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Gamerace on 31 January 2010
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Mr Khan said:
Gamerace said:
What I find interesting is Nintendo seems to be farming out the more 'core' titles while keeping the more 'casual' ones inhouse. It's also very interesting if they do drop Mario/Zelda/Metroid and two huge RPGs plus some other 'core' titles like Zengeki in one year. Seems like a huge push for the core market this year, at least in Japan. It the west this will just maintain the Nintendo loyalists.

Ehh, some of those can push beyond just the Nintendo loyalists in the west. Zelda and Other M should, at least, and The Last Story *might,* though only with the western JRPG crowd, which is admittedly limited.

 

Nintendo's strategy in this seems to fit with them overall. They find a project they like and sponsor it directly, or they have a project they want to do, but lack the capacity for, and find the perfect team to do it. They don't buy the teams, and that way they're not stuck with whatever problems those teams might have, but can get the optimal benefit, and are more than willing to work with those teams again if they prove useful (like Next Level Games)

 

It's a win-win strategy for all, Nintendo gets only the benefits of working with the teams, and the teams get only the benefits of working with Nintendo (i.e. like i said before, Nintendo isn't stuck if the team runs through a rough patch or has management problems or whatever, and the teams don't lose their financial independence by being consumed)

 

Really, it's a lesson that some publishers should learn. Microsoft and EA seem to have this problem especially. Really i suppose this is a strategy that Sony's been embracing more from the beginning, though.

Metroid is unlikely too sell any systems, although it might do better saleswise than the prime series.   Same goes for Zelda, as 90% of Zelda fans bought Wiis already, so unless Nintendo broadens the appeal to the mass consumer (girls in particular) I don't see it doing any better than the typical Zelda at 6-7m.  Certainly neither these titles independantly or even together with SMG2 will pull any HD gamers to Wii.

The only game I see doing that is an exclusive Jedi Knight game on Wii with WM+ and awesome online multiplayer.   However, at this point that would now launch across all three systems thanks to Natal/Arc and Wii's would be the least appealing (although most cost efficient to play with 1:1 motion).  And SW:FU2 might prove to be that game anyway.