Nintendo properties on other consoles - hypothetical.

JustShon

I've had this idea in my head for a while now.

We all know that, whatever you think of the console itself, the Wii-U hasn't exactly been a commercial success. I personally have no interest in buying one.

That said, I love a lot of Nintendo's exclusive properties; Zelda, Mario + its spin-offs, Metroid and Pokemon (though Pokemon is less relevant to this point.) These games aren't enough to make me buy a Wii-U though and I wonder if the Wii-U's relatively poor sales figures are holding back Nintendo's game sales.

I don't see Nintendo going for it but I reckon Nintendo might be better off abandoning their home consoles at this point, not their mobile consoles though, and concentrating on developing games which could be distributed through other consoles.

I reckon Nintendo could make a killing doing this; they'd have Microsoft and Sony fighting for possible exclusivity rights and lots of people who might have fallen out of Nintendo's regular customer base could be brought back into the fold by making Nintendo games available on PS4 and XBox One.

What do others think of this idea? Am I nuts? Would any of you buy Zelda or Mario for your PS4 or Xbox?

Star Lord

They've said many times that they won't do this, as they'd see that as the day that they stopped being Nintendo.

JustShon

Star Lord wrote: »

They've said many times that they won't do this, as they'd see that as the day that they stopped being Nintendo.

Yeah I don't honestly reckon they ever would. But I'm curious if people who aren't Nintendo think it's a good idea.

CiDeRmAn

Well, define "People who are not Nintendo"?
I mean, I don't think it'd be a good idea, Nintendo's games are anchored to the host hardware, often the best at utilising the idiosyncrasies and novelties of the console or handheld, from the N64 analog stick to the 3D of the 3DS.
Make Mario multiplatform and a lot is lost.
Other console icons, Crash, Sonic, just look at how well they fared after abandoning their host consoles for a multiplatform life.

Anyway, the more actors in this play we call gaming the better, less chance of one approach becoming the defining one, meaning that games and consoles will always be rich with choice and texture, rather than one bland market standard.

JustShon

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Well, define "People who are not Nintendo"?

I just mean people who aren't representatives of the company. In other words what do the fans / possibly ex-fans think, as opposed to what the company says.

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Nintendo's games are anchored to the host hardware, often the best at utilising the idiosyncrasies and novelties of the console.

That's a fair point but I'd argue that being anchored to their host hardware is hurting Nintendo games. There's no arguing that Nintendo's home console sales are pretty bad at the moment. Worse than they've been in quite a while.

I think that Nintendo could really do themselves a favour by dropping their home consoles (just home, their portable consoles are doing well) and concentrating on developing games to sell on other platforms. Their games and the characters of those games are still iconic, well-recognised and well-liked but those games and characters are tied to a console that is barely treading water.

Star Lord

I'd argue the opposite, that they should continue to concentrate on their own hardware, but ensure that their hardware is something that third parties want to develop their new games for, rather than shoddy ports of games that have been out for quite some time already. With third party support, there's a much greater draw to own the console, as all the multiplatform games should be available.

JustShon

Good point StarLord. I think I'd be more inclined to buy a Nintendo home console if it didn't feel like I was doing it purely for access to Nintendo titles.

CiDeRmAn

JustShon wrote: »

Good point StarLord. I think I'd be more inclined to buy a Nintendo home console if it didn't feel like I was doing it purely for access to Nintendo titles.

That's kinda the whole thing that the WiiU botched.
Yes, the machines was always going to sell to those Nintendo fans out there because it's got such great games and it's the only place to play them.
But, the rest want Fifa and Need for Speed, the inclusion of Mario Kart is a bonus for them, so what ever comes next will have to provide a simple to port to platform for third parties to use, probably less internally idiosyncratic, just like the PS4 and XB1 have become far less peculiar in their internals and easy to develop for.
It'll mean that the developers can easily release a title across platforms, including the NX, and take advantage of whatever the new machine has to offer.

Keep in mind that, Batman Arkham Knight aside, PC games have to be degraded visually to work on the PS4 and XB1, if Nintendo release a powerful console that can outstrip the two current big consoles, they may well have an advantage in running games far closer to the fidelity provided by the PC and this would make the NX very attractive to not just the Nintendo fans out there, who will buy it regardless.