If they build a "normal" console then yes, they should simply build something which is around the power of the competition and use the same discs and stuff.

But they build something different with the Switch and with that, Nintendo doesn't have to look at if their device will get the exact same games. The more third party games the Switch will get the better but this time Nintendo has a device games have to be build for and not a device which is build for third party games the other consoles get. 

And that is absolutely fine as long as it is something customers are interested in.

Pandora's Tower, The Last Story, Muramasa The Demon Blade, Tatsunoko VS Capcom, No More Heroes I and II, Dead Space Extraction, The House of the Dead Overkill, Deadly Creatures (Someone remake this one for the Switch, please), Madworld, Okami, Sonic Colors, Rayman Origins, all the Just Dance games in the world...

I don't really know why people think Nintendo couldn't build a successful machine with full third-party support.

They undoubtedly could.

Even Microsoft did it and they worked from scratch. Even after a major issue with the 360, they did very well with only a handful of exclusive IP.

The issues isn't that Nintendo couldn't do it, the issue is that Nintendo doesn't want to do it. It would take a lot of work and money to reach what Sony and Microsoft have done in terms of building up their infrastructures and establishing business partnerships. After years of falling behind in those areas--or ignoring them completely--they'd have to commit major resources just to draw even. Nintendo doesn't really like investing in things like that until they have no choice.

It's simply their corporate identity and has been from the start.

I think of it like baseball. Sony is out there hitting singles and doubles, playing defense, stealing bases--they work hard on every facet of the game and win with teamwork. Microsoft is the team that signs a few big name free agents but fills out the rest of the team with role players. Nintendo, though, goes for the home-runs. Defense and teamwork? No, they want to hit the ball out of the park. They want A-Rod instead of Jeter. When they do, they win big. When they don't? Strikeouts.

Nothing wrong with this, of course. It's their philosophy. They can do what they want with their own business and I'm fine with it. Speaking as a former Nintendo fan, I'm more than happy after switching to the competition, so I see no need for Nintendo to join them. Of course, I can understand the frustration of someone who wants Nintendo games and third-party titles but that simply doesn't seem to be Nintendo's path.

But could they do it? Yeah, if they made the effort. Maybe one day, when the company is no longer run by old men, they might try.

It needs sales, thats it. If the console sells, it means it has a big enough audience, its graphical capability becomes secondary. Otherwise third party developers wont even bother with the Switch. As of now its too early to speculate anything.

Games cost money to port. 3rd party developers will test out Switch and if their games don't sell then they won't bother with future projects. 3rd party support was decent at the start of the Wii era but dried up when games didn't sell. I wouldn't be surprised if developers are more cautious. Switch will still get 3rd party support but to what extent depends on Switch owners.

N64: Yes, it sold "low" compared to the PS1, which was driven mostly BY a handful of big third party hits, like Symphony of the Night, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, FFVII, Tekken, and Metal Gear Solid. But the N64, while it should have gotten MORE third party support, still had its share of third party hits. The N64 most especially excelled in third party exclusives, such as the original Turok games, Extreme G, Doom 64, Wayne Gretsky 3D, Beetle Adventure Racing, Castlevania, Hybrid Heaven, and several Star Wars games. Later in it's life, it also started to get more multi-plat games again, such as Madden, RE2, and Tony Hawk. It wasn't GREAT support, but it was fairly steady support up until 2001, the system's final year.

GC: The GC had the opposite problem of N64. It actually had a fairly strong amount of multi-plat games, but less third party exclusives. It had them, for sure, but certain games that were supposed to be huge exclusives, such as Viewtiful Joe and RE4, eventually became multi-plat anyway. But GC had it's fair share of big multi-plat releases, such as the Prince of Persia trilogy, the second round of Crash and Spyro games, Tony Hawk, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Timesplitters, Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur II, Need for Speed, Star Wars, Resident Evil, Viewtiful Joe, Pac-Man World, etc.

Wii: Again, as you say, largely because of the graphics/horsepower gap between Wii and PS3/360, many third party publishers didn't feel like footing the bill to make separate ports for Wii of big multiplat games. But that isn't to say that it DIDN'T get them. It got several CoD releases, Madden, FIFA, Need for Speed, Lego ____, Skylanders, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, The Force Unleashed, Ghostbusters, Tomb Raider, Bully, etc. It DID miss out on many of the big multi-plat games, such as Batman, Assassin's Creed, Street Fighter IV, MvC3, etc. The last two especially being pointless exclusions.

BUT, at the same time, Wii also once again excelled at having quality third party exclusives, such as Red Steel 1 & 2, No More Heroes 1 & 2, Zack & Wiki, de Blob, Boom Blox, The Conduit (first one was good, second was garbage), Mushroom Men, Dragon Quest Swords, Muramasa, Little King's Story, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, FFCC: The Crystal Bearers, Monster Hunter Tri, The Last Story, Fragile Dreams, Arc Rise Fantasia, Tales of Symphonia 2, Pandora's Tower, Epic Mickey, etc.



You're right that third party support has never been SUPER strong for Nintendo home consoles since the NES and SNES. But it's kind of a perpetuating myth that the N64 onwards had "bad" third party support. The Wii especially got a LOT of third part games, as is customary for top selling consoles in a given generation. And it had a lot of "shovelware", but so did PS1 and PS2. Hell, several of the shovelware games on Wii were PORTS of PS2 shovelware games.


The Wii U, in all blunt honesty, is the only Nintendo home console that had, for the most part, outright atrocious third party support. It seemed OKAY, with a release here or there, up through 2014. But even then, they were sparse releases. And in 2015 onward, it became a desert. Wii U, hands down, had the WORST support of any Nintendo system outside of the failed expirment that hardly counts, Virtual Boy. There were many reasons for this, but the controller and the graphics were not really among them. It was obvious early on that third parties were on board, with many multi-plat ports the likes of which Wii owners had been clamoring for, for years. Such as Assassin's Creed, Watch_Dogs, Batman, Darksiders, etc. But that support evaporated once it was clear that the Wii U just wasn't selling well, and third party ports were largely ALSO not selling well as a consequence. Granted, perhaps if some of those ports hadn't been gimped, or if certain third parties had put out some qualty exclusives, maybe that might have helped. But ultimately, Nintendo stumbled out of the gate with Wii U and simply never recovered.



The Switch is doing well, but right now, the jury is still out on whether or not that success is flash in the pan, or will be long-term. IF it's long-term, IF the Switch is still selling like hotcakes throughout next year, let's say, I'd say you can definetly expect to see stronger third party support. The system simply needs to sell, and third party games need to sell ON it.

If it was that simple, Nintendo would have done that a long time ago

When the 3DS dies

DO SONY AND MICROSOFT WAY.

PAY A LOT OF MONEY.

In my original post I said that Nintendo needs to make a system that 1. Sells well, 2. has a dev friendly format, and 3 is graphically competitive. N64 and Gamecube only hit 1 out of 3 of those things. That's why they failed to get third party support. Wii had one tenth the third party support as 360/PS3. I'm not cherry picking anything. For every low teir third party game on Wii there are ten on the other systems.

Switch is already getting good third party support. Puyo Puyo, Disgea 5, Bomberman, etc. All good games considering that the system barely launched.