HI. BILLY MAYS HERE
Banned
Interesting read thanks OP
They did.Nintendo should just release their Pokemon collectable figure game already and swim in the cash it brings in.
In the past decade, Nintendo lived off the promise of innovation and unique features. If they aren't able to recognize that a new concept that's being proposed to them could be a gold mine, their whole business strategy is faulty.I love how everyone can armchair WBC this one with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.
Apparently not a problem for Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest! I doubt those came cheap.
So quality.Nintendo likes to sustain properties for over 30 years by keeping the quality high for every release.
Activision likes to bleed whatever hit property they have dry because they are an awful game company.
I really doubt Nintendo would ever want to work with them.
They don't moneyhat enough for exclusives?
Nah, moneyhatting is dishonorable. It's more honorable to buy up studios and then have them make exclusives for you.That's not an answer to the question whether it's enough or not I agree that two RPG's is a pretty small amount. More moneyhatting Nintendo, please!
Is easy for us to look back with 20/20 hindsight and declaim Nintendo for passing on what would ultimately have been a profitable partnership, but we should be able to recognize it was a risk and understand why they might have passed.
Nintendo likes to sustain properties for over 30 years by keeping the quality high for every release.
Activision likes to bleed whatever hit property they have dry because they are an awful game company.
I really doubt Nintendo would ever want to work with them.
Apparently not a problem for Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest! I doubt those came cheap.
I'm not surprised. For the past 2-3 years, Nintendo hasn't been very good at reading the market.
Depending on what stage of Wii U development they were in, one possibility is they were thinking "This is something we're planning on building into Wii U. If we jump the gun and make it a Wii peripheral, we lose that as a reason for people to upgrade." Of course, as it turns out what happened was it became even less Wii U-exclusive.That's the weirdest thing about this, you reminded me that the Wii U already has NFC. Why if not for a game like Skylanders??
Probably one of those things that just looks bad in hindsight, may be not so much at the time, imo.
I doubt they money hatted DQ, Monster Hunter yeah probably but Dragon Quest is always going to be on the best selling platform.
Apparently not a problem for Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest! I doubt those came cheap.
Jesus.
Is there anything for Nintendo that didn't start going balls up from 2010 onwards?
The 3DS?
A Nintendo-exclusive would have changed the shape of the project considerably, as well as adding the complexity of a business partner with a reputation for desiring granular control. It was a disappointment, at the time. Now, it looks like a fortunate escape.
Sure, but thinking outside the box doesn't automatically lead to "Do everything you're not sure about."But isn't that the exact kind of thinking that Nintendo had and has been pushing so much? Thinking outside the box. People thought a controller that looked like a remote would flop too, and look how that turned out.
Consistently misses targets, had a massive price cut several months after launch?okayfrog said:The 3DS?
So three or four years ago Nintendo passed because they have their own figurine game coming out? Coming out this century or next? Brilliant decision to pass on all that money so they could continue to pass on money many years later with a copycat idea that still hasn't materialized.
I can't imagine how big the moneyhat Nintendo would have had to produce to make Skylanders a Nintendo-exclusive franchise.
I don't see what's so strange about this. It was a risky partner venture. Nobody gave a shit about Spyro, why would they buy plastic toys? Clearly they were intrigued but ultimate decided the venture wasn't for them. They still gave it a ton of cross-promotion.
When Activision CEO Bobby Kotick hosted Toys for Bob's internal pitch for the game's release, he only made one suggestion. It was not a popular one with executive underlings seated around the conference table. He wondered if the developers could use another year to polish their idea.
"He said, 'this game is okay now, but I think it could be amazing in another year'," recalls Reiche. "Every single person underneath him said, 'we disagree, it should go out this year,' because all their plans was based on the money that it was going to bring in and the teams it would free up. He just went [bangs table] 'nope'."
a huge missed oppurtunity. Skylanders could have been alot bigger if it leveraged nintendos ips.
???Amazing that people are trying to act like Nintendo didn't fuck up here.
The reason there hasn't been a mainline console Pokemon game is that it wouldn't sell. Being on a console doesn't really add anything to Pokemon.but wait they won't do that, because then it'll make their handhelds pointless since you can play a superior version of Pokemon on a console. There's a reason in 15+ years they haven't made a real Pokemon game on consoles
I doubt they money hatted DQ, Monster Hunter yeah probably but Dragon Quest is always going to be on the best selling platform.
Does it say in the article that NCL weren't involved?They went to the wrong place. They should have gone to NCL Kyoto headquarters just like n-Space did back in time. NoA is just a plain distrubitor now, they don't have the right to make any calls. International offices of Nintendo are nothing more than shadows of NCL.
What's stranger is that Nintendo didn't immediately start work on their own version of Skylanders after they saw the success of that game. There's no game like it in sight from Nintendo despite the fact that they have the strongest characters in the industry for a project like that.
So much this. A Nintendo exclusive Skylands concept with Nintendo IP would have been huge. Now, by the time they get around to launching something, the market will be saturated.
Is it any wonder this company in sliding back into irrelevance again?
I love how everyone can armchair WBC this one with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight.
Also I hate interviews like this because they don't tell you who at Nintendo they were working with. Was it an actual decision maker? What was Activision asking from Nintendo.
Yeah it is easy to look back and say man what a missed opportunity but we are not privy to but a smidge of the details. It does suck for Nintendo, and you have to wonder if the person making the decision had all the info and foresight, but this happens all the time.
The Exec who passed on the Beatles and said they wouldn't make it in the US was damn near right and still had a massively successful career.
And like others have said the real issue is that Nintendo has moved slowly and poorly to get in on the NFC gaming trend. Seriously a legit Pokemon game would crush with collectible toys. As would almost any kind of Nintendo IP crossover game.
Yea that explains why the only consoles SE released a MMO on are Wii and Wii U. Makes perfect sense.
You're crazy if you don't think they forked over a ton of cash for Dragon Quest.
I don't think anyone could have predicted skylanders would take off, to "fully" play the game you need most of the characters right, like some areas are locked off or need to have a specific character to enter, that idea seemed like RL DLC imo so i can see why Nintendo backed off.
Speaking of not fitting pre-existing narratives, check out how evil money grubbing Bobby Kotick reacted to the Skylanders pitch: