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ToxicJosh on 04 February 2015
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pokoko said:
the_dengle said:
I don't consider any of Nintendo's games AAA, including Zelda. Keeping their spending in check is the only way they can be profitable with such a small user base.

They are very secretive about their budgets so it's difficult to be sure.

In the real meaning of the word, main-line Zelda games are unquestionably AAA.  It does not refer to budget but rather to sales expectations.  The "AAA = big budget" is something the gaming community made up on its own because they didn't understand the usage inside the industry.  Now, in public perception, it's come to mean "big budget", which is kind of a shame.  When I managed and did the ordering for a video store, I would get pre-order catelogs which all used this ranking system.  It's a retail tool to help understand what will yield a solid ROI.  Something like Just Dance, for instance, is a strong AAA, and I often saw Nintendo DS titles with that classification.

Even if we use the internet gaming forum definition, I'm quite sure it would still apply.  It's not like Nintendo pays in peanuts.  Zelda has been in development for a long time, and time directly equates to money.  It's open-world-ish, with lots of art assets and obviously a lot of technical man-hours.  It's going to be fairly expensive.

On topic, assuming the OP is refering to budget, I think there is a good chance Nintendo is no longer green-lighting larger projects for the Wii U.  Anything not already in full development will probably be suspended or possibly moved to the next console, assuming they're at a point where they can even begin software work.  It would be the most prudent course to take.

This.

Although I don't think games would necessarily be suspended for the Wii U; Nintendo has stated on a number of assumptions that they won't be releasing a new console until they feel they have given fans a good experience with the Wii U. 3 years of AAA titles wouldn't do that.

Bearing in mind that Nintendo likes 5 year console cycles, we may see their next console in E3 2016, and therefore they're going to need a big title to sell holidays 2016, as well as big games to announce at E3 this year.

That said, I do think Wii U development will be winding down as soon as they've solid specs for their next machine, although the biggest titles will probably come to both, a la Twilight Princess. A small handful of cross gen titles (possibly Metroid, Pokken, SMTxFE) would stave off a drought on their new console, whilst diminishing the risk of alienating Wii U owners.