Topic: Nintendo NX and Types of Developer Support

ftfy

Ideally support of all 3 should be their aim

Realistically I can see them getting by with 1 and 2(Barely), Nintendo has a lot of issues with gaining support of Western developers, which are currently the industry's heavy hitters at the moment.

They're gonna have to do everything they possibly can to get that western support

you guys are going to go absolutely ape shit at your little keyboards when more of the NX is announced. it absolutely wont be a "normal console" like you've been used to - like Nintendo pioneered - and it wont have this "Western support" that you keep pretending is so vital to a Nintendo console succeeding. i can't believe how out of touch with Nintendo so many people seem to be, this notion of needing "more marketing in the west" and "appealing to the Hollywood casual-gamers" is just a joke, I don't understand why people feel Nintendo need to go back into that market when they haven't been chasing it for a decade now. I guess I understand how people pretend Nintendo are in a "dire situation" so it makes sense for them to think Nintendo should chase money, but I guess you just need to be educated so you aren't afraid of things that don't exist, like Nintendo being in any financial trouble anytime soon. honestly it's just perplexing how you dudes think about money so much and think Nintendo are skint. it's f***ng NINTENDO.

seriously they made SO MUCH MONEY reaching out to people that never identified as gamers and successfully putting controllers in their hands, and that is the market they are building on. kids, casuals, mothers, fathers, teachers, grandmothers. what makes anyone think it's sensible to head back into a market with 3 of the same consoles already - PS4, Xbox, PC? what is the point of a fourth console with the same games? I just don't understand these posts!

@martinskrtel37: I'm actually with you on this one. People seem to ignore the fact that PC, despite being an open platform, has effectively taken Nintendo's place in the AAA race. Trying to directly compete in the space now is suicidal. No matter what Nintendo does, most AAA western developers and publishers are either going to join late or aren't interested in releasing games on Nintendo platforms period. And most consumers on the PS4, Xbox One, and to an extend PC aren't going to give Nintendo a chance. Nintendo is mostly likely developing partnerships and relationships with developers and publishers that align with their philosophies . This include sthe indie and mobile scene, the Japanese industry, a small fraction of the AAA western industry, and smaller western devs/publishers.
They don't have to chase after the mainstream AAA audience, partially because they can't at this point, but they can carter to under-served audiences that have been neglected last gen and this gen. Families, children, otakus, gamers looking for deep gameplay experiences, etc. Hell, there are gamers that are still attached to their PS3s and 360s that Nintendo can grab a hold on. The sooner gamers accept the fact that Nintendo is trying to find success and relevancy in other areas, the better. But of course, barely anyone can discuss Nintendo's future without either extreme biases for or against the company or having expectations either unrealistically low or high.

I don't think anyone, or any sane person for that matter, would argue that Nintendo needs to become another Microsoft or Sony (or what Sony was during the last generation, because they've changed quite a lot since then). However, by providing other options, in this case western games, they will be able to cater to a larger audience. Nintendo will still be there. However, next to Mario, Zelda and whatnot, having more games to play is never a bad thing. Nintendo has difficulty supporting their home console on their own. Fortunately, I like plenty of franchises and types of games, but for someone who isn't interested in all of Nintendo's first party games, the Wii U's library becomes suddenly quite empty.

We're not talking about western developers either, what about the Japanese developers? Where are games like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid or Dragon Quest? Not on Nintendo platforms. The only reason the 3DS is supported like it is, is because there's a huge market for that system; with a userbase of over 50 million. Trust me, if their next handheld isn't a success, Capcom and their games are gone, that's guaranteed. Companies are not charities, they are arguably greedy in some instances, but the premise is that they need money to sustain themselves.

The casual market is gone, period. They made Nintendo a lot of money last generation, but they aren't coming back. It was a short-term solution, but not a long-term viable market strategy. They are absolutely not building on that market right now. The Wii (and the DS) was a fad, it was the exception.

The important thing above all else though, is perception. A strong launch library can feed positively into that, but other negative things can distract or eclipse that (E.g. Xbox One announcement and the TV, TV, TV thing).

For indies, I think at least initially, it shouldn't be an open market, and that Nintendo should hand-pick what does or doesn't go on the system. Nintendo hardly has a problem on the quirky-colourful side, but indies can fill in the genre gaps and demand for shorter game experiences.

Additionally, if Nintendo are NOT going after the hardcore market with NX, then having the latest CoD or Assassin's Creed is less of an issue. However, the big western publishers are still capable of putting out quality titles maybe one tier down from AAA. Stuff like Plants vs Zombies, Rayman or Child of Light, and that can similarly help pad things out.

One alternative idea could be to make a device focused on Asian markets. Build on Japan's 3DS success and try to crack the Chinese market with easy-to-pass-the-censors family-friendly games. In which case, building alliances with Japanese (and other Asian) mobile developers would be super-important. Then let the Wii U continue on in the West for a few more years.

@JamesCoote: I disagree about the indies. They need to continue with their current policies and work towards getting bigger indies on their systems. Having an ipen market (just not as open as Smart Devices) is important. Making sure a large amount of development tools work easily with their hardware is also important. More indies is good, as long as it doesn't get as flooded as Smart Devices.

@DefHalan: To put it another way, I think Nintendo should simplify their processes to make life easier for developers. But if they do that with their current policy of letting anything onto the store that passes technical requirements checks, then the store really would be flooded with crap in no time at all.

Better to take a small number of indie devs/games initially, make things super-easy for them, build a reputation for being a place where quality games can thrive, and of being easy to work with. Then Nintendo will have every indie knocking on their door wanting in and Nintendo can pick and choose the best.

It absolutely is not in the indie mould of openness and artistic freedom and creativity and letting anyone get their hands on the hardware to see what crazy "innovative" things they can make with it. But consoles simply are not and never have been the place for that. There's too much legal baggage and need to tightly control the image of the console in the hyper-competitive inter-console perception war.

@JamesCoote: The problem with that is it limits the experiences the users can have. As long as Nintendo is smart enough not to treat every indie release as the next big thing, the store will be able to sort out low quality products easily. If Nintendo became selective with the games they allow to be released then it is only customers that lose out. There could be good games that weren't allowed on the eShop just because the developer hadn't released anything before. Runbow, Blok Drop U, Color Zen, Dot Arcade, Kung Fu Rabbit, Nova-111, Paper Monsters Recut, Scram Kitty, Shovel Knight, Squids Odyssey, Stealth Inc 2, The Fall, and ZaciSa's Last Stand are all examples of games that got a chance because of Nintendo's open indie policy. One of the hardest things about Indies is you don't really know what will be a hit until it is released. You will always have developers that abuse the rules, even bigger budget titles from known developers do that, but trying to limit what releases on your system leads to less games for the customers. Indies don't finish a game then try to put it on consoles, that isn't how game development works. By having the open marketplace Nintendo is able to provide indies a platform to develop on while increasing the number titles available to their customers. As long as Nintendo does a good job at promoting good indies and keeping the eShop looking clean, I don't see a probably with them being as open as they have been.

@DefHalan: Definitely agree with you in principle. Ideally the market decides. In practice, looking at marketplaces such as Steam, I'm not convinced the algorithms or systems for letting the crowd find what is or isn't a quality game necessarily do a good job at floating the best stuff to the surface.

Console makers however, are in a unique position where they can look through and pick out the better games, that due to the vagaries of the Steam system, haven't made it to the top. Then give them a boost. Nintendo/Sony/MS teams have a lot of experience at seeing what works and what doesn't. They like to make out their systems have "the best games" in all their marketing. So makes sense for them to hover above in the gaming ecosystem and be "the elite" stores of hand-picked titles, rather than trying to imitate Steam.

@JamesCoote: By doing that they will be limiting what they can sell and limiting what people can enjoy. With an open market they can still look at the top indie games and advertise those. Being "the elite" device but not getting random hit gems from the indie community would be bad. You can't be "the elite" device if you have to wait for a game to release on other platforms, make a name for it self, then try to lure it onto your system. A game releasing on multiple systems at the same time is important to developers and important to their fans. Often we talk about what a system is missing or doesn't have as negatives. Rarely do we talk about games the system does have as negative, and when we do it doesn't last. It is more important to have something,especially when it takes such little work on Nintendo's side, than to not have the content when people want it.