Naughty Dog actually has two teams working simultaneously, and GoW games don't change much between games, so it's understandable.

The reason why Pikmin is taking so long is that the development team was, for the longest time, a very small group of people. It also started out as a Wii game and later moved to WiiU. Skywayd Sword development was moving along until they decided to start over with development. If I recall correctly, it was to integrate motion plus, and redo the style.

Otherwise, yes, I agree that they need to be more efficient.

YES PLS

I think in the case of Pikmin 3 they should have done a "Twilight Princess" scene and made it the Wii swansong and also made it a Wii U title. People have been waiting for just so damn long for it.

If Nintendo does what I expect and fuses their handheld and console divisions by 2020, they won't need to. But if Nintendo wants to keep their platforms separate, than they could use another couple of studios to work on new or rebooted series.

no, Companies can't keep control of the quality when they grow so large, FACT.

What they need to do is build a big stable of second-party developers. Studios like Platinum are ripe for such positions. They're free to work a bit on other systems, if they like, but always keep a steady stream of money and projects for them to work on for Nintendo systems.

No need to actually buy the studios unless they're seriously interested in becoming first-party. But if Nintendo is the first publisher they take game ideas to, then all the better for Nintendo.

I was thinking that Platinum would be a good second-party, if both sides would be willing...

No they have plenty, adding any additional studios is just an unnecessary risk.

I don't think merging the handheld/console business is a great idea.

They have half a dozen in-house teams and more then half a dozen second party development teams, not to mention several of their usual contractors and occassional 3rd party collaborations like with the upcoming Smash Bros, their normal SEGA team up for the Olympic games.

The fact is, Nintendo's own quality control is probably the biggest deterrent for games then not having studios. Anyone need only look at the various developers that produced Nintendo games over the years to know that Nintendo can find and nurture smaller developers into producing pretty good games, they just have to take the time to do so. The Wii seems to be the first era this wasn't the case but if you look at Nintendo's Japan releases, it shows that they worked with a number of developers but for whatever reason they didn't try to bring more then a third of them to the Western regions without having their arms twisted or it being something more casual.

Edit: Heck the main flaw I suspect they are having with the Wii U isn't so much the development teams, it is that Nintendo really hadn't prepped their own teams for the difference in trying to get HD visuals out of their games. Despite the fact that the Wii seemed to have been abandoned by the Nintendo main dev teams after Skyward Sword, I suspect that Nintendo placed more focus on the teams learning how to make the most of the 3DS until they realized too late how they bombed the Wii U.