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 bought a Gamecube last December, and now own quite of few of the "must have" games. The problem that I see for 2004 is that the big first party games that everyone was anticipating are out now, and their sequals are too far off in the distance to see. For most of thise year, Nintendo is going to have to count on 3rd party developers to maintain the slow influx of quality games.
Now I'm going to go against my bettter judgement and link to an article on IGN titled "Most anticipated games of 2004." I don't care much for IGN, but the list does include some potentially good 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.
I read this article on Nintendojo yesterday and while I respect the dojo, they seem to forget Rare's output at the later half its life. They had very few good games after the Nintendo 64's cult hit Goldeneye. None of their games could equal Donkey Kong Country or Goldeneye in terms of brilliance or success. I'd rather have Retro working on making Metroid Prime 2 as good as Prime 1, instead of Prime 2 plus Samus Party 3, Metroid Kart, and Ridley's Hide and Seek or Kraid's Bad Scales Day.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
From the article:
"Namco is also another third party that Nintendo should try working with more. If Nintendo springs the cash, Namco could possibly give the Cube an exclusive Soul Calibur."
Or maybe they should do what they did with Sega on F-Zero GX, and get Namco to develop a game for an already established Nintendo brand. Like, for example, Star Fox. And, while there at it, they should announce it at E3. But not this year's E3, because they'll be talking about the DS. Do it at last year's E3. That'll get the fanboys excited.
Unless they totally forget about it, of course.
The article mentions Namco... but Namco is doing an exclusive for Nintendo already - Donkey Konga. And they put out Pac-Man Vs. as well - a small thing, but a very, very good game all the same.
They also mention how Squaresoft's exclusives are all on the PS2 now... which is odd, what with Crystal Chronicles out in only a few weeks.
I really wish commentators on Nintendo would bother to at least pretend to have done any research on their articles.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
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)...
What on earth is going wrong here? Why does every Nintendo story bring thousands of impending doom messages? The facts are these: Gamecube is whomping on XBox in Japan, just overtook them over here, and Nintendo - the company - has lots and lots and lots of __cash__ the likes of which Sega et al have never even laid eyes on. As a platform company, they aren't going anywhere.
--Moo.
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.
There have already been a few articles this year from reputable sources saying Nintendo isnt on solid ground and needs to watch its step.
I haven't seen any reputable sources say this.. but what I have seen is reputable sources say Nintendo has over 6 billion dollars in the bank and they aren't going anywhere.
List of some exclusives for the Cube (some released already, some aren't released, yet.) 1080 Avalanche
Animal Crossing
Baten Kaitos
Beach Spikers
Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg
Cubivore
Custom Robo
Donkey Konga
Doshin the Giant
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
F-Zero GX
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
Geist
Giftpia
Gotcha Force
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
Ikaruga (Not on the other two competing consoles)
Kaijuu no Shima: Amazing Island, a Sega Monster training game that is in the works, is a GC exclusive
Killer 7
Kirby Air Ride
The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition.
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Plus
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Master Quest
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Lost Kingdoms
Lost Kingdoms II
Luigi's Mansion
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Mario Party 4
Mario Party 5
Mario Tennis is coming up.
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Metroid Prime
Nintendo Puzzle Collection
P.N. 03
Pac Man Vs.
PSO Episode III
Pikmin
Pikmin II
Pokemon Colosseum
Resident Evil
Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil 4
You can throw in RE 2, 3, and Code Veronica, if you want, too.
Skies of Arcadia Legends (not on Ps2 or X-box, the other two competing consoles)
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (not on Ps2 or X-box)
Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut (Again, not on Ps2 or X-box)
Sonic Mega Collection
Star Fox (from Namco)
Star Fox Adventures
Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike.
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Monkey Ball
Super Monkey Ball 2
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Tales of Symphonia
Viewtiful Joe
Wario Ware for GC
Wario World
Wave Race: Blue Storm
These are just the more well-known exclusives. There's more than the ones I listed.
Yeah, I'd say that the GameCube has very few exclusive games. *rolls eyes*