| RolStoppable said: This leads me to the final question: How important is third party software to the success of a Nintendo system; is it more or less important than first party software? |
I think this can be traced back to the days of the NES, when Nintendo had controlling marketshare and 3rd parties were practically begiing to release games on their console. They were the only viable market option after the videogame crash, after all. Still, Nintendo treated 3rd parties rather aggressively back then. Games had to meet strict reqauirements in order to meet the Seal of Quality (and therefore be legitimately published). Yet after this entire ordeal, we didn't see much of a struggle from the 3rd parties to escape the next generation of the SNES.
Back then, it seemed that 3rd party support was irrelevant; they came along for the ride on the money train. That might have changed after Sony started offering such large incentives to them...
