VG_Addict said:
So, do most of you think Nintendo SHOULD go third party?
I don't think it'd be in Nintendo's best interest, yet. But I don't have a God's eye view on their market position and their strategy going forward. They have a huge stockpile of money and if they pump that into developing a console that can actually compete with the big boys then they can have Nintendo + full 3rd party support and a comparative cost. Nintendo stands to make a lot of money if they hit another successful console. We saw the N64 and gamecube losing significant amounts of market share and it was the Wii's innovative control mechanic that saved them. So maybe their first party software is no longer good enough for adults to continue to purchase. That being said, I also think that Nintendo found their niche last generation. They had a really cheap console that was easy to understand and use. That opened it up to all kinds of gamers from the elderly who hadn't even been considered a target market to casual gamers who prefer the excellent party lineup Nintendo provies. With the WiiU, they made the thing more complex with the gamepad and more expensive because of the gamepad (it's $140 to make the gamepad by itself). They meant it as a differentiator but it turned out we just didn't need or want it and developers didn't figure out a reason for it to exist which explains why it has become a glorified minimap in so many games. I think they could drop the gamepad and do a bit better going forward with a price reduction and patches to support software made so far.
I think making some of their older titles available on pc and other consoles may be nice. People steal them on PC anyways, so they might as well sell games older than the gamecube elsewhere (selling software that is too new may cannibalize sales of titles that are just coming out). Since those games hold up so well, it could serve as advertisement to get more gamers into Nintendo products.
As things are right now, maintaining the console isn't all that beneficial to them. The ps3/360 markets can generally play the games that Nintendo has made so far (Nintendo games aren't traditionally graphically demanding). That's only important because those markets constitute something like 160 million consoles compared to the WiiU's 5 million. A 10% attach rate for the WiiU would be 500k units sold. A 10% attach rate for the 360/ps3 would be 16 million units sold. If Nintendo can't get enough market share in the console market then it will be worth their time at some point. New Super Mario Bros has a crazy high attach rate on the WiiU of around 65% as the consoles biggest seller. On the WiiU that's 3.46 million units. It wouldn't have gotten 65% in the overall market. But like I said, just 10% would sell 4.6 time what it sold on the WiiU and I don't think it's unreasonable to think that 10% of gamers would purchase that game if they had the chance.
The question is how much money that translates into vs how much money Nintendo gets from all the non-first party. If the equation is more for them to be 3rd party and is likely to continue to be more then it does suit their needs. However, if they make another console in the near future that sells like the Wii, then they'd likely make a ton of more money and going third party in the meantime would weaken the demand for future Nintendo consoles (hypothetically, it could also just increase demand since their games ARE good). But this generation they're taking a hit on every console they sell and aren't selling very many units of software (they have only 4 games that have sold over a million and one more that is close to it). The best selling non-Nintendo game is ZombieU which was a launch title and has only sold just over 620k units. That's not good, fyi, and is why companies aren't supporting the WiiU. For most of the year, Nintendo only had two titles over a million. Both of which were included in major bundles for the console and one current major bundle has actually been including two games that are in the top five (New Super Mario and Luigi). Compare that to the PS4 which has only been out for a couple months and already has 5 titles at over a million. Personally, I think Sony's launch was relatively weak. But the 3rd party software has really propped it up as only one of those IPs are Sony (Killzone, which is a beautiful game).
For Nintendo fans, them switching to third party would be excellent. There is no downside for us as fans to be able to purchase the Nintendo Software brand on our PCs, PS4/XBOs. There's a reason why people buy a WiiU even though third party support is near null. So there is a demand for it.
I think the Wii U's 2014 lineup looks good, with X, Bayonetta 2, DCKTF, Smash Bros, and MK8.
It looks ok. It's like they spread out the previous generation's first year into two. If someone has to choose between a console that only has Nintendo products vs a console that has first party games and the wealth of 3rd party games then they really should go for whatever console 3rd party developers are producing. There's just so many more 3rd party games because that's hundreds if not thousands of studios making games whereas Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are only one big publisher each. With Sony doing as good of a job at first-party development as Nintendo while also having 3rd party support, I would never buy a WiiU for myself if I could only get one. I would buy a WiiU for a young kid though. I think Nintendo has a really good niche with the young, elderly, and casual community. They largely damaged their niche by pursuing the hardcore market so heavily this generation and the way they did it.
Likewise, I'm one of those old Nintendo fans that have been playing since the beginning. Frankly, I'm a little tired of the same old cast. The games are still fun, but I'm not nearly as excited about MK8 than I was about Pikmin 3. A game which I won't be purchasing until the number of games I want makes sense to buy the console. I'm not even cash strapped, I'm just not willing to make a bad deal. Whereas, if these games were available on the pc or other consoles that I own, I'd buy it right now.