By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Frogger on 10 January 2015
Edit Thread
teigaga said:


1.They don't move hardware because they're not successful on Nintendo systems, often because Nintendo's sysrems are ill suited to the software in the firstplace. Theres a quite a strong correlation between the success of Nintendo's systems and the success 3rd parties have seen on it. NES, SNES, N64 all owned some of there success to 3rd parties. 

2.When has this been the case (Bethesda)? I think if you read down the line it often comes down to specs. When Nintendo offers a system like the Wii U which is more or less a souped up 360 but an akward 360 (PowerPC+weak CPU), what does that speak of the audience they are going to attract on the system? Do you really think an Elderscrolls fan would pick up the game for a Wii U over a PS4, or even purchase a Wii U in the first place? why support the system when at launch it has a weak userbase by default but a year down the line it will be obsolete from a tech perspective and expensive to port to?

PS4 and X1 present themselves as longterm investments. Any the support the Wii U recieved was down to good faith, very few devs had any reason to touch it outside of assuming it would replicate the wii's success. Every major publishers released content on the wii (activision, EA, Bethesda, Take 2). Inate 3rd Party bias towards Nintendo is not a real issue, Nintendo's disalignment to 3rd parties however is.


That's one of the problems with articles like this. They put the focus on one aspect of a problem when really there are many factors. For example, branding and software is just as much of a 3rd party hinderence as lack luster hardware.

Until Nintendo changes it's brand from the "family" brand to the "gaming" brand, Nintendo consoles will always struggle to get games not marketed at families. Nintendo consoles will never struggle to get games like Ghostly adventures or Sonic, because Nintendo has branded themselves as the consoles to expect them. Wii U is a family friendly, cute-sy name. All of that contradicts what a brand like Playstation or Xbox carries. The Wii U and it's accessories look like toys. The PS4, XBO, and their accessories look like peices of cutting edge technology. All of that is important to getting third parties. When someone goes to buy a gaming console for something like The Witcher 3, they're going to be looking for hardware that looks, sounds, and feels like it would run it. The Wii U does not do any of that, even before taking specs into account. If the Gamepad looked more like a Vita, it wouldn't look as unappealing to that audience. It looks like a fisher price toy when the Vita looks like bleeding edge tech. (That's also why the Vita's branding doesn't work. The Vita brands itself incorrectly for the market it's in, just like the Wii U does)

Until Nintendo starts making software in house that matches the 3rd party software they are trying to attain, they won't get it. Until a Playstation guy sees a Nintendo game than can replace Uncharted or God of War for them, there's absolutely no way they'll make the jump, and if those guys aren't buying Nintendo hardware, there will be no one to buy the similar software that appeals to them. If Nintendo can't secure western-style exclusives, they won't get western-style 3rd party support, which is the majority. It's great that Nintendo are melding their dev studios onto one place, but they need to expand and get more first party western studios and they NEED to get those studios working on first party IPs that target the PSXB audience directly. Retro isn't even close to enough. They need an answer to Killer Instinct, and Pokken Tournament isn't it. They need an answer to Halo and Destiny. They need an answer to Uncharted, and Infamous, and God of War. Without exclusive games that cater to that audience, those 3rd party games will never come.

I'm excited for the potencial that the new hardware may bring, but Nintendo needs to consider many more factors than just that if they want to get 3rd party back. And it doesn't even need to be 100% equal to PS or XB, but it needs to be at least 80%, and they need to have first party suppliments for whatever's missing. Who care's if they don't have the next Elder Scrolls game when they have Zelda, Metroid, Xenoblade, and hopefully some new western open world IP? That's what they need to get people thinking.