Retro Studios should be Nintendo's Naughty Dog: Journey to the West

[Wyrdness]

spemanig said:

I never said they were only about shooters. I didn't even mention shooters. I think that the way Square expanded with it's Eidos department is exaclty what Nintendo's end goal should be. Square now has Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Theif, and Hitman, but they also still have Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, and other classic franchises. If Nintendo had one base like Eidos in the US and different one in Europe, that would end up as a knock out combo with what they currently have in Japan.

I don't think that it's an intelligent move to have these developers working on games to fit a culture they clearly don't understand, when they already have developers that do understand it and live in it.

I don't think it's as straight forward as you're putting it tbh, speaking from what I've seen in 26 years of gaming culture is a loose factor in game development and living in an area doesn't mean you'll appeal to them better. It's not culture but the market that keeps shifting that's an issue, fact is Nintendo are already appealing to the west in their games because their games are built on a design philosphy that always ensures an audience regardless of the mainstream, under this why should they try to turn Retro into another Eidos or Naughty Dog whose games are subject to the mainstream and are part of companies who have different visions in mind. The majority of gamers changes every few generations what doesn't appeal now may in fact appeal to the same region in future it's not a culture aspect but a market one.

Retro would be better off being a studio that sticks to the design approach like other first parties, even if it means that at some point they can take charge of other first party IPs to free up EAD or any other large first party for other things that's equally as good as having a studio like ND on board.