| Mr Khan said: So here we are, having born full witness to Nintendo's Q1 2009 lineup, which consists of all of 5 games from Nintendo themselves: Personal Trainer: Math, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Pokemon Platinum, Play on Wii Mario Power Tennis, and Play on Wii Pikmin.
I just find it strange that first party development can slump so hard. Exactly what was Nintendo thinking, or planning? I find it hard to believe that they would deliberately let development slump like this to open a window for 3rd parties, or simply because they don't have to put out software to move units. What exactly could motivate such a slump? We know they have a lot of titles in the works, the evidence is all over the place for stuff from first-party groups like EAD and Retro, and from partners like Factor 5, Next Level Games, Treasure, and Monster Games, but why haven't better strategies been developed to more thoroughly populate each quarter with their high-level releases?
Note: this is not a rant in particular. I myself am picking up Fire Emblem and Pikmin and will enjoy them fully, just pondering why development in general seems to have slumped. Release strategy problem, simple oversight, or something more cognizant. |
First, you forgot Punch Out, which I believe is still slated for Q1, and makes the lineup stronger.
I wouldn't call it a slump. Slumps are usually unintentional periods of poor performance. Currently Nintendo's performance is fine, and its games are still either selling well, reviewing well, or both.
What you have here is Nintendo choosing to release these particular titles at this particular time for reasons they have not yet revealed. Whether this will have good or bad results has yet to be seen.
We also don't know what they have in development, though rumors are rampant. If the rumors bear out, and Icarus, Mario and Zelda, among others, are in the pipe, then the slump doesn't exist. Regardless, it is still premature to declare a development slump when you've not seen their entire slate.
