tehrik-e-insaaf
Member
So recently I came across this article - http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/12/the-wii-u-isnt-just-a-large-scale-ds-its-one-in-spirit-as-well/ - with a great quote
and it got me thinking about a bunch of things Yamauchi said about ~20 years ago in particular, some comments he made during the SNES era when NOA was dropping the ball vs. Sega
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1994-02-20/nintendos-yamauchi-no-more-playing-around
some gold nuggets in that article - including Nintendo's reliance on third parties vs. first party production (there was a time, when Sega had the issue of depending too much on first party titles and Nintendo wanted to be more like Sega in that respect) - as well as harsh comments towards Arakawa, Yamauchi's son-in-law
but more interesting - Yamauchi talks a lot about the rise of shovelware (i.e. Wii) and his remedy being to expand in-house output and support independent game developers and give them tools to build great games (something he consistently did with the Q fund during the Gamecube)
I realized this is something Nintendo has been really doing incredibly well behind the scenes recently with the Wii U in Japan
Some examples
1. Namco Bandai / Smash (great article and comments - http://www.siliconera.com/2012/08/2...endo-chose-namco-bandai-for-super-smash-bros/ )
2. Team Ninja (Metroid Other M, Ninja Gaiden 3) http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/08/team_ninja_interested_in_another_nintendo_collaboration
3. Platinum Games (Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101)
http://www.qj.net/qjnet/wii/hideki-kamiya-wants-nintendo-to-force-him-to-make-a-star-fox-game.html
4. Monolithsoft (purchased probably because the talent had stuck around under Namco ownership for a long time, and a Nintendo purchase would not lead to an exodus) - also given a lot of creative freedom and modeling themselves after Bethesda - http://www.vg247.com/2012/12/16/xenoblade-developer-wants-to-be-something-like-bethesda/
5. Good-Feel (ex-Konami staff members, gave them Kirby and Wario IP) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good-Feel
6. Mistwalker (http://www.siliconera.com/2012/06/16/mistwalker-would-like-to-develop-wii-u-action-rpgs/)
7. Grezzo (developed Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, run by Koichi Ishii - the Director of Secret of Mana, FF XI) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grezzo)
I won't go through and make all the references to the devs out there working or collaborating with Nintendo in some way (simple Google searches will show a bunch more), needless to say there are countless more examples of top notch dev teams that are now working with Nintendo... so they really have their act together with regards to top-notch Japanese talent and attracting them to work on Nintendo IP or generally to collaborate with on various projects...
Now what I want to know - what about the West? Nintendo had a long history of working with and developing great European talent (Rare, DMA Design which later went on to do GTA) and taking risks in the American market for talent (Retro, Silicon Knights, Left Field)... Some worked out and some did not (Silicon Knights imploded, Left Field bought back the minority interest Nintendo had in them, Retro went on to fame and glory before self-imploding earlier this year and rebuilding again through the summer)...
We know NST recently picked up Yasuhara-San (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...kazu_Yasuhara_joins_Nintendo.php#.UOLe42_LR8E) and Retro recently picked up a bunch of folks from Naughty Dog after a post-Metroid Prime 3 / DKCR exodus from the company and even picked up a few devs in Japan...
But other than those - what is Nintendo doing in the West other than talking to large publishers and hoping for hand-me-downs? Of course the market is far more competitive in the West so getting devs to work exclusively with them is going to be harder compared to Japan where Nintendo is the big fish... still, there is a LOT of talent out there, and it seems like Nintendo doesn't have much of a gameplan... Iwata talks about supporting developers (http://www.siliconera.com/2012/06/1...ecedented-third-party-partnerships-for-wii-u/) but I don't see a lot of it, infact his own comments seem to be pretty focused on helping Japanese developers access international markets (http://www.siliconera.com/2011/10/3...3ds-titles-outside-japan/#x0zRg6TYmUcLwKjy.99)...
Compare that to Sony who is pushing indie (Thatgamecompany) as well as Western/European internal studios but has basically dropped the ball with respect to their Japanese relationships.. It's incredible how Team Ico imploded, and Sony has basically one other studio working on a relative modest project (Puppeteer).. but no other Japanese talent other than that...
While there are some positive signs from Nintendo ... i.e. improved relationship with indie developers - http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/27/nintendo-wii-u-eshop-indie-developers/
I still don't see the kinds of large scale collaborations and risks being taken on US or European development talent that Nintendo is doing in Japan... Unless of course Nintendo's plan is to work directly with publishers for hand-me-downs while they scale up NST/Retro and not to worry about other up and coming studios... Nintendo would still have zero exposure to Europe though outside of small collaborations with Ubisoft...
Is this is an issue? Is Nintendo holding back info? Should they just focus more on internal studios rather than trying to find competent development studios to take a bet on? I'd be curious to hear what other peoples' thoughts are...
My four suggestions for Nintendo
1. Get CliffyB! He has a great network of developers and has a bit of a cult following given his work... Let him setup in the East Coast where there is a bigger pool of talent and less demand for it. I think ultimately Bethesda will pick him up but given he wants to do something that isn't just another shooter... Nintendo is the one company that offers him that opportunity to get a truly global reach for his next work
2. Possibly collaborate with some of the up and coming Texas studios like Armature (MGS HD Collection, ex-Retro staffers like Jack Matthews) - less competition for those resources relative to the West Coast, and more value for the dollar
3. The UK is really, really competitive now, but I think Germany and France still have some great smaller studios and there is a great opportunity to collaborate with some of the folks there
4. Sweetheart deals with indies for 1+ year exclusivity agreements and give the best ones a chance to work on second tier IPs Nintendo is sitting on
Ever since the DS, Yamauchi’s philosophy of adding something unique has lived on and can be seen in every console. Now with the Wii U, the philosophy has manifested in taking a TV console and giving it a second screen. Said Iwata, “Mr Yamauchi had no direct input in the development of the Wii U, but indirectly, you could say his idea from the DS is connected.”
and it got me thinking about a bunch of things Yamauchi said about ~20 years ago in particular, some comments he made during the SNES era when NOA was dropping the ball vs. Sega
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1994-02-20/nintendos-yamauchi-no-more-playing-around
some gold nuggets in that article - including Nintendo's reliance on third parties vs. first party production (there was a time, when Sega had the issue of depending too much on first party titles and Nintendo wanted to be more like Sega in that respect) - as well as harsh comments towards Arakawa, Yamauchi's son-in-law
but more interesting - Yamauchi talks a lot about the rise of shovelware (i.e. Wii) and his remedy being to expand in-house output and support independent game developers and give them tools to build great games (something he consistently did with the Q fund during the Gamecube)
So for the Project Reality game machine due next year, Yamauchi will develop most of the initial games in-house or through joint ventures. He'll let independents have the software "tools" to create games. But he'll shun the big software conferences that Sega and 3DO have used to encourage independents. "We're better off, at first, with a few good titles," he says. "Lots of software just means lots of bad software."
I realized this is something Nintendo has been really doing incredibly well behind the scenes recently with the Wii U in Japan
Some examples
1. Namco Bandai / Smash (great article and comments - http://www.siliconera.com/2012/08/2...endo-chose-namco-bandai-for-super-smash-bros/ )
“Also, we’ve continually developed a very good relationship with Nintendo,” Harada continued. “Maybe not necessarily in the public spotlight but kind of behind the scenes. We have established a very good working relationship with them. Not just Nintendo, but as a company, we have a very good relationship with Sakurai-san at Sora as well. I think that we are in very good position to make a great game for the Smash Brothers series.”
2. Team Ninja (Metroid Other M, Ninja Gaiden 3) http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/08/team_ninja_interested_in_another_nintendo_collaboration
3. Platinum Games (Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101)
http://www.qj.net/qjnet/wii/hideki-kamiya-wants-nintendo-to-force-him-to-make-a-star-fox-game.html
4. Monolithsoft (purchased probably because the talent had stuck around under Namco ownership for a long time, and a Nintendo purchase would not lead to an exodus) - also given a lot of creative freedom and modeling themselves after Bethesda - http://www.vg247.com/2012/12/16/xenoblade-developer-wants-to-be-something-like-bethesda/
5. Good-Feel (ex-Konami staff members, gave them Kirby and Wario IP) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good-Feel
6. Mistwalker (http://www.siliconera.com/2012/06/16/mistwalker-would-like-to-develop-wii-u-action-rpgs/)
7. Grezzo (developed Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D, run by Koichi Ishii - the Director of Secret of Mana, FF XI) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grezzo)
I won't go through and make all the references to the devs out there working or collaborating with Nintendo in some way (simple Google searches will show a bunch more), needless to say there are countless more examples of top notch dev teams that are now working with Nintendo... so they really have their act together with regards to top-notch Japanese talent and attracting them to work on Nintendo IP or generally to collaborate with on various projects...
Now what I want to know - what about the West? Nintendo had a long history of working with and developing great European talent (Rare, DMA Design which later went on to do GTA) and taking risks in the American market for talent (Retro, Silicon Knights, Left Field)... Some worked out and some did not (Silicon Knights imploded, Left Field bought back the minority interest Nintendo had in them, Retro went on to fame and glory before self-imploding earlier this year and rebuilding again through the summer)...
We know NST recently picked up Yasuhara-San (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...kazu_Yasuhara_joins_Nintendo.php#.UOLe42_LR8E) and Retro recently picked up a bunch of folks from Naughty Dog after a post-Metroid Prime 3 / DKCR exodus from the company and even picked up a few devs in Japan...
But other than those - what is Nintendo doing in the West other than talking to large publishers and hoping for hand-me-downs? Of course the market is far more competitive in the West so getting devs to work exclusively with them is going to be harder compared to Japan where Nintendo is the big fish... still, there is a LOT of talent out there, and it seems like Nintendo doesn't have much of a gameplan... Iwata talks about supporting developers (http://www.siliconera.com/2012/06/1...ecedented-third-party-partnerships-for-wii-u/) but I don't see a lot of it, infact his own comments seem to be pretty focused on helping Japanese developers access international markets (http://www.siliconera.com/2011/10/3...3ds-titles-outside-japan/#x0zRg6TYmUcLwKjy.99)...
Iwata believes that the Nintendo 3DS presents a “great opportunity” for Japanese publishers to expand their market outside Japan. While Nintendo products sell well worldwide, regardless of whether they’re on a portable or console, the same doesn’t hold true for other Japanese developers. To address this issue, Iwata says that Nintendo will identify third-party 3DS games with strong overseas potential, and will collaborate with their publishers to turn these games into hits.
Compare that to Sony who is pushing indie (Thatgamecompany) as well as Western/European internal studios but has basically dropped the ball with respect to their Japanese relationships.. It's incredible how Team Ico imploded, and Sony has basically one other studio working on a relative modest project (Puppeteer).. but no other Japanese talent other than that...
While there are some positive signs from Nintendo ... i.e. improved relationship with indie developers - http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/27/nintendo-wii-u-eshop-indie-developers/
I still don't see the kinds of large scale collaborations and risks being taken on US or European development talent that Nintendo is doing in Japan... Unless of course Nintendo's plan is to work directly with publishers for hand-me-downs while they scale up NST/Retro and not to worry about other up and coming studios... Nintendo would still have zero exposure to Europe though outside of small collaborations with Ubisoft...
Is this is an issue? Is Nintendo holding back info? Should they just focus more on internal studios rather than trying to find competent development studios to take a bet on? I'd be curious to hear what other peoples' thoughts are...
My four suggestions for Nintendo
1. Get CliffyB! He has a great network of developers and has a bit of a cult following given his work... Let him setup in the East Coast where there is a bigger pool of talent and less demand for it. I think ultimately Bethesda will pick him up but given he wants to do something that isn't just another shooter... Nintendo is the one company that offers him that opportunity to get a truly global reach for his next work
2. Possibly collaborate with some of the up and coming Texas studios like Armature (MGS HD Collection, ex-Retro staffers like Jack Matthews) - less competition for those resources relative to the West Coast, and more value for the dollar
3. The UK is really, really competitive now, but I think Germany and France still have some great smaller studios and there is a great opportunity to collaborate with some of the folks there
4. Sweetheart deals with indies for 1+ year exclusivity agreements and give the best ones a chance to work on second tier IPs Nintendo is sitting on