| Doctor_MG said: I just don't understand the focus on buying studios. You can partner with a studio just fine without having to buy them. Nintendo does this all the time with a lot of success. |
Even Nintendo has acquired a few studios that they've partnered with.
Monolith Software was owned by Namco. Nintendo acquired Next Level Games in 2021, SRD in 2022.
I would say there are a ton of reasons why Sony, Microsoft are having to acquire studios, whereas Nintendo doesn't really have to.
1.) Nintendo has been consistently fostering development teams for decades. There's a reason why the same people have been at Nintendo for decades. There's a reason why like the top 20 has like 6 Nintendo games.
2.) Nintendo is also a lot more self sufficient in part due to making games that are less graphically intensive. The Last of Us Part II credits almost 2200 people, and Sony has a handful of games that have around that many people. God of War Ragnarok apparently credits 2600 people. Whereas probably Nintendo's biggest game credits 1150 people, and another 250 with thanks. And most of Nintendo's games are nowhere near that big. Super Mario Wonder apparently credits 400 people.
Nintendo is practically able to release a game a month by themselves, whereas for Microsoft and Sony, despite being bigger, struggle to consistently launch that frequently. They have done it, and can do it. Sony has only launched like 4 games this year. Microsoft had a relatively poor 2022.
Sony and MS have historically been very dependent on third party partners, whereas Nintendo, even though they do partner, they have had massive successes all on their own.
3.) Other companies have been getting interested in the gaming market. Disney, Amazon, Netflix, Google have all been trying in some way or another to get more involved. For Nintendo that really doesn't matter. For Sony and MS, that might mean that they'll lose valuable partners; so there is more push to acquire.
4.) MS and Sony have been pushing a little bit into the subscription business. Nintendo doesn't seem quite as interested in that, but they're dabbling with subscriptions. But you generally need a lot of content to feed those. You could have the option of making the content or making partnerships, but at some point, it becomes more competitive. And the price of a particular piece of content might start to outweigh the cost of making the content yourself. Another big reason why Nintendo doesn't have to acquire in the same way that MS and Sony are getting urged to.
