Why do Nintendo fans reject third party titles?
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 12:37pm by Staff
Are third party games too childish? Is Nintendo’s Wii a kiddie system? Many times we have heard those claims ’round the Tubes, right?
N’Gai Croal of Newsweek was exchanging emails with GoNintendo’s Kevin Cassidy recently, and eventually it resulted in a column on third party rejection from the Nintendo faithful. Cassidy asks why Nintendo fans ask for third party support, but then get it and turn their backs. Is it because games are E for Everyone? Do they want more GTA violence? He seems to think that they do, but I’m not so sure.
Over the past several weeks we have seen a huge amount of external support for the Wii in all categories, and I can’t think of one title in particular that fans are really excited about. Is this the product of a mentality that says games aren’t fun unless they are violent? Or are Nintendo fans being too picky for their own good? If their current opinion of these games carries over to the final sales tally, it looks like Nintendo will once again lose the third party support they have been working so hard to regain. Here I thought things were finally going the Big N’s way, and now, because of the fickle tastes of my fellow Wii-philes, I am left worrying that Mario and friends will once again be left to carry the console end of Nintendo on their shoulders, all by their lonesome.
To me this is all just a case of the Internet at its worst. The only “backlash” against Nintendo’s new system right now is from the vocal minority of gamers that crave violent, mature titles (or those experiencing a case of buyer’s remorse about something else entirely). You know what the truth is? The truth is that for a majority of the gamers buying Wii right now, games like Wii Sports are the “best” game for their money. And Wario. You don’t hear from these gamers because they’re probably too busy having fun and don’t have time to insecurely bitch about a lack of manly titles on their Nintendo system. Seriously, what’s the deal with killing things?
Then when an Elebits comes along and people complain, it’s not these gamers that are rejecting third party support as Rawmeat puts it, it is the smaller percentage of gamers that are constantly online making the huge page long rants on message boards and blog comment threads (like me). In my opinion, when a developer sees Elebits today, they probably notice the flaws, yes, but they also notice the potential — same with those mini games in Wario — for a better game down the road. What they see are potential sales, not some L33tspeak rant at Kotaku.
Cassidy may be guilty of remaining in the GoNintendo echo chamber for too long. His audience, a sizeable one, is on Internet time with an Internet attention span. Many probably own two of the three systems out right now, and have game tastes that reflect that. But outside the illogic and console zealotry (guilty) that dominates many Internet forums, Wii third party support is ramping up, Nintendo is quietly maturing its online features (yes, amazing isn’t it? That a system can sell without online gaming in this day and age?), and games are selling well (yup, even the crap from Ubisoft). So are the systems themselves, don’t forget. Is making a better game than a Nintendo first party title a daunting task? Obviously, yes. But for every Far Cry there is an Elebits or Madden. Even a game about a marble is getting good press (review is in current issue of EGM). That’s going to continue in the future, violent mature games be damned.
March 14th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
I agree here, most of the rants about “not enough AAA titles” are from the minority of gamers who make up the vocal majority. I see more to be excited about in the next few months for the Wii and to a lesser extent the 360 than for the PS3. Even the current game catalog for the Wii overshadows that of the PS3 and they came out at the same time.
Most of us are too busy playing games to complain, if there were something to complain about. I’m trying to find time to play through DBZ, Sonic, and Marvel Alliance right now. I think it boils down to people with a small attention spans that can’t read the writing on the wall.
March 14th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Come on, the reason people are down on 3rd party games is because 98% are bad, bad games. It was the same for N64 and Gamecube and people are afraid it has already started on the Wii. For every FarCry there isn’t an Elebits. For every Elebits there is 5 to 6 Red Steel and FarCry crap games. I don’t buy Nintendo consoles for the 3rd party games, I buy it for the Nintendo games, Mario, Zelda, Fire Emblem and the like. I know going in that this is how it is going to be, but you can’t look at the current crop of 3rd party games and be happy with what we have seen so far.
March 14th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I think that there are good games in the market, from third parties, I have 2 examples, Marvel Ultimate Alliance and DBZ BT2, both have quality and give fun.
It is true that the quantity is low, but not all are bad games.
March 14th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
“Seriously, what’s the deal with killing things?”
Damn straight. As a Nintendo fan, I tend to buy first and second-party games, because they are generally of a much higher quality than most third party games. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Nintendo games appeal to Nintendo fans. Sure, I buy some Capcom and Konami games, and even some Ubisoft titles, but for Kirby, Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Smash Brothers, Wario, Earthbound, etc…..I stick with Nintendo.
March 14th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I think the perception of fans wanting only Nintendo titles is a temporary situation on Wii…
I believe Nintendo didn’t expect the overwhelming positive response developers had towards Wii after E3, and therefore they couldn’t accommodate their needs for a proper dev kit.
On the developers side, they jumped too late onto the Wii game development bandwagon, and the first 3rd party titles we’ve seen were pretty rushed.
But that situation is bound to change soon, as developers get more familiar with the system and put more resources into Wii game development. You can see some positive results already in titles like Sonic and the Secret Rings, Elebits, and SSX Blur.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:12 am
Go to metacritic.com and look at the scores for all the games. I see ONE score over 90, Zelda, and only three games in the 80s range. Only 8 of the 39 reviewed games listed fall ABOVE the 75 percentile. Of the games in the green, only four are from third party developers.
Gamers are not being picky. These companies are making shitty games. Yes, I want mature games for myself, but I would be more than happy with another great game like Zelda.
March 15th, 2007 at 8:52 am
I think it’s a mixture of different factors. For those who say they buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo games, I don’t think it’s as simple as it sounds. I’m sure, like me, they’d buy third-party games, but can you honestly say something like “I’m going to buy a Wii for Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid?” No. Before we even knew about FFXIII and MGS4, could you say that about the PS3? Yes, because people just assumed it in the same way one would’ve said “I’m buying an N64 for Final Fantasy.” The Wii can’t even claim to something like “I’m buying an Xbox 360 because I like first-person shooters.” The problem is third-parties can’t even guarantee me anything. At least with the Cube I had the confidence of getting the Resident Evil franchise (which I got by the way).
Another factor is, the poorly made ports. I’m not going to call developers lazy necessarily (making games isn’t exactly a cakewalk) but there are a lot of instances of rush jobs to simply poorly executed efforts. And let’s face it, the Cube always got a lot of late entries to games that were released on other systems months ahead. Now I’m not saying that’s bad exactly though you do kinda undermine the chances when gamers who have mutliple systems can just get the other version of a game that’s been released earlier. And on top of that the Cube games either had features removed (i.e. online) and/or with nothing added for being late (ex. Splinter Cell series). If you’re going to release a version with no online, you’d think that would at least get out the door first. Tales of Symphonia, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, etc. on the PS2 got better treatment for being late but I’d doubt you can say the same for Cube versions that came out later.
Another problem I notice is this whole “kiddy” stigma. From Konami alone, you’ve got games like Elebits and Dewy’s Adventure for the Wii but on the flip side the PS3 gets Metal Gear Solid 4 and Silent Hill 5? Now I’m not saying I despise “kiddy” looking games nor do I only want “mature” looking games, but I do feel like developers are not really hitting the spot for me. I mean I’m intrigued by the look of Dewy or Treasure Island Z, but I’m not fond of the look of Opoona or Elebits; I like MGS4 and Silent Hill but I’m not really liking games like Manhunt 2 or No More Heroes.
As for PS2 ports, I don’t really mind as long as they’re PS2 games I wanted to play. A MGS2/3 port would be nice (hint, hint). Some of those numerous Tales or FF games would also be better than those games like Ninjabread Man. I mean I don’t mind if you put a game like Ninjabread Man on the system but let’s face it, they’re not exactly lighting up my gaming world. You can’t just shove those games at me and then claim I don’t buy third-party games while holding out the third-party games I do want.
Right now I think a lot of us are more focus on trying to that one BIG, blockbuster third-party game. Granted it’s all subjective, but I’m not seeing anything. RE:Umbrella Chronicles is perhaps one I’d consider to be a big third-party gun, but we haven’t even seen much of it, if at all. There’s FFCB and DQS from Square-Enix, but we don’t know how well that’ll turn out. They’re not exactly the main series and their pedigree isn’t exactly assuring some of us (I remain hopeful though).
Simply put, if you were to mention the games you look foward to on the other systems, exactly how many of those titles are even coming to the Wii? A lot of naysayers always only cite games like Mario and Zelda and such. Whether they like those games or not it’s obviously hard for them to even give third-party games as an example so just imagine how we feel. We’re being left out of the cold right now. Were third-party developers and publishers sitting on their hands, doing the whole wait-and-see, and basically started off late to the game when they probably already started with big games for the other systems a year ago. If that’s the case then we might be in for a long wait. All I see on the horizon that’s even considered big are Nintendo games. Personally that’s Mario Galaxy, SSBB, and perhaps Metroid and Paper Mario. That’s all for me really, don’t really care for the rest. For the other systems at least I can name third-party games like Trusty Bell, FFXIII, MGS4, GRAW2, Assassin’s Creed, Armored Core 4, Idol Master, etc. I’m not saying they’re all guaranteed to be winners, but for now at least they’ve got games I’m looking forward to. I can’t even say the same for the Wii, at least nothing solid yet due to lack of information. Like I said, there’s RE, FFCB, and that Treasure Island Z looks interesting. I guess I’m just not feeling like I’m being overwhelmed with great things to look forward to but simply, trying to pick out a few ripe grapes out of a sour bunch (a couple of choice picks, a few okay, most not really interested in).
March 17th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Well, where are all the good third party games for Wii (and I mean games that constantly get score above 9 out of 10 like Zelda etc…)?
Also what about Online Gaming, what about using Miis for third party games and and and?