By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Why does Nintendo take that long to make games compared to HD consoles?

catprog on 08 November 2008
Erik Aston said:

Nintendo has never released their main franchises frequently. If you bought Wii expecting more than 1 Mario game, 1 Mario Kart, 1 Smash Bros, 1 Zelda after TP, etc, you're a fool.

Even with their big breakthroughs of the last few years, they aren't milking them with frequent releases. Nintendogs has no sequel announced. Brain Training had More Brain Training, but nothing beyond that. Wii Fit has no sequel announced. After Wii Sports and Wii Play, it takes 2 1/2 years for Wii Sports Resort. Animal Crossing will have just one version each for DS and Wii. Even Mario Party has backed off from being a yearly franchise.

This is just what Nintendo does. Even if it relies on old technology (lateral thinking of withered technology), it takes longer to invent "the next big thing" than to pump out a sequel with an existing engine and assets. The Mario team will probably take 3-4 years to make the next Mario game because they're hunting for an idea as cool as the "gravity" concept. Miyamoto has talked about how right now the Zelda team is looking for things to shake up the series, and before that suggested that Twilight Princess would be the last Zelda of its type. And even a game which could have half a dozen sequels by now, Wii Sports, will only get a sequel for Motion Plus.

Companies like EA, Activision and Ubisoft rely on frequent sequels. The Sims 2 has had 2 expansion packs per year. The Tom Clancy franchise has at least 2 games per year. Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, etc., come out yearly. Guitar Hero and Rock Band are going for 2+ and 1+ games per year, respectively. For Wii, Raving Rabbids and MySims are becoming annual franchises.

I think there might be 2 more zeldas for the wii.

Every nintendo console has had 2. The wii has had none(if you consider TP the 2nd one for the GC)



My websites

http://catprog.org

Online games that I play:

http://www.animecubed.com/billy/?Catprog

 

Around the Network
Jo21 on 08 November 2008

while you wait people... for the next zelda and mario.

they are great games on the other side of the grass.

pick on hd console :P



Zucas on 08 November 2008

Because there better developers?!? Just possibly haha nah jk. But seriously I mean the reason Zelda and Mario games come every 4 years is because it really takes them that long to make them. It's also not surprising that almost ever Mario or Zelda game in the main line on consoles is amazingly good. Hmm possibly other devs should take a note on that haha.



ClaudeLv250 on 08 November 2008
LNRT said:

Can we report someone for incessant whining? Just because you don't know what they are doing doesn't mean the teams are not working. You also claim these "surprise announcements" fail somehow, yet MK Wii was a "surprise announcement" and that worked out well. Just relax and Nintendo will deliver the goods. They are too smart to sit back and just count money.

This.

This whining makes no sense and the first post is flawed beyond reasoning, using 3rd parties (who are only concentrating on 1-2 games at a time) and then comparing them all to countless Nintendo franchises. This thread was made of fail from conception and is laughably bad. Galaxy is barely a year old and people are cryingthat these games are coming out at ridiculous rates?

 



Tag - "No trolling on my watch!"

tehsage on 08 November 2008

I'm not sure if it's been said yet, but, to my knowledge, most Nintendo games are longer than most HD games. My friend said he beat MGS4, one of the biggest PS3 games, the day he purchased it and it took me awhile to beat Twilight Princess, a launch title.

Many HD developers take a lot of time making the game look good so they sometimes sacrifice gameplay/length.



Around the Network
Alby_da_Wolf on 08 November 2008

@OP:
They're doing it for the lulz.



Stwike him, Centuwion. Stwike him vewy wuffly! (Pontius Pilate, "Life of Brian")
A fart without stink is like a sky without stars.
TGS, Third Grade Shooter: brand new genre invented by Kevin Butler exclusively for Natal WiiToo Kinect. PEW! PEW-PEW-PEW!   


trestres on 08 November 2008

Yes, I shouldn't have included Zelda and Mario on the OP, but Nintendo games in general. Let's call this over lol, I screwed big time in the OP. I still have my complaints but the OP isn't where you should be looknig at.



Proud poster of the 10000th reply at the Official Smash Bros Update Thread.

tag - "I wouldn't trust gamespot, even if it was a live comparison."

Bets with Conegamer:

Pandora's Tower will have an opening week of less than 37k in Japan. (Won!)
Pandora's Tower will sell less than 100k lifetime in Japan.
Stakes: 1 week of avatar control for each one.

Fullfilled Prophecies

scottie on 08 November 2008

trestres, keep in mind that a Nintendo game is never rushed out the door to make a quick profit, and Nintendo as a result has the highest average metacritic score of any 1st, 2nd or 3rd party developer



tabsina on 08 November 2008

trestres, forget about polish, bugs, graphics, new gameplay, innovation...

this is the answer to your question and comparison, no two ways about it:

Oyvoyvoyv said:

Nintendo has less than 4000 employees. Around 3750. Electronic Arts alone has twice of that. Combined for all the games you listed, the emloyee total is at least 15.000. Nintendo also makes hardware, most of the other companies don't. So overall, the others have at least 5 times as many employees working on games.



trestres on 08 November 2008

@scottie: While I agree that Nintendo is the best publisher out there, it's not true that they are always making excellent AAA games. They have had their fair share of bad games this gen. The avrg went down with the Wii according to gamerankings that is, if we should be trusting reviews.



Proud poster of the 10000th reply at the Official Smash Bros Update Thread.

tag - "I wouldn't trust gamespot, even if it was a live comparison."

Bets with Conegamer:

Pandora's Tower will have an opening week of less than 37k in Japan. (Won!)
Pandora's Tower will sell less than 100k lifetime in Japan.
Stakes: 1 week of avatar control for each one.

Fullfilled Prophecies