| Wyrdness said:
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. |
But Nintendo's isn't appealing in the west reguardless of the mainstream. It doesn't matter how much the games they currently make are appealing a small audience, because it's not even remotely close to being enough to sustain a console business. That's clear, as their console is not selling and they're losing money because of it. No one can look at Nintendo's situation with a straight face and say that Nintendo isn't doing something seriously wrong that Sony and Microsoft are doing right. And when you think of it that way, and you should, there are things that become immediately clear. One of them is that the mainstream audience is a western one, and most of them don't factor Nintendo into their equasion when deciding which console to buy.
Now obviously there are numerous factors as to why, but the biggest and most undeniable one is the perseption that Nintendo doesn't make "hardcore" games, which is obviously bullshit, but it still translates to the fact that Nintendo doesn't produce games that appeal to the mainstream western demographic. Third parties will never be enough, because Nintendo doesn't have any exclusive reasons to chose them over the competition in the first place when it comes to those titles. Some people find it hard to believe that there's an audience out their scoffing at Zelda and Metroid, but there is, and it's most of the current gaming populace, whether you consider them casual or not.
They make up the majority demographic that Nintendo has 0 appeal to, and that's costing them serious console sales. Retro is the perfect studio to start making games, quality games, that can appeal to that audience. Especially since that's the whole reason why they exist in the first place. It would be, frankly, stupid of Nintendo to not try and appeal to the majority of the market in some serious way right now leading to their next console.
