Nintendo is the key to saving the Japanese gaming-industry

Nintendo is the key to saving the Japanese gaming-industry. It's as simple as that.

I was watching Sony's 2017 Tokyo Game Show Press Conference and at the end, the Sony-figurehead made a speech about saving the Japanese gaming-industry. I know what would save it, and that's if either Nintendo made a powerful game-console, or all the Japanese developers made games for Nintendo. It's that simple.

Japan loves Nintendo, evinced by its still-strong sales of 3DS and astronomical popularity of Nintendo Switch. Think about it. Even though 3DS is weak and outputs ugly 3D graphics, it outsold the Vita in Japan, even though Japanese developers made a lot of games for it, and still develop games for it. Nintendo's games are very popular and beloved.

Japan is a small country. Maybe there was a time in the distant past where multiple competitive hardware-platforms could co-exist. Back in the 16-bit generation, the Sega Megadrive coexisted alongside Super Famicom and PC Engine, but not anymore. Xbox One is dead in Japan, and yet they still haven't embraced the PS4 in droves. It has slowly gained support, but it's not the overnight success NS has been.

Japan needs to unite, if they want to save their AAA gaming-industry. They can't rely on Xbox One. They need to at least involve Nintendo Switch from this point forward. This will displease many people, but Japanese developers need to make the Nintendo Switch version the baseline, and then ameliorate the PS4 version based on that. Make the assets and engine run at 60 frames per second on Nintendo Switch first, and then make the PS4 run at higher resolutions and more beautiful image-quality.

I don't expect them to do this. It is the middle of the console-generation. No one expects developers to drop everything they're doing and accommodate Nintendo, but if they want to live to develop another day, they need to involve Nintendo somehow. They are and always will be the key to saving the AAA Japanese gaming-industry. Whether Sony or Nintendo gives up, or they join forces, they will have to unite some day.

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