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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Looking back, 3rd party support on the 3DS wasn't that great

Agente42 on 31 August 2018
outlawauron said:

Not a bad breakdown at all. My two cents in this conversation is that DS and PSP had vastly better libraries than 3DS and Vita. Don't think it was very close, regardless of what tiny indie titles you could buy on eShop.

Agreed.

PSP + DS>>>>> Vita + 3DS.



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HollyGamer on 01 September 2018

It has Metal Gear Solid 3 so i don't care.



Helloplite on 02 September 2018

Really? Not strong third party support? Unless if you specifically refer to western devs, which by all accounts have NEVER meaningfully supported handheld platforms, your statement is wholly incorrect. 3DS has seen game development to an extent that is only comparable and equivalent to support received by prior handheld platforms by Nintendo. It has the same support as DS did, and the same overall quality of third party software.



TheMisterManGuy on 03 September 2018
Helloplite said:
Really? Not strong third party support? Unless if you specifically refer to western devs, which by all accounts have NEVER meaningfully supported handheld platforms, your statement is wholly incorrect. 3DS has seen game development to an extent that is only comparable and equivalent to support received by prior handheld platforms by Nintendo. It has the same support as DS did, and the same overall quality of third party software.

The GBA and DS had decent western support. The assertion that Western developers hated handhelds was always nonsense. People just that as a cop out to justify poor third party support for a handheld. Compared to past Nintendo handhelds, 3DS is lacking in variety and companies supporting it. It's overall support was simply "Okay", but a major step back from what came before. 



HoangNhatAnh on 03 September 2018
TheMisterManGuy said:
Helloplite said:
Really? Not strong third party support? Unless if you specifically refer to western devs, which by all accounts have NEVER meaningfully supported handheld platforms, your statement is wholly incorrect. 3DS has seen game development to an extent that is only comparable and equivalent to support received by prior handheld platforms by Nintendo. It has the same support as DS did, and the same overall quality of third party software.

The GBA and DS had decent western support. The assertion that Western developers hated handhelds was always nonsense. People just that as a cop out to justify poor third party support for a handheld. Compared to past Nintendo handhelds, 3DS is lacking in variety and companies supporting it. It's overall support was simply "Okay", but a major step back from what came before. 

The same apply to vita, they mostly care about smartphones only



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xxbrothawizxx63 on 03 September 2018
HoangNhatAnh said:

Not even Vita with 6 times stronger hardware and a lot newer GPU can change the situation much

Just like with Wii U, the writing was on the wall with the platform. In the 3DS's case, even when the platform turned around developers didn't care to support it because their teams had moved on. With the Wii versions of games dead, dragging their heels with a version of their game on hardware that wasn't easy to work with probably seemed like a dead end. The Vita showed that there was still interest. Nintendo's hardware just couldn't support their visions, and when it became the only successful portable console devs just bailed for mobile. 



Agente42 on 03 September 2018
xxbrothawizxx63 said:
HoangNhatAnh said:

Not even Vita with 6 times stronger hardware and a lot newer GPU can change the situation much

Just like with Wii U, the writing was on the wall with the platform. In the 3DS's case, even when the platform turned around developers didn't care to support it because their teams had moved on. With the Wii versions of games dead, dragging their heels with a version of their game on hardware that wasn't easy to work with probably seemed like a dead end. The Vita showed that there was still interest. Nintendo's hardware just couldn't support their visions, and when it became the only successful portable console devs just bailed for mobile. 

What? The top third westerners do not like nintendo in the first place. Period. It started in the third generation, EA and Trip Hawkins. EA, Activision, Warner, do not like nintendo. This vision chatter seems more apologetic. However, nintendo has always won in the handheld part and they end up throwing something in the laptops. The only exception is the 3DS, because companies believed that the mobile would be a much more wonderful market than it really is.



HoangNhatAnh on 03 September 2018
xxbrothawizxx63 said:
HoangNhatAnh said:

Not even Vita with 6 times stronger hardware and a lot newer GPU can change the situation much

Just like with Wii U, the writing was on the wall with the platform. In the 3DS's case, even when the platform turned around developers didn't care to support it because their teams had moved on. With the Wii versions of games dead, dragging their heels with a version of their game on hardware that wasn't easy to work with probably seemed like a dead end. The Vita showed that there was still interest. Nintendo's hardware just couldn't support their visions, and when it became the only successful portable console devs just bailed for mobile. 

With the rise of mobile at that time, all big Western 3rd party focus on them, leaving Western indie for handheld.  The indie games on 3ds while not big, still league ahead DSi. Vita showed interest with many mediocre spin-offs (both 1st and 3rd party) and dumbed-down ports that look bad or run like garbage. At least in 3DS case, many games (both 1st and 3rd party) are good exclusives. 



zorg1000 on 03 September 2018
Salnax said:

I'd say it was somewhat middling.

The GBA didn't have much good third party support. Looking at VGChartz numbers show many of the biggest 3rd party titles are either licensed games (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Harry Potter,and SpongeBob) or retro ports (Namco Museum, Final Fantasy). Sure, you had some well-liked original third party titles like Sonic Advance, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, but these were generally exceptions.

Let's try comparing the 3DS's third party support with that for the DS, PSP, and Vita.

  DS PSP 3DS Vita
Big Western Publishers (Overall) Support was meh, but there are a few success stories. Guitar Hero's spinoffs were genuine attempts from Activision, MySims was a success for EA, WB started a franchise with Scribblenauts, and Ubisoft released shovelware. Very strong early on, with big games from series like Grand Theft Auto, Medal of Honor, Assassin's Creed, Need for Speed, and Call of Duty. After 2007, these became much rarer, though EA continued released their annual sports games. Bad. With companies like EA and Ubisoft calling quits by the end of 2011, the only really successful games from big western publishers were LEGO games. As with the PSP, there was a strong start, with some of the Vita's best sellers being 2012 Western releases. Afterwards, things fell harder than the PSP, with even EA giving up on FIFA after 2014.
Japanese RPG's Strong. Squenix had dozens of DS games, including games (largely spinoffs and remakes) representing most of their mainstay series, new franchises, and a main series Dragon Quest. Atlus released the Etrian Odyssey trilogy, Radiant Historia, and a few SMT games. Other companies like Konami, Namco, and Sega also released JRPG's. Roughly on par with DS support of the time. Square Enix released both new games like Birth by Sleep and Crisis Core and updated versions of classic games, Sega released Phantasy Star and Valkyria Chronicles games, and Namco had a couple of Tales games. Still strong. Square Enix released a lot less compared to the DS, but still released new games like Bravely Default and Dragon Quest.  Atlus apparently adored the 3DS, as shown by all the SMT and Etrian Odyssey. Other companies have largely been overshadowed by those two and Nintendo. Oh, and Monster Hunter is here! A fairly diverse group of companies made Vita JRPG's. Squenix and Atlus titles are to be expected, but there was also games from Falcom, Gust, and Namco.
Casual Stuff This is the DS's specialty. Cooking Mama, MySims, Professor Layton, and various other series appealed to a wide audience, some of which also managed to be decent. Mind you, this meant we had 38 Imagine games from Ubisoft. Not the PSP's strong suit, despite the occassional attempt from Sony or another company. Lumines was cool. The lot of the shovelware was absent this time around, but so were many of the casual experiences. The only outstanding examples are Mario & Sonic 2012, Harvest Moon, and Disney Magical Castle. MINECRAFT
3D Games Largely a bust. The few 3D games on DS mostly serve to make you see why the PSP was the better choice. Much of the early major Western support was this, but Japanese developers kept this going throughout the system's life. Besides Action RPG's like Monster Hunter, games like Peace Walker Somewhere between DS and PSP levels. Monster Hunter made an easy transition to 3DS, and other big games like Resident Evil did well enough in 3D, but there still seems to be more 2D love. By default.
Retro and Remakes Significantly scaled down from the GBA era. Square Enix remade and ported plenty of SNES era titles, and Capcom ported Ace Atorney to DS, but the trend was towards new games. Some older games appear, like Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, Mega Man Maverick Hunter, and the Namco Museum Battle Collection. The star is PS1 Classics, Mostly absent. Squenix's remake of Dragon Quest VII is the most notable example, along with a few lazy or disappointing ports like with Rayman 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3D. The 3DS Virtual Console petered out fairly early. Plenty of older games have been ported to Vita (often with an accompanying PS3 or PS4 remake), and you can still download PS1 games.
Indie Games
 The DS was designed in part to allow for developers to make odd games with small budgets, but the lack of a digital store before the DSi hindered it. (I don't know actually...) The best in Nintendo's history, especially once the eShop got momentum. Both exclusives and multiplat indie games have done well on 3DS. The heart of the system's library. Possibly the best in handheld gaming.
MVP?
 Square Enix: Dragon Quest IX was a big hit, even by series standards. Squenix also had another ten games break a million sales, evenly divided into remakes of games like Final Fantasy III and new spinoffs such as Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. Capcom/EA: Capcom deserves a lot of credit for the Monster Hunter series, which provided the PSP with big games across its lifetime, including two of its four best sellers, but they otherwise did little to support the PSP. EA released a couple of big sellers annually from 2005 to 2007, notably Medal of Honor and Need for Speed games, and their annual sports releases sold fairly well for the PSP's entire life.
 Capcom: A lot of this is due to Monster Hunter, which has been doing better in the West. Street Fighter 4 and Resident Evil: Revelations were some of the first big games for the 3DS, and Ace Attorney has been a constant presence. Mojang: Because Minecraft. Not only is it the best-selling Vita game, it has worldwide appeal, unlike many other big Vita games.

 

 

 Nice comparison but for PSP MVP you forgot to give Rockstar a shout out for the 2 GTA games that sold huge numbers.



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xxbrothawizxx63 on 04 September 2018
HoangNhatAnh said:
xxbrothawizxx63 said:

Just like with Wii U, the writing was on the wall with the platform. In the 3DS's case, even when the platform turned around developers didn't care to support it because their teams had moved on. With the Wii versions of games dead, dragging their heels with a version of their game on hardware that wasn't easy to work with probably seemed like a dead end. The Vita showed that there was still interest. Nintendo's hardware just couldn't support their visions, and when it became the only successful portable console devs just bailed for mobile. 

With the rise of mobile at that time, all big Western 3rd party focus on them, leaving Western indie for handheld.  The indie games on 3ds while not big, still league ahead DSi. Vita showed interest with many mediocre spin-offs (both 1st and 3rd party) and dumbed-down ports that look bad or run like garbage. At least in 3DS case, many games (both 1st and 3rd party) are good exclusives. 

Mobile causing shrinkage in the portable market was inevitable. Those that were still interested didn't care at all for 3DS because it wasn't an exciting platform in any way or feel like the right choice for their titles considering the power constraints. It was just another handheld that would sell Nintendo games. 

This is a ridiculous argument. Just because AC and CoD weren't a locked 30fps doesn't say anything about support. The fact is, western publishers chose to support the Vita at all because the hardware was there.  Ubisoft cancelled its 3DS AC game, but still released Liberation on vita. 

Last edited by xxbrothawizxx63 - on 04 September 2018