Partly right, partly wrong.

Right, in that Nintendo always tends to play its cards close to the vest, and likely got out the kits and stuff late to developers. Part of that was probably necessary - look how quickly Sony adopted their SixAxis after the WiiMote was revealed - but that wouldn't make it less frustrating from a 3Ps point of view.

Wrong, in that Nintendo has been trumpeting for years that they are trying to broaden the market. They did it with the DS, and they were saying it back when they demo'd Pikmin the first time. If the 3Ps didn't hear it, it wasn't because Nintendo wasn't saying it, but rather because they'd been saying it so long no one was listening anymore.

Well lucasarts certainly learned their lesson: Listen to Nintendo. You think Nintendo cares if they don't get another rehashed starwars game? Sure it would sell consoles, but thats not really a problem for them right now, is it? I know for a FACT that Nintendo was telling everyone how the Wii was going to revolutionize (CODENAME: REVOLUTION) videogames, just like the DS had been doing so far. But like a previous poster said, Lucasarts probably figured "Oh well I guess it will only sell as well as the GameCube, right guys?"

How is Nintendo pushing its first party titles a problem for their third party develpers? Do third party developers want Nintendo to push more advertising for their third party titles?

I'm pretty sure what he means is that Nintendo is more concerned with developing their own games than acquiring 3rd party support for their system. They're not throwing around 50 million to get GTA exclusive content or however much Sony likely paid to keep FFXIII exclusive. They're willing to sit and let the 3Ps come to them. Which has worked against them in the past.

Sigh... a stigma Nintendo will never be able to shake because they will always have amazing first party games, and at any time they're not recieving adequate third party support they just push their first party titles all the more.

I agree they should be buying up exclusivity now that they have money to burn, though I'm sure they idealy would rather like to buy entire studios than just games.

Here check this out..this is how i found my solutions to console success..

Third-party support

It has often been said that when it comes to a console's success: "It's all about the games", and this is certainly true. A console manufacturer needs to have ample third-party developer support in order to have a steady stream of quality video games being released throughout the year. Although brand loyalty, technical capabilities and price certainly plays their part, people tend to purchase the console that offers the games that they enjoy most. Without games, there is no reason to buy a console. It is the very reason why people doomed the Nokia N-Gage to failure before it was even released. Therefore console manufacturers need to establish good relationships with third-party developers, otherwise they risk losing the support that they need to another competitor. A lot of this revolves around management, business decisions and partnerships, however a console manufacturer can also help promote third-party support by making their console easy to develop on. Part of the reason for the success of the Sony PlayStation against the Sega Saturn was that the PlayStation was considered an easy platform to develop games, while the Sega Saturn, with its dual processors and overall complexity, frustrated developers instead. Nintendo is perceived to be comparatively lacking in 3rd-party support, and rely somewhat on their own 1st-party games, a situation since the Nintendo 64, since at the time, many third party developers opted for the PlayStation due to the ease in making games for it. In the current seventh-generation, this is reversed: the PlayStation 3 is perhaps the most difficult (and the Wii the easiest) to develop for.

Welcome to Nintendo.

The reason they make SO MUCH money is from selling 1st-party software - unlike both MS & Sony (more Sony, but also MS) - who make money mainly off licensing.

Call them selfish or whatever - but its about smart business planning. Ninty want to have the "first" WiiSports game out, the first "WiiFit" game out (etc..). 

Before everyone jumps onboard, and goes "clone" crazy.

You have to gain Nintendo's respect - and the more you do, the closer they will let you get to (some of) their secrets. Capcom & SquareEnix are examples of companies that get a lot closer than other developers.

...

They have been burnt badly in the past with various companies "stealing" (i.e. cloning) secrets or ideas. Nintendo these days is about keeping secrets as close to their chest as possible, until something is actually ready for market.

Interesting view Shams, I had never thought of it like that.

In a way, MS and Sony are kind of like landlords who just rent out fully furnished appartments to third party developers and let them do the work of making the neighborhood look like its a good place to live. Where as Nintendo is more like a property owner who leases land to developers for them to build their own houses on and have to abide by a stict neighborhood code.

Developers naturally want what's easier and Sony & MS offered that, but now that the Sony's neighborhood is too expensive/impractical to live in (no matter how beautiful it may be) and MS's neighborhood apparently doesn't rent to Asians so all they have now is the option of the wildly popular Nintendo neighborhood, but they're going to let you know they don't like it and certainly don't like the strict neighborhood code.

I hope that made sense to someone other than myself.

thats a good view man..i TOTALLY AGREE!!!! its funny how u said Microsoft doesnt rent to Asians...lol

What I dont understand about this is, well, Nintendo HAS been on a bloody mountain top proclaiming about how they are going to expand the industry. Ever since they revealed the Wii.

Am I the only person who feels this way? At every press release, at EVERY GAME SHOW Nintendo has someone on stage talking about expaning the audience. Hell they were trumpeting this since the DS. So why is this guy acting like they never made their intentions clear? The repeated this expanded audience thins AD NAUSEUM all along the way. I completely disagree with this guy. They just let it happen? Bullshite man, Iwata has been all about this since he took the reigns, they ALWAYS pitched the Wii that way.

To me it seems like a copout. This guy, just like the rest, expected little to nothing from the Wii. They ignored Nintendo and didnt consider them a factor, even in the face of the DS wrecking things, they just didnt care enough to even look into the Wii, and along with the rest, they had an "Oh shit" moment when they realized, and I quote

""Is it going to take off?" But the minute we understood what it was, we began development."

Yeah Ill bet my ass you are. Its real nice to stand back and say Nintendo didnt show up at your doorstep with 1000 dev kits (we all know devkits were supply constrained after the Wii launch) when you never even gave the console a second thought. This is a 50 50 scenario. Nintendo is just as much at fault as LucasArts. Nintendo could have done more to push these guys into making games for Wii, and Lucas could have shown some damn intrest in it from the get go and not relied on someone spoon feeding them everything.

Even if Nintendo had come to them, with kits, docs, liquor and easy women trying to get them to make Wii games before launch, would it have MATTERED? Read what he said, They were taking a wait and see approach. It wouldnt have made any difference, because they were NOT going to throw their backs into development until "They were sure it took off". These type of responses from these guys make me sick. Its a crappy response that considers the readers are morons and cant see through the garbage. Noone was on board, nor did they care about the Wii, because noone knew or thought the Wii would be of any significance. And now that its crushing everything and they realize they missed the boat and they need to get aboard ASAP, they are claiming its EVERYONES fault but THEIRS that they didnt make the initial window.

Give me a break. 

Oh, and Nintendo will stop putting so much effort into their games, when they can count on third parties to put out enough good software to carry a console. Until then, they have no choice but to carry the bloody torch. You think stuff like Elebits, DBZ and Horsez is going to keep the hardware moving? Nope, so if they want the installbase to grow, and noone else is willing to put out AAA titles to do that job, why SHOULDNT they take it up themselves?