Agent Icebeezy said:
Microsoft's model of embracing and assisting 3rd party should be followed by all.
I said I wouldnt continue in this thread, but I feel this needs to be discussed in more depth.
Microsofts model of embracing, and assisting third-parties was born out of necessity, not becuase they just love those third parties. They couldnt, and still couldnt survive on just first-party games.
Nintendo doesnt need to follow the Microsoft model. Even during lean times such as with the Gamecube, they still made money hand over fist, proving that they dont need third-parties to survive,
or even flourish. Microsoft has entered, and participated in the industry
exactly how everyone has thought they would, by throwing thier money around. What has this "model of business" got them? Second place, and in the RED by billions, two generations in a row.
Nintendo does help out certain third-parties by extending the use of thier own IP's, or in the case of Smash, placing existing IP's in smash hits titles.
It is not Nintendo's fault that third-party companies got caught holding the bag on multi-million dollar games in the pipe for the PS3. Everyone knows the saying about making assumptions, and now that they have, for the most part fucked up, you want Nintendo to bail them out by paying for part of a games development when Nintendo holds ALL the cards in
every market in both the handheld, and home console areana?
Thats foolish to say the least.
Even now when the Wii is destroying all the sales records, and is on the cusp on passing the instal base of both of its competitors
combined, some high-profile third-parties refuse to make thier premire titles for the Wii.
It's called the survival of the fittest, and like I said many months ago, you will see some really large third-parties fail, or flounder badly, while vurtial unknowns, or new starts-ups become massive on the back of the Wii becuase of this arrogance.
I have
zero doubt in my mind that if a massive third-party title hit the Wii, and was marketed just like it is on either the PS3/360, it would sell boatloads of copies. I could use many examples of certain titles that if shifted to the Wii, would sell imense amount of copies.
As for the several games in question that have "bombed", I agree that perhaps sales of these games sould have been higher, but to somehow use them as a measuring stick for third-party success in Japan is laughable. Talk to me when a game of Metal Gear, or Final Fantasy status goes belly up on the Wii, then we'll have a great debate about how the machine is for exactly.
All I know is that all the high profile Wii third-party titles so far have performed very well in Japan, and around the world. Its the lower, or even lower-middle tier titles that everyone is basing thier assumptions on, and thats foollhardy.