Nintendo to ‘Hobbyist’ Developers: No Thanks

Re:Nintendo to ‘Hobbyist’ Developers: No Thanks by 9999 on Monday March 21, 2011 @08:34PM (#2352370)

In other words: "Nintendo continues long, slow death march to irrelevance."

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nintendo to ‘Hobbyist’ Developers: No Thanks by dermatthias on Monday March 21, 2011 @09:03PM (#2352469)

Irrelevance?

They really did something new with the Wii controls, landed a huge hit and Sony/Microsoft are only recently getting back with similar controls (Kinect, Move). I think they deserve a point here.

The Wii is still the best selling console and the DS the best selling handheld(by far!). Perhaps it's irrelevant from a HN pov, but certainly not from a familiy/kids/recreational gaming pov.

And the major games from Nintendo itself (Mario Galaxy, Zelda....) are rock solid, high quality games.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nintendo to ‘Hobbyist’ Developers: No Thanks by 9999 on Monday March 21, 2011 @09:31PM (#2352577)

I can't really disagree with your points there, because they are not irrelevant yet, certainly not to consumers. If you are a producer of third party software, they are rapidly becoming irrelevant despite the huge install base. Perhaps they can continue to succeed once they've lost all third party support (other than the shovelware), but that's not a bet I would make as an investor. If it weren't for their success in the handheld market, they probably would have folded in the early 00s, and now they have very fierce competition in the handheld market.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nintendo to ‘Hobbyist’ Developers: No Thanks by rgbrgb on Tuesday March 22, 2011 @12:11AM (#2353065)

There's nothing to indicate that 3rd party developers aren't happy and profitable. With as large an audience as Nintendo's it seems unlikely that studios with the capital to enter that market would walk away. While I totally relate to the indie dev perspective (being an indie dev who'd love to make something for the DS), their Hollywood high barriers to entry do protect consoles from some of the ridiculousness that goes on in the mobile app stores. That said, consoles are definitely missing out on many small and wonderful things that are handcrafted by small teams.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nintendo to ‘Hobbyist’ Developers: No Thanks by 9999 on Tuesday March 22, 2011 @07:44PM (#2357130)

http://www.destructoid.com/nintendo-admits-third-party-wii-s...

Unfortunately the source for that article is buried behind a registration wall.

If you are pushing out shovelware, I'm sure that's profitable, anything else, not so much. Sega in particular has had some really bad luck on the platform.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nintendo to ‘Hobbyist’ Developers: No Thanks by bradleyland on Monday March 21, 2011 @09:25PM (#2352559)

Based on recent trends, you've at least got the "long" and "slow" parts correct. Some may even say their march hasn't even begun!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nintendo to ‘Hobbyist’ Developers: No Thanks by 9999 on Monday March 21, 2011 @09:56PM (#2352642)

I put the beginning of the march at the end of the NES era, when third party developers that were disgusted with Nintendo's greedy, hamfisted approach to licensing fled in droves to Genesis/Megadrive and PC-Engine. Sales held up reasonably well with the competition through the SNES era, but plummeted dramatically once Sony got in the game (due to Nintendo's greedy, hamfisted approach to partnerships). Handheld sales kept them alive during the dismal N64 and GameCube years, and they did quite well with the Wii (although software sales have plummeted). Once again though, Nintendo's greedy, ham fisted approach to working with developers is probably going to hurt them.

If you look at the big picture, you will find that Nintendo has been in decline for a long time, and that their questionable business practices will hurt them in the long run. Let's all come back in ten more years and see if I'm right.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Nintendo to ‘Hobbyist’ Developers: No Thanks by vilya on Monday March 21, 2011 @09:12PM (#2352504)

I dunno, the 3DS looks pretty interesting...

[ Parent | on HN ]