Joelcool7 said:
Yes and no. Hiring developers to bring franchises exclusively to WiiU would be very smart. But 50-mill for TimeSplitters would be one of the dumbest moves Nintendo could possibly make investment wise. The game has sales potential but not enough to even break even at that cost. Now lets say Nintendo spent 25-million the game would need to sell very well to make that money back. I doubt Nintendo would break even. Not to mention TimeSplitters is not a big enough IP to actually make a difference for most core gamers. GTA would be worth 50+ mill but didn't Microsoft pay that just for the exclusive rights to the DLC for what six months. It would likely cost Nintendo 250-mill to secure GTA 6 as an exclusive title and I doubt that would see its return many would just wait for GTA7 others would just stick with 5. It might push 3-4 million units which would be amazing but not the 250-million Nintendo spent. Other titles like CoD would cost Nintendo just as much. Now I actually believe it would be smart for Nintendo to invest a billion USD getting the top six franchises exclusively on WiiU for 2013. The move would mean every third party hit gamers would be wanting on their NextBox and their PS4 would be on WiiU. No CoD, no Rockstar game Nintendo snaps up Battlefield4 every major hit here in NA and over seas in Japan. A massive attack on Microsoft and Sony right at launch. The exclusives would keep flowing for the year starting fall 2013 and ending fall 2014. Nintendo would secure a half dozen to dozen third party franchises for the first year of Sony's new console and likely now Microsoft's. MS and Sony would have to rely on new IP and first party IP to survive. But this move would cost Nintendo a pretty penny the billion dollar hit would not be fully recovered that year it would mean Nintendo takes another annual loss likely 200-mill. But Nintendo's console would have all of the third party hits on WiiU exclusively. Now I think that is the more expensive and amazing plan I have two other investment plans. Nintendo helps publishers in insuring that their titles show up on WiiU. So give Rockstar 50-mill to bring GTA6 to WiiU and supply some exclusive content. This would be far cheaper then Nintendo buying the content exclusively but Nintendo would still have versions that appear inferior and Nintendo might not manage to push much hardware or software as consumers might opt for the better looking PS4 version My better idea is for Nintendo to hire third parties to develop new IP. Nintendo fully finances CryTek to make a new IP for Nintendo. Same goes for David Mattes new studio and several other world class studios. Nintendo then takes any widely successful IP and moves them to an internal team or hires the developer to continue the franchise. This way Nintendo gets a new Gears of War for example as Microsoft did. Nintendo can hire almost any third party studio or publisher. If I had been Nintendo when Bungie's was looking to sell its new IP exclusively for ten years I would have likely bought the rights. That or Nintendo could invest the money in establishing new studios and make the new IP internally. Making the next Retro or the next EAD! |
$50 Million would easily be covered by a game like Timesplitters if Nintendo is paying to have in developed so they could publish it ... At $30 to $40 per copy sold in licensing fees and revenue a game doesn't have to sell all that well to cover a $100 Million investment (development costs + marketing). Beyond that, even the losses from these kinds of investments can be considered a form of marketing investment.
Now, if Nintendo is paying to have a game published by another company it would make sense to handle things differently. Most likely, lend a lesser used Nintendo IP (F-Zero) to another publisher, and bookmark $10 to $20 Million in marketing for each game upon release.
Ultimately, it would be better for Nintendo to publish the game because they would have more control over the quality ...
