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Nintendo Revolution May Alienate Third Party Developers
IGN has an article discussing an interview in which Nintendo President Satoru Iwata talked about the possibility that the Nintendo Revolution's fundamental difference from other offerings may alienate third party developers. From the article: "If the next generation platforms are going to create even more gorgeous looking games using further enhanced functionality, and if that next-gen market can still expand the games industry, then I'm afraid that third-parties may not support Nintendo" Refreshing to hear such an honest assessment from company president.
It'd better be amazing, like VR LOTR mmorpg amazing.
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
It also says that this new console will be so "revolutionary" that it may pull in more third party support.
I read this as: our new system will be fundamentally different than other systems coming to the market. You won't be able to make a game for the other systems and easily port it to Revolution.
I feel a bit confused. Is he saying that the other consoles like PS3 and the second XBox may be better, and those better ones could destroy his chances of getting other developers to develop for the Revolution? (thus hurting its sales?)* Frankly I think it's already done so then; I remember some years ago when the show Extra were offering free PS2s and GameCubes but said they could not offer XBoxes (XBoxen?) due to extreme demand for them. I remember long lines shown in the news for the PS2 also (people shouting PS2! PS2!), but never heard of such massive demand for the 'Cube-only lots of ads and good games like a Zelda or two.
*To those who think I should know these things because of my username (I remember such a post a while back): I'm game kid, not game expert. Give me a break, please.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
That's three strikes out for Nintendo. I was REALLY, REALLY hoping they would get their act together this time.
(It's never too late to join the Renaissance)
I remember when the Gamecube came out and there was a rush to get it. I know some of my friends had trouble finding one. It sold out during its initial release, but it wasn't like the popularity of the PS2.
I think that the XBox came out around the same time, which got a bit more attention, although it didn't sell as well initially.
What it will end up discouraging, if it is that different from other platforms, is porting.
If a publisher was intrested in putting a game on Revolution, it would get there. But if the publisher was on the fence, and wanted to whore the game out on every platform, the Revolution would likely be skipped.
It is possible that the Revolution will be similar enough to make porting to it a viable option, but gameplay dependent on Revolutions unique features would not be as portable.
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That is a pretty bad /. title and article. Nintendo said that 3rd parties will be alienated if they dont like nintendo innovations. However, if these companies like the innovations, they will probably make games only for the revolution.
Sounds like a rather bold business plan. I suppose Nintendo has decided to take very big risks in order to innovate gaming further and of course make N #1 again.
Good Luck N!
I for one welcome our new innovative gaming overlords.
Making a console fundamentally different from the other two would definitely cause companies to cease writing cross platform titles. This is good in the fact that owners of the system will not even have to think about buying a game from EA. Now, this is also a bad thing in the fact that since there won't be 800 billion titles for the system, it won't be as likely to be picked up by as wide of a market segment. Therefore it won't be desirable for even an awsome design house to write games for it, because even quality designers/publishers want to make money so they can keep on making games.
If we look at the Gamecube, and even further back, it's easy to see Nintendo's stegnth, especially lately, has been in releasing incredible in-house titles. I'm talking Metroid Prime (1 and 2), SSBM, Paper Mario, Pikmin, and Animal Crossing (with exceptions like Viewtiful Joe). I don't expect Nintendo's platform to have the breadth of games PS3 will have; what I do expect is that, like in the present, it'll still be my favorite console because of depth (I have a PC for my RTS/FPS/GTA needs).
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Yay for not reading the article. They are basically saying that some third part developers will not like the Revolution, as it will require on their behalf the implementation of the new, secret features of the console. The console is about innovation, and direct ports from other systems won't be as easy because of this (think about the DS, but possibly taken further).
/. just chose to show the negativity.
It also goes to say that some third parties may get totally pulled in by the console, perhaps even shifting their focus to it.
The third parties will either like it, or think that the console's new features are insane crap and completely dump it. They're being quite honest.
Iwata once more compared Revolution to Nintendo DS, and said that like its portable the machine could gain the eye of consumers who normally don't care about games. "On the other hand, what we are trying to do is such a different thing, and people have come to realize that the approach we have taken with Nintendo DS can actually expand the market beyond what existing platforms can do. Therefore I believe there should be more third parties who are willing to support Nintendo's new ideas."
Nintendo's president suggested that third party support for Revolution could depend entirely on whether or not publishers find the console appealing. "If we receive the support of the licensees, I believe we will expand third party support," he said. "If our ideas cannot be appealing enough, then we cannot receive third party support."
The person who submitted the story to
If the Revolution is really so different as to discourage third-party developers from bringing out games, it would be a really brave move on Nintendo's part. However, look at their history. It is full of brave moves. The video game market had already crashed and burned when Nintendo wanted to bring out the NES. People thought that it would fail, but Nintendo pushed it anyway and changed everything. Then Sega came out with the Genesis, a superior system to the NES (at least hardware-wise) and Nintendo waited to bring out the Super NES until it had the right technology and the right gameplay ideas. They brought out Virtual Boy, which was completely different from anything on the market. Granted, that was a failed experiment, but it was an experiment nonetheless - not just an advance. With the Gamecube, they decided to shun the online players that Sony and Microsoft were going after, and have instead focused on the community aspect of multiplayer. Now there's the DS, an innovative, if imperfect, competitor for Sony's straight technological advance, the PSP. I have a feeling Nintendo knows what they're doing with these risks. They aren't going after the largest market share, they're trying to make good, innovative games that consistently change how we think of video gaming.
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Case in point: Me. Ten Nintendo games, seven Sega games, and one third party. There are some third part games that interest me, but the first party ones are so good that I only bother with third party if they are really, really special. In my case, Viewtiful Joe 2. I was planning to get the first one, but by the time I had enough money to get it, VJ2 had come out.
I for one think the state of gaming right now is pretty damn good. I don't want VR goggles or gyroscopes built into my controllers. I don't want to flail my arms in the air so I can move my onscreen character from point A to point B. What I do want is to sit on my couch, with a comfortable controller in hand, and play my games.
Think about it like this... Let's say current consoles are like decks of cards. You can play lots of games with a standard deck of cards (poker, rummy, etc.) and there are different types of cards with their own games (Rook, Uno, etc.). Let's then say that Nintendo's "Revolution" is like a board game. It's very hard to play Risk, Chess, or Axis and Allies with a deck of cards, just like it would be hard to play Poker or Uno as a board game.
Then again maybe they're just using all this vagueness to hype the system before it's out.
Well, I can't vouch for Sony and Atari, but I won't stand idly by while someone claims that Sega doesn't innovate... This is the same company that released Typing of the Dead, Samba de Amigo, and Seaman for crying out loud. That takes some balls right there. Plus, I'd argue that the Dreamcast was easily one of the more innovative consoles in history. Lets take a look...
If you don't consider all THAT to be innovative, then I really think you'll be disappointed with whatever Nintendo has up their sleeve...
-"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH
Robbie the Robot was by far the most unique and clever video game controller of the era. A robot that balances spinning gyroscopes on the buttons? That's just dope.
I, on the other hand, am very happy to see a company pushing to make games that are better than just "pretty damn good." You may be content with the way games are right now, but others, like myself, yearn for something more.
I think the games we play now don't even scratch the surface of what is possible with interactive entertainment. So, I'm encouraged when a game company says that it's going to do something so different, so out there, that they believe it may alienate them from potential partners within the industry. It means that I'm not the only one out there who is a little disappointed with "the state of gaming right now."
With a maximum party size of 4, it's no MMORPG. Yes, it's an MORPG, but that's not the same thing.
:)).
The Xbox does VGA internally, except it's passed through a TV output circuit (which does support progressive scan video VGA mode: 480p = 640x480).
Otherwise, though, the Dreamcast was pretty innovative, which is why it's still my favourite console (and I own as much Dreamcast stuff as I can get
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"and Pokemon Colloseum (Basically an updated version of Pokemon Stadium). Again, where's the 3D Pokemon RPG that kids would obviously be interested in?"
Uh, how about the 3D Pokemon RPG included in Pokemon Coliseum where you have to snatch shadow Pokemon and unlock their hearts? It's not super long, and it's not super polished, but it is 3D, Pokemon, and an RPG...
Pokemon Box was not released in North America because it was also built into the Pokemon Coliseum release.
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...good PR. Sony will pay millions of dollars for print and televised ads that hint at a glorious future for gaming when the PS3 comes due, probably using vague terms like last iteration's "Emotion Engine" to discourage average customers from doing any proper research or comparison. Nintendo did the same with a painfully brief quote in an equally brief article. Free publicity is something Iwata may be banking on, based on the silence regarding the new console design beyond that threatening "no more d-pad" statement.
Is there any practical data we can gather or presume from this article? Yes, that EA won't do much on the Revolution if the interface is fundamentally different from the competition, but we suspected this already, didn't we?
i totally agree with you on nintendos' innovating, and i will even go so far as to Thank them for the vomit-inducing VirtualBoy.
wouldn't it be grand if they made a VirtualBoy2 that wasn't vomit-inducing, and in fact had two screens capable of decent 3D graphics.
DS "Eye-o-scope" Adapter, anyone?
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Write Read to PDRx from PDRx Description 00 08 Analog pad X axis MSB 20 10 Analog pad X axis LSB 00 08 Analog pad Y axis MSB 20 10 Analog pad Y axis LSB 00 00 Right shoulder MSB 20 10 Right shoulder LSB 00 00 Left shoulder MSB 20 10 Left shoulder LSB
I played NHL on it way back in the day. Ir was pretty good, but most people would pull the plug rather than lose the game.
What X-Band did was emulate one control input on each player's system. So I'd be player two on both systems, and you'd be player one (for instance).
Online wrestling as a trading card game? WWF With Authority.
I mean, the Atari 2600, the NES and the Playstation were made with no previous experience either and took first place.
Atari had experience in home video gaming before releasing VCS model 2600. Do you already forget the Pong dedicated console?
But Microsoft is still doing well compared to... um... 3DO!
3DO is still around, making Army Men games.