Nintendo's empty buildings and how they help Wii U

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bunchanumbers

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#1 bunchanumbers
Member since 2013 • 5709 Posts

should start this with how Nintendo made a giant building to consolidate their game, hardware, and system teams.

So apparently it combines the handheld and console divisions into one building so both groups can work together better. Apparently, both were pretty much their own entities and that is why it always led to vastly different designs and thoughts when it came to consoles and handhelds. One of the things that I found interesting is that it can hold up to 1500 developers. And that in this process of consolidating their developers, they have buildings vacated.

With all these developers under one roof it should go a long way towards developing a good group identity and it should show in their games. Nintendo first party games should be coming out at a faster clip and with fewer issues. They created and added internal and external support studios that will help with first party games.

But what about the old buildings? I think they should fill a building with a port team. A Port to Wii U team. The purpose of the P2WU team would be to port 3rd party games Nintendo feels would be a great fit or would fill a missing gap in the Wii U library. Stuff like this used to happen all the time. A dev team has no idea how to develop for certain hardware, but they want their game on the system. They would outsource the job to a port team who knows the hardware. An example (an admittedly poor example) would be the PS3 port of Bayonetta.

The difference in this though is that the P2WU team would be intimately familiar with the Nintendo hardware and how to get the most out of it. That and Nintendo would be sensible enough to not select games that would blow out the hardware for their ports. I think the main purpose of the P2WU team would be to bring over ports from last generation, and some from this generation to the Wii U.

Nintendo can use this team to port all sorts of games to Wii U and it wouldn't cost the 3rd party publishers anything major. Nintendo would be doing the heavy lifting and the 3rd party publisher gets some credit on the side. Capcom, Bandai Namco, Konami and others would get their games on Wii U, with no effort outside of licensing the port to Nintendo to develop and publish. Wii U gets valuable 3rd party games filled with Nintendo quality, and gamers get more options than ever.

Do you guys think an idea like this would help?

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#3 bunchanumbers
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@farrell2k said:

You want Nintendo to port other companies games to their system to enrich those other companies instead of working on fantastic first party games that would grow the console base and make Nintendo money? I can't believe I just read that. :)

If you're so desperate for multiplats, find another platform.

Nintendo already has that part covered. They already have all their ducks in a row when it comes to first party stuff. They even have their support studios lined up for all major productions. This would be a side project for publishers who feel that the Wii U hardware is too hard to make a game on.

Not only that, I would have to say that this is a step towards Nintendo preparing for the future. Outside of the Wii, Nintendo has had trouble with 3rd party support. Its a well known fact. Nintendo making a port team would help in future game and system development. As much as I hate to say it Nintendo needs to operate as though they will never have another 3rd party publisher make a game for them again. This port team wouldn't just be for Wii U, but for 3DS, and any other future console.

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superbuuman

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#4 superbuuman
Member since 2010 • 6400 Posts

They just need to rebuild their relationship with 3rd parties...IF they don't want to do that, then they just need to buy out more studios & get bigger. :P

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#6 Ribstaylor1
Member since 2014 • 2186 Posts

Not all that bad of an idea but personally I think they'd be better offer buying up indie studios with fresh and new ideas and concepts, and putting them in those buildings. Would make them much more money then making games for others, and offer up a new creative side to Nintendo besides their big franchises.

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YearoftheSnake5

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#7 YearoftheSnake5
Member since 2005 • 9716 Posts

While it could produce short term results, I find it akin to putting a band-aid on a tumor. Nintendo shouldn't feel compelled to port games for developers/publishers. It's supposed to be the other way around.

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bunchanumbers

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#8  Edited By bunchanumbers
Member since 2013 • 5709 Posts

@farrell2k said:

@bunchanumbers said:

@farrell2k said:

You want Nintendo to port other companies games to their system to enrich those other companies instead of working on fantastic first party games that would grow the console base and make Nintendo money? I can't believe I just read that. :)

If you're so desperate for multiplats, find another platform.

Nintendo already has that part covered. They already have all their ducks in a row when it comes to first party stuff. They even have their support studios lined up for all major productions. This would be a side project for publishers who feel that the Wii U hardware is too hard to make a game on.

Not only that, I would have to say that this is a step towards Nintendo preparing for the future. Outside of the Wii, Nintendo has had trouble with 3rd party support. Its a well known fact. Nintendo making a port team would help in future game and system development. As much as I hate to say it Nintendo needs to operate as though they will never have another 3rd party publisher make a game for them again. This port team wouldn't just be for Wii U, but for 3DS, and any other future console.

I am sure Nintendo would love to spend millions making money for other companies instead of spending those millions making money for themselves...

Well I'm sure they could negotiate a bigger cut. Not only that since it would be published by Nintendo they would also get a cut of the sales. Really 3rd party publishers would get a cut because they own the IP.

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jasonredemption

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#9 jasonredemption
Member since 2010 • 691 Posts

There's nothing in it for the 3rd Party Dev or the original Publisher. Activision isn't going to green light a Sledgehammer COD game to get ported and published by Nintendo. That's just not the way the world works. Nintendo needs to fix relationships and not get year late ports. The sales on third party titles on Nintendo systems is already abysmal so there's probably no profit in it for Nintendo let alone the original Dev/Publisher.

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bunchanumbers

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#10 bunchanumbers
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@jasonredemption said:

There's nothing in it for the 3rd Party Dev or the original Publisher. Activision isn't going to green light a Sledgehammer COD game to get ported and published by Nintendo. That's just not the way the world works. Nintendo needs to fix relationships and not get year late ports. The sales on third party titles on Nintendo systems is already abysmal so there's probably no profit in it for Nintendo let alone the original Dev/Publisher.

sure they would. It just won't be on the scale of if they published it themselves. This would also encourage them to publish the games themselves, once they see the P2WU team making games that sell. Besides it would be more money than they would make if the game was not on the Wii U. Kind of think of it like how Sony uses PS+ to hustle publishers on Vita games.

And its not like they would only have to port 3rd party games. They could port older Nintendo games. Porting games from GCN to go on the eshop would work too. There's options for a team like this. As for putting indie teams in the building it wouldn't work. I don't think most indie teams would uproot wherever they are from and go to kyoto to make games for Nintendo.

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#11  Edited By lamprey263
Member since 2006 • 44503 Posts

They need to use some of that extra space to help with digital publishing, Nintendo has done better about getting more indie games and whatnot, but has put in the backseat the idea of building on their VC collection. They need to devote more resources toward acquiring more titles, and more of their own, and getting up in the eShop in all their regions.

They also need another team to work on making the online component of Nintendo to assist in upgrading them. For instance, we need to do away with system transfers that require two systems, get something like what MS does for rights transfers. Also bring in cross platform purchases on VC content to share games between Wii U and 3DS. They need a team beefing up their emulators they use for VC titles to bring back Genesis, TurboGrafx, N64 games, and bring aong GameCube VC as well. Hell, they could really make a stir if they got Dreamcast VC going.

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#12 Sphensen
Member since 2012 • 1176 Posts

@superbuuman said:

They just need to rebuild their relationship with 3rd parties...IF they don't want to do that, then they just need to buy out more studios & get bigger. :P

no, they need to rebuild their image. The majority of Gamers views Nintendo as a "Kiddie" console. If that wasn't the case then more people would buy their consoles which would equal to better 3rd party support

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deactivated-57ad0e5285d73

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#13 deactivated-57ad0e5285d73
Member since 2009 • 21398 Posts

It isn't Nintendos relationship with 3rd parties, it is the publisher/developer relationship with the consumer that is the issue.

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#14  Edited By nintendoboy16  Online
Member since 2007 • 41489 Posts

@Sphensen said:

@superbuuman said:

They just need to rebuild their relationship with 3rd parties...IF they don't want to do that, then they just need to buy out more studios & get bigger. :P

no, they need to rebuild their image. The majority of Gamers views Nintendo as a "Kiddie" console. If that wasn't the case then more people would buy their consoles which would equal to better 3rd party support

Which is beyond impossible to rebuild when their top franchises are considered "kiddy" (Mario/Pokemon/Zelda) UNLESS said franchises were killed off (which in turn would cause a big mess)?

Also, that latter part is very doubtful.

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#15 bunchanumbers
Member since 2013 • 5709 Posts

I still think this would be the best route for Nintendo when it comes to 3rd parties. Nintendo probably would have already had MInecraft on Wii U if this group was in existence. There are also plenty of other games that could have been ported over at this point. USF4, some Tales games etc. Probably with higher quality than expected. I wouldn't be surprised if this team ends up being one of their more popular teams. People would probably be saying 'I'll wait for the P2WU version.'

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#16 bunchanumbers
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It looks like Sony stole my idea for publishing 3rd party games yourself and putting it on your system. Sony is putting Resident Evil Revelations 2 on Vita and Ultra Street Fighter 4 on PS4 and are publishing the game themselves. I knew I was onto a good idea. Nintendo should be doing this stuff too.

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/system-wars-314159282/revelations-2-vita-ultra-sf4-ps4-published-by-sony-31786662/#35

At the very least it would bring much needed 3rd party games to Wii U. Porting the games wouldn't be all that expensive to do and it keeps Wii U in the conversation when it comes to 3rd party games and will prevent game droughts. Dammit Nintendo why didn't you listen to me?

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#17 Jaysonguy
Member since 2006 • 39454 Posts

Nintendo doesn't have the money to do it

Those empty buildings were planned for when the Wii was in full swing. They were suppose to house teams of third party and first party devs.

Here's the kicker, Nintendo didn't want to play fair, go figure

Outside of Namco Bandai no one else entered contracts with Nintendo because they wanted too much. For some reason Nintendo thinks they can dictate what they should get in return when in reality they're lucky to be in a position to beg for other's help.

Also considering how stubborn Nintendo is they wont use those buildings because they're part of their greatest failure of all time.

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#18 nintendoboy16  Online
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@YearoftheSnake5 said:

While it could produce short term results, I find it akin to putting a band-aid on a tumor. Nintendo shouldn't feel compelled to port games for developers/publishers. It's supposed to be the other way around.

This happened in the N64 era if I recall (Ridge Racer and Starcraft).

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#19 Sphensen
Member since 2012 • 1176 Posts

@ribstaylor1 said:

Not all that bad of an idea but personally I think they'd be better offer buying up indie studios with fresh and new ideas and concepts, and putting them in those buildings. Would make them much more money then making games for others, and offer up a new creative side to Nintendo besides their big franchises.

this is what they need to do. You want people to buy your console you give them they games that they can't get anywhere else. The 3rd parties will jump on when the profit looks good

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#20 sonic_spark
Member since 2003 • 6195 Posts

The concept is interesting, instead of having a third party do the porting, or license another third party to do so, Nintendo could do it themselves.

I don't see that happening, but if Nintendo had the man power and finances to back that up, well it could potentially work.

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#21 bunchanumbers
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@Sphensen said:

@ribstaylor1 said:

Not all that bad of an idea but personally I think they'd be better offer buying up indie studios with fresh and new ideas and concepts, and putting them in those buildings. Would make them much more money then making games for others, and offer up a new creative side to Nintendo besides their big franchises.

this is what they need to do. You want people to buy your console you give them they games that they can't get anywhere else. The 3rd parties will jump on when the profit looks good

Nintendo sold 100 million units with the Wii and it didn't fill the library with great 3rd party titles. One of the biggest problems with consumers is perception. I already know that Wii U has a great library and has fun 3rd party games that I have enjoyed since day 1. But the common perception is that Wii U doesn't have these games. If the P2WU team starts making 3rd party games for it then that perception goes away. Nintendo could even work out deals with other publishers and maybe even have the fans vote among certain titles for which game Nintendo should port next.

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#22 Sphensen
Member since 2012 • 1176 Posts

@bunchanumbers said:

@Sphensen said:

@ribstaylor1 said:

Not all that bad of an idea but personally I think they'd be better offer buying up indie studios with fresh and new ideas and concepts, and putting them in those buildings. Would make them much more money then making games for others, and offer up a new creative side to Nintendo besides their big franchises.

this is what they need to do. You want people to buy your console you give them they games that they can't get anywhere else. The 3rd parties will jump on when the profit looks good

Nintendo sold 100 million units with the Wii and it didn't fill the library with great 3rd party titles. One of the biggest problems with consumers is perception. I already know that Wii U has a great library and has fun 3rd party games that I have enjoyed since day 1. But the common perception is that Wii U doesn't have these games. If the P2WU team starts making 3rd party games for it then that perception goes away. Nintendo could even work out deals with other publishers and maybe even have the fans vote among certain titles for which game Nintendo should port next.

the problem with the Wii was it's weak ass hardware. The 3rd party games that came to it were lacking compared to it's competitors. I would of never purchased a PS3 if I could of gotten GTA and some COD DLC on the Wii. I wouldn't have a single reason to own a Playstation. In the future hardware thread I speculated if Nintendo was to have a handheld with scalable architecture we could see possibly see a resurgence of 3rd parties coming back to the consoles. given how well Nintendo Handhelds do, 3rd parties wouldn't fear profit loss as they could develop for both pieces of hardware

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#23  Edited By GunSmith1_basic
Member since 2002 • 10548 Posts

Nintendo used to do stuff like this. The one I remember is the SNES version of SimCity. SimCity was developed by Maxis but Nintendo developed the port and used the opportunity to revamp the game to make it work on consoles.

The main problem with this is that most modern third party games are going on hardware much more advanced than the wiiu. Nintendo could play a role in making a downscaled version and then make up for that shortcoming in other ways, similar to how Nintendo's version of Sim City had a fundamental disadvantage considering it was designed for PC controls but they made up for it in other ways like the extras and gameplay improvements.

Another issue is contracts. Nowadays devs get constant kickbacks and side deals with companies, and so there might not be much opportunity for Nintendo to even attempt to port a lot of these games over.

The main issue is that the wiiu just isn't that successful. Right now, it's more about limiting the damage. Spending huge money on ports, property they won't even known, could backfire. They would be spending all this money, and meanwhile the better version would be on other consoles anyway so it seems like a high-risk, low-reward endeavour

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#24 bunchanumbers
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@GunSmith1_basic said:

Nintendo used to do stuff like this. The one I remember is the SNES version of SimCity. SimCity was developed by Maxis but Nintendo developed the port and used the opportunity to revamp the game to make it work on consoles.

The main problem with this is that most modern third party games are going on hardware much more advanced than the wiiu. Nintendo could play a role in making a downscaled version and then make up for that shortcoming in other ways, similar to how Nintendo's version of Sim City had a fundamental disadvantage considering it was designed for PC controls but they made up for it in other ways like the extras and gameplay improvements.

Another issue is contracts. Nowadays devs get constant kickbacks and side deals with companies, and so there might not be much opportunity for Nintendo to even attempt to port a lot of these games over.

The main issue is that the wiiu just isn't that successful. Right now, it's more about limiting the damage. Spending huge money on ports, property they won't even known, could backfire. They would be spending all this money, and meanwhile the better version would be on other consoles anyway so it seems like a high-risk, low-reward endeavour

Sony did it with Capcom. It shouldn't be all that more difficult for Nintendo to work out a contract to port some of a publisher's older games to Wii U. Namco Bandai and Sega's IP library would be perfect examples. It would also be perfect practice for the P2WU team. The games they port won't be million sellers but it should still be profitable if it isn't a big port. Especially if they release them at the price that the OG Wii titles are selling for on the eshop.