sc94597 said:
ICStats said:
sc94597 said:
Ka-pi96 said:
IMO the greatest innovation that Nintendo could possibly do would be..... Nintendo games on PlayStation/Xbox consoles. |
Too bad that would devastate their profits. It's not going to happen with a company like Nintendo. They are not Sega. Even in their worst time as a gaming company their losses were vastly miniscule compared with other big developers. Nintendo benefits from the control it has over its games. They wouldn't flourish as they do, in terms of game development, on another platform where they don't call the shots. That is just how Nintendo works as a company. They need entire control over their games, otherwise they turn out - not that great. Costs as a third party publisher >>>>> costs as a first party publisher. And if there is anything that hurts a company as conservative fiscally as Nintendo it is high development/publishing costs.
|
What makes you think they would give up control? 3rd party has power. EA, Activision, Rockstar, Ubi, etc. have power over Sony & MS.
Costs as a platform holder >>>>>>> costs as a third party publisher. The platform holder has to pay for developing the hardware, tools and libraries, OS and apps, and usually to sell the hardware at loss to compete. They have to pay for developer support. They have to pay 3rd parties for exclusive games or features. They have to pay for 3rd parties marketing. All that requires a large user base and lots of games sold to recoup.
I don't think being a platform owner is working for Nintendo, because the platform holder business needs large user base, and the game business needs large userbase. Nintendo is both, and it doesn't have a large user base now. Being a platform holder is hurting their game business.
It can not fix it's platform business by publishing on PS/XB, but it can fix it's game business.
Nintendo doesn't even need it's own platform to sell accessories. Amiibo can sell on other platforms, just like Skylanders & Disney Infinity. Wiimote or balance board? Sure, just need a USB driver. Every game on Wii could've been made on PS3/360 if they wanted.
|
The costs of hardware development, at least in Nintendo's case are evenly met (or even exceeded) with hardware sales. So that isn't an issue. We are talking solely about developing software. As for control, as it is now Nintendo can make its games however it wants with no limitations from platform-holders. With Sony or Microsoft that wouldn't be the case. So the logical conclusion is that Nintendo loses control.
|
How do you know their costs are evenly met? When they say hardware is not selling at a loss, it means they are making a "gross profit" on each console. However that doesn't say anything about wether it covers the R&D cost of the hardware, supporting software, marketing, devrel, etc.
For example if they make $10 profit on each Wii U then that's a gross profit. But if they have say $200 million of associated R&D costs, the hardware is not profitable until they sold 20 Million units at $10 profit each. Ofcourse we don't know exactly what is Wii U's R&D cost, marketing costs, etc.
As for software, there is a development cost, marketing cost, and a profit for each game. Selling to more userbase would give them more profit.
Sure they would need to follow certain Sony/MS requirements, but they would have creative control over their games. I'd like to see a real argument why their game quality would suffer.
As for cost, the cost of development tools for a platform is not high compared to the sales potential. For example for $10 million you can build a team of ~100 developers with tools, and have them port all of Nintendo's major games. It would be a drop in the bucket for Nintendo's $1.5 Billion yearly budget. Nintendo makes million selling games, so porting cost is not even a consideration.
