| DevilRising said:
Nintendo never lost third party support due to "greed". Anyone who believes that is a fool. Third parties made a TON of money and established still-to-this-day-running franchises on Nintendo consoles, even the SNES, by which time Nintendo had greatly relaxed third party publishing policy. That policy was originally implemented as a risk cutting measure for brining the NES to NA, as they had seen what had happened with the crashed American video games market. It crashed specifically because systems like Atari just allowed anyone at all to put out games for their console, and it flooded store shelves with crap that people got tired of. That isn't to say that Yamauchi's policies weren't still that of a somewhat ruthless businessman. They were. BUT, it's not as if they did it without cause, just because. And again, they relaxed those policies in the 16bit era. If third party companies hated Nintendo for these policies, they would have jumped ship to the popular-in-America Genesis console, and Game Gear. But no, for the large part, they stuck with SNES and Game Boy, or at least developed for both. Companies like Konami and Capcom eventually put out games for Genesis, but only sparingly, and their best stuff still came out on NIntendo consoles. Square and Enix both continued to exclusively put their games on SNES and Game Boy. That does not seem like the actions of companies that held Nintendo in contempt for their stringent NES-era policies.
What DID happen, which has been more than well documented, is that Nintendo decided to stick with catridges for the N64, and several third party companies decided to go more with the Playstation, not because they hated Nintendo, nor because they preferred Sony. But because they wanted to use the cheaper, and more expansive CD format. End-Of-Story. Companies like Midway, Enix, Acclaim, EA, Activision, THQ, Namco, Konami, etc. still made games for the N64. It isn't as if there was some mass exodus. And honestly, if the N64 had used CDs, you could bet your ass that the majority of games like FF7, Symphony of the Night, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, the further MMX games, etc. etc. would have appeared on Nintendo's console, either exclusive or at least as multiconsole games. That is literally the entire story to be found there. And quite frankly, I don't think Nintendo sticking with cartidges was really a "Greed" move, because it certainly cost them potential support, and arguably that generation, even though the N64 was still a successful console with some of the highest selling games.
And as for the quip about Nintendo having the "arrogance" to sell the 3DS at it's original price? Please. People were happy to pay similar money for a Vita. The 3DS 3D technology was fairly new and certainly not cheap. The price cut they instigated had them selling at a loss for awhile. And I seem to remember the original DS selling for somewhere around the same price as well, at launch. So I honestly don't know what the hell you're talking about there.
Is Nintendo going to do some kind of used-game blocking scheme? I sure hope not. But I honestly kind of doubt they will. There is third party pressure from CERTAIN companies for the industry to go in that direction. But Nintendo understands, I think, that most hardcore Nintendo gamers buy games for keeps, and their games tend to sell well enough on average for them to not really be bothered by the prospect of the used games market. Which makes EA and MS' move more disengenuous, because both EA and MS' big franchises also tend to sell in the millions. So it's not as if the used market is costing THEM anything substantial. It's only smaller developers that might be hurt by used games sales, and people not buying new game copies. But at the same time, smaller developers are also starting to migrate towards digital. So..........really, the entire industry move makes little real sense. It just stinks of corporate greed.
And on a final note, while I have no doubt that Nintendo is a business out to, above all else, make money. If I honestly thought they didn't really care about their fans or "the gamer", they wouldn't still to this day be making "Nintendo" kinds of games. If ALL they wanted was money, they would have long ago abandoned many of their own IPs, for the more recent trends of shooters, ultra-violent games, and "Western Inspired" game design, like many of the other big Japanese publishers have. Nintendo hasn't, and won't, do that. They know what they do well, and they know the long-time, and new kinds of fans they make their games for. And personally, I'm GLAD they haven't changed. Thank God there is still a few companies like Nintendo out there who make games that actually appeal to me, and not just more cookie-cutter, "me too" garbage like most of the rest of the industry shits out there days.
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