The Worst Foes Lies Within - Nintendo Is Their Own Worst Enemy
Is Nintendo too good for their own good?
I'm not saying third-party games don't sell well on Nintendo-systems; look at Monster Hunter and Yo-Kai Watch. But third-party games don't sell as well on Nintendo-systems. The last time when a Nintendo home-console was on par with the competition was the Gamecube. If you compare sales of third-party games with the same title across PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox; Gamecube usually, but not always, lagged behind. Of course, PS2 had a larger install-base, but even Xbox, which was almost dead-even with Gamecube throughout its life, outperformed in genres like sports-games and Western action-games. Why is this? It's because Nintendo's own games outshine the others.
They sought to give third-parties the spotlight during the 3DS's launch, but it backfired on them. I bought a 3DS within a week of its launch. What games did I get? Street Fighter and Dead or Alive. I didn't get Pilotwings, Steel Diver, or Nintendogs. Having no amazing first-party games at launch sent the wrong message to consumers - that Nintendo wasn't putting their best foot forward.
Nintendo wants third-parties to succeed on their platforms. It expands their audience, generates more hardware-sales, and opens the door for those consumers to buy first-party games. If you check out some console-bundles from sellers on ebay, there are collections out there with just sports-games, or otherwise really questionable taste. Nintendo for the longest time, knows they make the best games, but have taken that for granted, and assume that quality will sell itself, but unfortunately that is not true. This is why their media-exposure expansion really makes a lot of sense. Advertising is not enough or efficient; they need to be more creative in this highly internet-age. The time when TV and magazine-ads were all you could do is over.
With NX, Nintendo has to market their hardware as aggressively as their software. PS2 succeeded because it provided a good value for being a game-console and DVD-player. They also gave the impression to consumers that it had good graphics although Gamecube was more powerful. There are people who thought the Gamecube was less powerful! That's insane. Gamecube was designed and marketed toward core-gamers, but the fact is that even today, core-gamers are a limited and niche audience. You have to get the sports-gamers, Call of Duty social gamers, the my-ego-is-tied-to-my-console gamers, etc. Nintendo was always marketing power from the beginning of their home-console business. "Now you're playing with power." "Now you're playing with super power." The Nintendo 64's name itself was an assertion that it was more powerful than the competition, which was true in a lot of, but not all ways. With Gamecube, they stopped doing that. I'm not saying they should go back to the obnoxious '90s marketing-strategies started by Sega, but they need to release specs and prove that NX is more powerful than PS4 or even PS4 Neo.
Geoff Keighley asked Reggie Fils-Aimé about the third-party problem on Wii U a few years ago, and Reggie did not directly answer the question and instead responded by saying Nintendo is doing everything they're supposed to do, which is building an install-base with quality first-party titles. Doing that is no longer enough; or maybe if they combine development and libraries into one platform, it will be enough. Imagine if we could have played Wii U and 3DS games on one device. How much would a one-Nintendo-device-to-rule-them-all have sold?
But let's imagine that it is not enough. They need to make NX more attractive to third-parties by giving development-kits earlier, involving third-parties in the development of NX including the controller, and making it easy to develop for and port games to.
Launches are very important. Everything from the reveal to the launch is absolutely critical. Look at what PS4 was able to do. They had a boring reveal, but it wasn't focused on television, like Xbox One. Sony countered every one of XB1's mistakes from DRM, price, and mandatory cameras. They did not deliver a knockout first-party title at launch, but they never do, and no one buys Playstations for first-party games. People bought PS4 because they wanted the best graphics but didn't want to buy or build a PC. PC-gaming will never be mainstream, but it's secretly what a lot of gamers want.
The best-case scenario is if Nintendo can offer a console that apes the PS4 Neo. Then they won't need good first-party games at launch. All they will need are good ports and marketing.
However, people like Emily Rogers don't think it will surpass or match PS4 Neo. In that case, they may need to unify their development-teams onto one platform and churn the games out, because games are where they make their most money. Just like Sony is dropping the Vita, Nintendo might need to drop a device, whether it's the handheld or the home-console. I don't know if they're ready to do either yet. I don't know if developing smartphone-games was the right thing to do. That is people-power that is not developing an NX-game. How much has it really helped Nintendo? I hope that NX is a smash-hit and they stop developing smartphone-games and make NX-games designed for the handheld-variant (that can also be played on the home-console as well) instead.
I'm not saying third-party games don't sell well on Nintendo-systems; look at Monster Hunter and Yo-Kai Watch. But third-party games don't sell as well on Nintendo-systems. The last time when a Nintendo home-console was on par with the competition was the Gamecube. If you compare sales of third-party games with the same title across PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox; Gamecube usually, but not always, lagged behind. Of course, PS2 had a larger install-base, but even Xbox, which was almost dead-even with Gamecube throughout its life, outperformed in genres like sports-games and Western action-games. Why is this? It's because Nintendo's own games outshine the others.
They sought to give third-parties the spotlight during the 3DS's launch, but it backfired on them. I bought a 3DS within a week of its launch. What games did I get? Street Fighter and Dead or Alive. I didn't get Pilotwings, Steel Diver, or Nintendogs. Having no amazing first-party games at launch sent the wrong message to consumers - that Nintendo wasn't putting their best foot forward.
Nintendo wants third-parties to succeed on their platforms. It expands their audience, generates more hardware-sales, and opens the door for those consumers to buy first-party games. If you check out some console-bundles from sellers on ebay, there are collections out there with just sports-games, or otherwise really questionable taste. Nintendo for the longest time, knows they make the best games, but have taken that for granted, and assume that quality will sell itself, but unfortunately that is not true. This is why their media-exposure expansion really makes a lot of sense. Advertising is not enough or efficient; they need to be more creative in this highly internet-age. The time when TV and magazine-ads were all you could do is over.
With NX, Nintendo has to market their hardware as aggressively as their software. PS2 succeeded because it provided a good value for being a game-console and DVD-player. They also gave the impression to consumers that it had good graphics although Gamecube was more powerful. There are people who thought the Gamecube was less powerful! That's insane. Gamecube was designed and marketed toward core-gamers, but the fact is that even today, core-gamers are a limited and niche audience. You have to get the sports-gamers, Call of Duty social gamers, the my-ego-is-tied-to-my-console gamers, etc. Nintendo was always marketing power from the beginning of their home-console business. "Now you're playing with power." "Now you're playing with super power." The Nintendo 64's name itself was an assertion that it was more powerful than the competition, which was true in a lot of, but not all ways. With Gamecube, they stopped doing that. I'm not saying they should go back to the obnoxious '90s marketing-strategies started by Sega, but they need to release specs and prove that NX is more powerful than PS4 or even PS4 Neo.
Geoff Keighley asked Reggie Fils-Aimé about the third-party problem on Wii U a few years ago, and Reggie did not directly answer the question and instead responded by saying Nintendo is doing everything they're supposed to do, which is building an install-base with quality first-party titles. Doing that is no longer enough; or maybe if they combine development and libraries into one platform, it will be enough. Imagine if we could have played Wii U and 3DS games on one device. How much would a one-Nintendo-device-to-rule-them-all have sold?
But let's imagine that it is not enough. They need to make NX more attractive to third-parties by giving development-kits earlier, involving third-parties in the development of NX including the controller, and making it easy to develop for and port games to.
Launches are very important. Everything from the reveal to the launch is absolutely critical. Look at what PS4 was able to do. They had a boring reveal, but it wasn't focused on television, like Xbox One. Sony countered every one of XB1's mistakes from DRM, price, and mandatory cameras. They did not deliver a knockout first-party title at launch, but they never do, and no one buys Playstations for first-party games. People bought PS4 because they wanted the best graphics but didn't want to buy or build a PC. PC-gaming will never be mainstream, but it's secretly what a lot of gamers want.
The best-case scenario is if Nintendo can offer a console that apes the PS4 Neo. Then they won't need good first-party games at launch. All they will need are good ports and marketing.
However, people like Emily Rogers don't think it will surpass or match PS4 Neo. In that case, they may need to unify their development-teams onto one platform and churn the games out, because games are where they make their most money. Just like Sony is dropping the Vita, Nintendo might need to drop a device, whether it's the handheld or the home-console. I don't know if they're ready to do either yet. I don't know if developing smartphone-games was the right thing to do. That is people-power that is not developing an NX-game. How much has it really helped Nintendo? I hope that NX is a smash-hit and they stop developing smartphone-games and make NX-games designed for the handheld-variant (that can also be played on the home-console as well) instead.
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