| the_dengle said: Hardly. I'm sure Nintendo expects (or expected) the game to benefit them in the long run. They like to make and fund great games, but they aren't in the practice of throwing their money away. |
It was a joke about the good-guy stuff. When the WiiU was first launched, and this game first announced/salvaged, no one was expecting the WiiU to bomb or end up where it has. Partnerships had been made (EA/Ubi), Nintendo had titles in the works, etc. But then reality hit: HD hurdle for development at Nintendo which hurt the console immensely, 3rd parties either went the way of AAAA-mega budget development of spectacle or just pulled stupid shit like delaying games, and abandoned the console.
Nintendo could have, along the way (and depending on the contract), cut development all the same as SEGA did. Even when everything went south last year, could have saved themselves a year+ of funding and trouble of distributing the game. But they didn't, and, as you say, it serves a good purpose: it will be one of the most critically acclaimed games of the generation (as if the WiiU and Nintendo had any shortage of that already), and it will fill out a gap in their portfolio for which, it seems, they are willing to take the hit for the fan-appeal. The move is certainly business oriented at the end, but I can easily see someone like Iwata sticking to a project like this for the fans first, and for the portfolio second.
Not the first time they've done it with niche titles, not the last time... I hope.
