Your reaction if Nintendo went third party?

[LightningFast]

I dunno. I guess "sadness" is appropriate. I'd be hard pressed to find a gamer who didn't have at least a few good memories with Nintendo systems. And also at least one bad one about their dick friend who sucked people up as Kirby and spit them off at the bottom of the stage. Lookin' at you, Alex...

Of course, Nintendo's not perfect. There are a few business practices of Nintendo's I completely abhor: region-locking (especially annoying, since I'm Canadian and it's the N.A. versions that get censored because of U.S. laws and cultural restrictions that don't apply to me), the restriction of Let's Play content, their decreasing level of originality (though nowhere near as unoriginal as some other sects of the market) and their stubborn fixation with innovating where it's not usually needed and halting progress where it needs to be made, but at the end of the day, I feel as though I can confidently say that Nintendo puts a certain amount of soul into their games. Like Jim said, games like Pokemon and Kirby are made with nothing but love for the industry and gamers. There is no unwarranted money-grubbery happening when a Zelda game is released, because they are releasing a quality product that deserves your hard-earned cash. Despite the staleness present in quite a few of their series, they're done damn well. For example, Pokemon X and Y, at least in terms of mechanical improvement, is one of the series' best to date.

Unfortunately, aside from childhood sentiment, I can't really see a reason why going third party would be terribly bad for me. I'm more of a PC guy nowadays, (at least until Smash Bros. comes out ) and if I can hook up a controller and play Super Mario 3D World, that'd be pretty sweet. Of course, that means Nintendo gets sucked into the crappier business practices that I feel it's managed to avoid: graphics over gameplay or story, shoehorning unnecessary and expensive features into their consoles in order to make them "ONE-STOP-ENTERTAINMENT-THINGIES" while still having at least SOME innovation (the gamepad is gimmicky, but unique enough to justify its existence), homogenization of the market (FPS seems to be the one game Nintendo doesn't have an active series for), and whatever almost everything Microsoft or EA does. Nintendo makes games damned well, but I'd rather they keep making games on their own terms, even if it means needing to deal with their considerable stubbornness.

 

[Saltyk]

I'd probably start caring about Nintendo, again. I actually would like to play a few of the games they have as exclusives. But, on the whole, their consoles have never interested me. And I can't rationalize spending $300+ for one or two games. I generally only bother with one console. And, in that case, it will be Playstation over Nintendo.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I'd be annoyed because I just bought a 3DS (literally, picked it up Monday), but also kind of intrigued. Nintendo hasn't had a home console that was worth owning since the N64, although their handhelds have only gotten better since then[footnote]I'd even count the GBA as the first dedicated handheld to count as a great system in its own right. The 8 bit gameboys had great games, but they were few and far between. The GBA and DS, however, had NES/SNES/PS1/PS2 caliber libraries, and the 3DS is well on its way to joining that club.[/footnote]. Dropping out of the hardware side of things would probably give a pretty big boost to their flagship franchise sales, and as far as handhelds go, well, I've been saying all along that smart phones are the future. There's too much convenience benefit in having one device that does everything instead of having to carry multiple bulky items around for dedicated handhelds to stick around much longer, not unless they go the NGage route and build the whole thing around a cell phone. Which I think could happen. Sony already sort of did it, but they half assed their support for the Xperia Play and focused on the Vita instead. But imagine if the Play had /been/ the Vita.

 

[Brian Tams]

I would exit console gaming forever, then.

The number of non-Nintendo exclusives are shrinking, and the ones that are non-nintendo exclusives hardly hold my interest. I have a decent enough gaming computer which, mixed with the fact that I don't give two shits about gaming on the highest graphical settings, would end up being my main source of gaming hobby.

 

[Nazulu]

In one way it would disappoint me, and the other way I just don't care. I reckon Nintendo 'was' the greatest of them all. I will never forget all the amazing games and hardware they've made. However, they haven't made anything I've been interested in for awhile now, they've just been making bland sequels or plain rubbish for the last couple of consoles and so I know it won't be a big blow to me.

 

[Sarge034]

In short...

Spoiler

I don't buy Nintendo consoles simply because I don't want a gimmicky "thing" that has no 3rd party support to speak of. However, there are a few Nintendo games I wouldn't mind playing on my other systems.

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

Here's the thing. I love Nintendo. I was raised on Nintendo, and I live and breathe Zelda. But the idea that they're tanking due to unfair treatment on the part of consumers is a myth. Nintendo is not producing quality stuff. The Wii U may be a console dedicated to gamers, but it is missing games. Super Mario 3D World is solid, but far weaker than past Mario titles. Other than that, there's nothing: we have a Zelda re-release and the promise of Smash Bros. No one wants to see Nintendo stick around more than I do, but its not going to be the end of the world if they go away because Nintendo is already fading out on their own.

 

[b3nn3tt]

Ignoring for a moment the fact that it is incredibly unlikely.

It really wouldn't affect me that much. To be honest, I probably would buy some of their games if they went third-party. I've enjoyed playing Mario and Zelda before, but not enough to warrant spending money on a console that will only be used for those games.

That's the problem for me with Nintendo at the moment; they need to offer an experience worth the price of the console, that I can't get somewhere else. They've certainly got the 'that I can't get somewhere else' part sorted, now they just need to make it worth that much money. And for me, that's just not happening.

 

[Soxafloppin]

I'd be pretty pleased. I'm not trying to say that it would be better for Nintndo to go third party but it would be better for me.

I can't justify buying a second console just to play a few exclusives while missing out on multi-platform titles which have made up the bulk of my purchases for the past 2 console generations, and but I'd get to play Smash Bros, Zelda etc.

Pokemon gens 1-3 on Android/Iphone with trading enabled between all versions NEEDS to happen.

 

[Hazy992]

Honestly? It'd would make me much more likely to buy Nintendo games on launch.

I can't really justify buying the Wii U right now just for it's current list of exclusives, so I'm waiting until there are a few more must have games.

 

[Mr.PlanetEater]

I barely play Nintendo games any more, but I would still be a little agitated that the only company making hardware specifically for games went under.

 

[VG_Addict]

I guess there's no reason for Nintendo consoles to exist.

Nintendo has said on numerous occasions that they'd rather die out than go third party.

 

[SycoMantis91]

I'd be devastated. Not because I'm a fanboy, but because they'd pretty much flounder at that point. Whichever company buys them out would ruin their games, pile on ridiculous demands, probably insist on adding some online component and DLC to every game, do things like demand a gritty Zelda, etc. Nintendo's the only company I trust with Nintendo. If they were to simply abandon home consoles and focus solely on the handheld market, that'd be ok with me, as the GBA and DS were amazing in terms of quality games, and the 3DS is on the same path. I can only imagine if all their effort went into that.

 

[VG_Addict]

Oh look. Iwata himself said that that's not gonna happen:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/01/29/nintendo-president-iwata-firm-that-nintendo-won-t-go-third-party-no-wii-u-price-cut.aspx

 

[EvilRoy]

Oh look. Iwata himself said that that's not gonna happen:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/01/29/nintendo-president-iwata-firm-that-nintendo-won-t-go-third-party-no-wii-u-price-cut.aspx

Great. Take a look at their ticker symbol following that announcement. Just because you think it's a good move does not mean that anyone else agrees. The stock price wouldn't even be THAT high if they hadn't just dropped a billion dollars on a buyback to drive the price up.

 

[VG_Addict]

Are we seriously still trying to say Nintendo would make more money going third party? Because that seems to rest on the assumption that PS/XBOX/PC owners would be interested in their games. Let's face it, Nintendo doesn't cater to the same people as they do. Sure there may be a bunch of people on forums who say they would buy them on other consoles/PC, but they don't even come close to making up the majority of gamers.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I find it kind of selfish on how people only want Nintendo to go third party because they can't be assed to buy their console.Personally I don't want any of the AAA publishers touching Pokemon and Zelda because they will turn them into shit.Micro-transactions and tons of Day 1 Dlc for Pokemon and dumbing down the battle mechanics of the competitive online play so that it can "appeal to a broader audience".Dumbing down Zelda and turning into a gritty game where Link is given a darker personality while dumbing down the dungeons and bosses because we can't have gamers being challenged in any way or required to think outside the box.No fucking thank you.

Uhm, isn't Nintendo already appealing to the broader audience? They're not the king of handhelds because of niche appeal, you know.

As for a gritty Zelda game where Link is given a darker personality... Twilight Princess says hello.

 

[VG_Addict]

Also, for those who want Nintendo to go third party: Hope you like Mario and Zelda, because that's all they'll be making. Sega focused almost solely on Sonic after they went third party.

 

[Casual Shinji]

They may appeal to a wider audience but they don't radically alter their franchises in order to do it,I would be pissed off if Pokemon became a simple turned based game and all the things like EVs and IVs were taken out,or if Zelda became a action game where dungeons were simply corridors and all of the puzzles were so simple a dog could do it.

That's exactly what would happen if any of the other AAA publishers got their hands on those franchises.And Twilight Princess is my second least favorite Zelda precisely for the fact that all of the bosses were simple and the puzzles even more so.

So what's your point? That Nintendo is just as capable of making shallow, dumbed down games (Twilight Princess) as third-party developers? And apart from the Triforce chart fetch quest, Wind Waker was pretty darn easy as well in both combat and dungeons.

So I don't really get this 'dumbed down, broader appeal' talk.

 

[EvilRoy]

Are we seriously still trying to say Nintendo would make more money going third party? Because that seems to rest on the assumption that PS/XBOX/PC owners would be interested in their games. Let's face it, Nintendo doesn't cater to the same people as they do. Sure there may be a bunch of people on forums who say they would buy them on other consoles/PC, but they don't even come close to making up the majority of gamers.

Because they WOULD make more money by going third party. The only question is how much specifically. It is nearly impossible to lose money by widening your audience, especially in cases like these where the only change required to reach more people is remove a single arbitrary hardware requirement. Even if not a single additional person purchased their games after removing the hardware requirement, Nintendo would still experience a net income increase because they are apparently selling their current console at a loss.