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.
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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.
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.