Whatever their plans were, the reality here in Europe is a three month gap between SM3DW and DK and another three month gap between DK and MK8. Nintendo's WiiU release schedule has been a shambles. If it can't deliver regular AA to AAA releases in its current setup, it needs to buy up developers so that it can. The anaemic approach currently being adopted is clearly one that is failing spectacularly to entice people into buying a WiiU.

I dunno.

To be honest I don't know what's going on with Nintendo. The WiiU is doing okay, it's making a profit, just not the same profit the Wii made before it. The thing is where is the diversity in Nintendo games? As much as I love Nintendo I don't need another console to play Mario, DK, and Mario Kart. 3D Worlds looks awesome because it's co-op, but still.....

When Gamecube launched there was Luigi's Mansion (new), Pikmin (new), Smash Bros, Star Fox Adventures (new), Metroid Prime (new), Eternal Darkness (new) etc. N64 introduced all the Mario spin-off series like Party, Tennis, Golf, etc. Wii had Wii Sports, Wii Fit and in all fairness after the odd Mario, Zelda, and Mario Kart's on GCN, it was refreshing to play same classic style Nintendo games.

Now however it feels redundant. Where are the new ip's? X looks great, but that might not release until 2015. Pikmin 3 was nice, but....Nintendo isn't making the impact it once did.

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That said, with everyone's bickering across, I'm still buying a WiiU. Nintendo hasn't made a console which can satisfy me entirely since the SNES. Ever since the N64 released, I found it perfect to own a Nintendo/Sony combo. Nintendo makes some of the best games in the industry, just very few of them. So while I wait I can play all the amazing 1st & 3rd party Sony games.

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P.S. I'm more concerned about the lack of 3DS games then WiiU. After May there is only 1 announced Nintendo game, and that's Smash Bros. I was really hoping for another Intelligent Systems announcement at the most recent Nintendo Direct. Maybe an Advance Wars 3DS.

It's not simple as that. Back in the day, to make Mario's mustache move, you had to write days worth of code. Nowadays, it's just a library.

I agree that HD games cost more than Wii games, but not THAT much more, the initial period was much harder due to lacking tools, etc. Programming shaders is much simpler, faster and cheaper than 4 years ago.

lol just lol.

The exact contradiction of what has been preached for years.
That was the reason why many HD development studios (and THQ) have gone bankrupt, no ?
Now the difference isn't as big as pointed out several times before ?

"Wii games cost a little more. Developing a game for Wii might cost $5 million to $10 million, including all of the marketing costs.

By contrast, developing a game for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 can cost $20 million to $50 million, Fils-Aime asserted. As a result, a developer needs to sell 1.3 million to 1.5 million copies of a game to turn a profit, he argued."

2007: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9823945-7.html?tag=mncol;title

"Ricitiello said: "Development is typically a third to a fourth as much for a Wii game then it is for a PS3 or an Xbox 360 game."

2009: http://www.develop-online.net/news/ricitiello-wii-development-is-a-third-to-a-fourth-the-cost-of-next-gen/0104067

"Guillemot told CNBC. Right now, of course, games for Xbox 360 and PS3 cost between USD 20 million and USD 30 million to make"

2009: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/games-to-cost-USD60m-says-ubisoft-boss



"What is interesting is that your average Wii game costs roughly five to seven million big ones to make, according to an investment review conducted by Digi-Capital.

On the other hand, Wii development costs still remain a fraction of what makes up for Xbox 360 and PS3 games that easily fall within the $15 to $30 million range, or even more with blockbuster releases."

2011: http://www.gamingunion.net/news/the-average-wii-game-costs-5-7-million-to-make--4122.html

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I don't see any contradicting statements there.
Average Wii development cost is $5-7m or $5-10m
Average HD development cost is only starting at $20m.

You can't tell me that an average WiiU game is below $20m (without advertising costs) and that's absolutely the low end.

It looks like you've taken my spot in this thread ...

Can you please reread my comment? I specifically said that when the initial jump to HD occured, the costs were very high. However, we cannot expect that to be the case 4 years later!

It's almost the same as with hardware: PS3 cost something like 300 to make at launch (my numbers completely) yet today, 100.

Maybe you should read my post again.
Xbox 360 was launched in 2005, 4 years later would've been 2009. I even posted a source from 2011.
During that time nothing has dramatically changed in terms of development costs.

On top of that the WiiU is a new console and that means that development costs for the first few games should be even higher than last gen's averages.

I initially thought:

Q1: Beyonetta 2/ Yoshi
Q2: Mario Kart/Smash Bros
Q3: X, Mario Party, Nintendogs U
Q4: Animal Crossing, Zelda, Wii Sports Sequel

Clearly not going to happen anymore lol

tagged for whenever someone want to pretend a port selling 100k on the wii U is somehow profitable

Nintendo's original game plan was probably to have much more third party support this far into the Wii U life cycle. Nintendo's first party development resources couldn't keep up with the sudden drop of third party support in the spring of 2013. Instead Nintendo have been forced to spread out their few releases in order to keep atleast some market interest throughout a whole 12 month period.

The drop in third party support began in early 2013, and given it takes at least 18 months to somewhat adjust to those conditions, I think we will be in for quite a long software drought in 2014.