i agree with the punch out part, i mean i swear there has to be more room for punch out to add more characters, i think its because the original punch out had 13 fighters as well so they just went with the same flow

It's all about return on investment. I'm now going to pull numbers out of my ass to try to demonstrate a point.

Let x equal the cost of making Punch-Out!!, and y equal the revenue from sales. We'll just assume that Nintendo made a decent margin on the game and y > x.

Lets say Nintendo does what you want and they double the number of fighters in Punch-Out!! The programming, game design, and art and animation of these extra fighters increase the cost of the game by 50%. The added content of the game entices 20% more people to buy the game. More sales, hooray! Cost is now 1.5x and revenue is now 1.2y, and we'll assume that still 1.2y > 1.5x and Nintendo made a good profit.

Now suppose Nintendo does the same thing with another game that has costs and revenues similar to Punch-Out!!, like Sin & Punishment 2. Another doubling of content costing 50% more and earning 20% more. So between these two games, Nintendo spent 3x and earned 2.4y.

The trouble is, that for the price Nintendo paid to double the content of both Punch-Out!! and Sin & Punishment 2, they could have made Kirby Wii and earned 3y on their 3x investment. Even if y is ten times the size of x, so that the investment in more content sees a massive return, Nintendo could have had a better return if they spent that money on a third game instead.

Things aren't as simple as my example, obviously, but publishers have to decide how much content they need to entice the consumer and whether more content will actually result in a better return than different content, or more marketing, or more R&D, etc.

Couldn't have said it better.

They're doing the right thing by proposing partnerships with third parties, but when I say outsourcing I don't mean handing over a design for someone else to accomplish. They could make the game in a simple fashion and outsource chunks of their development, like cinematics and online multiplayer. If they are to go HD, they need some kind of solution to the resource problem.

They're already starting to expand their Kyoto branch, and slowly they're creating new studios. Nothing at all like we've seen Sony do, which was required of them due to HD development. For Nintendo to make such a move they'd have to make a few adjustments, I mean arguably they're barely even able to care of their own system in SD now. Small team increments won't necessarily be suficient going forward, especially if they up the DS with powerful graphics, too. A lot more manpower will be needed.

I love you Puffy.

I don't know if I agree entirely with you. But when I played AnimalCrossing:CityFolk that was exactly the thing going through my mind. Where is the new content? It was virtually non-existant everything seemed ported from WildWorld and AC:GC! However I am used to Nintendo giving it their all and for the most part they tend to give us alot of content the content we deserve tends to be supplied.

Could Nintendo make a stronger effort to give us more quality games? Yes but are the quality games their releasing now really lacking in content? I don't think so.

I own NSMBW for example and other then online co-op I can't really say I'm at all dissapointed in the amount of content!

I hear what your saying. And i agree for the most part. Maybe you should ask Reggie?

@1337 Gamer: Reggie is just a PR mouthpiece at this stage, the man you have to ask is Iwata. You won't get any meaningful answers from anyone else at Nintendo.

This does seem to go back to the problems that they've been having of late, namely that they clearly need more developers, or at least developer teams.

thanks for all the comments. famousringo, i liked your explanation, it helped me understand stuff n shit.

i understand there would be a cost to have 50% more fighters.. but i dont think its going to be as dramatic as 1.5x (x being how much it cost to make the game). i know you were pulling numbers out of your ass to demonstrate a point, but even if they were to not have as great a return with more fighters, i think it would help a lot in other areas.

i think the overall reviews would be better, which would help sales. i also think it would help build their reputation even more.

the return may not happen right away, but i think if nintendo gave a little more in these great games that they have already came out with, you would see more profits in the long term. more content in punch out and a sick ass multiplayer element in galaxy could very well keep a few customers from selling their wiis.

thats just how i feel about it.

What do you know exactly about Nintendo? They're working really hard to create beautiful games...