Topic: Should Nintendo be putting so much time into small eShop games?

If you look at yesterday's direct, a significant part of the 3DS coverage dealt with small eShop games made by Nintendo themselves. That begs the question, is it worth the development effort to make all these side games? I mean, I would rather have a new 3D DK game in exchange for all the Streetpass games, Pokemon Rumble World, Pokemon Shuffle, and the house building Animal Crossing game combined

They are trying many things to get some revenue going all while also expanding the library. The 3ds needs to have support up until the NX is released. Same with the Wii U. THough I'm not saying the NX is a handheld but it makes sense to me.

I like the mix of smaller, lower budget games like these and of course the big guns like Smash Bros., Zelda and Xenoblade. There's always a market for cheaper games that people will like to just pick-up and play for a little while.

That's working on the basis that the reason a new DK game is put on hold is for a few eshop games, even if they weren't releasing a handful of eshop games the likes of DK, F-Zero etc still wouldn't becoming and even if the eshop were dropped they would probably just put those resources into Mario Party 11.

I see these small games as appetizers for the bigger games. These small games don't replace the development of a bigger game, these smaller games are good ways to test new gameplay mechanics to see if people will buy them. Alien: Isolation wouldn't have been made if Slender and Outlast didn't come before it and prove people want that experience. I also wouldn't want to have to wait 6 months for a new game when they can release smaller cheaper games monthly while another team works on the bigger 6 month game.

It's worth it to buy side games you consider to be good while waiting for first-party titles, such as Zelda Wii U, which isn't coming out in 2015 by the way.

It's pretty crazy to expect Nintendo's 5,000 or so staff to all be working on some blockbuster all the time. Small titles are often more profitable than big ones and several of them combined make a significant contribution to the company's overall revenue.

There is no "would you rather" situation. These titles are being worked on alongside the bigger games.

Well back when we had more B-C ranked studios many game libraries were padded with their games while waiting for a big release. Many of those smaller devs have gone under or been bought out so the that void has to be filled some how. For the Nintendo made games I think Nintendo recognizes that today's kid starts out playing bite sized chunks that on their parent's smartphone or tablet. These games appeal to that kid as they grow up and move on to other games (or not) and also they have the potential to appeal to the parent that was buying candy crush and sims free play on their phones anyway. Also for those gamers that may like those smaller experiences from time to time this gives them something to play as well. Sometimes you want something simple and quick to play.

I personally need another Magnetica... Zuma is my guilty pleasure.

No. They should be using that time to put out 3 times that number of titles for the Virtual Console, giving them good sales, and remembering that the 3DS exists.