By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo - Would Nintendo be more profitable as a third party publisher?

 

Nintendo going 3rd party would be...

The end of all! 163 44.66%
 
A wash compared to where they are at now 71 19.45%
 
A smarter business move financially speaking 45 12.33%
 
The happiest day of Sony ... 86 23.56%
 
Total:365
Purple on 07 January 2014
Mummelmann said:

No, not by a long shot.

1: They would lose the licensing/publishing royalty from developers/publishers on a platform entirely their own.

2: Nintendo having been forced to become so self-sufficient has made them an expert in creating a software/hardware synergy, their hardware depends on the software and the software depends on the hardware. Something like Wii Sports would not have been possible without a great deal of tailoring to the Wii-mote and would likely never have become such a break-out hit on a foreign platform environment.

3: Nintendo would be subject to hardware solutions, online components, marketing ploys and controller focus that would be strange to them.

4: Besides the Wii U, they usually make a lot of money on the hardware and the peripherals, you won't get to 14 billion dollars in the bank simply as a 3rd party publisher/developer, not in today's market.

5: Nintendo rely on a much higher level of market control than the others, they would essentially abandon all their advantages and lose most of their power and influence.

No way they will benefit from becoming 3rd party. It's unrealistic and horribly minsconstrued as a good option, or an option at all to their current business setup.

1. Third parties have abandoned the Wii U. The royalty income from that system is in no way close to covering the very high ongoing costs of running a console division. There aren't enough games and they aren't selling enough.

2. There is absolutely no synergy between Wii U hardware and software. Sure there was on the Wii, but doing something successfully years ago doesn't mean you just keep on doing it until you go bankrupt.

3. This is just a nothing comment. Most Wii U games use a normal controller. Nintendo devs aren't as unaware of what online is as you might believe. Nintendo would still be in charge of their own advertising. Nintendo software devs do not contribute to the hardware design, so a PS4 would be no harder for them to learn than a Wii U.

4. This is true, but Nintendo aren't getting there with the Wii U either. The market has changed and Nintendo aren't going to be capable of producing another Wii without a massive turnover at the top.

5. I don't really understand this. What power do they have as console manufacturers? They currently have no level of market control whatsoever because the market isn't buying their product.



Around the Network
Anfebious on 07 January 2014
burninmylight said:
Anfebious said:

I read an interesting article about why Nintendo shouldn't go third party. It's a Maelstrom one, and I think he raises a good point.

Here you go: http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/the-actual-reason-why-nintendo-will-never-go-third-party/

Oh I just read it too! Mummelman's post is also very informative.

The answer is simple: Nope .


That was a good read, so thanks for posting.

Hehe, glad I helped .



"I've Underestimated the Horse Power from Mario Kart 8, I'll Never Doubt the WiiU's Engine Again"

Purple on 07 January 2014
magoghm said:

It seems to me that right now Nintendo isn't doing bad at all as a publisher. Here is the data about next-gen games sold so far by the major publishers:

Nintendo: 0m PS4 + 13.66m WiiU + 0m XOne = 13.66m

Activision: 1.74m PS4 + 1m WiiU + 1.35m XOne = 4.09m

Ubisoft: 1.27m PS4 + 1.98m WiiU +  0.68m XOne = 3.93m

Electronic Arts:  1.82m PS4 + 0.21m WiiU + 1.11m XOne = 3.14m

Microsoft: 0m PS4 + 0m WiiU +2.13m XOne = 2.13m

Sony: 1.7m PS4 + 0m WiiU + 0m XOne = 1.7m

Even with the very low sales of WiiU consoles, Nintendo has sold over 20% more next-gen games than Activision, Ubisoft, and Electronic Games combined.

This is the most cherry picked data I've seen in a while.

1) Wii U has been out for about 12 months longer than the other platforms. The games have had way more time to sell including two christmas periods.

2) Nintendo have released far more games for Wii U than those publishers have for other consoles.

3) You're counting bundled games in that list, which makes no sense whatsoever. That's money Nintendo is losing.

4) Being multiplatform allows publishers to release their games on more systems than just what you've shown there.



Hibern81 on 07 January 2014
DanneSandin said:
Hibern81 said:
Do y'all think mainline Nintendo games would sell like GTA and COD across multiple platforms?

I think the OP is a very interesting question, as is this follow up question! I would really like a more in-depth analysis of this whole topic.


That's what I'm talking about!!!  I think this would be a good class project for some business majors.



"Games are a trigger for adults to again become primitive, primal, as a way of thinking and remembering. An adult is a child who has more ethics and morals, that's all. When I am a child, creating, I am not creating a game. I am in the game. The game is not for children, it is for me. It is for an adult who still has a character of a child."

 

Shigeru Miyamoto

magoghm on 07 January 2014
Purple said:
magoghm said:

It seems to me that right now Nintendo isn't doing bad at all as a publisher. Here is the data about next-gen games sold so far by the major publishers:

Nintendo: 0m PS4 + 13.66m WiiU + 0m XOne = 13.66m

Activision: 1.74m PS4 + 1m WiiU + 1.35m XOne = 4.09m

Ubisoft: 1.27m PS4 + 1.98m WiiU +  0.68m XOne = 3.93m

Electronic Arts:  1.82m PS4 + 0.21m WiiU + 1.11m XOne = 3.14m

Microsoft: 0m PS4 + 0m WiiU +2.13m XOne = 2.13m

Sony: 1.7m PS4 + 0m WiiU + 0m XOne = 1.7m

Even with the very low sales of WiiU consoles, Nintendo has sold over 20% more next-gen games than Activision, Ubisoft, and Electronic Games combined.

This is the most cherry picked data I've seen in a while.

1) Wii U has been out for about 12 months longer than the other platforms. The games have had way more time to sell including two christmas periods.

2) Nintendo have released far more games for Wii U than those publishers have for other consoles.

3) You're counting bundled games in that list, which makes no sense whatsoever. That's money Nintendo is losing.

4) Being multiplatform allows publishers to release their games on more systems than just what you've shown there.

1) Activision, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts had the exact same time to sell their games on those 3 platforms.

2) If those publishers had released more games for Wii U then they might have had more sales.

3) Being a console manufacturer gives Nintendo options that other publishers do not have (which, by the way, is the main subject of this thread). I don't know if they are really losing money on those bundles, but they might consider it a marketing expense.

4) Yes, they can publish their games on other platforms but that implies extra development costs, more complex inventory management, and not being able to fine tune the game to get all the possible performance from a very specific hardware.

By the way, I didn't post those numbers to someway "prove" that Nintendo is winning the next gen race. It isn't. I just wanted to point out that Nintendo's peculiar stategy of being game publisher which manufactures its own consoles does have its benefits.



Around the Network
Hibern81 on 07 January 2014

There are some pretty in depth comments on here :) Glad to see everyone brought their thinking caps!



"Games are a trigger for adults to again become primitive, primal, as a way of thinking and remembering. An adult is a child who has more ethics and morals, that's all. When I am a child, creating, I am not creating a game. I am in the game. The game is not for children, it is for me. It is for an adult who still has a character of a child."

 

Shigeru Miyamoto

DanneSandin on 08 January 2014
Hibern81 said:
There are some pretty in depth comments on here :) Glad to see everyone brought their thinking caps!

What I'm missing in this thread is alternative ways for Nintendo to be just as profitable as a third party publisher. Every is simply saying either "yes", and just leave it at that. How would they be as profitable? Sure, they could make a deal and be exclusive to a certain console if they didn't have to pay royalties, but that would mean that they would miss out sales on the OTHER console. It's things like this that's missing in this discussion right now.



I'm on Twitter @DanneSandin!

Furthermore, I think VGChartz should add a "Like"-button.

ironmanDX on 08 January 2014

Not a chance.

They still have tonnes of money in reserve and have gone through the original Playstation and the PS2 dominating their consoles of those respective gens. Also, 3DS. They're in a much better position than some people here give them credit for.

 

 

Edit: Their instead of they're! Derp moment!



binary solo on 08 January 2014

In relation to these last few years, probably yes. In relation to Nintendo's profitability over the last 25 or so years, I would say no. If 3DS keeps selling well I would say it would be a mistake to get out of hardware, at least hand held hardware. Home consoles, that's a tough one.



“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

Jimi Hendrix

 

Purple on 08 January 2014
magoghm said:

1) Activision, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts had the exact same time to sell their games on those 3 platforms.

2) If those publishers had released more games for Wii U then they might have had more sales.

3) Being a console manufacturer gives Nintendo options that other publishers do not have (which, by the way, is the main subject of this thread). I don't know if they are really losing money on those bundles, but they might consider it a marketing expense.

4) Yes, they can publish their games on other platforms but that implies extra development costs, more complex inventory management, and not being able to fine tune the game to get all the possible performance from a very specific hardware.

By the way, I didn't post those numbers to someway "prove" that Nintendo is winning the next gen race. It isn't. I just wanted to point out that Nintendo's peculiar stategy of being game publisher which manufactures its own consoles does have its benefits.

1) Wii U came out in 2012. PS4 and Xbox1 came out at the end of this year... So Nintendo have had a full extra year to sell than third parties have had to sell on the next gen machines.

2) Right... But they haven't. Which shows that Nintendo aren't making as much in royalty as some people like to wish they are.

3) What options? I could say they actually have less options as they are tied exclusively to one piece of hardware.

4) Once again I have no idea where this concept came from that Nintendo would all the sudden become useless developers if they were working with different hardware. The people that make the software are in no way related to the people that make the hardware. They have to learn how to use it exactly as they would if the hardware was made by anyone else.

The dev cost argument is silly because Nintendo could release their games on whatever platform they wanted. If they were worried by dev costs they could go PC or mobile. We still haven't seen much to suggest making games for Wii U is that much cheaper than making them for next gen anyway.

I'm not promoting Nintendo go third party. There are definitely risks, but I don't understand why Nintendo fans argue against it like it would be the end of the world. In financial terms there is definitely the potential for greater profitability as a third party publisher. Just look at how Sega has performed over the last few years since giving up the console business.