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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - I think it's time for Nintendo to invest in new development teams

Nintendo's 2017 will probably go down as one of the best years in the company's history from a software and financial standpoint and 2018 seems to be gearing up to be another great year with the release of titles such as Fire Emblem, Kirby Star Allies, Yoshi, Bayonetta 1+2, Travis Strikes Again and many more we don't even know about.

Although Nintendo's year was great we've already seen the release of many big AAA titles that skipped the Switch such as Call of Duty WW2 or Assassin's Creed Origins and, as years go by, it's easy to predict that more and more developers will aim higher with the scope of their games, implying a stronger hardware will be needed to support them. Of course there will still be games fitting in between these AAA titles and Indie games that will be able to run on Switch but still it's obvious that Nintendo's support for the system will get more important with time.

As most of the companies in the industry Nintendo is always getting bigger but I think that this is the time to really go all out for Nintendo and either start new software houses from scratch or to buy out existing ones in order to sustain a steady stream of titles for Nintendo Switch. This would also fit Nintendo's recent tendency to try making new IPs (i.e. ARMS and Splatoon) and would also help supporting older franchises that haven't appeared in the last few years due to Nintendo's lack of staff/ideas. 

In the past with the Wii and the purchase of Monolith Soft we've seen that Nintendo is aware that this is the time to invest in new teams but still given the changes in the company that we've seen in the past years it's unknown wether they'll apply the same strategy.

What are your thoughts on Nintendo's current position ? Which SH would you like to be acquired (partially or completely) ? Which old franchises would you like Nintendo to dedicate a brand new team to ?

For me there's a few things Nintendo should prioritize:

-Purchasing the development team at Bandai Namco that help with the development of Super Smash Bros. in order to have a dedicated team always focused on Smash internally and in order to not split the earnings from the game with Bandai ;

-Purchasing IPs that are often associated with the Nintendo brand such as Ace Attorney, Professor Layton and Bayonetta to ensure future exclusivity and appeal in the newest entries in this franchises;

-Establishing separated development teams for Animal Crossing and Splatoon since both series have grown so much that they deserve a dedicated team to be always focused on them;

Last edited by Luke888 - on 08 December 2017

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They should just buy the whole gaming industry.



Supposedly Metroid Prime 4 is being developed by a new team, so I guess there's that...



I make game analyses on youtube:

FFVI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSO6n8kNCwk
Shadow of the Colossus: https://youtu.be/9kDBFGw6SXQ
Silent Hill 2: https://youtu.be/BwISCik3Njc
BotW: https://youtu.be/4auqRSAWYKU

They tried to buy Namco in 2003.

I honestly think they should buy the IP or become co-owner of the Bayonetta IP and buy a stake in Platinum.



GameOverture said:
Supposedly Metroid Prime 4 is being developed by a new team, so I guess there's that...

Super Metroid Returns on the 3DS was a new team as well, correct?



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irstupid said:
GameOverture said:
Supposedly Metroid Prime 4 is being developed by a new team, so I guess there's that...

Super Metroid Returns on the 3DS was a new team as well, correct?

MercurySteam primarily made Metroid Samus Returns with Nintendo being publisher



irstupid said:
GameOverture said:
Supposedly Metroid Prime 4 is being developed by a new team, so I guess there's that...

Super Metroid Returns on the 3DS was a new team as well, correct?

From what I understand, that was Mercury Steam under Sakamoto's supervision. They had previously worked on Castlvania Mirror of Whatever for the 3ds, so it wasnt much different than how Tecmo uses Zelda and Fire Emblem, I guess



I make game analyses on youtube:

FFVI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSO6n8kNCwk
Shadow of the Colossus: https://youtu.be/9kDBFGw6SXQ
Silent Hill 2: https://youtu.be/BwISCik3Njc
BotW: https://youtu.be/4auqRSAWYKU

Kai_Mao said:
irstupid said:

Super Metroid Returns on the 3DS was a new team as well, correct?

MercurySteam primarily made Metroid Samus Returns

Oh, maybe I'm thinking of Sonic Mania. That was made by a new team of Sonic fans right?



irstupid said:
Kai_Mao said:

MercurySteam primarily made Metroid Samus Returns

Oh, maybe I'm thinking of Sonic Mania. That was made by a new team of Sonic fans right?

Somewhat. Sega apparently hired someone who made Sonic fangames. He first ported some of the Genesis games onto mobile and then was tasked to create Mania.



It's since the Wii days I say Nintendo should expand their studios. Something has already been done but imo they could do better.
Acquiring companies is a business that can end up very badly if the company and its personnel is opposed to the operation, so it really depends on the context.
As for IPs I believe they have already so many that they can't give them a proper treatment so buying new IPs would only worsen the situation. From a commercial standpoint the only famous IP that I think could make sense to buy is Castlevania.
The franchise is historically tied to Nintendo and it has an uncertain future on other platforms, plus it could potentially bring allo the Metroidvania fanbase under one roof, giving Nintendo an M-rated IP.