Does the industry benefit from Nintendo going 3rd party?

Not sure why sheep are against Nintendo going 3rd party. They will still get their games and on better hardware and better online platforms. It's a win for everybody even Nintendo. It's clear that Nintendo sucks at hardware and online gaming. They also have a hard time with getting 3rd party support.

From the n64 to the wii u the consoles have had issues from storage to features to power. This did not just happen to Nintendo it be going on for over a decade and a half. There have been my excuses from the internet is a fad to game consoles don't need multimedia features. It's a culture. Instead of looking at what the market is doing, Nintendo says we are doing this instead.

That is the mindset of a developer that happens to have it's own console. Instead of trying to make it's platform stronger, Nintendo is talking about cell phone games smdh.

Look at the sales because sales equate quality in a market full of dumb people.
I'm sure little big planet 3 and FF15 will be every bit as generic as a standard Nintendo title if not more so. I don't see how those games justify the insane costs to procure them. $400 plus a monthly fee and such to play wannabe game designer with bad physics? I don't think so. Suppose it's a matter of taste. But I know that ratio sides with me.

I have been a Nintendo fan for a really long time. However they are tragically behind the times and I am not referring to specs when I say that.. Instead of debating if gaming would be worse if Nintendo disppeared let us look at all the bad things Nintendo are doing even now.

- region locking (there is absolutely no f**king reason for this irrespective of what Iwata says)

- Terrible online account system (absolute trash system in place)

- 0 sales/price drops in older games (all that talk of quality of games and bla bla is just marketing moot)

Also ppl talk a lot about how nintendo consoles are backward compatible.. let us take the case of 3ds. The 3ds can play physical copies of Ds games and off the store you can download gameboy, nes, gameboy color games. Compare taht with the vita which does not have physical backwards compatibility but can play psp and ps1 games off the store. It makes no sense as to why Nintendo havent released gameboy advance and snes games on the store for the 3ds

All in all, I am tired of Nintendo's practices and tired of making excuses for them. I am now finding myself drawn towards sony. Atleast they know how to treat a customer. Nintendo might do well to stop their gimmicks and learn a thing or two

no one benefits from that

Well, I thought I made that clear on why it's a worse idea than gamers like to think. Better hardware and better online won't make a difference if your games still end up sucking and/or selling like s***. It surely didn't matter to Sonic fans that their favorite franchise "lived" when they saw their mascot fall apart (something Nintendo has been preventing with their IP's when Other M had an equal fan reaction to this).

Can't blame Nintendo for wanting to do something different in a market where their two competitors do the freaking same thing with their systems. For better or worse, it at least keeps this industry interesting. Following most trends doesn't help any industry (look at Pop music).

By the way, Iwata didn't precisely say "GAMES" when talking about using mobile units (although it does have me a little bit worried) for ways of pushing their products.

They can continue their march to irrelevance in the console space or turn things around. It really doesn't matter to me anymore. At best, they make 1 or 2 games that interest me a year, and I'm not going to pay $300 for the right to play them. They've done a poor job justifying the asking price based on their current offerings, 3rd party support, console hardware, features and system software(online). I haven't heard a single argument that leads me to believe that Nintendo going 3rd party would be a bad thing. I won't have to spend hundreds on a device that will end up spending 9 months every year collecting dust. Sounds good to me.

I'd rather have another company that's willing to compete with the other console manufacturers take Nintendo's current spot. Competition breeds better products for consumers, but the only thing Nintendo has brought to the table in the last 5 years is motion gaming garbage. Which had MS and Sony wasting resources developing games and hardware that would have been best used for "core" titles. Competition from Sony forced MS to drop their DRM bullshit. Competition from MS forced Sony to make strides in their online infrastructure, an easier to develop console, and a push to court independent devs that now can self-publish. What impact has Nintendo had recently in the console space? Besides the aforementioned motion controls, nothing.

If Wii-U's failure finally puts a fire under their collective asses, then fine. If not, please exit the space so we can have more than two console competing against each other again.

Has anyone actually seen anything like this from Nintendo?

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/01/13/14-for-14-sale-starts-tomorrow-huge-discounts-on-ps3-vita-games/

No. But yeah, lets pretend that Nintendo is the pinnacle of customer service and that their demise would impact us, the customers.

Lets get Monolith Soft developing on PS4. Such a waste of talent having to develop for that shit machine.

Well out of all the consoles, I would prefer to have Nintendo exclusives. Sony exclusives are usually all turds, just a few exceptions. Not too crazy about Microsoft's lineup either. Nintendo puts out some really fun/good games though. I would love to play Nintendo's offerings on PC (the right way if you know what I mean teehee).

Well, if the one's begging them to become a third party like SEGA and the Atari name are true to their word, then that is one big maybe.

Yeah, let's take away developers from the console who needs it a lot. Great idea /sarcasm

Besides, PS4 already has a ton of JRPG developers on board.

Hmm, why stop there though?

make Nintendo 3rd Party, because one console failed to sell well. They should go 3rd Party and sell all the games on PC.

Make All Sony games 3rd Party, Sony is failing finiancially, so they should not make consoles, just a service for PCs.

MS should stop making that wanna be PC, they have shown that whatever dev Works for them, fail due to the Work envioment at MS, Thus MS should just make all the Devs 3rd Party and aim for the PC.

What the hell is up with the morons on this thread? No ofcourse Nintendo should not go third Paty, every single console maker WHO did that (Atari, SEGA comes to mind) ends up pretty much dying or becomming a shadow of theier former selves.

Nintendo fell behind the times? Nentendo pretty much has the ONLY console out now, both MS and Sony pretty much has cut Down wannabe Pc's.

Nintendos games tend to Work, not need a metric ton of patches, and they are pretty often some of the top of class.

So no simply because one console fails for Nintendo they should not go 3rd Party, if that was the case, Playstation should not have been anywhere near hardware right about now.

If anyone did not catch the Irony and irritation here, no Nintendo, sony or MS should not go 3rd party, history has shown how horrible of an idea it is, I can not see how that should be different this time around.

Why would going 3rd party lower the quality of their games? Sega going 3rd party has nothing to do with their drop in quality, it's because they're bad at making sonic games. If Nintendo was so great, they would be able to deliver quality games regardless of what console their on.

Just because you do something "different" does not mean that it's the right thing or a good thing. Nobody not one sheep has come up with a compelling reason why Nintendo would not be better off as a 3rd party. Nintendo consoles typically have 2 or 3 games per year worth playing and then your console becomes a dust bunny. The prices on the games don't really drop on 1st party games either or have DLC or usually good online play.

Your forced to buy another console/pc or buy crappy games just to have content. If Sony or Microsoft released a overpriced console with no 3rd party support and crappy online gaming with no features and a tiny fraction of the power of the other consoles on the market we would never hear the end of it. Yet this is what Nintendo has done not one but two gens in a row.

I grew up on Nintendo games from the snes days but you know what I am older and my taste in games has changed. I actually spend my own money and frankly the other consoles are a better value. I have gone from split screen sd gaming to 1080p 240hz HDTV with online multi player and even 3d HD gaming on some games with 7.1 sound. Games now have strong stories and great graphics and music. I can play dvd,blu-rays listen to music. I can play mpeg 4 videos,video chat,use dnla for video streaming and use video apps. Cloud game save storage and get DLC and make gaming videos ect the list goes on.

Sony even has psn plus a game service for 50 bucks that lets you download a couple games per month and they are actually good. Now at the ces Sony has a game streaming service (720p argh) coming out. I look at nintendo and it seems like they are not moving forward. The best thing about Nintendo consoles are a tiny handful of games and that is it. On everything else they get destroyed. Even on games Sony and others have made good alternates to the classic Nintendo style games. The only reason I want the Nintendo games is honestly because of the childhood memories. The current gamers on the ps3/360 and ps4/x1 are most likely former sheep like myself.

We still like Nintendo games but we hate the consoles and are not buying the wii u. If Nintendo went 3rd party would buy the games on our current systems. I also have a gaming pc and have games on my cell phone. Even my roku and smart tv can play games. There is just so much content from so many places these days. I feel like Nintendo says sheep buy my console or no mario for you. I don't need mario and zelda like I used to not when I have so many more options on other platforms.

Hence why I said "for better or worse"? I know it doesn't always work, but it's still better than doing EVERYTHING the same as the competition. Otherwise, as I said, we'd have a very boring industry. Nintendo doesn't need to give in to microtransactions, online passes or horrible DLC practices, which have been horrible trends these last few years, but I admit, they could let loose on region encoding. The last thing we need is more companies giving in to crap like the former trends I've mentioned, not to mention a gaming community that has shown to be just as greedy as the devs/pubs they criticize (which is yet another thing that bugs me out of this "Nintendo should go third party" ordeal).

If you "grew out" of Nintendo games, then why does your last paragraph say "we still like Nintendo games" as if you're among those who claim similar things? Should you in particular really be giving a crap if Nintendo goes third party if you're just going to ignore them anyway? Would you call BS on them if they decided to leave the industry, rather than sell-out like that?

A lot of he ames sega produed in the past don't exist anymore or have gotten horrible remakes or sequels.

It's gamers giving in to all the things you see as wrong. If gamers don't buy the content that offends us guess what all that stuff you think is wrong would stop ASAP. Nintendo is not taking a stand for gamers they trying to make as much money as possible for it's share holders. The only reason they are talking change is they have the share holders up in that ass.

I also never said I hate Nintendo's games just that I don't love them enough to spend hundreds on a console for a few games. What it boils down to is Nintendo being " DIFFERENT" is not adding value to their console. You need to take an objective look at the wii u vs the other consoles. Pretty sure if you made a list without the rose tinted glasses you would see the wii u has more negatives than positives vs the other consoles.

Like I said my people myself included would buy Zelda,Mario,Metriod,Smash Brothers ect on our current consoles

I don't see Nintendo talking about buying devs or improving the online gaming or getting more 3rd party support or even dropping the price. I would go as far as dropping the lcd controller and selling the wii u for 200 to boost sales. At 1/2 the price of the ps4 the negatives would not be so glaring. I would market the wii u as the fun console with backward compatibility and great games at a great price.

I would show the best looking games and say look what you can play for 200 bucks on you hdtv. The casuals could get their wii sports in hd with motion for 199 plus play all their old wii games. Once they had the wii u then you could sell them on all the other games. Even people that dont like Nintendo would have to at least look at that price point. I could even say the Online gaming is still FREE. I would throw in some game and make a bundle. The advert would showcase the unbeatable value.

I would bet money the wii u would fly off the shelves if the price and marketing was right.

Nintendo should stay first party. The thing is that they are a bunch of "DONKEY-a hollow place in a solid body or surface- in plural" when it comes to their consoles. They expect that everyone will crawl to their feet and follow every whim when developing for their consoles. That sucks and is a very bad policy. What needs to be done is a more "open" nintendo, where they developers are allowed to have an opinion on the console design, get support in software and hardware, are looked for and are not treated as servants.

People leaving nintendo because of their "DONKEY-a hollow place in a solid body or surface" tactics IS the problem. I want nintendo still as first party, presenting ideas and different styles of gaming (touch games, dual screen, motion control are here really because of nintendo); but allowing developers have a good place to develop.

I do have a concern. They develop and publish a ton of games every year, and most of them are really high quality. Given that it's their own hardware, they can optimise and make games look and run beautifully. I do fear that going third party will both reduce the quality and quantity of games Nintendo produces.

From a hardware perspective, I respect Nintendo doing things differently (with UI, controllers, cheap hardware and online services). I honestly see a PS4 and Xbox and just think a PC will do their job just fine (especially the PS4). We're getting into an era where the distinction between the two is becoming a lot less clear, so consoles really need to distinguish themselves, otherwise in the not too distant future, consoles will be redundant.

But you said you grew out of their stuff, which implies that you are done with them and don't see yourself going back, and now you'll say you'd buy their games if they... that's it! I'm done! So many contradictions in one day.

Yes it would. Anything is better than them flopping like they are right now with the WiiU. The Wii was an anomaly and not the norm. If they keep chasing gimmicks they'll keep failing. I'd rather have them sell a ton of Mario on Sony and MS consoles than have them failing hard like they are right now. They can still print money from their handhelds, and they should also experiment on releasing some of their legacy titles on iOS and Android devices.

No worries Nintendo would not have to optimize any thing but the controls as the hardware is at least 5x strong than what they currently use. Plenty of 3rd parties make high quality AAA+ games. If the quality goes down that would be Nintendo's own fault.

Thank you .. You mentioned really good points that I failed to mention .. history has indeed shown us that 1st party developers going 3rd party tend to lose their creativity and become a shadow of their former selves .. gamers now only care about graphics and online gameplay :S .. what happened to awesome single player experiences? What happened to games that looked like crap but were tons of fun and innovative? Killzone Shadow Fall is a great game graphically but poor gameplay wise, so now we appreciate such games?

It is sad the state of the gaming industry and gamers right now .. only caring about graphics :(

Optimising on old hardware =/= working with new hardware. Optimising not only allows you to get the most out your hardware, but it also allows development time to speed up.

If you want to compare to a third party, the biggest I can think of (in terms of quality and quantity) is EA. Now EA have been working on PS360 hardware for something like 8 years now, so they have fully optimised to the best of EA's ability. Now their list of games (as both developer and publisher), on all platforms (iOS and Android included):

Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel
Battlefield 4
Crysis 3
Dead Space 3
FIFA 14 2013
FIFA Manager 14
Fightback
Fuse
Madden NFL 25
NBA Live 14
NCAA Football 14
Need for Speed: Rivals
NHL 14
Peggle 2
Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time
Real Racing 3
SimCity 2013
The Sims 3: University Life
The Sims 3: Island Paradise
The Sims 3: Into the Future
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14
Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar
Yogify

vs Nintendo (I've included 3DS here, because we're talking "as if" Nintendo were third party). This is also Nintendo within their first year on their new hardware, and their first step into HD, which means it is yet to be optimised - so soon we'll see higher quantity and quality on the Wii U front. Now their list of games (as both developer and publisher):

Game & Wario
Lego City Undercover
Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games
New Super Luigi U
Pikmin 3
Sing Party
Super Mario 3D World
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
The Wonderful 101
Wii Fit U
Wii Party U
Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
NES Remix
Dr. Luigi
Mutant Mudds Deluxe
Kung Fu Rabbit
Toki Tori 2
Zen Pinball 2
Bit Trip Presents Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
Wii Street U
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
Fire Emblem: Awakening Intelligent Systems
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Mario Party: Island Tour
Pokémon X and Y
Sonic Lost World

I know it's a matter of taste, but to me the difference between the two lists are night and day (quality, quantity, and diversity). Especially considering how new Nintendo is to HD and their hardware. From 2014 onward, I expect to see a surge of games. You can see in the list, the games on the 3DS is Nintendo hitting their stride on their own hardware. They published around 10 games on the 3DS in 2013, most of which are very well received. Upcoming on Wii U is Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Bayonetta, Smash Bros, Fire Emblem x Shinsei, X, and more (as well as more to be announced at E3 I'm sure).