TheLastStarFighter said:
Soundwave said:
I think they should keep the Baynoetta franchise for critical/prestige reasons, but they should axe pretty much the other games like Devil's Third and (I hate to say it) Fatal Frame.
Those games aren't doing anything for them, that development money would be better off if Nintendo swallowed their pride and greenlit more mainstream Western developed or Western style projects.
This is a business, not a charity. Hire more competent people at NOA/NOE and give them autonomy to make 1 or 2 game projects a year ... they can't sell any worse than things like Wonderful 101.
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I think they should greenlight some western titles too - absolutely - and give them real freedom. As Splatoon and Wii U sales show, they're actually doing OK in Japan's weak console market. They are doing much worse in the west. I do agree that they need to compete in the popular genres of today's gamer. Similar to the old school projects I'm saying they should fund, I think they should have been at the forefront to fund some western IPs. "What's that, Jason West and Vince Zampella, you want to leave Activision and make a new FPS? You need funding? Here's some millions." Same with Project Cars. Rather and Namco sweeping in toward the end of production, Nintendo should have funded (and given a better name) to the new racing IP and had a product that appeals to European gamers. A few moves like that would go a long way.
But the problem with those is you're still gonig to have to convice western gamers that you're offering something as good or better than XBox or PS. Funding some indie Japanese games like above would be fairly cheap - a few million each was enough on kickstarter - and would offer an experience that wouldn't be offered elsewhere, and one that targets gaming elitists. Ones that would seek out a system for a number of games they like rather than buy what everyone has. That in turn would grow the user base and spread word of mouth that Nintendo is about more than kids and casuals.
Western titles like Pillers of Eternity could work too, but I'd say priority one is games that old-school core gamers would mentally and emotionally link with Nintendo's NES glory days.
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At some point though some of these titles need to actually help you out. What's the logic in greenlighting games that are 99% likely to bomb? I said this in another thread, but Yamauchi-era Nintendo was a lot smarter in how they handled this stuff, because they made games based on business reasons, whereas now it seems that a country club attitude has invaded Nintendo where they greenlight games for their Japanese developer buddies almost like it's a favor.
Lets look at the "support" titles on Wii U that Mario/Zelda get versus N64 ...
Wii U -
Wonderful 101 - flop
Bayonetta 2 - sales dissapointment
Fatal Frame - flop
Xenoblade X - sales dud (so far)
Devil's Third - Flop in the making.
Pikmin 3 - So so sales.
Captain Toad - So so sales.
Splatoon - Surprise moderate hit (finally)
N64 -
Killer Instinct - decent sales
GoldenEye - break out blockbuster system seller GOTY winner
NBA Courtside ft. Kobe Bryant - solid hit
1080 Snowboarding - solid hit
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire - hit (million seller+)
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron - hit (million seller+)
Blast Corps - So so sales.
Banjo Kazooie - hit
When you don't have third party support, you can't compound the problem by having an in-house library of games that are extremely niche outside of Mario and Link.
