Slashdot Mirror
On Stemming Nintendo's Exclusive Game Drought
Thanks to Nintendojo for its editorial discussing ways to help Nintendo increase the amount of GameCube-only titles it releases. The writer notes that "...it is all too apparent that Nintendo's exclusive games lineup is very thin at the moment", and suggests one of many possible solutions: "Nintendo must figure out a way to increase the [development] capacity of Retro Studios and/or Silicon Knights. These companies must have as much depth [in amount of releases] as Rare had at the latter part of its life." How would you like to see Nintendo partnering to release more high-quality GameCube-only games?
I have been a long time Nintendo fan, owning every major console, and now a GBA. I have always stuck by Nintendo because of the high quality of their games, and because I couldn't really afford to have more than one system.
Now don't get me wrong, I've played other systems. I've finished FFVII and FFX on the PS and PS2, as well as playing a great deal of Tekken and the Gran Turismo series, but I could never justify buying a PS for just these games.
But now I realize, that I have done the same thing for a Gamecube. I have less than ten games (due partially to budget constraints), a GBA, and 1 GBA game (FF Tactics Advance). The problem I have is variety. It turns out, I have a game in almost every genre, and it's hard to play multiple games in a genre. If I want to fight, I have SCII, racing is Mario Kart:DD or F-Zero GX. Team sports is NHL 2004, while extreme sports is Tony Hawk 4. RPG is Zelda, etc. The problem is Nintendo fills a genre niche, and then moves on! Which means that if I want to play a different fighting game, well, I can't. So I get bored with the games, despite their excellent quality.
Nintendo needs to tighten their release dates, and find developers to compete against themselves. Who can make the best action/fighting/RPG game? Nintendo wins in the end because no matter which game of two or three wins the sales wars, it's still money into Nintendo's pockets.
I just don't want my favourite company to die.
Open up the platform. Sell programming hardware and tools. I, for one, would line up to purchase such a thing. Then they could even still charge for publishing licenses, but here, small groups of hobbiest programmers could come up with an entire game, and use it to get finacial backing to purchase a publishing license.
It would have more potential then the Amiga
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Nintendo is, at best, a HUGELY profitable company, and at worst a company like Apple - it will ALWAYS have it's loyal followers who will buy the Nintendo 256, 512, 1024 etc.
It doesn't matter how good playstation 5 is, there will still be millions who will want to play Zelda 12. True, they may (or may not!) ever have another 50-million selling title like Super Mario Bros 3 (not sure of that exact number).
So they're not going anywhere (despite what slashdot says every other week)...
If this "DS" portable is not to replace the GBA, it will ultimately be its rival
I wouldn't be surprised it it turns out that the DS's release date is 1 week before the PSP. Maybe Nintendo is willing to cut a little of GBA's market in order to get into a LOT of PSP's market share. Consider this:
Today:
GBA = 95% of the portable market
Others (Swan, NGPC) = 5%
In a GBA vs. PSP war (after say one year):
GBA = 80%
PSP = 18%
Others = 2%
But with THREE systems (2 of which are nintendo) then with the $150 people have to spend on a new console, very few will buy both, and at least some will buy a DS over a PSP):
GBA = 80%
PSP = 11%
DS = 7%
Other = 2%
So is it possible that DS is perhaps sort of like a "kamakaze machine," in that maybe it isn't meant to do well itself (although that would be nice), but it's real goal is to hurt the PSP, even if it causes its own demise? Hell, if PSP only has 10% of the game market then that's NOTHING! I mean, the Turbo Grafx 16 and Saturn probably had that much at one point!
And let's not forget, if DS is a sucess, great. If it isn't and the PSP gets a foothold, then there's still the GBA2 coming out in a few years to hurt the PSP, since the DS has been said (over and over) to NOT be a sequel to the GBA.
If this "DS" portable is not to replace the GBA, it will ultimately be its rival.
Given that the DS's specs *seem* (is there any official word on this?) to indicate that backwards compatibility should be possible, it looks like it will replace the GBA.
In terms of game support though, what if they arranged it so that people kept developing gba games, and some games could be made to work in a gba, but in a DS, it would use the second screen? Nintendo did this with some of the original gameboy games when the gbc came out. The GB games would still be for the GB, but they could also have a 4 color palette programmed in for the GBC to use. (granted, a second display would be somewhat more complex "optional addon" to code for, especially with mismatched processors, so this is quite unlikely to happen.)
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I have all 3 consoles, and the GC gets far more play than any of the others
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Seconded, same here. The Xbox is used strictly for emulation and movie-watching, and the PS2 was bought for one game only - Silent Hill 3
it's in my head