What Happens NX?

[Hero-of-Time]

Ashley has started a new series of articles for the site called What Happens NX?

 

It's designed to look at what has and hasn’t worked for Nintendo’s last few generations, what we expect and hope from the NX and what industry-wide trends and conventions we think Nintendo may adopt, and which they may not.

 

The plan is to release eight articles in total and then revisit some of these ideas when the console is formally announced and released. Hopefully Nintendo won’t announce it in the middle of this series and scupper what I’ve written, but if they do I’ll try and amend any future articles accordingly.

 

What Happens NX? #1 - Third Parties

What Happens NX? #2 - The Controller

What Happens NX? #3 - Launch

What Happens NX? Catch Up

What Happens NX? #4 - Online

What Happens NX? #5 - Nintendo

What Happens NX? #6 - What Happens Switch

 

Original Post

 

@Ashley did you post your NX article in here yet? I can't see it.

 

Link to the article

 

Fantastic reading and well researched. Would read again.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Ashley

[Ashley]

@Ashley did you post your NX article in here yet? I can't see it.

 

Link to the article

 

Fantastic reading and well researched. Would read again.

 

I did not. Considered posting a thread as there are more forthcoming (I should write those...) but didn't want to seem too egotistical.

 

Edit

 

Went with it.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Ashley

[peterl0]

I concur. Brilliant article, and it genuinely surprised me that there are so many Wii U third party games available, its just the quality that is the problem.

[Ronnie]

Great article, very interesting stats and must have been a lot of tedious work involved collecting them all. Similarly surprised by the third party situation on Wii U but as said above, it looks like it's the quality of them rather than quantity that's the issue.

[Ashley]

It did kind of take on a life of its own. I got it done within the space of a day, but I think I stopped working on it at around 11:30. Although I did then have to proof-read and create the graphic late on Sunday when I remembered I was supposed to post it!

 

I do have the Google Drive spreadsheets if anyone wants to look, but will tidy them up a bit first. Were designed for my brain so might need organising a bit.

 

The future ones won't be quite as detailed, but then that's mostly because of the nature of them as opposed to this one.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Ashley

[Clownferret]

Great article.

My conclusion is simply that if Wii U retained EA there would be no 3rd party issue. And going forward EA more than any other developer/publisher hold the key to NX's fortunes.

[Dcubed]

Some interesting data there. Never thought that the total number of games would be so consistent across generations when you add in eShop titles!

 

But it's obvious where the complaints about lack of 3rd party support come from and that's retail. Retail has been absolutely decimated over the last generation or so and now only the absolute biggest can survive; of which virtually none of them are on Nintendo's platforms.

 

Great article.

My conclusion is simply that if Wii U retained EA there would be no 3rd party issue. And going forward EA more than any other developer/publisher hold the key to NX's fortunes.

 

Unfortunately I'm inclined to agree... EA are just too powerful now. Problem though is that Nintendo seriously pissed them off at the start of this gen and getting back in EA's good books will be virtually impossible...

 

Ubisoft are an interesting one to watch as they've started getting vultures circling them... They could conceivably fall if they fail to either repair the crumbling pillar that is Asscreed or find something else that can reliably take over (Watchdogs 2 has a lot to prove and the first game didn't fair to critical acclaim so it's an uphill battle in that regard, despite its previous commercial success...)

 

Activision will support Nintendo given the right incentive, as will Warner Bros. Take Two and (especially Rockstar) are probably impossible though, even moreso than EA.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Dcubed

[liger05]

Some interesting data there. Never thought that the total number of games would be so consistent across generations when you add in eShop titles!

 

But it's obvious where the complaints about lack of 3rd party support come from and that's retail. Retail has been absolutely decimated over the last generation or so and now only the absolute biggest can survive; of which virtually none of them are on Nintendo's platforms.

 

 

 

Unfortunately I'm inclined to agree... EA are just too powerful now. Problem though is that Nintendo seriously pissed them off at the start of this gen and getting back in EA's good books will be virtually impossible...

 

Ubisoft are an interesting one to watch as they've started getting vultures circling them... They could conceivably fall if they fail to either repair the crumbling pillar that is Asscreed or find something else that can reliably take over (Watchdogs 2 has a lot to prove and the first game didn't fair to critical acclaim so it's an uphill battle in that regard, despite its previous commercial success...)

 

Activision will support Nintendo given the right incentive, as will Warner Bros. Take Two and (especially Rockstar) are probably impossible though, even moreso than EA.

 

EA goes where the money is. If they believe they can make money on the NX they won't leave it on the table. Madden and Fifa flopped on the Wii U and with poor hardware sales it was a easy decision for EA to bail.

[Dcubed]

EA goes where the money is. If they believe they can make money on the NX they won't leave it on the table. Madden and Fifa flopped on the Wii U and with poor hardware sales it was a easy decision for EA to bail.

 

You, I and everyone else here knows that they sabotaged those games and every other one they released for Wii U. They both lacked key features of that year's version that were on every other platform and were by all accounts inferior to the PS360 versions.

[Hogge]

You, I and everyone else here knows that they sabotaged those games and every other one they released for Wii U. They both lacked key features of that year's version that were on every other platform and were by all accounts inferior to the PS360 versions.

 

That's kinda how it is.

 

Need for Speed Most Wanted U was a brilliant game, it had better framerate than PS360-versions, yet contained some visual polish that not even the PC version had. While no DLC was released for the game, at least one DLC pack came on the disc.

 

Also, the poor sales of launch titles can't be blamed on lack of DLC or whatever, because honestly, how many people buy DLC? From the statistics I've read, a 30% attach rate for a DLC pack is considered quite a major success.

 

 

The one thing one might be able to blame EA for is releasing everything late. Mass Effect 3 as a standalone game mere weeks before Mass Effect Trilogy hit? Need for Speed SIX MONTHS late? Not to mention that they didn't release Battlefield at all.

 

So it's a mixed bag. Yes, EA made decisions that rightfully reduced the sales potential of their stuff. But one could still expect sales to have been considerably higher. Something is wrong if a high profile game sells less than 100 000 copies in this day and age.

[Kav]

You, I and everyone else here knows that they sabotaged those games and every other one they released for Wii U. They both lacked key features of that year's version that were on every other platform and were by all accounts inferior to the PS360 versions.

 

Part of the blame must go to Nintendo though. When EA are having to spend more time and shell out more money on a WiiU port than any of the other consoles due to the different architecture, things will have to suffer so they can reduce costs.

 

If they used the same architecture then the same EA teams would've handled the WiiU versions for porting.

 

WiiU games just weren't cost effective enough to warrant them being on par with this counterparts on other systems.

[tapedeck]

*saves article to read later* Looking forward to it.

Nintendo's third party sizzle reel for WiiU peed me right off. Heck they even had Codemasters Dirt 3 on it. Along with the EA content it looked like Nintendo were in a decent place. The fact that games like Dirt and Battlefield never came and the rest launched in bad condition (eg: AC3) or with delays (Mass Effect 3/Rayman/NfSpeed) or got cancelled altogether (Dirt3), meant I felt Nintendo had utterly failed to launch a console effectively.

They had time after Wii's successes to time things right. Instead they rocked my confidence in them. And with no AAA deep first party game hitting the system (other than one launching later and entirely made of Lego), It felt like they had been dicking around with their Gamepad ideas instead of crafting a great out of the gate title.

Here's hoping NX has more to offer long term. At least zelda will be there day one of the rumours are to believed. In my opinion Nintendo (just like Sony and MS) need their own big hitters to drive their hardware identity and subsequent marketing and third party adoption.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I really enjoyed reading that, @Ashley. Well done.

 

Very interesting to see those stats. I was shocked at just how few games were released on the N64 compared to the other Nintendo machines.

[Dcubed]

I really enjoyed reading that, @Ashley. Well done.

 

Very interesting to see those stats. I was shocked at just how few games were released on the N64 compared to the other Nintendo machines.

 

Yeah, Nintendo lost almost all of their Japanese support with the N64 (and this was an era where Japanese games ruled the roost). They had pretty much nobody other than Konami really; they at least did give it some solid support (remember that Castlevania 64 was considered the flagship title and SOTN was the el-cheapo 2D game; ok, it didn't turn out that way but that was the intention originally - also Hybrid Heaven wasn't meant to be a throwaway title; these were the days of developers making the intitial transition to 3D and the N64 was notoriously hard to develop for)

 

They went a long way towards getting that back with the GCN. Ya such pretty much told them all to fuck off and Iwata did a fantastic job of mending broken bridges in that era... Though of course they would all go on to chase the HD Dream in Gen 7...

[Sheikah]

Regarding the 'there'd be no third party issue if EA reunited with Nintendo', do people really believe that?

 

Like, if EA started releasing every game they normally release on Nintendo's next console, do you think Nintendo would be drawing people to their console with that? And that other devs would follow? Or do you think the people into games like FIFA/COD will continue to buy them on alternate consoles, where their friends/digital libraries already are? And where the console manufacturers have experience and know what they are doing with regards to online/parties?

 

And that sums up the issue for me. Developer support for games like these on Nintendo's consoles will always be limited because the anticipated uptake of these games on Nintendo platforms vs other platforms will be poor. There is no conspiracy, non hate, and no plan to deliberately shaft Nintendo with regards to not releasing feature-rich versions of games on their consoles. Nintendo generally make their console in such a way as to be unattractive to these developers so they have no obligation to support if 100%.

[Ashley]

The PS4 has shown people will change allegiances as it has attracted a lot of 360 owners, but obviously a lot of boxes need to be ticked for this to happen. But to me this is one of the most interesting aspects of this generation.

[Sheikah]

Yeah, it can happen, but I feel PS4 was poised to capture the same crowd the 360 had. The mid-generation thing will pretty much decimate any chance I can see of Nintendo doing the same thing here.

 

This generation really is interesting - Nintendo pushed a last gen console (power, storage, online infrastructure) with clunky gamepad that nobody asked for while Xbox went down the route of Kinect and anti-consumer policies. Almost like everyone except Sony literally lost their fucking minds at the start of the generation.

 

In some ways, if the X1 had done better I imagine PS Plus offerings would have remained more competitive.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Sheikah

[khilafah]

Part of the blame must go to Nintendo though. When EA are having to spend more time and shell out more money on a WiiU port than any of the other consoles due to the different architecture, things will have to suffer so they can reduce costs.

 

If they used the same architecture then the same EA teams would've handled the WiiU versions for porting.

 

WiiU games just weren't cost effective enough to warrant them being on par with this counterparts on other systems.

 

Good point.

 

Capcom, konami etc etc left the Wii U alone for good reason.

 

I mean konami had no competition and still thought porting PES too Wii U was not cost effective.

 

Capcom the same with the Multi platform games.

[Mr_Master_X2]

That's kinda how it is.

 

Need for Speed Most Wanted U was a brilliant game, it had better framerate than PS360-versions, yet contained some visual polish that not even the PC version had. While no DLC was released for the game, at least one DLC pack came on the disc.

 

Also, the poor sales of launch titles can't be blamed on lack of DLC or whatever, because honestly, how many people buy DLC? From the statistics I've read, a 30% attach rate for a DLC pack is considered quite a major success.

 

 

The one thing one might be able to blame EA for is releasing everything late. Mass Effect 3 as a standalone game mere weeks before Mass Effect Trilogy hit? Need for Speed SIX MONTHS late? Not to mention that they didn't release Battlefield at all.

 

So it's a mixed bag. Yes, EA made decisions that rightfully reduced the sales potential of their stuff. But one could still expect sales to have been considerably higher. Something is wrong if a high profile game sells less than 100 000 copies in this day and age.

 

Yes, that thing that is wrong is; most owners of Nintendo have a Playstation or Xbox for third party already...so what's the point in owning the late/bunked version? I don't think the issue will solve with NX; people have already (largely) made their "multiplat console of choice" this gen already. And guess which console it ISN'T? (Because it's not out yet...)

[dazzybee]

A bit of me has always thought third parties are a lost cause a bit, it's what made me think nintendo would go the nintendo box route, make a cheap handled that can stream to the tele, proper hybrid, and that's it.

 

But all the rumours seem to suggest it's a big powerful home console, which personally excites me, but makes me wonder about its success. I guess looking at all the options, ultimately, they could do it, it'll get the initial support, and add always, no one buys 3rd party games on the nx. It stops.

 

But to be more positive maybe it's worth thinking about how it could work. On the lower end, the NX being so easy to develop for it's not expensive to port games over, they don't sell great but it's still worth doing because it's relatively fuss free. Ways it can be more successful, I guess look at things like Soul Calibur 2 with Nintendo characters, maybe nintendo offering something in these games to give them a boost and improve sales.

 

Other ways are the nx being more powerful than the other consoles, having the better versions and more people migrate to them than people would think. I guess the final way, and the biggest hope, is simply that the NX is an incredible console and people want it as their main console. Providing all the services and such is obviously important to that, but I feel the only real killer thing is the software; if NX is one system spread over multiple devices, and they only need to develop games once for both; then the sheer volume of games on the console could be insane; which would make it far more attractive to people; however poor the wii u library is to some people, imagine the 3DS and wii u library in one? That'd pretty incredible.

[Clownferret]

Regarding the 'there'd be no third party issue if EA reunited with Nintendo', do people really believe that?

 

Ashley's report showed that in terms of numbers there isn't the huge difference we all expected in 3rd party titles for each console. I'm not sure anybody is claiming COD and FIFA will sell more on NX than anywhere else, but it's an undeniable fact that without these games NX simply cannot achieve big numbers.

 

From a personal perspective I only bought a PS4 so I could play FIFA and Tiger Woods/PGA. And now that I own it my 10 year old son spends over 90% of his time online with his friends playing COD and FIFA. So in my family alone with two separate demographics EA is a game changer.

 

All the genres that the Wii U is lacking would be fixed by having EA on board. Sports/Racing/FPS so whilst it would be great to also have Capcom, Konami, Activision etc none of them can tick every box individually the way EA can.

[liger05]

Ashley's report showed that in terms of numbers there isn't the huge difference we all expected in 3rd party titles for each console. I'm not sure anybody is claiming COD and FIFA will sell more on NX than anywhere else, but it's an undeniable fact that without these games NX simply cannot achieve big numbers.

 

From a personal perspective I only bought a PS4 so I could play FIFA and Tiger Woods/PGA. And now that I own it my 10 year old son spends over 90% of his time online with his friends playing COD and FIFA. So in my family alone with two separate demographics EA is a game changer.

 

All the genres that the Wii U is lacking would be fixed by having EA on board. Sports/Racing/FPS so whilst it would be great to also have Capcom, Konami, Activision etc none of them can tick every box individually the way EA can.

 

Still Nintendo have to fill out those genres themselves. Shouldn't just be relying on third parties. Without cultivating there own audience into trying different genre of games the worry is third party games won't sell.

 

I think third parties would have a lot more faith in releasing FPS/racing games/sports games etc if they saw Nintendo was also supporting those genres.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Ashley's report showed that in terms of numbers there isn't the huge difference we all expected in 3rd party titles for each console. I'm not sure anybody is claiming COD and FIFA will sell more on NX than anywhere else, but it's an undeniable fact that without these games NX simply cannot achieve big numbers.

 

From a personal perspective I only bought a PS4 so I could play FIFA and Tiger Woods/PGA. And now that I own it my 10 year old son spends over 90% of his time online with his friends playing COD and FIFA. So in my family alone with two separate demographics EA is a game changer.

 

All the genres that the Wii U is lacking would be fixed by having EA on board. Sports/Racing/FPS so whilst it would be great to also have Capcom, Konami, Activision etc none of them can tick every box individually the way EA can.

 

In your case, having COD and FIFA on WiiU wouldn't make a single ounce of difference. The actual key thing here is that your son's friends all have other consoles. If your Son had access to FIFA on WiiU, he still wouldn't be able to play with his friends.

 

Having EA back would be good, but the big issue is that the other systems have always built up their userbases. It's become the norm now to buy an Xbox or Playstation and being able to play against your friends with these games. It's not the norm on WiiU. Those userbases are not as built up.

 

Even if the next Battlefront were to come to WiiU, I wouldn't buy it because the userbase just isn't there. The numbers are much smaller and it would take an age to find a game. For the last ten years, a Nintendo console just isn't "seen" as the place to buy and play the latest CoD and FIFA. It's partly an image problem and partly a branding one.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Fierce_LiNk

[Clownferret]

In your case, having COD and FIFA on WiiU wouldn't make a single ounce of difference. The actual key thing here is that your son's friends all have other consoles. If your Son had access to FIFA on WiiU, he still wouldn't be able to play with his friends.

 

Having EA back would be good, but the big issue is that the other systems have always built up their userbases. It's become the norm now to buy an Xbox or Playstation and being able to play against your friends with these games. It's not the norm on WiiU. Those userbases are not as built up.

 

Even if the next Battlefront were to come to WiiU, I wouldn't buy it because the userbase just isn't there. The numbers are much smaller and it would take an age to find a game. For the last ten years, a Nintendo console just isn't "seen" as the place to buy and play the latest CoD and FIFA. It's partly an image problem and partly a branding one.

 

Other than the fact that if FIFA and COD were on Wii U we would not have purchased a PS4 in the first place, then no difference at all!

That's the whole point, people don't buy the Wii U because they can't play those games. If Wii U had on par copies of these games every year my son would be playing his friends at FIFA on the Wii U.

 

All the N-Europe gang played COD online together on the Wii U, but when it stopped being released everybody moved over to PS4.

 

The "key thing" is my sons friends were forced to buy a PS4 and pay £40 a year so their sons can play Fifa. If they had the choice they would have bought a Wii U.

[Kav]

...Those userbases are not as built up.

 

Even if the next Battlefront were to come to WiiU, I wouldn't buy it because the userbase just isn't there. The numbers are much smaller and it would take an age to find a game...

 

This is a BIG problem! It's not just how long it takes to find games too, it's the game modes you might want to play too that you struggle with. On CoD for the WiiU you can pretty much only get games on TDM and Domination, all the other modes just don't get played as there's not a large enough userbase.

 

Now if Nintendo were open to cross-platform online, as Microsoft have said they are, this would alleviate this problem a bit.