We all know how this story ends: Nintendo’s gamble with the Wii paid off big. All those people thinking the Wii would sink Nintendo looked on with jaw-dropping astonishment as Nintendo’s little white console was in a sell-out state for two whole years, thanks to one breakout first-party title: Wii Sports (which to my knowledge is still the best selling game of all-time, clocking in at 83 million units). The DS, after a rough couple years, became the best selling handheld of all-time, and even the best selling game system of all time, having just recently edged out the PS2.
I don’t think third-parties have “forgiven” Nintendo for that. Third-parties have begun to really enjoy their importance to Sony and Microsoft, who would not be where they are without third-party support. Heck, Final Fantasy VII was called “the game that sold the PlayStation”, and Grand Theft Auto III was a big driving force behind the PS2. Call of Duty has become Microsoft’s cash cow, with Microsoft throwing millions of dollars at Activision to get timed exclusive DLC, and the Xbox brand put at the end of every Call of Duty commercial. If Activision gave timed exclusive DLC to Sony, it could spell the end of Microsoft. Since Microsoft makes most of its money on third-party licensing and Xbox Live memberships, if Call of Duty fans on Xbox found that they preferred not having to pay for online (or getting an Instant Game Collection for the same price), Microsoft could be done.
But Wii Sports proved just how independent Nintendo really is. Sure, it was lightning in a bottle, but Sony and Microsoft have never had that independence. On Sony and Microsoft consoles, third-parties are top level players, often making games that are equal to or better than Sony and Microsoft’s first-party exclusives. But on Nintendo consoles, they are second-class citizens; something to play while people are waiting for the next big Nintendo release, and this knock to third-parties’ egos shows in their support (or lack thereof) of Nintendo.
Look at the last two years: mostly a wasteland for the Wii. That’s unprecedented. Never before has the lead console in the console wars had so little software in its last couple years on the market, but also never before has the lead console had next to nothing in third-party titles. With one game, Nintendo once again proved that they don’t need third-parties to survive, and third-parties have said, “Fine, if you don’t need us, then we don’t need you.” But they were shrewd about it. When the Wii U was announced, they said, “Sure, we’ll support it. We’ll get on stage and tell the world that this time, we’ll be supporting you.” But they had their fingers crossed behind their backs.
Look at EA: didn’t they say that Battlefield 3 would be coming to the Wii U? Where is it? Oh, Frostbite 2 didn’t work well on the Wii U. But why not? It seemed to work just fine on the Xbox 360, and the Wii U is more powerful than that, right? And Madden 25? For the first time in the twenty-five year history of the franchise, it is not coming to Nintendo platforms. Why not? Madden ‘13 was on the Wii U? And what’s this? Fifteen EA games aren’t coming to the Wii U because of lack of Frostbite 3 support?! Frostbite 3 is working on current-gen consoles! Why, EA, why?!
Actually, the scuttlebutt is that EA wanted Origin to be the official digital distribution service on the Wii U, and Nintendo turned them down. So now they’ve decided to stop supporting Nintendo completely in retaliation. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but given how unpopular Origin has been in the PC community, I wouldn’t be surprised. EA needs to do something to get people using Origin (SimCity isn’t helping), and forcing Wii U owners to use it makes sense in an evil sort of way. But again, that’s just unsubstantiated rumor (though I think it would do a lot to Nintendo’s reputation, if they were to come out and say that was the case). Activision and Ubisoft are doing better, but they aren’t porting everything, and are letting huge chunks of the year be empty of software on Nintendo systems.
Weren’t we supposed to be getting a Wii U Nintendo Direct detailing third-party support? Where is that? My guess is that all the games that third-parties have promised are now being canceled, after “lackluster sales”. Uh, not really. To my knowledge, there’s been only one console ever to buck the “first year of console sales suck” trend: the Wii. If third-parties were expecting another Wii-style phenomenon (which I doubt they were), they were dreaming. If third-parties are expecting the PS4 and currently unannounced next Xbox to be in sell-out state for their first year (and they aren’t; just look at all the games that are coming to next gen, and are still coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360), they are also dreaming. The Wii U actually sold pretty well this holiday and is trending in line with what the economy will allow at the moment. After all, money is tight for a lot of us. Do we want to go out and buy a $300-$350 machine that we aren’t going to use for six months? No, we save our money now, and wait six months. The first year of a console is almost always slow, because games aren’t coming out, and I think third-parties actually know this. So why are they really canceling Wii U ports? The only answer I can come to is; they are screwing with Nintendo.
I generally don’t use profanity, but I can’t think of a better word for it in this case. Third-parties seem to be actively lying to Nintendo, promising that they will provide games, then failing to living up to that promise (which, by the way, they seemed to never have intended to fulfill in the first place). It happened with the 3DS (remember Saints Row for the 3DS? Where’s that?), and it happened with the Wii U: publishers and developers, either on stage or on camera, said just how thrilled they were to be working on the system. Some came through, but most didn’t. That’s what contributed to the first two slow years of the 3DS. Nintendo planned on third-parties continuing to release games through the first year, and they pushed their first-party titles back to accommodate the third-parties. When the promised third-party games didn’t come, a huge dry season of games left gamers angry that they’d paid $250 for a device seemingly left out to dry. Nintendo hurriedly dropped the price, gave the early adopters some free games, and pushed development on their two Mario titles to get them out by Holiday 2011. With two big Mario games to play, combined with a deep price cut, sales finally began to pick up.
There weren’t many big titles in 2012, but now in 2013, we see Nintendo pushing major releases for just about every first-party franchise they’ve got, along with Capcom’s Monster Hunter 4 for good measure. With Nintendo grabbing exclusivity on the two biggest games in Japan (Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter), the rest of the Japanese third-parties (perhaps grudgingly) have finally begun to start pumping out big titles to Nintendo’s handheld. This year looks to be the biggest year yet for the 3DS, with Monster Hunter, Pokémon, and more coming to the system. Personally, I think that everything shown in January’s Nintendo Direct is coming this Holiday or early next year as well. Monolith Soft has had three years since the Japanese launch of Xenoblade Chronicles to work on X. Platinum Games has been working on Bayonetta 2 since the first game shipped. Nintendo will come through this Holiday with both a handheld and console at full power, while the other two try to figure out how to get people on-board.
So, what happens when old and new adopters finish Nintendo’s big first-party games, and are looking for something else to play? Well, they won’t be playing third-party games, and third-parties will have only themselves to blame.
