwise. Does that make any sense. I see how it looks good for them to go somewhere else but at the same time where's the confindence that your game could do well on all this platform or that platform. I think if a third party publisher can and will launch for all three systems he shows I have faith in this game it will do well on all three platforms. I also see that if a third party publisher will go up against hardcore Nintendo games he says to me by his actions I have faith this will be good enough to compete even against the best. My biggest point of all which I feel you missed and I hope you didn't was isn't competetion good? I think of the old Nintendo and the games it pumped out. They made a bunch of good games but wow was there alot of games that were just junk. Nintendo didn't have near the compettion then as they do now. Trust me it's the same in whatever industry you are in you want competition. You always benifit the consummer more. I hope my point is a little more clear this time sorry about that have a nice day.
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7-31-2006 @ 11:55AM
Loban said...
turtleboy, Yes, as consumer, I feel competition is good, obviously. But to a business, being number one is all they care about, and the less competition there is, the more likely they can be number one.
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7-31-2006 @ 12:02PM
Stan said...
Just ignore the first two comments, don't even cite them...They're quite obviously fake..
I don't pay too much attention to third party when I get a Nintendo console, but now that SNK has planned future support, I'm interested to see what them and Capcom have in store.
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7-31-2006 @ 12:09PM
ready said...
Best post in a long time.
3rd party ran from the 64 not because of cost, but storage size. Take square, to make FFVII it would take something like 13 N64 carts. If you don't agree and you still have N64 games heres a test. Grab Ocarina Of Time and then grab another game made earlier say Pilotwings. Ocarina is heavier. Games with more Graphics and content required Carts that had more 'guts'. When it comes to digital media sometimes size does matter.
sidenote: Nintendo has made a point to work on different types video compression. Aka GBA video. All thoese Spongebob shows on GBA were there not only to make a bit of quick profit but shows off what nintendo can fit onto those little carts. The time spent on that project is how I think they put those fun FMV's in Hunters and made square look to the DS and not the PSP for their update of FFIII
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7-31-2006 @ 1:06PM
Antonio Rojilla said...
Hey, nice article, it was a good reading, but I don't think third-parties must compete against Nintendo, what they need to do is to fill the gaps! What I mean is that games like Sadness will have their own niche among Wii users (I really want this game even if I still have to wait a year).
So many times it is said that Nintendo is somewhat for children, but Sadness or Red Steel are than the way to go for may developers, if they try to compete against the Big N chances are that they will lose, but there are a lot of gaps in Nintendo's catologue, those third-parties willing to fill them will have a good chance to be sucesful in Nintendo's platforms.
Ops, I'm not like the first two posters, it's just that english is not my main laguage! Sorry for that... :)
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7-31-2006 @ 1:24PM
Jason Wishnov said...
Thanks for all the positive comments, everyone. Except those two guys in the beginning, I laid the mighty hammer of justice down and removed a star from each.
Mwa ha ha ha!
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7-31-2006 @ 1:48PM
S.A.M. said...
to himwhoknows... the reason sony doesn't do any thing about piracy is that they make money out of it.... also doesn't it seem funny with all the homebrew going on thta they could easily shut the sites down that supply everyone with the homebrew? it's becuase they steal custom webbrowsing designs and stuff and then coppyright it so that the people who originaly wade it can't complain. the same person who cracked coppying encoded DVD (like the ones used in PS2s) cracked blu ray in 2 hours and as soon as sony found out they took him to court and shut him down. It's not that sony CAN'T do anything about piracy they DON'T do anything about it becuase they're still making money out of it and have other parts of their bussiness to fall back on if they make a loss same with the XBOX but nintendo has nothing to fall back on which is why nintendo is so up tight about piracy (I am a nintendo supporter which is why i never pirate games on my cube and yes it's possible just realy inconvienient).
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7-31-2006 @ 2:16PM
DUscrom said...
The problem with the games industry, is that quality dosen't always equal profit. It's more about names and franchises. 50 Cent probabbly sold more then Prince of Persia, Sands of Time. Nintendo has franchises that can sell on name alone. Reviewers are also often very kind to the flaws of certain games, when given a Nintendo Franchise. There is no competeing with a Mario, Zelda, or Pokemon game. So their options are to go to another console where they have a chance.
As far as the DS, it's the same design phillosphy as a GBA games. Nintendo is the leader in the portable game industry, and has been for the last 20 years. So Why not make DS games. And what 3rd parties have benefited? Atlus and Capcom. Most the other well selling DS games are Nintendo's
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7-31-2006 @ 2:59PM
S.A.M. said...
to DUscron 50 cent's movie sold less then chiken little so i doubt he could sell more then pop sands of time.
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7-31-2006 @ 7:15PM
danj3ris said...
Quite the entertaning and informative read.
I've never thought of a console in these terms before, and it does open my mind and eyes to the developer's perspective. I know Nintendo's first party titles will be spectacular and make great use of the Wii's abilities, and I'm loving Ubisoft for being so gung-ho about Wii and producing Red Steel. I do fear that many other third-party developers just "wont get it".
I know that Nintendo sent them development kits, I know that they know there is a cool little gizmo-doodad-controller-"wiimote". But can they really go ahead and make as much use of it that Nintendo can? I think Nintendo should send out agents. Let these people know just what is possible, and how easy it would be to make it happen.
Hell, I wish I had a development kit. I'd have no clue how to use it, but I'd learn and put some of my ideas out there. I'm totally feeling the Wii.
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8-01-2006 @ 12:54PM
Eternal said...
Im hate reading Books, Magazines etc. But this I absolutely enjoyed reading. Why cant everything be as interesting as this? Well alot of good points were made and alot of great opinions as well. Keep more articles like this coming
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8-02-2006 @ 1:34AM
Fenix said...
Well, the DS seems to be doing pretty damn good so far, and it's got 1st-party heavy hitters all over the place. The second thing I love is that in the article you talk about Nintendo's heavy hitters killing smaller titles, and then list three games, but TWO OF THE THREE were third party titles!
One of the things the article talks about is having Nintendo say "this quarter is yours, get some games out." This is a BAD idea and can only possibly serve to make the situation worse. Games are done when they're done. Sometimes they get delayed. One of the reasons Nintendo's games are so excellent is because they can afford not to release a game until it is done. If Nintendo is going to start forcing 3rd parties to release their games in N's off-season, those 3rd parties will then have to rush their games to meet these deadlines, and the games will suffer. This obviously makes the problem worse, not better.
" Im hate reading Books" Really? I couldn't notice.
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8-02-2006 @ 1:56AM
Jason Wishnov said...
"The second thing I love is that in the article you talk about Nintendo's heavy hitters killing smaller titles, and then list three games, but TWO OF THE THREE were third party titles!"
I assume you're referring to this:
"Make no mistake: The Wii launch will be dominated by Nintendo titles. Twilight Princess, the most anticipated game in years, will easily sell multiple millions before years end; Metroid Prime 3 will also hit that seventh digit before too long. Though games like Red Steel and Dragon Quest: Swords have the potential to do well, there's no questioning they'd do far better in the absence of first-party titles."
Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3 are listed as Nintendo titles that will do extremely well. Red Steel and DQ: Swords are listed as being able to do well despite the first-party launch games, but will sell less than they would otherwise. I fail to see why you're confused.
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