Poll: Should Nintendo go third party?

[Quirkymeister]

Hello,
Just a weird thought that occurred to me when I was having a discussion with a friend. We were discussing the old 'PC vs Console' thing and it occurred to me that neither of us had brought up the Wii U, and that was because, to us at least, not much seems to be out for it, nor do any of us even know anyone who has one, contrasting the apparent ubiquitousness of its predecessor. So we wondered aloud if Ninty should abandon the console market and permit its games on consoles people actually own so I wouldn't have to buy a Nintendo console for just the one or two games that are good.

So in short, who else holds the sentiment that Nintendo should, if not drop the Wii U, then at least release some of their IP to other, less gimmicky and underpowered platforms? Because save for Smash Bros, Mario Kart and maybe Splatoon, the Wii U's sort of lacking the innovative killer apps that the Wii had early in its life cycle (Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, and Metroid Prime 3 come to mind), so unless they come up with that Wii U Zelda game that no information exists for or a mario game that isn't just a retread of a SNES game, in my opinion, that could possibly be their only way of keeping in the console market.

Note: I'm fully aware that the 3DS is doing fine, and they're under no threat in the handheld market, I'm just wondering who thinks that Nintendo should expand their IP to other consoles/PC.

Personally, I say unless they come up with those killer apps, then yes. They aren't getting decent 3rd party support any time soon, and I think that releasing, say, Super Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time or one of their newer titles, maybe sans motion controls, on the PC or PS4 could allow them to make money on a market with a much higher userbase than the Wii U. But then again, maybe I just prefer controllers that you can recharge whilst still being able to use them (seriously, rechargeable wii remote batteries were the bane of my existence).

So anyway, what's your opinion on my opinion?

 

[Hades]

Going third party would be very profitable for series such as Mario and Zelda but I fear Nintendo's more Niche franchises like Fire emblem will be abandoned when they no longer have the profits of hardware to take those ''risks''

 

[ffronw]

There's been a push for Nintendo to farm out their games to other platforms for years, and Nintendo has never done it. One of the biggest reasons is that they have so much money to fall back on that they simply aren't threatened by taking the long view on a console. The Wii U is underperforming by almost any metric you choose to use, but that really doesn't matter to the company.

They've been in business for over a hundred years, and because of that, they tend to take a much longer view on things than more recently formed, tech-focused companies do. In fact, that history (and that bank account) are behind every decision Nintendo makes. It's why they were the last of the so-called "big 3" to move to an online environment, and it's the reason they haven't jumped on any fads that may come along.

I think it would behoove them to move IP into other spaces, particularly classic games on mobile, but I also have no illusions that it will happen anytime soon.

Going third party would be very profitable for series such as Mario and Zelda but I fear Nintendo's more Niche franchises like Fire emblem will be abandoned when they no longer have the profits of hardware to take those ''risks''

It's unlikely that games like Fire Emblem would go anywhere. Even if Nintendo bailed out of the console market completely, they would not stop producing handhelds or games. That's just too big a market for them.

Side note: Nintendo is losing money on every Wii U sold (http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/03/18/t-ts-nintendo-wii-u-teardown.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=HP_River), so "profits from hardware," at least in the console space, isn't a thing. They'll likely get that cost down soon (or may already have done so), but even if they break even, they aren't making anything there.

 

[Lufia Erim]

I don't think they should. It's not like nintendo aren't selling systems, they are. So profit there. And they are selling their own games. So profit there . In all honesty, in my opinion, they don't even need to sell 3rd party games. Sure it would be nice, but they don't need to. Nintendo sells on name recongnition alone, no other videogame company can really say that.

 

[Vlado]

It's funny because, if you're into Nintendo games, Wii U is easily better than PS4 and Xbox One right now (and I say that as someone who generally does not like Nintendo games). The latter two are completely eclipsed by the PC.

 

[Bellvedere]

Obviously for consumers it would be awesome if Nintendo, and all game developers for that matter, would just release every game on every platform so everyone could play everything. Exclusive games are the best way for the various consoles to distinguish themselves in the market though, so that's never going to happen. Since Nintendo is back to profits, I would imagine that it's not in their best interests to just make games or else that's what they would be doing. While exclusivity sucks when it comes to the consoles that we don't own I think it's probably worth it for increased competition in the market. After all we only have a finite amount of time to play games anyway.

Though we hear frequently that developers can't afford to release their games on a single platform it's a bit different for in-house studios. Namely that when releasing on their own console they don't need to pay the licensing costs that they would have to pay to release on other platforms, and it also reduces development costs as it only needs to be optimised for one platform rather than several. WiiU games as you have noted are also less performance intensive then those released on the more powerful platforms which also keeps development costs down.

I agree with what has been said about smaller titles not being able to survive as multi-platform releases. Whilst I'm sure some games would see increased sales if more widely available (like Smash), there'd be others that would only sell to a consumer base of a similar size to the WiiU (hence the existence us folks with a WiiU wanting to fork out for a WiiU - I mean I'm one of those people that thinks the WiiU has plenty of awesome games to justify buying the consoles whereas OP thinks it's still lacking any worthwhile titles) resulting in only have increased development costs without the extra sales to justify it.


Also WiiU has controllers that you can charge whilst using (Gamepad and Pro-controllers)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think Nintendo would benefit more from publishing third party games than from releasing on third party platforms.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

...Really? People are really bringing this up AGAIN despite how many times the argument has been dismantled on all levels? I swear, people have terrible memories. So how about I simplify this so people understand it:

1. There is no point to it. Nintendo is making money unlike most other companies, so why exactly would they ever want to put their stuff on competing systems? people keep saying they'd make more money, but what guarantee is there? If anything their profits would plummet leading to:

2. You would not get as much as you think you would. A lot of people whine and moan about Nintendo using the same franchises over and over again and how they don't do enough to make new franchises or bring back old ones (though we all know that's provably wrong). Here's the thing: you would get even fewer IPs if Nintendo went third party. Has no one noticed how publishers have reduced their portfolios to a pathetically shallow and anemic number of IPs? That's what would happen with Nintendo. No Fire Emblem, no Wonderful 101, no Xenoblade, no The Last Story, no Splatoon, no Golden Sun, no Pikmin, no Metroid, no Kid Icarus, no new Star Fox, nothing, you truly would just get the Zelda, Mario, Pokemon loadout that people claim is happening anyway. You would not get variety at all, you would be killing it and just furthering homogenization in the games industry. And that is never a good thing. Their self-dependent nature means they can afford to branch out and experiment.

So I think people need to finally make peace with reality: Nintendo is NEVER going to go third party, they will never stop being self-sustaining, they will never stop making hardware, and you're going to have to live with buying Nintendo hardware in order to get their games or go without them. It's tiring having to reinform people of this frequently. They're pretty much the only company expanding steadily along with one of the few frequently posting profits. You can't tell me they somehow need to go third party when they're clearly stable and profitable. That is just ignoring reality.

 

[Nazulu]

Yeah, why not. I used to like them having there own console, but I don't care anymore since they've been forcing gimmicks. Plus it would benefit us more I reckon if they just release everything on everything else now. Would save us money and make it easier for most of us to pick our next console.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

So I think people need to finally make peace with reality: Nintendo is NEVER going to go third party, they will never stop being self-sustaining, they will never stop making hardware, and you're going to have to live with buying Nintendo hardware in order to get their games or go without them. It's tiring having to reinform people of this frequently. They're pretty much the only company expanding steadily along with one of the few frequently posting profits. You can't tell me they somehow need to go third party when they're clearly stable and profitable. That is just ignoring reality.

Considering the Wii U is their worst-selling console ever, it's as good a time as ever to bring the question up.

 

[Pseudonym]

Obviously for consumers it would be awesome if Nintendo, and all game developers for that matter, would just release every game on every platform so everyone could play everything. Exclusive games are the best way for the various consoles to distinguish themselves in the market though, so that's never going to happen.

I second this. It would be nice for me to just have any and all games on pc. I can turn my pc into a powerful console by having my moniter face the couch and hooking up a controller regardless so in that sense I'd personally like everyone who makes games to just go third party to PC/Mac/Linux. I really see no need for consoles from a consumer perspective. Unfortunately nintendo, microsoft and sony aren't really looking out for my interests, but rather their own and they seem to think it is in their interest to have their own platforms and have developers payed to make games exclusive on those platforms. I understand why developers like the idea of consoles. It prevents a lot of piracy. It really isn't nice to spend millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man hours of work into something only to have people scam you out of the money they are supposed to pay you for it. And I can see what is in it for nintendo as selling a console itself can make you money and making money off every game sold on the console can make you even more money. So I'll try to look at things from their perspective for a bit.

Like fronww said, nintendo can survive and in the past has survived a flopped console. Not only that but the wii u is so far not a total flop. It is doing poorly and it isn't selling nearly as well as the other consoles but this consolegeneration isn't over yet. From where I am sitting it has still barely started. For the wii u as well as for the xbox one and ps4, there aren't enough games and there aren't good enough games. Smash 4, Bayonetta 2, pikmin 3 and bloodborne might be reasons to buy a console as might the backwards compatibility or what passes as such of the ps4 and the wii u. I'm not convinced that any of the three consoles are worth it as it is which is why I don't own one. (well, that and I don't want to spend too much money) If the wii u can make a couple of good games, get its act together in the marketing department it might turn out a profit in 2016 and 2017 making this generation not a total flop for nintendo. But honestly, I know very little about finance so I'll get on to some other considerations like what kind of competetive advantages and disadvantages the wii u has from the perspective of a gamer (that's my perspective specifically).

So in short, who else holds the sentiment that Nintendo should, if not drop the Wii U, then at least release some of their IP to other, less gimmicky and underpowered platforms?

I'd like to zoom in on this a bit more. I got the chance to play some games on a wii u of a friend. Mostly smash, a bit of bayonetta, a tiny bit of mario 3d whatever the exact title was. I've seen other people play pikmin 3 on it and some old wii titles. It doesn't seem that underpowered or gimmicky to me. I can control most of my games with a fairly regular wii u pro controller and smash with a gamecube controller. The wii u pad isn't that bad and I easily prefer it over the wiimote or similar forms of motion control which seem far shittier and more gimmicky to me. It also isn't that underpowered. It can run its games in 1080p 60fps. I don't think smash would look any better, where it released on PS4, xbox one or even PC. It looks how nintendo wants it to look. Now the games on the wii u aren't as chockfull of assets and objects and photorealistic graphics as some games for the ps4 or xbox one are but I'm not sure why we need them to be if they run well and look pretty in terms of art style and sharpness. Those better graphics are nice to have, sure, but the difference isn't big that big here.

As for me, this is all from the perspective of a pc-gamer who will likely skip the entirety of this generation as far as consoles go. But if I buy any of the consoles then it will be the wii u. The PS4 and xbox one just don't interest me in the least. Most of their good games are on pc too or on older generation consoles. I'm fairly confident that I would just straight up not use a ps4 or xbox one if I owned one because I already have a pc.

 

[kasperbbs]

I don't know whether they should or not.. All i can say is that i would be more likely tu purchase their games if they did, now theres no chance of that happening.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Considering the Wii U is their worst-selling console ever, it's as good a time as ever to bring the question up.

And yet it's still profitable thus making any attempt to talk about this moot. It's silly, it's repetitive, and it's pointless. The company is fine and at this point it is clear that people can't STAND that and are making up wishful scenarios of how Nintendo could go third party. It's like reading REALLY bad fanfiction. Moving on

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Considering the Wii U is their worst-selling console ever, it's as good a time as ever to bring the question up.

And yet it's still profitable thus making any attempt to talk about this moot. It's silly, it's repetitive, and it's pointless. The company is fine and at this point it is clear that people can't STAND that and are making up wishful scenarios of how Nintendo could go third party. It's like reading REALLY bad fanfiction. Moving on

"Still profitable" doesn't cut it. It's about making more money. Making less is the same as losing in Businessworld.

 

[xaszatm]

Considering the Wii U is their worst-selling console ever, it's as good a time as ever to bring the question up.

And yet it's still profitable thus making any attempt to talk about this moot. It's silly, it's repetitive, and it's pointless. The company is fine and at this point it is clear that people can't STAND that and are making up wishful scenarios of how Nintendo could go third party. It's like reading REALLY bad fanfiction. Moving on

"Still profitable" doesn't cut it. It's about making more money. Making less is the same as losing in Businessworld.

...so why do the PS and Xbox brands still exist?

[img=http://abload.de/img/nintendo_sony_151yo3b.gif]http://abload.de/img/nintendo_sony_151yo3b.gif[/img]

Xbox is even worse than the Playstation, yet we never get any PS needs to go 3rd party or Xbox needs to go 3rd party. Both companies for the longest time floundered in the profit margins yet when Nintendo has a loss, it's suddenly HAS to be the end of the company? Please.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Considering the Wii U is their worst-selling console ever, it's as good a time as ever to bring the question up.

And yet it's still profitable thus making any attempt to talk about this moot. It's silly, it's repetitive, and it's pointless. The company is fine and at this point it is clear that people can't STAND that and are making up wishful scenarios of how Nintendo could go third party. It's like reading REALLY bad fanfiction. Moving on

"Still profitable" doesn't cut it. It's about making more money. Making less is the same as losing in Businessworld.

...so why do the PS and Xbox brands still exist?

[img=http://abload.de/img/nintendo_sony_151yo3b.gif]http://abload.de/img/nintendo_sony_151yo3b.gif[/img]

Xbox is even worse than the Playstation, yet we never get any PS needs to go 3rd party or Xbox needs to go 3rd party. Both companies for the longest time floundered in the profit margins yet when Nintendo has a loss, it's suddenly HAS to be the end of the company? Please.

I didn't say Nintendo's going bankrupt, I said that they would do better if they published 3rd party games.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

...so why do the PS and Xbox brands still exist?

[img=http://abload.de/img/nintendo_sony_151yo3b.gif]http://abload.de/img/nintendo_sony_151yo3b.gif[/img]

Xbox is even worse than the Playstation, yet we never get any PS needs to go 3rd party or Xbox needs to go 3rd party. Both companies for the longest time floundered in the profit margins yet when Nintendo has a loss, it's suddenly HAS to be the end of the company? Please.

And now we're getting to it. Nintendo has posted all of TWO years where they endured a loss. Two. Despite having been in the gaming business for more than thirty years, longer than most other companies have been around. Hell, most of their IPs have been around longer than most companies. And then we have all the money they've managed to not waste through stupid decisions and reckless spending. MS hasn't made a penny off the XBox division and I have NO idea why it's still around. Sony still has yet to make up for the PS3 era which burned through every dollar they earned during the PS1 and PS2 days and the only reason the gaming division hasn't been cut off is because it is now miraculously profitable unlike every other sector of the company which has been floundering, causing them to go through mass layoffs. And of course Nintendo is not only not contracting, but outright expanding.

And this is why the "Nintendo must go third party" "debate" is dumb; Nintendo is profiting and expanding, mostly because the company manages itself better which leads to not having to deal with all the other bullshit every other company is suffering from be it rampant overspending, developer egoism, complete elimination of quality control, and homogenization. If the most stable company in the entire industry is somehow in need of going third party than every other company is, to quote John Oliver, "in the FUCKBARREL."

 

[Zontar]

I didn't say Nintendo's going bankrupt, I said that they would do better if they published 3rd party games.

I dunno man, looks like they're doing fucking awesomely to me based on those charts.[/quote]

I don't know, Sony Game has been doing better then them since 2011. I own a Wii U and as much as I like the games on it I'd be happy if there was some more dame games on the thing.

 

[Flammablezeus]

If anything I feel like Microsoft and Sony should just drop their consoles and stick to releasing games on PC and Nintendo consoles. They really don't have many games at all and most of the games available on their systems are available and better on PC. They usually just pay third-party companies for exclusive rights to their games. Nintendo on the other hand is able to sell consoles on the strength of their first-party games alone, not to mention any third-party games they release.