Nintendo software only.

[CastletonSnob]

If the NX fails, could they go software only?

 

[ImpulsE69]

Never really understood this argument. If you won't buy their games now, you won't buy them later on a different platform. If you are only interested in 1 game (which is why you wouldn't buy their console), it's not going to keep them afloat for long. Even 2 games wouldn't fly for long. They aren't suddenly going to be doing cutting edge graphics because they quit doing hardware.

It really isn't the same as talking about simply a game developer (even though they do both).

Sega is putting out games practically in name only, so I suppose if they went that route, then maybe....but Nintendo doesn't strike me as a company that would want to do that.

 

[Exophase]

Nintendo said outright they'll never do it: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...-Never-Develop-For-Other-Platforms-Says-Iwata

Instead of developing for other consoles I think Nintendo will just spend increasingly less on their new ones. More stock licensed IP for CPU and GPU cores and fewer new ideas for interfaces, and more unification between handhelds and consoles. Some of which NX may already be doing. If they reduce their console R&D to a few hundred million at most they'll probably be able to remain profitable.

In terms of raw numbers they probably would get more sales if they released cross platform, there are probably a fair number of people who want to play a few Nintendo games but don't want to get a dedicated console only for that. But it's not a raw numbers comparison as with first party sales they get lower margins, lower game development costs (because their hardware is more tuned to their needs and experiences) and licensing income from third party games.

 

[HeXen]

^They can say whatever they want, doesn't mean they won't if lacking any other option. However Nintendo still has plenty of money to fail on another console without resorting to that.

What they need to do is keep a yearly cycle of their top selling IP's. An HD remake here and new title there isn't cutting it when we know they'll only make a couple of triple A Zelda's and Mario's for each platform and toss in some 2D stuff and cameo's to make out a 5 year hardware cycle. The Gamecube did well because it had some pretty good slew of titles from Starfox's to Metroid's and lately they haven't done their full roster of IP's much, but 3rd party isn't going to help Nintendo out much when those same games look the same or better on another console....and you know EA/Ubi..etc isn't going to make the NX versions take advantage of it's hardware any more so than the curren consoles.

Another option of course in regards to getting out of the hardware business would be to create a client like Steam on more open hardware including TV's and other devices, go the route Sony has plans for as they could still sell the gamepads and other peripherals required for the client/games, they just won't have to worry about the processing hardware. Imagine all the modder's creating ITX pc's using their old NES and whatnot but I"m sure that route has it's own hurdles to face.

 

[Lil Frier]

Never really understood this argument. If you won't buy their games now, you won't buy them later on a different platform. If you are only interested in 1 game (which is why you wouldn't buy their console), it's not going to keep them afloat for long. Even 2 games wouldn't fly for long. They aren't suddenly going to be doing cutting edge graphics because they quit doing hardware.

You're looking at that from a totally wrong angle.

People aren't skipping the Wii U because they don't like Nintendo's games. They're doing it because getting the Wii U means getting almost nothing but Nintendo games. I'd absolutely but Smash and Kart on my Xbox One. I bought a Wii U, and I only own 5 games (the included Mario and Luigi platformers, Kart, Smash, and Yoshi) because there just aren't that many I like.

So, I can see where many folks just skip Nintendo altogether because there's no gaming network, they might not want to spend $400 to play a couple of games (when you consider hardware and software purchases), and their friends aren't on the platform. Going multi-platform would open them up to another 75 million or so people, I'd estimate.

 

[CastletonSnob]

Would they really do better?

 

[Lil Frier]

It's a question with absolutely no real answer possible. We don't know how Nintendo's developers would transition to x86 and dealing with the matter of producing games for two systems. They're notoriously slow with releases working with one system already.

However, EA (as this site mentioned) estimated 55 million PS4 and XB1 consoles are out there. You have another 10 million or so for the Wii U, and that thing's probably not much more powerful than the PS3 and 360, so they could probably support that generation as well. Oh, and since they're working with x86, PC could happen.

It's just a question of effort. They'd need more developers to support multiple systems, especially if they wanted to incorporate networked gaming (which Nintendo has been TERRIBLE at). However, since the Wii U is so far behind, it's undeniable that they'd have a chance for a much larger set of sales numbers with such a change. In addition, they'd be able to let go of the hardware division and stop with the R&D costs of that. They wouldn't have to develop a gaming network like they seem to be trying. So much of what Nintendo sucks at, they could stop sucking at that.

 

[Sulaco]

I'm impressed: A troll who was banned after 7 posts who actually started an on-topic discussion.

 

[Sonikku]

I would totally buy Smash Bros. and Bayonetta 2 if they were for PS4. But with the U selling for just $50 less, and priced identically during holiday months, the PS4 was the far better option overall. The Wii U is the kind of secondary system you consider after getting a PS4 or Xbox. Only the most hard of hardcore nintendo fanboys makes a Wii U their sole system.

 

[Lil Frier]

Exactly. I got my Wii U after I already had the XB1, and only because I got it super cheap, thanks to Target. Since then, only Mario Kart 8 and SSB got serious play. I didn't care for Tropical Freeze, 3D World, or Wind Waker HD. Mario Party 10 ended up a disaster, same for Mario Tennis, so two major games I wanted ended up total duds. Woolly World is one I still need to play, but don't get much of a chance to.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Would love for Nintendo games on Steam.

 

[exdeath]

You're looking at that from a totally wrong angle.

People aren't skipping the Wii U because they don't like Nintendo's games. They're doing it because getting the Wii U means getting almost nothing but Nintendo games. I'd absolutely but Smash and Kart on my Xbox One. I bought a Wii U, and I only own 5 games (the included Mario and Luigi platformers, Kart, Smash, and Yoshi) because there just aren't that many I like.

So, I can see where many folks just skip Nintendo altogether because there's no gaming network, they might not want to spend $400 to play a couple of games (when you consider hardware and software purchases), and their friends aren't on the platform. Going multi-platform would open them up to another 75 million or so people, I'd estimate.

All of these are appealing reasons to have a Nintendo console.

I'm sick of Call of Duty and Madden and Assassin's Creed every 3 weeks and I'm tired of even single player RPGs now having online, competitive, or multiplayer bullshit shoveled into them just because it's some kind of stupid expectation that every single game have online versus support. I'm actually pretty sick of our competition obsessed "haha my dick is on top of your dick" society altogether lately, but that's another story. Can't even play Xenoblade Chronicles X without being forced to sign in online when you start the game. Even the whole achievements and trophy and gamer score thing is just yet another mini competition with anybody able to see how far you are in a game vs them. It's fucking retarded.

I like being able to play single player offline games in private still.

Not sure what's wrong with variety. The internet is full of people who think Nintendo needs to have the same games as PS4/XBO, comparable hardware to Sony+MS, and who think PS4 and XBO should have "parity" (I fucking HATE that word to no end).

What's the point of 3 identical consoles?

 

[ImpulsE69]

What's the point of 3 identical consoles?

This.

 

[Lil Frier]

All of these are appealing reasons to have a Nintendo console.

I'm sick of Call of Duty and Madden and Assassin's Creed every 3 weeks and I'm tired of even single player RPGs now having online, competitive, or multiplayer bullshit shoveled into them just because it's some kind of stupid expectation that every single game have online versus support. I'm actually pretty sick of our competition obsessed "haha my dick is on top of your dick" society altogether lately, but that's another story. Can't even play Xenoblade Chronicles X without being forced to sign in online when you start the game. Even the whole achievements and trophy and gamer score thing is just yet another mini competition with anybody able to see how far you are in a game vs them. It's fucking retarded.

I like being able to play single player offline games in private still.

Not sure what's wrong with variety. The internet is full of people who think Nintendo needs to have the same games as PS4/XBO, comparable hardware to Sony+MS, and who think PS4 and XBO should have "parity" (I fucking HATE that word to no end).

What's the point of 3 identical consoles?

All I got from this is that you love hyperbole and hate options. And in a thread where the suggestion was Nintendo stops making hardware to do software, I don't know how you got to "3 identical consoles."

I mean, I can't even be bothered to make a real rebuttal because that was such an angry, wild mess of hate without much in the way of logic.

 

[ImpulsE69]

All I got from this is that you love hyperbole and hate options. And in a thread where the suggestion was Nintendo stops making hardware to do software, I don't know how you got to "3 identical consoles."

I mean, I can't even be bothered to make a real rebuttal because that was such an angry, wild mess of hate without much in the way of logic.

I completely get what he's saying. He's talking about the push to make all the consoles have the same exact games, so no one has to actually choose. People don't want to buy a Nintendo, but want the games on other systems. It defeats the purpose.

 

[purbeast0]

i'd prefer nintendo games on other consoles for the sole fact that their hardware is not powerful compared to the others. after seeing uncharted 4 and how it looks, imagine a zelda game or metroid prime game that has that graphical fidelity?

instead we get wind waker remakes. i'll pass on that crap.

 

[Lil Frier]

I completely get what he's saying. He's talking about the push to make all the consoles have the same exact games, so no one has to actually choose. People don't want to buy a Nintendo, but want the games on other systems. It defeats the purpose.

But they're not the same thing. People will spend $60 on a game. People won't spend $300 to play Mario Kart and Smash, though. The only time people call for parity is with third-party stuff. We hate watching Street Fighter and Mass Effect become exclusives over a check. When you have something like where MS funded development of Rise of the Tomb Raider and Sunset Overdrive, it's different. Folks don't seem to mind as much when the exclusives are made exclusive because of actual involvement from the console makers, or the outright work of their self-owned studios.

Owning two consoles is kind of a chore, in a way. My Wii U stays at my sister's because I know I want to play with other people on it, which I wouldn't do if it were here. However, I'm not there that often, so it never really gets played. It's the whole package of Nintendo's failures. They don't have a gaming network, so I can't play with my non-local friends, and getting adults friends and family together to play games is harder than when you and your sister live under the same roof and don't have jobs and other responsibilities that make hanging out harder. Networked gaming fixes a lot of that, and Nintendo seems to be woefully struggling with it.

As such, I'd like to see Nintendo give up hardware, pour its money into software design, and give us a Mario Party that doesn't suck and amiibo functionality that is useful beyond character skins in something other than Smash.

 

[Sonikku]

Nintendo said outright they'll never do it: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...-Never-Develop-For-Other-Platforms-Says-Iwata

Then again, they said they would never do mobile phone games too.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendos-next-smartphone-game-will-star-well-know/1100-6434418/

 

[ImpulsE69]

i'd prefer nintendo games on other consoles for the sole fact that their hardware is not powerful compared to the others. after seeing uncharted 4 and how it looks, imagine a zelda game or metroid prime game that has that graphical fidelity?

instead we get wind waker remakes. i'll pass on that crap.

Again, you are assuming they would suddenly make the graphics better. Most likely they wouldn't unless they got rid of all their current devs.

 

[Sonikku]

Nintendo doesn't make all their games in house any more. Metroid Prime and the like is done by other devs, devs that might work harder to bring out the PS4's power than Nintendo might on their own.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Never really understood this argument. If you won't buy their games now, you won't buy them later on a different platform. If you are only interested in 1 game (which is why you wouldn't buy their console), it's not going to keep them afloat for long. Even 2 games wouldn't fly for long. They aren't suddenly going to be doing cutting edge graphics because they quit doing hardware.

It really isn't the same as talking about simply a game developer (even though they do both).

Sega is putting out games practically in name only, so I suppose if they went that route, then maybe....but Nintendo doesn't strike me as a company that would want to do that.

I would because they wouldn't be attached to stupid gimmicky controls and the graphics would be better. Plus if I had a WiiU still I would never be buying 3rd party titles for it because they almost all suck.

You're looking at that from a totally wrong angle.

People aren't skipping the Wii U because they don't like Nintendo's games. They're doing it because getting the Wii U means getting almost nothing but Nintendo games. I'd absolutely but Smash and Kart on my Xbox One. I bought a Wii U, and I only own 5 games (the included Mario and Luigi platformers, Kart, Smash, and Yoshi) because there just aren't that many I like.

So, I can see where many folks just skip Nintendo altogether because there's no gaming network, they might not want to spend $400 to play a couple of games (when you consider hardware and software purchases), and their friends aren't on the platform. Going multi-platform would open them up to another 75 million or so people, I'd estimate.

This right here is what I am talking about. The online play would be better if you had say Mario Kart on XB1 or PS4.

All of these are appealing reasons to have a Nintendo console.

I'm sick of Call of Duty and Madden and Assassin's Creed every 3 weeks and I'm tired of even single player RPGs now having online, competitive, or multiplayer bullshit shoveled into them just because it's some kind of stupid expectation that every single game have online versus support. I'm actually pretty sick of our competition obsessed "haha my dick is on top of your dick" society altogether lately, but that's another story. Can't even play Xenoblade Chronicles X without being forced to sign in online when you start the game. Even the whole achievements and trophy and gamer score thing is just yet another mini competition with anybody able to see how far you are in a game vs them. It's fucking retarded.

I like being able to play single player offline games in private still.

Not sure what's wrong with variety. The internet is full of people who think Nintendo needs to have the same games as PS4/XBO, comparable hardware to Sony+MS, and who think PS4 and XBO should have "parity" (I fucking HATE that word to no end).

What's the point of 3 identical consoles?

Then don't buy those games. There is more to a gaming network than Madden and CoD, but you are blind to it. There's a slew of other titles that have online play and beyond that it's the whole community of PSN/XBL and the ability to watch your friend's videos and interact with people in various ways that the WiiU doesn't offer just like they tried to tell everyone that no voice communication in Splatoon was a good thing. Again you're not even trying to look at it from a reasonable standpoint. We never once said it needs the same games, no...it needs MORE games and if some of them are multiplatform then so be it. There are many big developers who never make games for the WiiU at all, it's not even on the list. Ask yourself why that is. As for the trophy and achievement thing...you seem to be the only one who equates a number with someone's bragging rights. I'm pretty sure that 99% of people out there don't give a shit if their friend has a ranking of 12 on PS4 and they only have a 9. I have people on my list who are double my ranking but it doesn't mean anything. The only thing it means is they actually go out of their way to acquire the trophies while I just play the game. Really that's it. You're getting angry over something only you seem to care about.

 

[purbeast0]

Again, you are assuming they would suddenly make the graphics better. Most likely they wouldn't unless they got rid of all their current devs.

of course i'm assuming that, just like i could assume graphics on the wii would be better than the graphics on the gamecube, and the graphics are better on ps4 than ps3, and the graphics are better on xbox1 are better than xbox360.

why wouldn't i assume that? it would be dumb to assume otherwise.

 

[poofyhairguy]

of course i'm assuming that, just like i could assume graphics on the wii would be better than the graphics on the gamecube, and the graphics are better on ps4 than ps3, and the graphics are better on xbox1 are better than xbox360.

why wouldn't i assume that? it would be dumb to assume otherwise.

I think the answer is exclusive to Nintendo. From the Miyamoto himself:

“When it comes to the scale of software development, Wii U with HD graphics requires about twice the human resources than before.”

“We may have underestimated the scale of this change and as a result, the overall software development took more time than originally anticipated just as we tried to polish the software at the completion phase of development…

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...underestimated-the-switch-to-hd/#15de5d6f48da

Going from the Wii U to a PS4 would be another 2X jump at the very minimum. It might be asking too much of Nintendo to develop for another console (or too much to expect it to be much better than Wii U games).

That is why I would honestly rather they get bought by Apple and develop for the new AppleTV instead. That is probably more their speed, maybe we can get more than a handful of games a year from Nintendo then.

 

[purbeast0]

nintendo has a track record of being terrible at development times so i would call that nothing but an excuse. pretty much every game that nintendo has made since N64 has taken longer than they said it would and has been delayed.

 

[Lil Frier]

Please, no. Nintendo would be dead to me if Apple touched them.

Also, if Nintendo went multi-platform, it's true that they'd need more developers. However, they'd also have more money to spend on developers because they wouldn't have to pay for hardware development or network development. Maybe it's a rocky start, maybe not.

I don't even care about getting better graphics, as people are suggesting. I just want to be able to not buy a console for 2-3 games. I want to be able to play those games with others, and I want to be able to talk to them. Pre-made, text-only chat in MK8is terrible. Splatoon offers nothing to me because it has no chat. Smash needs it almost as badly as Kart. Oh, and then there's the fact that if Nintendo went multi-platform, they'd probably open themselves up to the competition's resources.

In addition to piggybacking off PSN and XBL, Smash could have popped in the old Rare characters with ease, I'd imagine (though MS seemed uninterested in stopping such a move in the first place). It could gain valuable knowledge from Platinum Games, who they worked with on Bayonetta 2, since they're also making Scalebound for the XB1, among other stuff. They could do so much more, they'd have opportunities they probably can't imagine now, if they went multi-platform.