Why Nintendo should stay first party

[thx1139]

Cream147 said:

thx1139 said:

I would say your history on Sega decline is a little off.  The decline of Sega started with a failed console. The Saturn failed and then Sega tried hardware again with the Dreamcast, but even before it launched it was a very hard sell against the PS2 which was still a year off.  So you rapidly see Nintendo speeding down this same path.  Will Nintendo have another failed console and put themselves in a path where becoming a 3rd party goes from a smart business decision to a required act of desparation.

I havent seen one reason in this thread that is a real reason why Nintendo should stay 1st party. The closest is that they dont have the software development discipline to make quality software for more than 1 platform.   The claim is that unless they stay 1st party they would be in danger of making crappy software (as if Nintendo hasnt made crappy software in the past).

I don't mean financial decline. We're gamers right? Not business investors. Sure, the Saturn was a backwards step in quality, but the Dreamcast was a great console, even if it didn't sell well. From the moment Sega went third party, that's when the quality of their games took an absolute turn for the worst - as best illustrated best by the Sonic series.

And no one's denying that Nintendo have published bad software, but the general quality of their software and in particular their core franchises is exceptional. The Zelda franchise has I believe 17 main entries and every single one of them is a good game. That's what you call pedigree. Year on year they release more quality games than any other publisher - it would be a really interesting argument to see someone deny that. That quality would end if they went third party, and THAT is why they must stay first party.

As I said before, if Nintendo leave the hardware business, then I'll have bought my last console, at least until something actually interesting comes along.

Financial decline lead to quality decline.  If you believe that Nintendo moving to 3rd pary means the end of the quality then you really dont have much faith in Nintendo.  I believe that actually if they could concentrate on software and not software to sell hardware then they quality would be better. If they could build software for systems that have more capabilities then they could build even better software.  They could put out less software to simply put out software that shows that the system has games and really concenctrate on creating great software.