The news that came out tomorrow shocked everybody expecting Rayman Legends in 3 weeks quite a lot. As much as I know Nintendo really wanted to get along with third parties, it's a pretty clear wake-up call for them.
Since the advent of the Wii, Nintendo really try looking hard for developers who would gladly sink their tooth into the new custom technology. The thread about the WiiU chip confirms it - Nintendo really design their console to suit THEIR new approach of developing games. Which, in my honest opinion, is good strategy to go with. Nintendo always had this unique way to develop games, and it's legitimate to think they'll adapt their console to what they foresee in the future for their development teams.
The last Nintendo direct really showed us they are getting serious about speeding the development and getting more and more teams involved into their projects. They have seen the potential of what Monolith and Retro can do and allowed them more and more liberty and room for creativity. See the results: those two are now among the most respected development teams of videogaming.
While this is a step in the right direction, I fear it's not quite enough for them to keep it afloat in this ungrateful industry - the fact that Nintendo is taking up two fronts at the same time - the handheld and living room console markets - in the end really splits the forces and hurts the development. We heard not long ago that Nintendo was harmonizing their R&D teams in order to synchronise communication among the two markets: hopefully Nintendo has aknowledged the problem of splitting up resources in order to keep them relevant on both markets.
But in the long way, it all comes down to the constant flow of games. While Nintendo still knows how to pump up fantastic games, it is now up to them to keep them coming - and avoid long droughts like Wii's first half of 2009 or 3DS' first half of 2011. It is crucial in this industry to put out the best of it, and hopefully succeeds. Nintendo can fortunately rely on many flagships franchises that sells gangbusters, allowing them to take more risks concerning new franchises and explore new alternatives for internal development.
The Nintendo ecosystem is a really curious one - but it cannot rely on third parties. It is nearly impossible. Mostly because Nintendo franchises cannot be competitioned. Third parties don't have the amazing selling power Nintendo has - except for a few like Activision-Blizzard or Rockstar. But Nintendo has about a handful of 7 to 8 franchises which sells lots - including Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Mario 3D, Mario 2D, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, Smash Bros, etc.
Therefore, Nintendo should really expand their internal dev teams if they wanna handle both major markets and succeed. Or, if they can't, they'll have to give up on a market...
What do you think of the article? Do you have better solutions for Nintendo to succeed and ensure a constant flow of games?
