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curl-6 on 05 August 2018
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TheMisterManGuy said:
curl-6 said: Nintendo has increasingly turned to outsourcing in recent years because EPD can't make HD games fast enough to provide a steady stream of content. Starfox Zero was outsourced to Platinum, Metroid to MercuryStream and reportedly Namco, etc.

It comes back to it simply making no business sense to commit a flagship team to make a game that will be lucky to reach 3 million lifetime when that same team could make the next breakout new hit or 10 million plus seller. ARMS was not a breakout success, it didn't push hardware and it fizzled out and was forgotten inside a year.

Star Fox Zero wasn't actually outsourced to Platinum. The game was developed and designed in house by EAD (it was one of the last games they were working on before the merger). Platinum was brought in to provide production assistance so that the game could meet it's intended Holiday 2015 release, which never happened. Outsourcing would be more like a Yoshi's Woolly World scenario, where an external developer is tasked to design a game, and the only involvement Nintendo has, is a lowly producer overseeing the project. Metroid was mostly outsourced (EPD was still heavily involved BTW) because development started pre-merger which meant that SPD didn't have the same level of staff and talent that EAD had. 

Besides, that was back when the Wii U was struggling and Nintendo was understaffed for AAA HD games. I'd say Switch era EPD has so far relied far less on outsourcing, nearly all of their titles were wholly designed and developed in-house. The most they might do these days, is farm out some asset work to an external company like Monolith Kyoto or Bandai Namco. Nintendo has completely changed it's R&D management from top to bottom, and how staff is allocated to another project. That does mean some games need to take priority over others, but it never means the game will never get made. ARMS 2 isn't going to get outsourced unless either A.) Yabuki and the team have no ideas for a sequel, or B.) Nintendo wants the game out ASAP. Nintendo doesn't really put any of EPD's teams on a pedestal, especially since each team is actually little more than a few producers in an office, the actual development comes from a single large talent pool that all these software groups draw from. Point is, if ARMS was a success, which it is, then Nintendo should have no qualms against letting Yabuki and his team produce a sequel. 

SFZ was still made in conjunction with Platinum, Metroid 2 3DS with Mercury Stream, Fire Emblem Warriors with Omega Force and Team Ninja, even this year games like Kirby Star Allies and Mario Tennis Aces were made by external teams Camelot and HAL. EPD haven't put out a major game since Mario Odyssey 10 months ago.

ARMS 2 would simply be a poor use of finite resources. It has limited commercial potential and there isn't any real demand for it. Nintendo fans aren't clamouring for a sequel, they've almost all moved on and forgotten about the IP.