If you were in Nintendo, how much would you invest in Metroid Prime 4 ?

[Nautilus]

curl-6 said:

Nautilus said:

Yeah, but you cant ignore it either, because the sales history do show a pattern that can be studied to thus predict possible future outcomes.The only case which sales history might become less relevant is when the game in question tries for something entirely new, which is the case of Zelda, Mario(Kind of), and GOW, to give an example from a different platform.

You could say that a desirable hardware might unlock a game selling potential, which is indeed true in this case, and thus justify a higher budget for said game.The problem here is that MP 4 started development before the Switch released, and Nintendo was still unsure about the Switch doing gangbusters, and so being cautious about how much they were willing to spend on their games.Maybe given the runaway success of the console, Nintendo might have, sometime during 2017, given an extra budget to whoever is developing the game to hire additional personel to polish the game further, maybe even enhance some assets or key scenes, but MP 4 will be "held back" by being a game concotioned in the "pre-Switch era", in terms of when the development began.If Nintendo was being cautious about it, anyway.

And I mean, its not like Nintendo will not give it the appropriate budget either.Nintendo is very efficient with its money, and they know that the Prime series requires a good budget due to the nature of the game, so I dont think we should worry that much.

Prime 4's development is ongoing though, and much of its production will take place after it became clear Switch was a smash hit. Opening the purse strings a little and giving it VIP treatment would go a long way for a series that's always been defined by its immersive worlds.

You don't have to throw away what people love about a series to expand its reach either, as Odyssey demonstrates; it will sell more than any prior 3D Mario without alienating core fans.

But the game will still be held back, if you can even say that, by being planned before the boom happened.Nintendo cant simply come in now and say "No, we want a bigger game, with more bells and whistles.Throw/repurpose 2 or 3 years worth of development so that the game is bigger and delay it for 3 years".Like I said, it can get a bigger push now and the game can get prettier, but it wont be a makeover.

And while I do understand your Mario example, Oddyssey is a type of game that hasnt been done, in the Mario mainline games, in 20 years give or take.It is, by all accounts, a new take.One that changes the formula, but dosent change the concept.