| Arius Dion said: Wii did fine without third party support, they won the gen. M$/Sony can't push hardware with first party alone, therefore their consoles rely heavily on third parties. PS's identity was shaped by thirds. As is Xbox'. Which leaves both console manufacturer at a disadvantage. If another corporate conglomerate entered gaming with deeps pockets, like say Samusung, they would likely crush Sony, simply because they have deeper pockets. And thirds are only as loyal as their wallets. Its important to note, third parties caused the crash of 83, ironically, Atari gets the supposed 'blame' but as a result of third parties actions, that is was birthed Nintendo's strict policies with them. Third Party games only matter when they can move hardware, and few Third Party games do that. I still believe another crash is coming. It's almost inevitable, I think. Dev costs rise, software sells less, economy in the crapper. What happens if CoD goes the way of Guitar Hero? I think many will be shocked just how much red and decline is coming for the industry. |
Wii had lots of 3rd party support, just not in the core genres. Whilst Nintendo games had the best sales (with the exception of Just Dance), third-party devs still made profit on the machine (especially considering the lower costs of casual, standard-definition game development) and released a huge number of titles.
It's also strange you mention Samsung having deep pockets when MS have deeper pockets than both Sony and Samsung. By that line of logic they should have destroyed Sony with their deep pockets. As it is, they're competing on equal ground and have similar third party support.
As for the 83 crash, it occured because of cheap, unlicensed "clone" titles from anyone that had the ability to produce a crap title (effectively garage developers). Nintendo introduced the licensing model which has survived until today for retail games. The console industry will not see another crash of this nature as that licensing model is still very much intact.
If a crash comes it's more likely to occur in the currently growing mobile market (and I'm a strong proponent of mobile gaming). The app store model is far closer to the state of vide gaming in the 80s with a few major hits and a slew of clone titles from lesser known developers.
