The news that came out tomorrow shocked everybody expecting Rayman Legends in 3 weeks quite a lot. As much as I know Nintendo really wanted to get along with third parties, it's a pretty clear wake-up call for them. 

Since the advent of the Wii, Nintendo really try looking hard for developers who would gladly sink their tooth into the new custom technology. The thread about the WiiU chip confirms it - Nintendo really design their console to suit THEIR new approach of developing games. Which, in my honest opinion, is good strategy to go with. Nintendo always had this unique way to develop games, and it's legitimate to think they'll adapt their console to what they foresee in the future for their development teams.

The last Nintendo direct really showed us they are getting serious about speeding the development and getting more and more teams involved into their projects. They have seen the potential of what Monolith and Retro can do and allowed them more and more liberty and room for creativity. See the results: those two are now among the most respected development teams of videogaming.

While this is a step in the right direction, I fear it's not quite enough for them to keep it afloat in this ungrateful industry - the fact that Nintendo is taking up two fronts at the same time - the handheld and living room console markets - in the end really splits the forces and hurts the development. We heard not long ago that Nintendo was harmonizing their R&D teams in order to synchronise communication among the two markets: hopefully Nintendo has aknowledged the problem of splitting up resources in order to keep them relevant on both markets.

But in the long way, it all comes down to the constant flow of games. While Nintendo still knows how to pump up fantastic games, it is now up to them to keep them coming - and avoid long droughts like Wii's first half of 2009 or 3DS' first half of 2011. It is crucial in this industry to put out the best of it, and hopefully succeeds. Nintendo can fortunately rely on many flagships franchises that sells gangbusters, allowing them to take more risks concerning new franchises and explore new alternatives for internal development.

The Nintendo ecosystem is a really curious one - but it cannot rely on third parties. It is nearly impossible. Mostly because Nintendo franchises cannot be competitioned. Third parties don't have the amazing selling power Nintendo has - except for a few like Activision-Blizzard or Rockstar. But Nintendo has about a handful of 7 to 8 franchises which sells lots - including Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Mario 3D, Mario 2D, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, Smash Bros, etc.

Therefore, Nintendo should really expand their internal dev teams if they wanna handle both major markets and succeed. Or, if they can't, they'll have to give up on a market...

What do you think of the article? Do you have better solutions for Nintendo to succeed and ensure a constant flow of games?

I agree. Today showed again that Nintendo can't rely on 3rd parties. At all. They should expand their studios and try to constantly push out as many good games as possible .

I think they are doing good working with 3rd Parties to do projects such as Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101, Lego City Undercover, and that Fire Emblem game. (Whatever the heck its called)

I think the main problem is that the resources are split between the 3DS and the WiiU and there's not enough teams to substain a constant flow of games.

They should either develop all games for both platforms. I'm still annoyed 3DS games like Pilot Wings, Star Fox 64 and Luigi's Mansion 2 - which would all benefit from wiimote use - are 3DS exclusives. Alternatively, I'm sure the upcoming SMTvsFE would port easily to 3DS.

Or

They should basically make the two platforms one. A WiiU2 where the gamepad is a 3DS - a fully portable game system in itself. Or more likely a 4DS that allows you to play games on HDTV.

Or just buy some more development studios. Geesh studios have been closing like crazy the last few years. For Crying out loud, they could gotten Vigil for next to nothing and they already do Zelda-esque games.

Nintendo has always had some trouble with steady releases on their systems because of lack of 3rd party support. Sony & especially Microsoft do no better but the release schedule looks filled because of 3rd Party games. Nintendo is in a tougher situation now because 3DS and especially Wii U games will take longer to develop.

I personally think that 3rd Party support is going to be much better on Wii U compared to Wii, GC, and N64. Nintendo has just been hush-hush for now. Starting with Lego City I expect to see a nice flow of both 1st party & 3rd party games😄

I think they should buy bethesda and square enix, possibly sega, and also namco bandai (not only to make games, but also to make toys for them). Of course, this ain't happening, and I don't even know if nintendo could afford all of those, but I can dream, can't I :p But your right on every point, guiduc

My proposal: Buy the Japanese game industry.

Great editorial. I believe they WILL do one of the two options gamerace mentioned, I believe it will be that they will have all games made for the handheld instantly playable on the home console, where they need more firepower. The handheld would only have the handheld offerings.

On the question of self-sufficiency, I believe that Nintendo is doing almost everything right, they need to ride this new wave with Monolith who are shaping up to be an indispensable asset to attract the RPG-loving crowd, and we know many of them own PS360-like consoles. Yes, that and the Bayo, SMT and other partnerships is the path for Nintendo to expand in that market, all the while KEEPING their usual kiddy market.

Yes with that, they are unstoppable. That is my dream.

What this news show me today is that Nintendo needs to do something fast:
- Focus on make quality first party games
- Continue doing collaborations with japanese third parties
- Make efforts to publish those collaborations or few third party japanese exclusives in the west
- Develop a stropng digital platform (eshop) enough to make devs look like a good oportunity (iOS/Android)
- Offer quality content through that platform and encourage some indie devs helping with ideas or publishing them

If Nintendo can't get the "big" third parties, then make new ones with indie/minor ones and make japanese industry presence strong in the west. Make the Wii U the choice for japanese and indie content.