While Nintendo’s last few portable devices have enjoyed stellar support from third-party publishers, the same can’t be said for their home videogame consoles. The Nintendo 64, Gamecube and Wii were all in dire need of quality games from publishers that weren’t Nintendo, and for the most part, those games never came.
In order to help prevent a repeat occurrence of this problem, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has been personally meeting with third-party videogame developers to encourage them to work on Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console, he tells IGN.
“I am trying to meet with the game developers individually for this matter,” Miyamoto says. “The real subject is whether I’ll be able to—we’ll be able to— convince developers inside of the licensing publishers to be excited about the new features of the Wii U, so much so that they’ll be enthused towards making brand new entertainment that I couldn’t come up with myself.”
Miyamoto understands why Nintendo have trouble with third-party support, too.
“The fact of the matter is that most third-party licensees from a business point of view, had to create multi-platform titles—and because Nintendo has been trying to create very unique hardware, oftentimes it was not considered the first choice for them to work on multi-platform software,” he states.
This, Miyamoto says, means that individual developers at larger companies are held back from developing unique titles, due to the company’s overall plans. In order to help move things along, he’s been meeting with individual developers to convince them to bring unique titles to the Wii U.
In the past, Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, has made similar statements, sharing that Nintendo are open to working very closely with third-party game developers and publishers, in order to facilitate support for the Wii U.
“If a third-party developer or publisher has come up with an idea of a potentially very unique use of the Wii U functionality with such a device, there is a high possibility that Nintendo will be a partner with that third party in an unprecedented manner (thereby reducing their development risk significantly),” Iwata said to investors earlier this year.
A few examples of Nintendo’s third-party collaborations can already be seen on the Wii U. The company is publishing Tecmo Koei’s Ninja Gaiden: Razor’s Edge, PlatinumGames’ Bayonetta 2, and a new title, The Wonderful 101, also from Platinum. Nintendo are also publishing Lego City: Undercover from TT Games.
