One helluva necro. But this thread is still relevant, strangely enough. We've seen the 3rd R&C game in as many years, and still debately vigorously about whether Zelda Wii will even arrive in 2010.

Motion Plus is delaying their games. Wii Sports Resort, for example, got delayed into 2009 because of it. There's also the fact that Nintendo doesn't announce their games years in advance anymore (Just 6 or 7 months ago, we didn't even know a new console 2D Mario game would be made).

Expect 2010 to bring tons of announcements.

Insomniac produces more R&C games because they are a single studio that typically works on one project at a time.

I think part of the reason why development on Nintendo games takes so long is because they can afford to spend a large amount of time during concept/design phase as well as the QA final tweaking phase. Those are the main reasons why almost all of their games come out so sharp and polished.

Plus, I'm sure they ramp up worker resources during the full production phase of the development pipeline and then ramp down during the later phases as they shift talent to other projects.

It's a timely process compared to more focused studios like Insomniac or Naughty Dog, but the quality of results generally speak for themselves.

Keep in mind that the longer studios like Insomniac or NG spend on development, the longer they go in between rounds of revenue whereas with Nintendo, they have their massive hardware and peripheral sales to constantly generate revenue streams just as their typically evergreen softs do the same.

And if you notice most games on that top list are quickly forgotten. Nintendo games are memorable well beyond their release date for a reason.

two words - QUALITY CONTROL

two words - unnecessary competition

releasing title after title introduces competition so that rather than squeezing out every single possible buyer, you distribute buyers across several different games thereby creating internal demographics within the core. With so many games, gamers must become choosey because they don't have an infinite amount of resources to buy all of them.

The better idea is to force gamers to try other genre Nintendo games by lack of support. That way, each Nintendo game gets full recognition and play time and profit. It also creates an artificial popularity. "Everybody has played it"- Why, because the pickins' were slim.

It is the smarter business move, and we've all seen that nintendo is the smarter company when it comes to making money.

'tis Because Nintendo is lazy.

Seriously though, as long as their titles are as great as they always are, I don't care about development time. Not to say I wouldn't mind me some fresh new games from them.

I don't think there is any other company in the industry that touches Nintendo's level of polish in their video games.

ok

You don't get to be The Best In The Business by doing things sloppily.

There's plenty of games to play on the Wii, plenty of Nintendo games to play on the Wii, plenty of Nintendo games to REPLAY on the Wii (Wii Ware included).

Instead of being so impatient, master the games you already have.
People used to replay games over & over to master them with their growing skills.
They would try going through speed runs or trying to play with perfect precision or without getting hit once.

The game's not over just because you get to the end.

Nintendo will never change this about themselves & I'm happy for it.
That's how we keep getting such consistent quality from them for almost 30 years.

Besides it's not like it's taking them Duke Nukem Forever type of time to put something out.

It's done when it's done. Simple as that.
Find other things to do in the meantime even if it includes taking a break from gaming for awhile.

John Lucas