Is Third Party Support Vital

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scotland
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Is Third Party Support Vital

Postby scotland » June 18th, 2015, 10:44 am

One thing I hear most about the Wii U is lack of third party support and how its hurting the Wii U. One thing I hear most about the Wii is all the third party shovelware, and how it hurt the Wii. Hobsons choice there.

Is third party support mostly good, mostly bad, or mixed bag? Can it be good for gamers but bad for the hardware manufacturer?

Think about the Atari 2600 third party support, the 10NES chip, the NES quality seal and quotas, defining your brand, the loss of final fantasy to Sony, EA games on a console, modern multiplatform games, early access games, the fate of Ouya, Android vs iOS, etc.

How important is cultivating third party support to being a successful games console these days?

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JustLikeHeaven
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Re: Is Third Party Support Vital

Postby JustLikeHeaven » June 18th, 2015, 11:19 am

Third party support will always be good. It means more companies are interested in supporting a system. However, they're not the end all be all.

For Nintendo third party support no longer matters. They aren't interested in following what Sony and Microsoft (and most of the industry) are doing. Games that focus on better graphics, in depth stories, online multi-player etc...these things are not important to Nintendo. Since they are important to most third party developers...it makes it hard for them to justify porting or developing exclusively for Nintendo.

Nintendo makes games. Games that aren't afraid to be games and make you understand that you're playing a game. They don't care about realism or chat support. When you put a first party Nintendo game into your console the most important thing is that it's entertaining and fun.

In regards to third party...they've abandoned the system because of it's low adoption rate with consumers. Couple that with the fact that people don't buy Nintendo consoles for third party games. They buy a Nintendo console because they want to play Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros or whatever else they cook up that excites you. Good third party games are simply gravy on a Nintendo console at this point.

I think third party support is a good thing and it's important. Sony and Microsoft couldn't survive without it. Nintendo probably could. They pretty much have been since the Gamecube.

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scotland
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Re: Is Third Party Support Vital

Postby scotland » June 18th, 2015, 12:11 pm

Nice reply. Thanks. I agree with the bulk of it.

I think Nintendo is worried about competition, its that its more than Sony or MS but mobile games too. Splatoon and Bayonetta seem like departures. They definately need Lego and Skylanders or families will drop them like a rabid goomba.

I do agree people buy Ninty consoles to play Ninty games, but they buy Ninty portables to just play good games. Much of my 3DS library are 3rd party. I do not see the same stigma there.

Isnt the Nintendo eshop mostly 3rd party games? The Cave, Cube Life, Dont Starve, all the retro games, etc.
(Sidebar - why are these games so expensive! Zombie U is $30 for a digital download of a launch title!)

Ninty themselves is/owns/partners with a 3rd party publisher with Puzzles and Dragons.

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JustLikeHeaven
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Re: Is Third Party Support Vital

Postby JustLikeHeaven » June 18th, 2015, 2:44 pm

I should state that my post mainly reflects Nintendo's consoles.

They don't have the same issue with handhelds because there isn't any competition to speak of. Even with mobile and tablet gaming they still have a good foothold and make tons of money in the handheld market.

Plus the cost of developing handheld games hasn't ballooned like the rest of the industry. So it's easier for smaller companies to take a risk.

Sut
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Re: Is Third Party Support Vital

Postby Sut » June 18th, 2015, 5:36 pm

A thought provoking topic. I believe overall it is a good thing but as the op points out there are plenty of instances where it has been a bad thing Atari 2600, Wii, etc.

So in reality you need good third party support the sort that is going to invest time and resources into your hardware not the 'shovelware' third party support. This goes with relationship building. I presume Sony, MS and even Nintendo have some sort of 'relationship' with expectations of quality control from third parties not the draconian measures of the NES era but at least some sort of measure at least ?

I believe the lack of third party support killed the Dreamcast and also despite it's huge popularity cut short the Wii's lifespan (in comparison to PS3/360) so yes it is, in my view as important as exclusives.


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