jariw said:

Weren't there some interviews with Japanese developers just after the January reveal, that they were pretty impressed with the hardware design and the price?

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Vena said:

It leaked the MHXX name many hours before MHXX was revealed, and it wasn't just the abbreviation it was the name specifically. There's no way you just randomly guess that stupid fucking naming convention.

There's a reason its humored and constantly brought up.

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george_us said:

I legitimately don't know why I doubt Nintendo. I thought the Switch would barely do Wii U numbers because, on paper, the software lineup didn't look much better than the Wii Us. Better perhaps, but not "near Wii-like phenomenon" levels. Silly me.

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CaviarMeths said:

Monster Hunter
Dragon Quest
Yokai Watch
Puzzles & Dragons

Million-selling 3rd party IPs on 3DS.

Final Fantasy XV and Minecraft are the only million-sellers on PS4 or Vita in Japan, 1st or 3rd party.

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LCGeek said:

Hopefully some devs apply themselves more than they did with Wii.

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faint. said:

The Switch will hit 10 million easily. Kimishima will acknowledge this once the Stars align.

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ldar247 said:

Why does this matter? PS4 has more major Japanese third party games than 3DS or any Nintendo system has

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ShockingAlberto said:

Wait, what

This is provably not true.

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Principate said:

They purchased Monolith soft

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ldar247 said:

Why does this matter? PS4 has more major Japanese third party games than 3DS or any Nintendo system has or ever will get because of its success world wide. You're not going to see the next FF, KH, RE, DMC, Souls or whatever skip PS4 regardless of how bad its Japanese sales are.

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ArtHands said:

I think Minecraft is the one and only million seller for Vita worldwide.

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sixteen-bit said:

Surprised the Vita only has one Million seller. Wasn't the Saturn like that (VF2)

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ldar247 said:

Why does this matter? PS4 has more major Japanese third party games than 3DS or any Nintendo system has or ever will get because of its success world wide. You're not going to see the next FF, KH, RE, DMC, Souls or whatever skip PS4 regardless of how bad its Japanese sales are.

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18-Volt said:

...And yes, there was an infamous talent exodus at Rare but reason for that was bad management at Kyoto office. I'm pretty sure Kimishima management isn't as dumb as their N64 era predecessors.

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RoyalFool said:

...Back when I was at Rare we would argue with Nintendo over many things, but I can't recall a single time Miyamoto 'sabotaged' any of the projects we had on. Allowing us to work with his IPs was quite the blessing, plus his criticisms were quite helpful at times (if completely insane at others). He wasn't involved at all in most of the titles we produced. Would still buy him a pint.

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http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/07/28/ign-presents-the-history-of-rare?page=2
...Chris and Tim had gotten their first look at a brand new product out of Japan called the Nintendo Famicom, and saw the future in it...the Stampers took a few software samples to Kyoto, Japan, and presented them to Nintendo executives as proof of what they could bring to the table. No Western company had ever attempted anything like it. Nintendo responded by doing something equally unique, giving the Stampers an unlimited budget to produce as many games a year as they liked, effectively bypassing quality assurance limitations imposed on other third party companies… Word of their progress reached Kyoto. Nintendo soon bought a 25% stake in the company, eventually expanding to 49%, and offered their catalogue of characters to create a CGI game around. The Stampers asked for Donkey Kong…

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https://www.nowgamer.com/the-making-of-donkey-kong-country/
...Nintendo is known to be extremely shielding towards its IPs, so handing over one of its most iconic franchises is something that you’d expect would attract a tremendous amount of protocol and interference from the game giant, but [DKC's lead designer] Gregg [Mayles] says this wasn’t the case. “Nintendo were extremely busy at the time so we were left to ourselves,” he says. “It was an unprecedented thing for them to do, entrusting one of their most prominent and fondly remembered IP’s with a relatively small and unknown UK development house... Miyamoto provided us with some suggestions for DK’s look and it was a sketch of his that included the tie.”

[...]

"We made a memorable visit to Nintendo’s HQ in Japan. I was surprisingly calm at the time, despite it being my first visit to what many would class as the Mecca of videogames,” says Gregg. “We were there to demo an early version of the game to the people that created the original character. It was the first time many of the people at Nintendo had seen the game, and our radical approach with the graphics didn’t initially go down too well. Mr Yokoi [Game Boy creator] remarked that ‘It looked too 3D’. Miyamoto was much quicker to appreciate what we had done and gave his approval. Mr Miyamoto and his staff used their unparalleled experience to give us some input on how we could smooth out a few rough edges...”

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http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...ldeneye_sequel_on_n64_but_rare_turned_it_down
1997's GoldenEye 007 was a massive commercial and critical success for Nintendo, selling 8 million copies worldwide and generating an enormous amount of revenue. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo wanted a sequel and even asked developer Rare to make one - but the UK company, which was at the time a second-party Nintendo studio, turned down the opportunity… Martin Hollis [Game Director of Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark] recounted the moment when the fateful question was asked: "I thought about this and was not sure I'd really want to. We had a small chat, three or four of us on the team. It was like, 'No'. We sent the message back, 'The answer is no. We don't plan to make another Bond game from another Bond film'. And that was it."

While other companies would have pushed through and forced Hollis and his team to produce a sequel regardless, Nintendo accepted the news and no further Bond games were produced by the Japanese veteran. The video game licence passed to EA shortly afterwards, which made the decidedly lackluster Tomorrow Never Dies - a game which benefitted greatly from the hype built up by Rare's offering. Hollis is still amazed at how peacefully Nintendo took the refusal: "It must have grossed, I don't know, $400m or something. You might've thought that on a commercial basis someone at Nintendo, even lower down or higher up or whatever, would've said, "Well, are you sure?", but out of respect for the creator and the importance of the people who actually made the game, that was it."

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https://www.theguardian.com/technol...amoto-gamecity?CMP=twt_a-technology_b-gdntech
...But it’s not just the players. [Martin] Hollis [Game Director of Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark] argues that Nintendo also respects the creators, even when it might be financially detrimental...

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http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/12/feature_the_making_of_star_fox_adventures
...Working under Nintendo was an eye-opening experience for [Phil] Tossell, who is full of praise for the Japanese company. “Without doubt of all the time I've worked in the industry it was the most trusting and respectful relationship,” he says. “Of course, it helped because technically Rare was independent - Nintendo only owned 49% of the company, as far as I am aware. This meant that the Stamper Brothers [Rare's founders] didn't have to do anything they didn't want to. This contrasts sharply with how it is now where Microsofts own the whole company. Even accounting for that though, Nintendo knows games - its knows them inside and out and knows when something needs to be pushed and prodded and when it doesn't. And it understands that if you push and prod too much then you destroy any spark that a game may have. It's a delicate balancing act that Nintendo made look easy...”

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http://web.archive.org/web/20110702...oshrine.com:80/theman/interviews/051300.shtml
Nintendo Power Source (May 2000)
NPS: How do you feel about Nintendo's line-up at E3 2000, particulary Rare's great offerings?
Miyamoto: We are very thankful that Rare is creating such great games. Rare has done a lot for the gaming industry. All of Rare's games are 3D, but they all have very different gameplay. They are encouraging us to create a different genre of games that departs from 3D adventure gaming.

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http://randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/bl/onm/onmems-25a.JPG
Official Nintendo Magazine (January 1998)
Miyamoto: ...The other extreme is Rare. Its games are similar to Nintendo's, but the quality is extremely high. Rare's been able to make Nintendo 64 games which are even better-looking than our own. It's scary! I've worked alongside members of Rare, and their standards are very high...

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http://web.archive.org/web/20110911...oshrine.com:80/theman/interviews/170498.shtml
Famitsu Magazine (April 1998)
Famitsu: Banjo-Kazooie the game is slated for a June release in the US but will not be released until the fall in Japan.
Miyamoto: This is one of the reasons Zelda got delayed. This game [Banjo-Kazooie] is so great and we have to compete.
Famitsu: Could you explain in concrete terms what makes the game [Banjo-Kazooie] great?
Miyamoto: I try not to see the game. (laughs) If I see it, I may be affected by it. Graphically and technically [Banjo-Kazooie] achieves high levels. It played fine last fall, but wasn't released. (laugh) They've developed it more. If you want to enjoy a 3D action title, this may be the best choice. If we have the momentum (in Japan), this will be dominant in the market.
Famitsu: Can we write that you were "affected" by this one?
Miyamoto: Sure, you can. We and Rare are rivals. I'm not sure this character design will be accepted (by the Japanese audience), but this is fun.

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http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/07/28/ign-presents-the-history-of-rare?page=5
...Publicly, Rare was on a roll. Behind the scenes, employee turnover bordered on disastrous. In the few interviews they granted, Tim and Chris Stamper came across as quiet, unassuming Englishmen, but the pace they maintained and the demands they set could grate at closer range. Their longtime partners at Zippo Games, the Pickfords, left shortly after the Stampers bought them out in the 80's and deep-sixed a favored wrestling game. By the N64 years, their tiny company had grown from the low teens to several hundred, but the Stampers kept their hands firmly in every project, and that management style didn't sit well with everyone. The first public defection happened in 1997, when a group of employees marched out en masse to form Eighth Wonder, a studio dedicated to developing for Sony. Well into the three-year production cycle for a successor to GoldenEye 007, Hollis and Doak decided they'd had their fill as well, taking much of their production teams with them. On top of that, Rare produced Donkey Kong 64 and third-person shooter Jet Force Gemini in 1999 to decent reviews, which looked dismal compared to their previous three releases… Sales [of Perfect Dark], however, were a quarter of what GoldenEye 007 raked in. Another employee exodus followed… As early as 2000, Microsoft began making overtures to have the Stampers come make games for their still-under-wraps console… The Stampers and Nintendo both sold their stakes for a combined $377 million…

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-04-free-radical-vs-the-monsters
...Free Radical Design was founded by key members of the Rare team that made GoldenEye. Released on N64 in August 1997, it was the first classic console shooter and sold a stunning eight million copies. "I think at the time we naively believed we did everything ourselves," laughs Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis. "We were kind of a company within a company in Rare and credited ourselves for the success of GoldenEye, without really acknowledging that many other people played a part in that." Dissatisfied with their meagre share of GoldenEye's profits, the team had nevertheless started work on successor Perfect Dark before, in late 1998, David Doak handed in his notice and set off a chain reaction...

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http://web.archive.org/web/20110910...oshrine.com:80/theman/interviews/081403.shtml
Official Nintendo Magazine (Sep 2003)
OFFICIAL NINTENDO MAGAZINE: We get the impression that Rare didn't work very closely with Nintendo to polish up its last few games, especially Starfox Adventures.
MIYAMOTO: Rare is a rather independent company and it has the capacity to work independently. In the case of the original DKC, because I was concerned about the outcome, I was checking and putting in comments myself, especially during the last few months. At the very beginning, my personal involvement was ten percent. This lessened as the sequels went on, but of course other people at Nintendo were always involved. The total involvement was always around ten per cent and this was mainly from my people.
ONM: Starfox Adventures just didn't feel like a Nintendo game; it didn't feel like you had your hands on it at all, much less than ten percent.
MIYAMOTO: Almost everything was done by Rare, except we specifically advised the use of the control stick.
ONM: You didn't tell them, for example, to get rid of the 100 or 200 stupid things you had to collect in every single level?
MIYAMOTO: [laughs] That was a little bit extreme, yes. But, in general, they were good. I'd like to emphasize that our separation from Rare [in 2002, Nintendo's stake in Rare was purchased by Microsoft] wasn't due to creative differences. It was financial.

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http://www.develop-online.net/inter...tamper-on-the-past-present-and-future/0209651
...While Nintendo remained a strong and valuable partner for Rare, the Stampers had their sights set on bigger things. Change was in the air. “The price of software development was going up and up with the platforms, and Rare works really well with a partner,” says Stamper. “We were looking for someone to help broaden our horizons.” That someone turned out to be Microsoft, which forked out a whopping $375m to completely own the UK developer – at the time a new record for high-value acquisitions… In 2007, Tim and Chris Stamper made the shock announcement that they were leaving Rare – the studio they had nurtured for more than 20 years – to “pursue other opportunities”...

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http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/issues/issue_39/235-Metroid-Primed.2
Allen Varney, The Escapist Magazine: ...Miyamoto pressured Retro to cancel several other projects... an action adventure... their football and car-combat games, and finally... a Zelda-style roleplaying game called Raven Blade. The action-adventure team shifted to Metroid… Nintendo's successful takeover of Retro contrasts with the similar case of Electronic Arts buying another Austin studio, Origin. Origin's acquisition led to its lingering, agonizing death, owing to EA's pernicious company politics… In comparison, Miyamoto's EAD unit stuck with Retro for years, maintaining continuity on a critical project, rotating in new managers until someone finally worked, and then (note well!) stopping. The results speak for themselves: Retro today is, by all accounts, a much nicer place to work. And after its halting progress in its first four years, Retro has already followed up Prime with a direct sequel, Metroid Prime: Echoes (2004)...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbmxfTZvVCs&t=33m15s
Mark Pacini (of Armature, formerly of Retro), speaking in 2016: ...[It has been] really tough. It’s really really difficult [for Armature]. So you kind of get used to that... you get used to that – almost a decade of making games [with] Nintendo you’re like, ‘Wow, this is gonna be great… continue making these kind of games...’ and then the harsh realities of the world set in, in terms of like, what opportunities are there…

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ldar247 said:

Why does this matter? PS4 has more major Japanese third party games than 3DS or any Nintendo system has or ever will get because of its success world wide. You're not going to see the next FF, KH, RE, DMC, Souls or whatever skip PS4 regardless of how bad its Japanese sales are.

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UnemployedVillain said:

Why do sales matter? Gee, how could anyone possibly answer such a difficult question...

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Not to mention I love how your definition of popular is literally "Whatever PS4 has and Nintendo doesn't" because when these games are outselling those by LARGE amounts, most people would consider them more popular

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Schopenhauerian said:

Nintendo's long partnership with Rare produced an impressive string of high-quality and successful games. To the extent that Nintendo ‘managed’ Rare, it’s notable that they gave the Goldeneye team (including the folks who decided to part with Rare to form Free Radical) the freedom to do Perfect Dark (instead of a Bond follow-up). It’s also notable that Rare was independently managed, by the Stamper brothers:





















As others have noted, while Rare was an independent company (independently managed by the Stamper brothers), the case of Retro was quite different. And incidentally, Nintendo has been credited with sound management of Retro:

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ldar247 said:

I meant the in Japan part. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, they were originally talking about japanese third parties not having a viable alternative to Switch because of how bad PS4 is doing in Japan. My point was that doesn't really matter because most of the big Japanese games on it don't get the majority of their sales from japan anyway.




I know FFXV has sold more worldwide than any 3DS game in those series mentioned. Those other series are probably on par or close to it.

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ldar247 said:

Why does this matter? PS4 has more major Japanese third party games than 3DS or any Nintendo system has or ever will get because of its success world wide. You're not going to see the next FF, KH, RE, DMC, Souls or whatever skip PS4 regardless of how bad its Japanese sales are.

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Jpop said:

Nintendo had majority stock and thus owned rare did they not?

Regardless RARE could not deliver under Microsoft.


People are laughing at you saying the PS4 had more 3rd party support in Japan vs 3DS/DS/Wii etc....

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Big Green Anus said:

Is Nintendo only going to have 10 million units this year, which I believe includes the 2.78 million from last month? If so, they are not going to have enough units to meet demand

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ldar247 said:

I meant the in Japan part. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, they were originally talking about japanese third parties not having a viable alternative to Switch because of how bad PS4 is doing in Japan. My point was that doesn't really matter because most of the big Japanese games on it don't get the majority of their sales from japan anyway.




I know FFXV has sold more worldwide than any 3DS game in those series mentioned. Those other series are probably on par or close to it.

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Vena said:

It leaked the MHXX name many hours before MHXX was revealed, and it wasn't just the abbreviation it was the name specifically. There's no way you just randomly guess that stupid fucking naming convention.

There's a reason its humored and constantly brought up.

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Jpop said:

Nintendo had majority stock and thus owned rare did they not?

Regardless RARE could not deliver under Microsoft.

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ArtHands said:

I think Minecraft is the one and only million seller for Vita worldwide.

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ldar247 said:

Why does this matter? PS4 has more major Japanese third party games than 3DS or any Nintendo system has or ever will get because of its success world wide. You're not going to see the next FF, KH, RE, DMC, Souls or whatever skip PS4 regardless of how bad its Japanese sales are.

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Big Green Anus said:

Is Nintendo only going to have 10 million units this year, which I believe includes the 2.78 million from last month? If so, they are not going to have enough units to meet demand

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SinCityAssassin said:

It's a projection, not a concrete manufacturing plan. It's essentially the mark they really want to reach. It doesn't mean they will just make 10 million more units for the year and that's it.

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Big Green Anus said:

Hopefully they aim for more than just 10 million especially if Smash Bros and Pokemon Stars comes out this year.

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Big Green Anus said:

Hopefully they aim for more than just 10 million especially if Smash Bros and Pokemon Stars comes out this year.

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TheDinoman said:

I have never liked the idea of Nintendo (hell, any of the big three, really) buying out any big established developers/publishers like that.

A big problem I have with it is that it would screw over consumers in someway. For example, some people suggest that Nintendo should buy out Atlus. This, however, would be awful for Persona's fanbase, which mostly exists on PlayStation. Want to play the next mainline Persona game? Oop, you gotta go buy it now on Nintendo's consoles. Similar sort of thing with Capcom. Wanna play Devil May Cry 5 or Resident Evil 7 on PS4/Steam? Oops, gotta buy a Switch for that now too. People would be pissed. I'm still pretty mad that none of Rare's old non-DK content can ever be on Nintendo's consoles again after the Microsoft buyout, and quite frankly I don't want to see similar shit happen to other companies.

So yeah, I prefer Iwata's method of just having some decent partnerships.

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Calm Mind said:

I wonder how many Japanese 3rd party publishers will rise to Kimishima's challenge now that they've basically boxed themselves into a corner. Surely, no one saw the Switch having this much of an impact and other platforms (namely the PS4) cooling off as much as they have in such a short amount of time.

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Triplicates said:

But most Japanese publishers get the bulk of their revenues from Japan. Japan is probably still the biggest single national market for most Japanese games. You're only naming five franchises, several of which get maybe two or three mainline releases per decade or even less. Japanese publishers depend on a lot more than that.

I'm not saying Nintendo is their savior mind you, and I think there are interesting arguments as to why they can do without the Switch. But dismissing the importance of the Japanese market to Japanese publishers is a fundamentally incorrect way of making that point.

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TheDinoman said:

I have never liked the idea of Nintendo (hell, any of the big three, really) buying out any big established developers/publishers like that.
[...]
So yeah, I prefer Iwata's method of just having some decent partnerships.

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Jpop said:

People are laughing at you saying the PS4 had more 3rd party support in Japan vs 3DS/DS/Wii etc....

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