| Salnax said: Next Level is working exclusively with Nintendo nowadays, but point taken. Hmm... Nintendo's main weakness in terms of genres are shooters of any sort, WRPG's, and to a limited extent, sports games. The last wouldn't be a problem if EA could tolerate Nintendo, but as it stands, there's been little to no sports games since launch for the Wii U. Retro could keep on doing Donkey Kong forever as far as I'm concerned, simply because they're good at it, but I think they have the skill to tackle another genre. Some sort of shooter could be made by any number of studios, but perhaps Nintendo could make a new studio for this genre? I've heard too many horror stories about people leaving EA, Activision, and Sony to believe they can't find enough talent lying around. A WRPG series could be made by an existing studio. Buying an existing studio like Obsidian would be a coup here. Next Level recently made Luigi's Mansion 2, but maybe they should go back to making Mario-themed sports games. |
The lack of branded sports games is a good point, actually. There are a great many people who think of games with the NBA, FIFA, MLB, or NFL brand as being essential. There is no getting around that.
IF Nintendo wants to compete with Sony and Microsoft directly, they need to get third parties on their system. In order to do that, they would probably need to develop a broader market. Games like Bayonetta and Hyrule Warriors are certainly a start but they need more than that. They need to cultivate diversity the same way Sony has, where having a large variety of games helps your console even if each individual game is not a million seller.
Nintendo's plan going forward, assuming that's the route they wish to take--which they need to be working on RIGHT NOW--should be to diversify their offerings and to form offices in North America and Europe which will work to improve developer relationships across the board.
However, I somehow get the feeling that any improvement in either area will be marginal for next gen and we'll be having these same conversations again in a few years.
