It's "More Difficult Than Ever" To Collaborate With Nintendo, Claims Picross Developer Jupiter

Nintendo if Jupiter comes to you for picross you say "Yes" without question dangit!

I have trouble believing that the company that released a dozen Picross games on 3DS and a dozen Picross games on Switch, including a furry porn one, has any difficulty getting Nintendo to give them permission to use the IP.

Worth saying that this interview VGC wangled is a big deal considering how rarely Jupiter talk to Western media. It’s a weird concept, you can fly out to Japan and get an exclusive interview, only for every other site to run a story on it and probably getting more views.

When you make a pitch and you don't hear back from them that means they are not interested. They are trying to be nice by not saying no to your face Jupiter.

I wonder what the sales figures are for the Nintendo picross games.

Aside from Picross, Jupiter hasn’t done much outside of that in a while. I think Nintendo doesn’t want another AlphaDream like situation where a developer ends up making one I.P.

If it's like a Nintendo-themed Picross or a return of the Mario's Picross presentation (as in, archeologist Mario, and maybe Wario, solving puzzles in Egypt) I'm all for it.
If Nintendo doesn't reply, release Picross: Anniversary Edition, whether it's on Switch or its successor.

At least we now know Jupiter plans a Picross game for the 30th Anniversary.

Nintendo has insane quality control - and I love it!

Sony and Microsoft don't want Nintendo to ever make a console that could compete in the hardware department because I feel like Nintendo would absolutely decimate them!

I know Gamecube was a powerful machine, but it lacked DVD - which ended up shooting them in the foot.

If Nintendo made one that supported 4K Blu-ray (and had a cartridge slot for Switch games) it would be game over.

NOTE: I have been drinking tonight....LOL!

Makes sense, they are the most anti-consumer company I've ever seen.

@GamingFan4Lyf LOL adding a physical media player is about as smart as adding a Blockbuster membership card included. Raise the cost a ton for something barely anyone even uses?

@theModestMouse During the Playstation 2/GC era many 100,000s of people bought a PS2 because it had a dvd player. It was back when Netflix started sending dvds to people. I used it all of the time.

I literally would not have purchased a X two month ago if it weren't for the Blu Ray player. The X is my bluray player. It made sense to buy a combined unit rather than two units. This is not uncommon. You are doing it wrong and always have been.

“Hey Nintendo can we make Picross S10?”

“But haven’t you just released Picross S9?

“Yes, but…”

“And before that Picross S8?”

“Yes… but…”

“And before that Picross S7, Picross S6, Picross S5, Picross S4, Picross S3, Picross S2, Picross S, Picross S: Mega Drive & Mark III Edition, PICROSS X: Picbits vs Uzboross, Kemono Friends Picross, Picross Lord of the Nazarick, Club Nintendo Picross, Club Nintendo Picross Plus, My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Picross e9, Picross e8, Picross e7, Picross e6, Picross e5, Picross e4, Picross e3, Picross e2, Picross e, Pokémon Picross, Sanrio Characters Picross, Picross DS, Mario’s Picross, Mario’s Super Picross, Tamori’s Picross, Picross NP, Picross 2, and Picross?”

“Yes, but…”

“But what?”

“Well, won’t you at least hear the pitch?”

“What’s the pitch?”

“Well…”

“…”

“…It’s Picross”

“……”

“…But NEW Picross!”

“………”

“…Picross S10!”

“…………”

“…Man, talk about uncooperative…”

It's confusing to read articles like this complaining about Nintendo's approval process given the glut of absolute trash "games" on the eShop. Nintendo's "Seal of Quality" is LONG gone.

If you make a game that another company has the rights to, and that company says "no", you should forget about that game and make a new game/ip.

Not sure what these guys are disappointed about, there's literally 12 Picross games on Switch, that's way more than the Sega king of rehash Puyo Puyo series. Maybe it's difficult cause Nintendo has had enough of Picross for now.

@AtlanteanMan
The seal of quality argument is so ridiculous. Nintendo Life themselves did an article on it back in 2019 that pointed out that the 'seal of quality' meant "Basically, the seal is simply an assurance that the item you're looking at won't destroy your console, rather than an indication that the game itself is of high enough quality."

Anytime someone wants to argue that the "Seal of Quality days are long gone", I just look back and think of all the LJN games that carried that 'seal of quality'

@AtlanteanMan People still believe that the Nintendo and Sega Seal of Quality means good games? The seal of quality for any product is pretty much just their stamp of approval that the product could be release on their platform and nothing more. It's literally like a normal stamp you put on your mail or packages. You could mail trash to your buddy, put the USPS stamp on it and they'll take it no matter what. They don't care if what you mail or ship is of value or not. If it doesn't had the stamp of approval then they just don't take it, that's it. If any game doesn't had the Nintendo Seal of Quality on their games then those games had no reason to be release on Nintendo's system. It had nothing to do with preventing trash games from coming on Steam, the PS Store, the eShop, or Xbox Marketplace.

For being "more difficult than ever" to collaborate with, I feel we've seen far more collaborations by Nintendo on the Switch than any of their other consoles, but that's just me.

@topher6490 I wouldn't really consider the Sega Picross "furry porn", but...

@HotGoomba You forget that the titular hedgehog of SEGA’s flagship series is frequently depicted wearing nothing more than gloves, shoes, and a butt-load of sassy attitude.

_{Hope this doesn’t get me banned.}

@AtlanteanMan
The issue is not Nintendo letting Jupiter publish a game in Switch.
The problem is Nintendo not letting Jupiter use their IP in their game

The Sega Picross is in my #6 in playtime. I would LOVE a Nintendo IP one.

@jamesthemagi The real issue is Nintendo letting them use the IP in their game way too much that it gets old now. With 12 games on Switch already, I don't think Picross needs an anniversary version. After all, if you had play one version of the game you basically already play them all anyways.

So do we get a Nintendo anniversary collaboration or not?

Don't you mean the world ends with you developer?

@theModestMouse

You think a switch cartridge slot adds a lot to the cost of producing a switch? It's basically a proprietary SD card slot. I promise you it's inexpensive.

@Serpenterror @Quantaur But did Nintendo clearly advertise it as such, or did they advertise it in a way that implied that it meant actual quality? Or maybe they didn't advertise it, but instead just let its misleading name do the legwork?

@Maxz I wouldn't worry, afterall this site writes about and promotes the most pornographic games in the world, where up to over a thousand characters in a single game are all butt-naked and in your face. Seriously, no idea how the Pokemon games got through the censors. ;3

bit odd that Nintendo are holding onto the Picross name, doesn't seem all that lucrative.

"It's getting harder to get nintendo to give us money for the same damn game over and over again."

@Cordyceps It sounds less like they’re asking for money to get these games made but to simply license the use of Nintendo IPs. Confusing that it’s gotten so difficult for them to do now considering they’ve made Picross games with Mario, Zelda and Pokémon themes before

That's really unfortunate to hear, the Zelda Picross on 3DS was cool.

I think Nintendo have a keen appreciation of 'burnout'. Imagine if they said yes to everything! We would all be fed up with Mario and Zelda, lol.

@Maxz You know this isn't about Picross S10, which is definitely coming before 2025 anyways.

I saw the picture and was hoping for Zelda TP to be re-released on Switch. Hopes dashed 3 seconds later.

@larryisaman Oh I didn't mean to imply they were asking for money to help with development, I meant actual sales money.

@GamingFan4Lyf I was always curious how Nintendo can do a ton of stupid things while still remaining relevant.

But Nintendo fans just seem to see everything positive. Nintendo could murder someone and would still get praise from its fanbase.

@Mogli yeh starting to see this trend and its not good even for nintendo. nintendo needs to face some constructive criticism I feel they been too archaic these days, but tribalism here is too scared to even fault nintendo. One thing for sure is they have to improve that online function to you know allow online gaming party's and communication. Bad examples are like D3 on switch with no such functions.

"...and collaborations with companies like Xbox"

Stop, just ***** stop. There was no collaboration. Phil Spencer took Xbox 3rd party and this was the painfully obvious first step to it. Xbox got NOTHING from Nintendo and was never going to, Xbox needed Nintendo, nothing more.

Nintendo already allows third-parties and indies to utilize their IPs way more than the other companies, tbh. Which is great, since it allows for a more robust flow of exclusives in the pipeline.

So if Nintendo is turning them down, there's a reason for it.

tbh I'm VERY tired of Picross, and wouldn't buy even a Nintendo-themed one. I have to imagine other people also feel this way, and that this is a factor.

They've let them make 20 in the last 12 years so that's a confusing statement I feel may have been lost in translation a little.

@Maxz tbf if they pitched it to Nintendo as “New Picross” the that would be right on brand for Nintendo. I’d imagine more like:

“So it’s Picross 10!”

bored Japanese execs flicking through their phones a few murmurs hand waving etc.

“…or we could go with *NEW Picross

*excitment ohs and ahs and “wah wahs” fill the room

@Mogli There are plenty of things that Nintendo does wrong. It's account system over the years has been terrible and the actual network connectivity is very slow. I also don't like the fact Nintendo makes you rebuy games because it hasn't had a steady eShop over the years. Nintendo has always been a "steps forward steps back" kind of company.

But the games are what matter and that's where Nintendo wins in spades.

@theModestMouse Except that people still want physical media as a sense of ownership. Look, I don't necessarily disagree with you because discs are nothing more than access keys these days, but it does matter to people.

Truth be told, I don't want Nintendo to have a system like the others. I actually really like the Switch concept and it has proven to be a gigantic success for the company - whether people use it as a primary console or a secondary one.

The Switch was my primary console for a while because my life was so busy, and I was traveling a lot for work. It got me through times when I needed games the most.

My Xbox Series X is now my "primary" console and then I flip between PS5 and Switch whenever an exclusive of interest drops on the respective consoles.

However, when I look at my current games wish list, the Switch has the most games underneath it (yes, I categorize my games wish list by console).

It’s probably cause of Furukawa. I hope they find someone better because he will be bad long term for them because he has no vision for gaming. He benefited off of Iwata’s vision for the Switch but without a solid vision long term Nintendo will become like Disney. Nintendo has become noticeably less experimental recently. Nintendo lives and dies based on their creativity.

@RobynAlecksys except I also bought it because it is an Xbox. I bought it because it is a blu ray player AND an xbox. A better value and I don't have two machines sitting there.

man, I got played!

@Razzy Nintendo had a standard blurb about the Seal of Quality in all the instruction manuals which promised qualities such as "enjoyment". They changed it to something more honest in late 2003. I recall noticing that was changed between Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (released September 2003) and "Fire Emblem" (released November 2003).

The amount of trash on the eshop, you think Nintendo say Yes to most things.

Other than it being a collab, seems like more to this story?

That's because Picross was never huge across the world and has gotten even less and less appealing in time as greater more engaging puzzle games have come out, and continued releases of classics like Tetris ensures that the greatest in the genre aren't going anywhere either. You might as well be trying to pitch a new Pong game with a Nintendo crossover, there simply isn't going to be a whole lot of interest.

@theModestMouse I would love to hear your opinion on Sony and Microsoft next.

@Quantaur lol good point

@AtlanteanMan They said collaborating with Nintendo is difficult. Just releasing a game is still easy.

@judaspete No worries, just a misunderstanding on my part. Still, the problem with so many terrible eShop games is a legitimate concern.

Pokemon Picross again please.

I'm pretty sure they can walk up to The Pokémon Company instead and make another Pokémon Picross very easily. That'll show Nintendo.

@topher6490 Wait what?
Are you for real? I have never seen them release this furry corn game your talking about, what's it called then?

I actually love Picross but it could do with a shake up with the themed content like Zelda Picross on the 3DS (which was a "rewards only purchase" unfortunately) & Picross S (on the Switch eShop already with SEGA content). Jupiter have released a heck of a lot of Picross which I have enjoyed since the DS era with 3D Picross being the height of the series IMO.

I am a tad surprised we haven't had Mario, Pokemon and/or Zelda Picross on the Switch earlier in the Switch's life tbf. Think Nintendo missed out there.

Just a word to support Jupiter : love your games folks, it’s fun, clean, well priced and always a quality product.

@russell-marlow I found this a rather bizarre claim, too. I can only imagine @topher6490 is referring to the E-for-everyone rated KEMONO FRIENDS PICROSS which features chibi characters with animal ears. I suppose it could be classed under a broad definition of ‘furry’, though I’m struggling to see what could be pornographic about an E-rated title.

@topher6490 Is this what you were referring to, or is there some secret Picto-smut that Jupiter covertly published?

That's an awfully small sample size.

Hey, we've been trying hard as fans to have them say yes to a new EarthBound/Mother, we feel your pain

Considering Nintendo have never been particularly shy about shouting their ethos of innovation in gaming I can't imagine what their issue is with being hit up to lend their IP to the twelve hundredth version of the same game.

How do you explain those *****_ty lego sets

Well, given that Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors, Mario + Rabbids, Cadence of Hyrule and even Super Mario RPG got greenlit I guess the problem lies on Jupiter's pitch.

@GamingFan4Lyf I was drinking when I read this, and DAMN was this funny. Thanks for the post, loved it!

@Maxz Freaking Kemono friends?
Okay, topher must be secretly viewing internet smut of that if he's going to refer to it as a furry corn game.
Low-key, the word "furry" has no proper meaning. It's supposed to refer to people in animal costumes roleplaying but for some reason people call fictional anthro animals "furries" and also people who wear animal ears and a tail as "furries" also. Very baffling.