Would you like to see Nintendo acquire any studios?

[68soul]

bmmb1 said:

68soul said:

For more "hardcore" and original japanese games, they could buy Treasure, Platinum Games, Mystwalker, Cing and Vanillaware, all very talented teams...

But Nintendo will never do this, as games made by these teams usually have "niche" success: they won't spend millions for games with a 200k-500k potential only... but they did it with Monolith, so who knows...

The point is that acquiring such studios, while not necessarily bringing in mega sellers, will help diversify console offerings without having to rely on third parties, and so help sell more consoles.

The way I see it, among the "core" market that doesn't have the Wii, there are two groups - those who will never buy a Wii no matter what, and those who would buy it if there were enough games of the type the are looking for. Buying such studios could help bring over that group to Nintendo.

 

You're totally right, but that's how WE may view things... Nintendo, on another side, doesn't seem to be that interested in catching that userbase, and create more diversity in Wii's library: look at what happened with Monolith...

OK, the guys did try to make a western-like action game instead of what they were doin best so far, RPG's, and the game was not a masterpiece... but it was a very decent effort anyway, and Nintendo sent it to die, and in Europe only... a real shame, and an investment in which they don't even trust: it doesn't make sense...

In a recent interview, some guy at Sega wished for more "mature" support from Nintendo, and he's totally right, even if i'd say it's the same situation for any "hardcore" genre we may miss on Wii: RPG's, FPS, strategy, action/adventure... 18+ games, OK, but even games rated 12+ and 16+...

With a very small part of all their billions, Nintendo could push things and really help to diversify the Wii library... make some promotion deals or take charge of distribution, fund some awesome exclusive games, decrease their fees to attract more devs, do partnerships with some great 3rd parties, buy more 2nd parties, create more teams of their own...

There are many solutions, and sometimes, they begin to move: Dragon Quest exclusivity with Square Enix, Mario & Sonic collaboration with Sega, and the Monster Hunter 3 distribution and promotion deal with Capcom in Europe as the last example...

But they're not doin' enough... and honestly, i think it's because they don't care about games sellin less than a million, when their own games are sellin' so good... in the GC days, it would have really mattered for them to have a more diverse library, but now, they don't really care anymore, as it would "only" please a small part of their userbase, and not the majority (kids, women, old folks, etc)...

I mean, if Rising Star was not here to take charge of games like Little King's Story, Muramasa, No More Heroes or Fragile Dreams in Europe, i'd never have the occasion to play these games, and i would nearly only play 1st party games on my Wii, cos' Nintendo would never help... of course, these games are not theirs, and they can't take charge of any "great but niche" Wii game, made in Japan or in the West...

But if i was workin' at Nintendo, i'd create a special Wii collection, to easily (and cheaply) showcase some of the best "niche" games available on the console... a kind of "Gamer's choice" collection, but not for the blockbusters already successful: for the more creative (and critically acclaimed) games desearving more success...

Something like the "Nintendo's Seal of Quality" in front of the cover, but with another name, to make these games stand out from the (crappy) crowd and help the "average" consumer to recognize the quality games... but yeah, i know, i dream too much...  :(