OK. So we hear Ubisoft have threatened to cut support for WiiU if their lineup this fall tanks on the system. So lets say the same happens to Activision and WB Games. Right now, these are the only western 3rd parties supporting WiiU, right?
Take-Two and EA seems to have deserted Nintendo more or less.
Bethesda never supported Nintendo in any meaningful capacity in the first place.
The rest are bankrupt.
Then we have the Japanese 3rd party publishers. SegaSammy, Capcom, NamcoBandai, Konami, TecmoKoei, SquareEnix. That is all there is left.
Japanese 3rd party publishers seem to have allocated more resources to handhelds, pads and smartphones. This means less resources towards home consoles, right? They dont have lots of money left to create ridiculous blockbusters like COD and cant even afford to make something like GTA V.
So Nintendo has a problem. They only have their 1st party to rely on to drive WiiU hardware sales. Ofcource, as they are now, there is no way they can make it work. So what can they do?
They can aliviate this problem by:
* Expanding their 1st party developer capacity. IE, going into a hiring spree. People in the industry will want more and more some stability in their lives and Nintendo isn't known to fire people left and right as projects are concluded.
* Buying studios outright. But this needs to be friendly takeovers and not hostile, as they dont want talent to leave.
* Making much more use of contractors like Level 5 and Platinum.
Will they do any of it? If they do some crazy shit, gen 8 will be the most interesting gen ever. Nintendo is powerful, they have a large warchest, so its not exactly like they dont have options.
I feel Nintendo should be much more aggressive, much more like sharks. Iwata has been too kind, and it could be time to take the gloves off. If they do that they can not only survive but also thrive.
