A distinct lack of third party support has led many to believe the end is nigh for Nintendo, but should we have expected anything else?
An awful lot of doom and gloom has surrounded the Wii U of late. A distinct lack of new titles in the months since the console’s launch has given gamers little reason to dust off their GamePads, as well as the non-existent Nintendo TVii and Virtual Console (the latter of which is only just creeping onto the eShop, with gamers getting but a handful of games each week).
This negativity deepened when a series of stinging tweets from a senior EA employee led many to believe that EA had no games in development for the console. This stance has since been clarified to point out that EA isn’t ceasing development of Wii U games entirely; rather the Wii U isn’t capable of running the gorgeous new Frostbite Engine 3, so EA decided not to bring its upcoming games which use the software to the platform.
This has only fuelled the belief of many that the Wii U is dead in the water. Third parties are abandoning ship and Nintendo have remained deafeningly silent on the issue. But should we really be surprised that third parties aren’t bringing next-gen, AAA-games to the system? And more importantly, should we want them to in the first place?
Nintendo’s hardware has never been the dedicated console in a gamer’s living room, but has happily played Robin to Sony and Microsoft’s Batman. Yes the Wii enjoyed rip-roaring sales success, but in terms of core gamers, it isn’t the console we sit and spend hours playing. When the next entry in a huge blockbuster series rolls around, have you ever heard an interview of a passionate fan stood outside his or her favourite retailer exclaim their excitement to get the game home and waggle a Wiimote or check the Gamepad features? No, they want to jump on Xbox Live or PSN with their friends. Nintendo’s port is never the proprietary format of any major third party title.
Again, this isn’t a bad thing. For many years, Nintendo has satiated the core with its first-party games, and we have a lot to look forward to on that front. Nintendo recently confirmed the date of June 11 (LINK) for a special pre-E3 Nintendo Direct where gamers will get to see the next installments of Smash Bros., The Galaxy Team’s Mario, Mario Kart and more. These are the games we want and expect on a Nintendo console, and they always deliver.
I accepted long ago that Nintendo’s consoles are pretty much boxes for first party games, and I’m perfectly happy with that. Now, I’m not saying whether or not this is a good thing for Nintendo in business terms, I’m not good with numbers. But as a gamer; if you can give me a console that lets me play all the Wii games I missed out on; re-download all the nostalgia-enthused treasures of old for the tenth time; and play the latest instalments in some of my most treasured franchises, count me in.
Call me a sucker, but it’s what I want. I have bought Super Mario Bros. 3 and World at least a dozen times, they defined my childhood and I want them on every system I own. Now, of course, Nintendo has done a shoddy job bringing the Virtual Console to the Wii U (if somebody could explain to me why they can’t simply bring the entire Wii VC library to the Wii U, I’d really appreciate it), nor have they done a great job since the console launched in communicating with gamers.
But the higher-ups know that there’s an awful lot riding on this next Nintendo Direct, they need to bring the big guns, the Nintendo big guns. You won’t see FIFA 14 or Call of Duty: Ghosts, nor will you find anybody expecting them. Everybody tuning in to the broadcast wants to see Nintendo’s games, that’s all we care about.
Of course there is space for third parties to bring titles to the Wii U, but they are always in the form of lesser ports. In a world where profits are increasingly difficult to come by, developers are less likely today to take a risk on a game than they have ever been, so to spend years and millions of dollars developing a title exclusively for Wii U is bonkers. Nintendo must provide a compelling argument for them to do so, and its opening statement comes on June 11.
