Viewing Thread:
"Nintendo's Third Party Relations"

We all know that Nintendo hasn't had a good relationship with the third parties since the end of the Super NES era. With the cartridge format, difficult development systems, and higher costs, I'm surprised that any company outside of Nintendo developed for the N64. When faced with the more "friendly" PlayStation, I don't blame them for leaving. Fortunately, Nintendo has seen the proverbial light and decided that third parties are good for them. The GameCube was designed to be the "Anti-N64." Cartridges have been replaced by proprietery DVDs. Development kits are made so developer-friendly, it isn't funny. I'm not sure about costs, but THQ has said that development costs are 50% less than the PS2. Nintendo has done a great job thus far in winning back developers, but they still need to do some work.

For the first time in history, Nintendo is the underdog. They lost to Sony Corp's PlayStation. Thus, the hype is in Sony's favor. Developers and gamer's alike are committed to the PlayStation 2. Nintendo has to raise doubt in the PS2's abilities. It is widely known that the PS2 isn't the easiest console to develop for, but games are still being made in droves for it. Why? Because there is no other real next generation system to develop for. Sega's Dreamcast was made like most other Sega consoles: to compete with the current generation. Genesis was better than the NES but worse than SNES. Saturn was made to beat the SNES but was beaten by the PS. Dreamcast was made to beat PS and N64 but will be thrashed by PS2, gamecube, and X-Box. Nintendo should be aggressive in its marketing campaign to third parties and convince them that Gamecube will be easier to develop for and more cost efficient.

Once the Gamecube is released, tons of games that would be made for PS2 will be made for Gamecube as well. Sony no longer gets game exclusivety, so people won't have to buy a PS2 just to play certain games. Second, Nintendo must win back the mind's of the gamers. Today, the N64 is known as a "kiddy" system because there are too many "cute" games available. Well, that's because most of the games were made by Nintendo and Rare. If you think about it, that's how the Super NES was too. The only difference between the two systems was that the mature games were supplied by the third parties on the SNES. Since the N64 didn't have many third party supporters, the system didn't have that many mature games, and all that was left were the Nintendo-made games.

Winning back the third parties will bring back their mature games, which, in turn, bring back the older gamers. Nintendo increases it's userbase, loses the "kiddy" moniker, and continues to make family-oriented games. More and more developers make games for the system. This continues until finally, the outcome of the war is decided by exclusive 1st and 2nd party titles as well as the occasional mega-selling 3rd party title (Final Fantasy). Hopefully, Nintendo is doing all of this and more. If they are, Sony's not going to be the market leader for long. X-Box and Dreamcast will be crushed as an extra bonus. We'll see if this happens in the coming years...

Meka Dragon wrote:

Under influence of no sleep and red bull.

Grix Thraves wrote:
> The Gamecube is tiny!

Tiny?

That's bad news.

I heard that their PC's are absolutley awful.

And their customer service is terrible.

Apparently.


meka_dragon PQMS8/00

Sniper grabs a rifle and finishes Neo nick off, he was going to slap Grix to death.

"Thank goodness for that metal plate!" Grix says.

"Shame it wasn't in your head."

"Oh yeah. I'm dead then."

"Yup."

"Oh. Right."

suddenly a hand moves and in resident evil style grix starts bitting neo nicks leg which is then quickly followed by a gun shot to the head of Grix

I bet he through his control into the TV.

Ha!

neo nick walks away with his leather gloves and 9mm pistol

*Pushed near keyboard, gun placed at head*

This is a great post. I love it.

*BANG*
gasgsklj

This is a good post