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Does Nintendo need to compete in the AAA space with Sony, MS, etc in order to survive?

Does Nintendo need to compete in the AAA space?

  • Yes, in order to survive as a company they need to step up their game and compete directly.

    Votes: 3 3.6%
  • No, Nintendo does not need to compete in the AAA space to survive.

    Votes: 80 96.4%

  • Total voters
    83

FStubbs

Member
So let's see. Of the last 4 Nintendo home consoles, 2 chased AAA and 2 did not. The 2 that chased AAA were duds and the 2 that did not did very well.

Nintendo's path is pretty clear.
 

FStubbs

Member
That's not how third party support works, Wii U has indies too. That's not the primary third party support people think about. Especially casual gamers.

Other than the absolutely huge games like Call of Duty, the typical "casual gamer" can't tell and doesn't care if a game is indie or not, they're just looking for a particular experience.

Of course, I don't think there are very many indie first person shooters because of the gigantic budgets required to produce a game fans of that genre will want to play.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
That's not how third party support works, Wii U has indies too. That's not the primary third party support people think about. Especially casual gamers.

Thing is, the Switch is a fundementally different type of platform than the PS4, Xbox One, or hell even Stadia. It's a mobile device and thus, developers need to keep that in mind when working on games for it.

By this point, the Switch has built a reputation as the definitive non-PC platfrom for indie games. Yes, Wii U had indies too, but poor sales and lack of engine support meant it didn't have the same bredth of titles that the Switch currently does. And there's not just indie games either, Switch is also a great home for the mid-budget games that mostly died on consoles last generation.

You have stuff like Mega Man 11, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Mortal Kombat 11, Samurai Showdown, Octopath Traveler, Travis Strikes Again, even remasters could fit this category. Expect more of these types of games in the future, especially as AAA development gets even more expensive and time-consuming next generation.
 
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Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Other than the absolutely huge games like Call of Duty, the typical "casual gamer" can't tell and doesn't care if a game is indie or not, they're just looking for a particular experience.

Of course, I don't think there are very many indie first person shooters because of the gigantic budgets required to produce a game fans of that genre will want to play.

I think a big part of why indies do so well on Switch (and Vita before it) is a lot of them really appeal to handheld gaming fans. They’re used to playing games on hardware a generation or two behind, many love 2D games that were rare outside of portables in recent generations before the rise of indies and a lot of indie games have art styles that look better on smaller screens vs a big HDTV.
 
Thing is, the Switch is a fundementally different type of platform than the PS4, Xbox One, or hell even Stadia. It's a mobile device and thus, developers need to keep that in mind when working on games for it.

By this point, the Switch has built a reputation as the definitive non-PC platfrom for indie games. Yes, Wii U had indies too, but poor sales and lack of engine support meant it didn't have the same bredth of titles that the Switch currently does. And there's not just indie games either, Switch is also a great home for the mid-budget games that mostly died on consoles last generation.

You have stuff like Mega Man 11, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Mortal Kombat 11, Samurai Showdown, Octopath Traveler, Travis Strikes Again, even remasters could fit this category. Expect more of these types of games in the future, especially as AAA development gets even more expensive and time-consuming next generation.

People were saying that for the 3DS and that didn't materialize, the gaming market basically only attached to it a little bit while it was actually moving quickly into the mobile market. As of now the Switch isw basically vying to be in the mobile market than the traditional gaming market and we will see less "real" third parties on it outside the traditional jp portable devs. Which is already happening as we speak and will ge worse when Xbox4 ps5 come out.
 

NikuNashi

Member
Nintendo has been doing their own thing for quite some time now and their doing just fine. I don't buy a Nintendo console for multiplat games. I buy a Nintendo console / handheld for Nintendo games.

Your Avatar wins Gaf for the whole of 2019. Bravo sir, I laughed.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
People were saying that for the 3DS and that didn't materialize, the gaming market basically only attached to it a little bit while it was actually moving quickly into the mobile market. As of now the Switch isw basically vying to be in the mobile market than the traditional gaming market and we will see less "real" third parties on it outside the traditional jp portable devs. Which is already happening as we speak and will ge worse when Xbox4 ps5 come out.

The 3DS was an outdated, clunky device for a lot of developers in the face of easy to use mobile devices like smartphones, that's why it was lacking in third party support compared to the DS. Had it come out prior to the iPhone, it'd be a different story.

The Switch succeeds by doing things phones can't do, and having a development enviroment and hardware similar to a PC, thus it's already getting way more support than the 3DS ever got, especially on the indie front. The Switch third party support is only improving each year, meanwhile the Wii U bled support after only a few months. Developers understand what kind of device it is and thus realize its a good fit for mid-teir software. Games like Valkyria Chronicles 4, Octopath Traveler, Oniaki, Ninjala, and Gods and Monsters all are generally a great fit for the system.

For that reason Next generation's not really going to do much of anything to the Switch. AAA games are already expensive and time consuming as shit to make now, it's going to be even worse next generation. Plus, who aside from the usually AAA players is really going to need that much power for the most part anyway?
 
The 3DS was an outdated, clunky device for a lot of developers in the face of easy to use mobile devices like smartphones, that's why it was lacking in third party support compared to the DS. Had it come out prior to the iPhone, it'd be a different story.

No. The DS sold well with the Iphone, it has less to do with the iphone and where the totla mobile market was before 2012. By 2012 phones were everywhere the andorid and ios store had tons of games, and phones were finally powerful enough to even emulate consoles like the PSX.

The Switch is also an outdated device. It runs on a Tegra.
 

Lukin1978

Member
No Nintendo has to keep on the current party they can't get into a spec war with Sony and Microsoft. It would be nice if the next device was a little bit closer in spec to the competitors but well that's a dream.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
No. The DS sold well with the Iphone, it has less to do with the iphone and where the totla mobile market was before 2012. By 2012 phones were everywhere the andorid and ios store had tons of games, and phones were finally powerful enough to even emulate consoles like the PSX.

Mobile gaming wasn't that established during the DS' life, correct. I was moreso talking about the 3DS, so you're only proving my point

The Switch is also an outdated device. It runs on a Tegra.

Older tech isn't necessarily the same as outdated. Tegra X1 is an older chip, but it still holds up remarkably well, plus, it isn't even that old. Meanwhile, 3DS using a custom ARM chip from the DS era. That's more outdated.
 

Kumomeme

Member
no need...the way they positionized themself now is already a genius move

not only create a market for themself, also create a demand that only them can afford and make the landscape more diverse

also, i believe nintendo already indirectly competing with both sony and ms....it just the path they took is different..still challenging one same place but through different end

but the gap might be bit lesser than during wii/wii u era vs ps360 since switch currently hold up many third party and even this gen triple A game port

and it nice for nintendo offering something different than those 2 big guy in industry..it create diversity which is good

they no need to competing directly to 'win' the war..like previous gen basically wii win the war compared to ps360, but just 'on different place'
 
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Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Nah, Nintendo don't need to change their approach.

Broadening out on their appeal wouldn't hurt though, as it sets a definite limit on their popularity. I for one have no interest in their consoles because they are so top-heavy on first-party offerings, none of which really excite me.

The truth of the matter is that they do blow hot and cold. Wii-U under performed badly, and although they've "recovered" with Switch they've only achieved that by unifying it with their historically mega-successful Gameboy line, which is one hell of a sacrifice especially at a time when direct competition is almost nonexistent now Vita is done.
 
The question is kind of dumb. Mario Odyssey, BOTW etc are not AAA games? They're fucking masterpieces polished to perfection. BOTW had a 300 person dev team work on it for 4 years.

They do compete in all spaces. 3rd parties are bringing big AAA games directly to Switch, such as doom with no design changes.
 
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zenspider

Member
...they do?

I mean Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade 2, Luigis Mansion, and the upcoming Metroid Prime 4 are all what I would consider AAA.

Just because Nintendo doesn't pour hundreds of millions into their games doesn't make them lesser tier IMO.

Now If the question is why Doesn't nintendo make their own COD/AssasinsCreed etc, I would say they simply decide to go a different route, they always have lol

The question is kind of dumb. Mario Odyssey, BOTW etc are not AAA games? They're fucking masterpieces polished to perfection. BOTW had a 300 person dev team work on it for 4 years.

They do compete in all spaces. 3rd parties are bringing big AAA games directly to Switch, such as doom with no design changes.

AAA really only means budget - though it has become a creative wasteland that is a psuedo-genre onto itself.

It's really clear when talking about the level of polish on a title like, say, Mario Odyssey, compared to the state of many AAA releases this gen, it's not a useful term at all to indicate quality or effort in the right places.

It's really a term for shareholders, and we're suckers for thinking AAA is a higher caliber of game by default.
 
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McRazzle

Member
Little kids still seem to love Mario, Pokemon, Smash etc. Nintendo has always generated new generations of fans as they are the family friendly platform with the most IPs that both appeal to little kids and parents who want to keep their kids away from violent/adult games. It's part of why they continue to survive as they have a lot of dominance in that market and a stranglehold on the dedicated portable gaming market. Add in that they sell games at high attach rates and at full price and they're fine.


I work with kids from all walks of life and they all talk about Nintendo characters. Link and Mario are commonly known characters even as these kids love tablets and fortnite.


But as a whole they're not getting any younger.
The majority of Nintendo gamers are over 30 years old.
Kids get into Nintendo's IP then, Sony/Microsoft draw them away once they get older
That's not sustainable long term.; not to mention incompetent to continually help create your
competitions consumers for them and change nothing to hold on to them.
There's a reason they went from selling 100+ million of the Wii to 13 million WiiU's.
 
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