Dark Cloud
Member
I don't think the expansion of their own teams is something that wouldn't happen in a million years.
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Monolith Soft Executive Producer (Hirohide Sugiura) On Going From Namco To Nintendo
- Thread starter RampagingSoul
- Start date
I don't think the expansion of their own teams is something that wouldn't happen in a million years.
Colonel Mustard
Banned
Real talk: they should have scalped all the talent from Eurocom after they shuttered. Or bought the studio before closure. Would have been a great FPS studio.
At one point Capcom were looking for a Nintendo buyout.
If Nintendo can get rid of devs like Left Field and Rare do you think they would purchase Eurocom?
Eurocom were a pretty average developer. I enjoyed their games but they were no where near the quality expected from a first or second party Nintendo studio.
Not to mention that I don't think Nintendo and Eurocom ever worked on a project together. n-Space would have been a more logical studio to buy with that in mind, and I don't think anyone was really that big on n-Space at any point.
With Retro, we've seen that the turnover doesn't actually affect the quality or sales of their product.
There's definitely a culture at Retro that its former employees don't take with them, though it might be somewhat arguable that Bluepoint has become a more recognizable developer these days, though that is generally what happens when you have steady work and do a great job, as opposed to whatever the hell Armature keeps doing to scrape on by.
Umm, yeah, about that...
Tatsumi Kimishima said:
This was in response to a question about their nearly 1 trillion yen in cash reserves. (Source: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2017/qa1706e.pdf)
Now, between the Switch selling gangbusters and the heaps of coin they've raked in from FE Heroes, I think "upswing" is selling the situation short.
They already have 15% or so of their available shares as treasury shares. This was Iwata's words on the high volume of treasury stock:
So they were continuing to hold treasury stock for M&As and business alliances like we saw with DeNA.
Treasury shares are bought for 4 reasons typically:
1) To retire shares and increase the value of all issued stock as a result (which has risks, as Iwata mentioned)
2) Preparation for delisting from the stock exchange
3) To protect against hostile takeovers
4) To use as bargaining chips in lieu of actual money when performing an M&A
3 of those scenarios aren't happening. Shares are still outstanding and not being retired, Nintendo is going to remain on the stock exchange and no one is planning a hostile takeover any time soon.
So.... make of all that what you will.
Shikamaru Ninja
任天å ã® å¿è
Cruisin' World was a first-party Eurocom project commissioned for Nintendo (NOA).
Problem is Nintendo currently doesn't have an effective structure to manage global R&D. They actually took steps backwards, because the Iwata-era shutdown the NOA production arm that took off during the SNES/N64. Their structure now is to basically remotely manage their EU/NA projects through a small Japan production team. They seemingly tried to set up a Japan arm of their production team in Seattle - which produced the Big Fish, Sing Party and Lego projects. Can't say it really expanded much in scope.
The Giant
Banned
Nintendo didn't get rid of them. Left Field bought out Nintendo stakes in the company to be independent again.
Which I presume at some point, they might have regret doing that.
So, does that mean Baten Kaitos 3 is really dead, right?
Namco owns the IP, so the ball's in their court.
TwilightPrincess
Member
It would help if they made a 100+ Studio out of Monolithsoft Kyoto and let make Honne a new game. I would kill for that. (He was responsible for Baten Kaitos if i remember correctly, also Art for Chrono Cross). Sure he helps Nintendo a lot with other stuff but it's a little bit sad that we see no new games from him.... Also there are other very talented people in Monolithsoft Kyoto, Nintendo should let them make their own thing.
Nintendo wrings good games out of average developers all the time, the upcoming Metroid game being the most immediate example.
What is your definition of 'big developer'? I've always enjoy their games but that's not how I would have categorized or classified Monolift Soft in 2007.
Of course, my point was that it was a partnership that they could have retained rather than their ongoing system of "partnering" with developers and eventually losing them. Keep in mind Factor 5 was at one point working on a Kid Icarus game. Much like Retro they could have been bought for nothing and salvaged.
The IP lost, and the loss of a 200+ employee development house that carried the N64, damaged Nintendo far more than what they would have had to pay to keep the company.
I think we just found out why NoA doesn't have more greenlighting power these days if that's what they came up with.
We can only measure the damage based on how it actually played out in the long run, and you would have be delusional to think that Nintendo lost more in losing Rare than Rare lost in leaving Nintendo. Hell, the one IP that Rare managed to work on that stayed relevant since the sale was Donkey Kong Country, which Nintendo has always owned and didn't require them to produce another well-received and popular entry.
Though it does seem to affect the development time needed for their games, which keeps increasing. One expands a studio when it has an efficient structure in place, this seems not to be the case with Retro (or NST).
Just so that there's no confusion about the purpose: Nintendo didn't buy shares out of choice but by paying out the inheritors of late Yamauchi's shares.
Yes. And Nintendo has held them since his death in 2013 when that transaction took place, rather than retiring the shares or putting them back into circulation. Holding 15% of your shares for 4 years is.... well, it's bad for business. When your stock is at a 5-year high, you're losing money holding onto treasury shares instead of putting them back in circulation or retiring them. So there would have to be a plan in place for them to hold them for as long as they have, which is why their investors don't seem to stop asking them about it, along with their excess of cash reserves.
James Scott
Banned
NST seems like a lost cause. Unless they can go heavy into mobile duty, I'm not sure there's much reason to keep them around.
I do wonder what's up with RETRO. It's been 3 years and a half since their last game shipped and there's not even a teaser for what they have going. It's a bummer that Armature gutted the studio and likely made nintendo lose trust in their western studios while not resulting in a quality studio themselves.
I think Monolith Soft will eventually be known as one of Nintendo's best studios. I think they have more potential than Retro already. XCX is still the largest game Nintendo has put out even if BOTW is a better package. Tech wise they're very impressive and they've proven capable in the gameplay and story department as well. Hope that new project they're starting up allows them to show their abilities on another IP
I do wonder what's up with RETRO. It's been 3 years and a half since their last game shipped and there's not even a teaser for what they have going. It's a bummer that Armature gutted the studio and likely made nintendo lose trust in their western studios while not resulting in a quality studio themselves.
I think Monolith Soft will eventually be known as one of Nintendo's best studios. I think they have more potential than Retro already. XCX is still the largest game Nintendo has put out even if BOTW is a better package. Tech wise they're very impressive and they've proven capable in the gameplay and story department as well. Hope that new project they're starting up allows them to show their abilities on another IP
While they were leads that left, I'm not sure three guys counts for much of a gutting. That doesn't even sound like a flesh wound, really.
A quick count at Mobygames has 53 non-contract Retro staff working on Returns, of which 10 didn't work on Tropical Freeze and some further also seemed to work on contract basis, having different works between and after Retro's games. In any case that's not even the worrying part, the increasing development time with sequels that should be manageable in less time is.
You're forgetting that they helped out in a rather big way on Mario Kart 7 in order to get it out for 2011, so they weren't sitting around doing nothing between the DKC games. I'm not saying that Retro shouldn't be faster, but I think whatever reason why we haven't seen more out of them isn't due to a studio that was formed even before DKCR came out.
Most of those 10 persons not working on Tropical Freeze are credited with games done by Bluepoint or Armature so that particular drain did continue after those studios' founding. As for Retro supporting Nintendo, I'm honestly surprised they didn't do even more.
Dark Cloud
Member
There should be no worries about Retro. Its only been close to 4 years since they started their next project and it was caught in a weird time period when Nintendo was still trying to make the Wii U successful, then realized it wasn't going to be.
Retro could be working on very big project that would've taken 4 years to make for the Wii U (if it was successful), but due to them needing to change their game to the Switch could've added an extra year to that.
We will see their game before 2018 ends. I'm guessing it will be ready for 2018. Retro said to be patient on Twitter.
Retro could be working on very big project that would've taken 4 years to make for the Wii U (if it was successful), but due to them needing to change their game to the Switch could've added an extra year to that.
We will see their game before 2018 ends. I'm guessing it will be ready for 2018. Retro said to be patient on Twitter.
James Scott
Banned
Hopefully it starts paying off game sales wise since they are pretty talented there. It probably paid off quite a bit in the tech side, though
James Scott
Banned
I imagine a lot of projects started on Wii U and then got moved up to Switch, but I'm not sure the change of platforms would take that much time especially since we knew about Switch/NX since March 2015.
I guess it would've been more reassuring if they announced it this year, but I guess they didn't really need to yet. Could still come out next year
Sorry/double post
Dark Cloud
Member
I think it's all planned and Nintendo didn't see any reason to announce it this year. They know it'll probably be a very big title for them and want to save it for next year to announce.
Hero of Legend
Member
Eurocom only did the N64 conversion. Midway did the original arcade game.
Can we please get Cruis'n Blast on Switch? Sumo would be perfect for the job.
Dark Cloud
Member
Yep. Japan is fine. They need to worry about the west and strengthening their western studios.
DeuceGamer
Member
A lot of people weren't happy, but I think they started changing their mind once they saw gameplay. I also think it's a situation where working with Nintendo will be hugely beneficial for Mercury Steam (and obviously Nintendo as well).
Shadow Broker
Banned
Y2Kev posted
"Nintendo bought them so they could use the building to store all their money."
This got a chuckle out of me. There's quite a few good ones dissing Monolith
Edit: Who owns the rights to Baiton Kaitos? I never played it but would love to try it if it ever comes to VC or a sequel of it.
Bandai Namco. I'd thought for a while that Nintendo got the rights, as they published the second game rather than Namco, but that's not the case.
Lord_Byron28
Member
Thanks for the info. Certainly looks like they may be interested in making a game developer acquisition. Although, don't expect a major buyout from a company like Capcom, Platinum Games, Sega, Namco, etc. Funny enough during the GCN era Nintendo wanted to get majority share of Bandai and effectively buy them out. However, Bandai ended up merging with Namco later. Nintendo did at least get Monolith out of the whole thing so that's not a bad deal.
Yeah I recall. Doesn't mean they couldn't decide to reverse that decision and look to expand development in the western scene. RIP Project HAMMER and old NST, in some ways it reminds me of ARMS. Although didn't they make Super Mario Maker for the 3DS, that's a big step up for them. I'd rather see them make some strides in that direction to provide more variety in their output. Although I feel Tanabe overseas way too many projects and needs his workload reduced. Perhaps getting a more dedicated team to work exclusively with their internal western branches while Tanabe works exclusively with 3rd party developed games Nintendo is publishing or lending their ip to.
SinCityAssassin
Member
NST created the 3DS port of Mario Maker so they still have a use as a supplementary developer, but that Retro concern you got there is illogical. The exodus to Armature of some of their Metroid Prime team didn't actually do anything in regards Nintendo and its trust in its western studio because they still have quality output.
Shadow Broker
Banned
That sucks. So did Nintendo get any of the IP's with the purchase of Monolith? Because the Xenoblade series is a new IP made under Nintendo. Did Nintendo get any of the rights to the Xeno series the Monolith made under Bandai Namco?
Hero of Legend
Member
Has Nintendo EVER bought an IP?
Seems like anything in their catalog originated from within, whether internally or alongside a 3rd-party (The Wonderful 101, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower for example)
Sadly they lost some key ones, specifically Rare's. Nintendo did indeed own Rare's IPs at least in trademarks including Banjo and Killer Instinct. Rumor has it that Iwata was against the IPs slipping away and may have fought to retain then, but apparently the board of directors refused. That's what I recall folks saying, not sure if that came from an article directly sadly. If anyone has a legit source of that, please share!
They bought partial ownership of Fatal Frame.
No, Namco owns the Xenosaga series. I don't think Monolith had any pre-Nintendo series that they fully owned that would have been transferred with them to Nintendo.
Meesh
Member
Why didn't it happen??? Any info on this?
SinCityAssassin
Member
It wasn't a specific plea to get bought out by Nintendo, their shareholders opted to reject the renewal of an anti-buyout clause, so now they're not protected.
There's no partial ownership of the IP. All Nintendo has done is give them money to make new games, and K-T isn't about to take their money to make them for other systems.
Shadow Broker
Banned
First, thanks for the brief history lesson.
It's weird (especially reading from that old thread where Gaf laughed at Nintendo buying Monolith) that Monolith came to Nintendo with no IP'S because they do have a body of work. I'm not complaining because ultimately it resulted in the Xenoblade series which is currently one of my favorite series and it seems (from this thread) that Monolith has help Nintendo behind the scenes with their other games. This was a major "get" for Nintendo.
I'm not of the mind that Nintendo should just go out and buy out more dev teams for the sake of buying them. I am of the mind that maybe Nintendo should consider trying to aquire another team who can contribute a new IP or experience exclusively to their systems like Monolith has done.
So Mercury Steam is kind of like Next Level Games? They make decent to mediocre games, but usually put their best efforts when under Nintendo's supervision?
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