I heard that Sillicon Knights will work for peanuts

“I absolutely believe so. I work with other development partners, such as [Punch Out!! developer] Next Level Games in Vancouver and Monster Studios [of Pilotwings Resort] in Minneapolis. And they, much like Retro, really get our development philosophies. I want to find as many people as we can, as many great companies as we can to get involved with. I’m really looking for developers with a sense of craftsmanship. ...there’s a real increase in the number of companies that look like they’re really running a business for business’ sake. There are many of those certainly within the midst of the gaming industry as a whole, or at least I feel that way.”

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/tanabe-we-need-more-like-retro

I’m really looking for developers with a sense of craftsmanship. ...there’s a real increase in the number of companies that look like they’re really running a business for business’ sake. There are many of those certainly within the midst of the gaming industry as a whole, or at least I feel that way.”

What is he saying? He's looking for Studio's with a sense of pride that wont just publish unfinished product's?

Hehehehe.   So nintendo is on the look out to grow 2nd party support =)

Rare.

It's not that they lack the workforce, it's just that most of the "real" 2nd party devs that Nintendo has do absolutly nothing these days. Perfect examples are people like Noise and Paon. The workforce is there, Nintendo just needs to lead them.

I thought the old Kuju London (now called Headstrong) has some potential..

Overkill is mindless multiplayer fun, and with the right guidance something really great could come from Battalion Wars.

Also many of the older companies in the nineties had this philosophy, but were absorbed or disbanded. Companies like DMA design, Psygnosis, Argonaut, Shiny (up until the matrix games bleh!).

Other studios that I think are about craftsmanship and could work with Nintendo are Double Fine, 5th cell, Atlus, Bizarre (ironically enough), Eurocom (at least from what I've seen so far), Gearbox (I really hope they'll get a chance to work together at some point), Grasshopper (obviously) and others...

But I think the most important thing needed to develop craftsmanship are good teams of talented people willing to work together on multiple projects and not split up every two years... This is the main problem IMO.

Activision :P

Bolded for emphasis.

Nintendo still only has two and a half good studios.

(Intelligent Systems, EAD 1 and maybe EAD 5)

They're missing Rare and Retro-pre-Metroid-Prime-3.

Cant blame them and adding more companies will lead to more new ideas and new IP's. Building up some of the lesser known studios who have the talent but need some pushing/ and help is Ideal. Plus, who doesnt want more Nintendoquailty games. I mean we are never really going to get much of it from "other sources".

I would also like to add that I am disappointed in the header image for this discussion... not half as awesome as those jumbo burgers...