happydolphin on 29 February 2012
| Seece said:
I don't believe they tried courting third parties tbh. |
Nintendo did alot to court 3rd parties, but you're right to say that Nintendo is following more MS' style nowadays , going after western devs (Rock*, Ubi) and dishing out for moneyhats (MH).
In terms of Nintendo courting 3rd parties in the past, the GC/GBA era was a huge step for Nintendo, even though it failed. A few efforts were:
- The Capcom 5
- Lending the Zelda IP to Capcom for Oracle of Ages & Seasons
- Lending the Star Fox IP to Namco for SF Assualt
- Lending F-Zero to Sega for GX/AX, and even creating a 3-way partnership for the Triforce (Nintendo, Namco, Sega, GC -> Arcade) technology.
- Lending Link for Namco's SC II (GC Edition).
- Working with Square-Enix on FF: Crystal Chronicles (with GBA-GC compatibility)
Though this isn't courting, it shows Nintendo's appreciation of 3rd party offerings:
- Nintendo forms Browny Brown, composed of many ex-square employees
- Nintendo works with Mistwalker to develop The Last Story, and a few DS games (Blue Dragon I believe)
- Nintendo bought Monolith Soft from Namco, the studio was founded by an ex Square producer.
Other notes:
- Sonic and Snake join the fray in Nintendo's hit fighter Super Smash bros.
These are just a few points, I know there are more documented, and even some happening behind the scenes.
