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A lot of people and fanboys like to say that their system is better than the others because it is faster, it has more ram, and it is newer, but the truth is, it does not matter what kind of hardware you have, if you don’t have the software. A good example of this happened in 1989 when there were two major systems on the market, the Sega Master System and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Now the Sega Master System was more powerful than Nintendo’s Entertainment System, this was common knowledge, with Sega boasting that they had a more powerful system. But as we all know, hindsight is 20/20 and we know that it was not Sega that dominated the console market. Why not, you ask, if they had a more powerful system? Well it all comes down to software, which is what makes a system good. And what makes a system great? Awesome software.
In the 8 bit days of Nintendo and Sega, Sega had pumped out more games than Nintendo by far, but a far greater number of these were 3rd party games. And while Sega continued to claim that ‘our system is more powerful’, Nintendo claimed that what mattered was ‘Quality not Quantity’. Over the years, this motto sunk into the minds of young gamers, and while Sega’s 1st party games were great, the system did not have nearly enough quality games when compared to Nintendo.
And what’s the difference, you might ask?
See 1st party games are ones developed in house by the system’s owner. For example, Nintendo made the Super Mario Brothers series for their system alone.
A 2nd Party game is one made by an outside developer with Nintendo’s help and last say in the final product.
A 3rd party game is where Nintendo will license the rights for an outside developer to make games for their system. Example, EA’s Madden Football games.
Now having the right balance of games is a huge factor in the success of a console. During the 8-bit and 16-bit days, Nintendo did well with a very good balance of 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games.
1st party games are a crucial factor for gamers in buying one system over another. In general, 1st party games usually rock; they are topnotch games that are well made. It is these games that gamers should mainly consider when making a decision in buying a system. For example, you don’t want a Nintendo if what you really want to play is Halo. So it is these games that should be carefully looked at.
2nd party games are games that should also be considered heavily in making a decision about buying a system. Almost all of these games are exclusive games to the main company like Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo. Also these games are usually good-to- excellent games and usually sell well based on this expectation of quality.
3rd party games are ones that the main companies like Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft have little or no influence on their development. Now I am not saying that all 3rd party games are bad, but this is where you will run a higher risk of games not having the same quality as they could. Also 3rd party games should carry the least amount of influence in buying a system, because most 3rd party games will show up on all of the systems.
So what system has what? Good question. Microsoft easily has more 2nd and 3rd party games than the other two systems. But with Microsoft’s deep pockets they are changing that fact and doing it fast. Microsoft is buying developers left right and sometimes center and getting 6-month exclusive rights on games. (Which means that it is a 3rd party developer who releases the game first on the Xbox and then on the other systems later). While Microsoft is spending lots of money on developers and rights, I really believe that this will not have a big impact on the Xbox today. It will, however, have an impact on Xbox 2 in 2005.
And while, like Xbox, Sony has a lot of 2nd and 3rd party games, it does have more 1st party games than Xbox.
Nintendo’s main focus of N64 was mostly 1st and 2nd party games but with these alone you cannot have a hit system. 3rd party games do bring in a lot of revenue to a company, as well as providing games that gamers want to have access to on their system. This time around, Nintendo is changing its ratio quickly with their GameCube. While Nintendo has the largest amount of 1st and 2nd party games compared to its competition, it is also developing a base of 3rd party games.
So what does 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games have to do with gamers? Well, a lot when it comes to buying a system. It helps when you’re buying a game that you aren’t too sure of since if you remember to have a look at the developers, not the publishers but the developers of a game you’re interested in, you will soon start knowing a developer’s track record. This will help you when it comes time to hand over your money at the store, you will be able to go for developers that you know tend to produce quality games that appeal to your tastes, making it less likely that you will end up spending money on something you will hate
In the 8 bit days of Nintendo and Sega, Sega had pumped out more games than Nintendo by far, but a far greater number of these were 3rd party games. And while Sega continued to claim that ‘our system is more powerful’, Nintendo claimed that what mattered was ‘Quality not Quantity’. Over the years, this motto sunk into the minds of young gamers, and while Sega’s 1st party games were great, the system did not have nearly enough quality games when compared to Nintendo.
And what’s the difference, you might ask?
See 1st party games are ones developed in house by the system’s owner. For example, Nintendo made the Super Mario Brothers series for their system alone.
A 2nd Party game is one made by an outside developer with Nintendo’s help and last say in the final product.
A 3rd party game is where Nintendo will license the rights for an outside developer to make games for their system. Example, EA’s Madden Football games.
Now having the right balance of games is a huge factor in the success of a console. During the 8-bit and 16-bit days, Nintendo did well with a very good balance of 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games.
1st party games are a crucial factor for gamers in buying one system over another. In general, 1st party games usually rock; they are topnotch games that are well made. It is these games that gamers should mainly consider when making a decision in buying a system. For example, you don’t want a Nintendo if what you really want to play is Halo. So it is these games that should be carefully looked at.
2nd party games are games that should also be considered heavily in making a decision about buying a system. Almost all of these games are exclusive games to the main company like Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo. Also these games are usually good-to- excellent games and usually sell well based on this expectation of quality.
3rd party games are ones that the main companies like Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft have little or no influence on their development. Now I am not saying that all 3rd party games are bad, but this is where you will run a higher risk of games not having the same quality as they could. Also 3rd party games should carry the least amount of influence in buying a system, because most 3rd party games will show up on all of the systems.
So what system has what? Good question. Microsoft easily has more 2nd and 3rd party games than the other two systems. But with Microsoft’s deep pockets they are changing that fact and doing it fast. Microsoft is buying developers left right and sometimes center and getting 6-month exclusive rights on games. (Which means that it is a 3rd party developer who releases the game first on the Xbox and then on the other systems later). While Microsoft is spending lots of money on developers and rights, I really believe that this will not have a big impact on the Xbox today. It will, however, have an impact on Xbox 2 in 2005.
And while, like Xbox, Sony has a lot of 2nd and 3rd party games, it does have more 1st party games than Xbox.
Nintendo’s main focus of N64 was mostly 1st and 2nd party games but with these alone you cannot have a hit system. 3rd party games do bring in a lot of revenue to a company, as well as providing games that gamers want to have access to on their system. This time around, Nintendo is changing its ratio quickly with their GameCube. While Nintendo has the largest amount of 1st and 2nd party games compared to its competition, it is also developing a base of 3rd party games.
So what does 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games have to do with gamers? Well, a lot when it comes to buying a system. It helps when you’re buying a game that you aren’t too sure of since if you remember to have a look at the developers, not the publishers but the developers of a game you’re interested in, you will soon start knowing a developer’s track record. This will help you when it comes time to hand over your money at the store, you will be able to go for developers that you know tend to produce quality games that appeal to your tastes, making it less likely that you will end up spending money on something you will hate
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A lot of people and fanboys like to say that their system is better than the others because it is faster, it has more ram, and it is newer, but the truth is, it does not matter what kind of hardware you have, if you don’t have the software. A good example of this happened in 1989 when there were two major systems on the market, the Sega Master System and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Now the Sega Master System was more powerful than Nintendo’s Entertainment System, this was common knowledge, with Sega boasting that they had a more powerful system. But as we all know, hindsight is 20/20 and we know that it was not Sega that dominated the console market. Why not, you ask, if they had a more powerful system? Well it all comes down to software, which is what makes a system good. And what makes a system great? Awesome software.
In the 8 bit days of Nintendo and Sega, Sega had pumped out more games than Nintendo by far, but a far greater number of these were 3rd party games. And while Sega continued to claim that ‘our system is more powerful’, Nintendo claimed that what mattered was ‘Quality not Quantity’. Over the years, this motto sunk into the minds of young gamers, and while Sega’s 1st party games were great, the system did not have nearly enough quality games when compared to Nintendo.
And what’s the difference, you might ask?
See 1st party games are ones developed in house by the system’s owner. For example, Nintendo made the Super Mario Brothers series for their system alone.
A 2nd Party game is one made by an outside developer with Nintendo’s help and last say in the final product.
A 3rd party game is where Nintendo will license the rights for an outside developer to make games for their system. Example, EA’s Madden Football games.
Now having the right balance of games is a huge factor in the success of a console. During the 8-bit and 16-bit days, Nintendo did well with a very good balance of 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games.
1st party games are a crucial factor for gamers in buying one system over another. In general, 1st party games usually rock; they are topnotch games that are well made. It is these games that gamers should mainly consider when making a decision in buying a system. For example, you don’t want a Nintendo if what you really want to play is Halo. So it is these games that should be carefully looked at.
2nd party games are games that should also be considered heavily in making a decision about buying a system. Almost all of these games are exclusive games to the main company like Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo. Also these games are usually good-to- excellent games and usually sell well based on this expectation of quality.
3rd party games are ones that the main companies like Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft have little or no influence on their development. Now I am not saying that all 3rd party games are bad, but this is where you will run a higher risk of games not having the same quality as they could. Also 3rd party games should carry the least amount of influence in buying a system, because most 3rd party games will show up on all of the systems.
So what system has what? Good question. Microsoft easily has more 2nd and 3rd party games than the other two systems. But with Microsoft’s deep pockets they are changing that fact and doing it fast. Microsoft is buying developers left right and sometimes center and getting 6-month exclusive rights on games. (Which means that it is a 3rd party developer who releases the game first on the Xbox and then on the other systems later). While Microsoft is spending lots of money on developers and rights, I really believe that this will not have a big impact on the Xbox today. It will, however, have an impact on Xbox 2 in 2005.
And while, like Xbox, Sony has a lot of 2nd and 3rd party games, it does have more 1st party games than Xbox.
Nintendo’s main focus of N64 was mostly 1st and 2nd party games but with these alone you cannot have a hit system. 3rd party games do bring in a lot of revenue to a company, as well as providing games that gamers want to have access to on their system. This time around, Nintendo is changing its ratio quickly with their GameCube. While Nintendo has the largest amount of 1st and 2nd party games compared to its competition, it is also developing a base of 3rd party games.
So what does 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games have to do with gamers? Well, a lot when it comes to buying a system. It helps when you’re buying a game that you aren’t too sure of since if you remember to have a look at the developers, not the publishers but the developers of a game you’re interested in, you will soon start knowing a developer’s track record. This will help you when it comes time to hand over your money at the store, you will be able to go for developers that you know tend to produce quality games that appeal to your tastes, making it less likely that you will end up spending money on something you will hate
In the 8 bit days of Nintendo and Sega, Sega had pumped out more games than Nintendo by far, but a far greater number of these were 3rd party games. And while Sega continued to claim that ‘our system is more powerful’, Nintendo claimed that what mattered was ‘Quality not Quantity’. Over the years, this motto sunk into the minds of young gamers, and while Sega’s 1st party games were great, the system did not have nearly enough quality games when compared to Nintendo.
And what’s the difference, you might ask?
See 1st party games are ones developed in house by the system’s owner. For example, Nintendo made the Super Mario Brothers series for their system alone.
A 2nd Party game is one made by an outside developer with Nintendo’s help and last say in the final product.
A 3rd party game is where Nintendo will license the rights for an outside developer to make games for their system. Example, EA’s Madden Football games.
Now having the right balance of games is a huge factor in the success of a console. During the 8-bit and 16-bit days, Nintendo did well with a very good balance of 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games.
1st party games are a crucial factor for gamers in buying one system over another. In general, 1st party games usually rock; they are topnotch games that are well made. It is these games that gamers should mainly consider when making a decision in buying a system. For example, you don’t want a Nintendo if what you really want to play is Halo. So it is these games that should be carefully looked at.
2nd party games are games that should also be considered heavily in making a decision about buying a system. Almost all of these games are exclusive games to the main company like Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo. Also these games are usually good-to- excellent games and usually sell well based on this expectation of quality.
3rd party games are ones that the main companies like Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft have little or no influence on their development. Now I am not saying that all 3rd party games are bad, but this is where you will run a higher risk of games not having the same quality as they could. Also 3rd party games should carry the least amount of influence in buying a system, because most 3rd party games will show up on all of the systems.
So what system has what? Good question. Microsoft easily has more 2nd and 3rd party games than the other two systems. But with Microsoft’s deep pockets they are changing that fact and doing it fast. Microsoft is buying developers left right and sometimes center and getting 6-month exclusive rights on games. (Which means that it is a 3rd party developer who releases the game first on the Xbox and then on the other systems later). While Microsoft is spending lots of money on developers and rights, I really believe that this will not have a big impact on the Xbox today. It will, however, have an impact on Xbox 2 in 2005.
And while, like Xbox, Sony has a lot of 2nd and 3rd party games, it does have more 1st party games than Xbox.
Nintendo’s main focus of N64 was mostly 1st and 2nd party games but with these alone you cannot have a hit system. 3rd party games do bring in a lot of revenue to a company, as well as providing games that gamers want to have access to on their system. This time around, Nintendo is changing its ratio quickly with their GameCube. While Nintendo has the largest amount of 1st and 2nd party games compared to its competition, it is also developing a base of 3rd party games.
So what does 1st, 2nd and 3rd party games have to do with gamers? Well, a lot when it comes to buying a system. It helps when you’re buying a game that you aren’t too sure of since if you remember to have a look at the developers, not the publishers but the developers of a game you’re interested in, you will soon start knowing a developer’s track record. This will help you when it comes time to hand over your money at the store, you will be able to go for developers that you know tend to produce quality games that appeal to your tastes, making it less likely that you will end up spending money on something you will hate