"Nintendo Should Have Their IP on Every Platform"

[The Wooster]

"Nintendo Should Have Their IP on Every Platform"

Eidos life president, Ian Livingstone, on Nintendo and its platform exclusivity.

Ian Livingstone, life president of Eidos and co-founder of Games Workshop and the Fighting Fantasy book series, has called for Nintendo to go multi-platform.

"Nintendo should have their IP on every platform," said Livingstone, as he opened proceedings at a Bristol Games Hub event. "Otherwise a whole generation of young people will miss out on their games."

That could be a stealth dig at the Wii U, which is still struggling to find an audience, or Livingstone could be joining the chorus of devs calling for Nintendo games on smartphones. Particularly iOS devices, which, earlier this year, began to outstrip traditional handhelds in terms of games spending.

There's no doubt that Nintendo would make a killing on the app store, particularly given the decline of social gaming in favor of so-called "mid-core" games. That even hilariously broken, obvious knock-offs like this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115925-Counterfeit-Pokemon-Game-Tops-App-Charts] can top the charts proves there's a sizable smartphone audience for Nintendo's product, but the company isn't interested.

"This is absolutely not under consideration," said Nintendo CEO, Satoru Iwata, when asked about Smartphone development back in 2011. "If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It's the duty of management to make use of those strengths."

Calls for Nintendo to go multi-platform seem to follow every hardware generation, but it's unlikely the company would ever consider it until it's no longer making a profit on console sales. Some are convinced the Wii U may be the magic bullet that finally puts Nintendo's hardware business down. Then again, some were convinced it would be the 3DS, and others thought it would be the Wii.

Source: PocketGamer [http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Nintendo+news/news.asp?c=51359]



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[RJ 17]

Not gonna lie...if they busted out some Mario, Metriod, and/or Zelda games on the 360, I'd probably drown myself in them. Think it's actually been well over a decade since the last time I played a Mario game.

Well, I should say, since the last time I "owned" a Mario game. Think the last Mario game I played was the Mario Kart on the Wii, before that it was frickin' Mario Kart 64. I have absolutely nothing but my generously proportioned gut to base this off of, but I'd imagine if they started releasing their IP on multiple platforms they would see a pretty hefty sales increase.

 

[dragongit]

OW! I facepalmed so hard I smacked the back of my chair. Is this guy for real? Nintendo's one saving grace for it's own console and it's sales has always been it's first party exclusives. What would be the point of even being in the Console buissness if their IPs are on multiple platforms. There is no way Mario would ever be seen on a Playstation or a Microsoft console, not in a million years.

Nintendo would probably rather die then let other companies take a penny of that profit. If I ever live to see the day that happens I'll be surprised. It happened to Sonic, but Sega had struggled to keep up even during the Genisis era. Dreamcast was just the final nail in the coffin. Even if the Wii U is a colossal flop they would probably turn around and focus their efforts on another DS, or maybe a full fledged Nintendo Tablet that isn't just a controller of the Wii U.

 

[Space Jawa]

"This is absolutely not under consideration," said Nintendo CEO, Satoru Iwata, when asked about Smartphone development back in 2011. "If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo. Having a hardware development team in-house is a major strength. It's the duty of management to make use of those strengths."

Exactly. It's not Nintendo's job to put it's games on other peoples systems so that these "young people" don't "miss out".

I hardly doubt that Livingstone really even cares whether they're missing out. Really, what's it to him if some kids don't get to play certain Nintendo games? Why isn't he complaining about other companies games not being on every system? Where's his declaration that Halo should be on every system so that "young people" aren't missing out? Or that Valve should release all their games on every system so that these "young people" don't miss out?

If he's going to make a statement about young people missing out, he need to call out all the companies on any exclusivity, not just Nintendo.

 

[RicoADF]

Why would they remove the only draw card for their consoles? For fabs of their series a Nintendo system is a must, however I agree this could bite them on the ass later.

 

[somonels]

How did I not know this about Ian Livingstone? Darn, me!
Androids are outselling iOS.
N might do this if they come close to bankrupcy but unlikely until then. Once they start releasing on multiple platforms the usual appeal of their consoles drops considerably and will generate discontent over new exclusive titles. Right now people who like N games, buy N hardware, or emulate on the PC/Android.

 

[Terminate421]

I always supported Nintendo, their morals have always been one thing I respect about them.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

After seeing the review of The Last of Us, I'm not too keen on ANY platform having exclusives.

That is why I find Livingstone's comment so damn stupid. If he is going to make a comment like that, he has to say that to Sony and Microsoft as well, if not, then his point falls flat on its face.

 

[wetfart]

I'm sure we'll see Mario on the Xbox as soon as we see Master Chief on the Play Station.

Though a PC version of the virtual console would definitely have my attention.

 

[MrBrightside919]

I face-palmed so goddamn hard that my hand went right through my skull...

Oh sweet jesus, it hurts...

 

[RaNDM G]

To be fair, I wouldn't take advice from a company that's going bust.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Eh, Nintendo will only make their IPs non-exclusive when they're consoles cease to exist. It's literally the only thing carrying the Wii U at the moment. That being said, I can see them making a killing if they start releasing their IPs on the mobile market.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

Here's a question I know many of you cannot immediately answer, because you just don't have the experience:

How many kids would love to play a Nintendo game, but wish they could get one that works with their parents' XBox or Playstation console?

I think that's the big issue Ian wants to bring to the table - We've got two generations of gamers in families that have to play on the same device because a) two consoles can't run simultaneously on the same TV, and B) several of these families can't afford to own more than two current-gen or next-gen consoles. Nintendo's been focused lately on making quality games centralized around children and teens, but thanks to what Dad or Mom decided to buy, kids will find it hard to play them and instead will be stuck with whatever his/her parents get for themselves or for him/her.

And then you've got the impression that is put upon these kids by some of these games. You know why you love the games of the past? You grew up with them, as they helped develop you, and it's why games between early childhood to late teens stick in your memory the best - You were learning emotion, skills, abilities, shaping your imagination and creativity and what you were capable of. That sort of development is mostly gone once you hit adulthood, and it's part of the reason many have so much trouble finding entertainment with recent games.

Now, imagine what the kids have to grow up with in this generation of gaming. Is it good? Is it bad? We really don't know until we can tell a decade later, when the development slows to a crawl. And then, they'll also start complaining about the bad games.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Eh. I suspect the quality would suffer for it.

For good or ill, nintendo understands it's own hardware very well. If you look far enough back into their history you actually see there were nintendo games on other systems once...

And they were usually awful.

Part of why Nintendo games are that good are because they're built very tightly around the hardware they run on.
Now, could they do this on another console? Probably.

Could they do it on smartphones? Doubtful. I'm not convinced they'd do well on a pc-like environment either.

Their hardware and games are kind of symbiotic. You can probably break that apart, but I suspect both would suffer for it. (Well, assuming Nintendo even still made hardware in that kind of scenario.)

 

[JoJo]

Why would they remove the only draw card for their consoles? For fabs of their series a Nintendo system is a must, however I agree this could bite them on the ass later.

Pretty much this, Nintendo would be sacrificing the main draw of their own consoles if they allowed their IP on other consoles, in the long run it would be a terrible business move. Also, Nintendo games are generally much larger and consequently a good deal more expensive than your average app, their entire business model would have to change to work on an app marketplace.

 

[Mr. Omega]

I'm curious: Why is it Nintendo is the only one who "needs" to stop having exclusive first-party titles? This line of thinking never comes up with Sony or Microsoft. It's always Nintendo.

As for the WiiU, all I have to say is that once those first-party exclusives start actually coming out, sales will increase. And recent events have shown sales will also increase once they cut the price of the console.

 

[Something Amyss]

This just in, Nintendo's practices antiqated like rest of console market.

Film at 11.