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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo's game output is improving but still pathetic compared to Wii/DS era

sethnintendo said:

Is it just me or does anyone else believe that they can push out more titles per year than their current rate?

How come Nintendo can't match their output during the Wii/DS era when their teams were split up between two systems.  They pushed out so many new IPs during that era along with their main IPs that it just doesn't ever feel the same.  Sure some of it was shovelware but decent amount of the IPs were fresh and actually decent games.

How the fuck does it take 8 years to make another mainline Animal Crossing?  Where are all the new IPs like they did with Endless Ocean, Battalian Wars (yea I know it was on GC first but only played 2), Excite Truck/Bots, etc?  Where the fuck is Advance Wars?  F-Zero? (I know F-Zero wasn't on Wii/DS but if they can make Fire Emblem a hit then surely F-Zero deserves another go) Sure they don't need Nintendo published game for every month but it seems like there should be more.  I still haven't even purchased a Switch yet and might not till next spring.

Is it really that difficult making a game than it was 10 years ago when you only have one system to support? 

edit- I'm looking for more mid tier games and not 3-5 year development time blockbuster "AAA" titles. 

Two reasons: HD and type of games.

HD development is draining a lot more resources. At least if you don't want to have your game look shitty. You need higher resolution textures and much more detailed models. This incredibly increases the need of work. So you need more staff or more time (or both). And increasing staff fast can dilute quality. Teams grow best slowly, integrating new workers at a smaller percentage to ingrain design philosophy. You could see the additional resource drain of HD-development in the first years of XB360, PS3 and WiiU.

The other is the type of games. A game like Brain Age or Nintendogs is nice, but not that much of a resource drain like games as Luigi's Mansion, Mario Maker or Splatoon. Basically bigger 3D-worlds (3D worlds at all) and more characters all need to be designed. Even games that were also on Wii, are usually with much more content on Switch. See Smash Ultimate, which deserves the title. Or even Ring Fit Adventure. WiiFit had basically an animated character model of the trainer and some stuff around. For Ring Fit Nintendo designed a whole 3D-world and different types of enemies. This all takes so much more effort, meaning work of people employed by Nintendo.

Nevertheless, even with fewer Nintendo releases the Switch has overall more releases. Third parties and especially Indies fill this time around the release schedule pretty well.



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Modern development takes longer. It's the same reason god of war had 4 releases last gen but 1 this gen. Or look at halo, 360 had halo 3, 4, odst, reach, wars and a remake but Xb1 only has 5, a remake and wars 2



sethnintendo said:
Chrkeller said:
I take "what the **** are you talking about" as rude. As would anybody.

Well I'm sorry I hurt your feelings.  Do you understand what I'm trying to say now?  I'm not asking for blockbuster titles constantly released.  Nintendo is sitting on a bunch of old ips and some these ips can be made a lot easier without throwing so many resources at it than a Zelda game. 

Basically I want more variety than Mario game, a Zelda game and maybe a Metroid game.

Feelings has nothing to do with it.  You were being aggressive, I returned the favor, nothing more.  

Nintendo has done great this year, IMHO.  Link's Awakening was a great AA game.  



collint0101 said:
Modern development takes longer. It's the same reason god of war had 4 releases last gen but 1 this gen. Or look at halo, 360 had halo 3, 4, odst, reach, wars and a remake but Xb1 only has 5, a remake and wars 2

Or how Uncharted 1-3 hit the ps3, and the ps4 has Uncharted 4.  EVERYBODY is releasing fewer games with every generation.  This isn't a Nintendo thing.  Heck Guerrilla hasn't released a game since Horizon.  

Last edited by Chrkeller - on 04 October 2019

sethnintendo said:
Baddman said:

you can't use that to disqualify them when games in your op are also developed by third parties but published by nintendo(endless ocean and battallion wars)

Point taken.  But those games in op even if made today probably be less development time than Astral Chain and Marvel.

don't get it twisted I can see where you are coming from I loved the endless ocean and battalion wars games and would love for them to return. I especially had fond memories of me and my girlfriend playing endless ocean together and her being scared when a whale came on screen



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The gaming industry of 2006 is not the same as 2019. The reason Nintendo's output was so massive was because it was split between 2 systems, and each had entires in a staple Nintendo series. Plus, there was the booming casual market to capitalize on, indie games were still in their infancy, and development costs for major titles was still relatively cheap. Today, these are no longer the case. Nintendo only has one platform to really support, so there's less of a need for redundancy in IP representation. and AAA games are more expensive and resource hogging today, which means they need more staff and money to get out in a timely fashion. And with indie games being big, there's less of a need for Nintendo to produce indie-caliber projects either digital or physical. So yeah, either way, it was always going to be less that what they could do on the Wii and DS.

That said, Nintendo's output is still massive compared to other major publishers. Nintendo puts out more games in a single year than most publishers release in a whole console generation. And they're still willing to try weird new ideas like Ring Fit Adventure and Astral Chain. We live in a modern gaming industry, and what was possible in 2006, simply can't be done the same way in 2019.



couchmonkey said:
I am with you, fine sir. Nintendo needs to pump out a few smaller games (at reasonable prices, none of this Link’s Awakening @full price crap), and they especially need to experiment with new IPs. I bet you are not a fan of Labo? That lineup actually produced 4 or 5 games, but I think it is “invisible” to many of us because we don’t want to go through the construction process and the software is bland without the wacky controllers. It was a nice concept, but I feel like Nintendo should have cut their losses after the first pair of labo kits didn’t take off.

So, do what they're already doing? In 2 years, the Switch received ARMS, 1-2 Switch, Snipperclips, Astral Chain, Ring Fit Adventure, and Sushi Striker. Plus "smaller" games like Box Boy + Box Girl and Tetris 99.



Chrkeller said:
The only piece that bothers me, is Nintendo should have released HD collections. I am not sure why they haven't. Galaxy 1/2 HD would be great, I am not sure why they haven't done as such. Luigi's Mansion HD, Mario Sunshine HD, etc.

You know they're coming, any time there is a drought of new titles to get people buying switch for, metroid trilogy, pikmin trilogy, Mario's 3d all stars featuring 3d Mario's greatest games... They're all coming man and they're going to sell gang busters.

Right now the hype train is roaring towards Pokémon, once the station pulls in there and everyone gets onboard then the conductor will yell the next destination, don't want anyone saving camera space for a destination 3 stops down the line!



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Ganoncrotch said:
Chrkeller said:
The only piece that bothers me, is Nintendo should have released HD collections. I am not sure why they haven't. Galaxy 1/2 HD would be great, I am not sure why they haven't done as such. Luigi's Mansion HD, Mario Sunshine HD, etc.

You know they're coming, any time there is a drought of new titles to get people buying switch for, metroid trilogy, pikmin trilogy, Mario's 3d all stars featuring 3d Mario's greatest games... They're all coming man and they're going to sell gang busters.

Right now the hype train is roaring towards Pokémon, once the station pulls in there and everyone gets onboard then the conductor will yell the next destination, don't want anyone saving camera space for a destination 3 stops down the line!

HQ Remasters and re-releases are a fine way to fill holes on their schedule. Just look at a month that has little to new big releases, and you can pretty much assume some re-release might go there.



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Chrkeller said:
Dulfite said:
I think all companies output will slow down as each generation comes out. Why? Because people expect all that fancy technology to be integrated perfectly.

"It needs to be 720p! Now 1080p! Now 4k! Now 8k!
It needs anti alising!
It needs 30fps! Now 45 for! Now 60fps!
The card should be unlocked!
It needs HDR!"

And of course all these companies are pressured to develop games to take advantage of all these "needs" before many will buy them. How many people won't buy a great game because of one, if not more of these issues? A ton. So developers have to take a lot longer and spend a lot more money to make them and they either can't and lose money from years or not releasing only to fold as a company or they do and their output is diminished. The future of the gaming industry is bleak because of many picky gamers that only will tolerate cutting edge.

Don't forget Ray Tracing!

Oh yeah! That's the one everyone is obsessed with now. I didn't/don't know what any of these even mean until years after their popularity. I still don't know what ray tracing is, what HDR is, or antialising. And you know what? I don't care lol. I don't want to know. It doesn't matter toe.