The Future of Nintendolololol

[Damane]

Considering how Nintendo has refused various buyout offers in the past, I do wonder who they would actually consider merging with. Acquiring people wouldn't be anything new for them, though, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't do it again. Maybe they could grab Sega Sammy, as they're already on friendly terms, and Nintendo has significantly greater income and equity. Who else? Well, honestly, I can't think of anyone off of the top of my head. Practically everyone that matters is western, and I can't see Nintendo's design ideologies getting along with them (despite the presence of acquisitions like Retro Studios). There's surely some western talent they wouldn't mind gobbling up, but I doubt they'd want to merge with much of it. I wonder...

I know this is never gonna happen: but an Apple Nintendo merger (or apple buys Nintendo whatever) would be very interesting for the handheld and homeconsole/tablet market. However never gonna happen.

[Kohan]

Nintendo's M&A strategy will 100% be about their QoL expansion. They aren't about to merge with or buy game software companies, and if you read the press release it's said immediately after what it would take to implement their new business models. So they'll be acquiring whoever will help them build the 3rd generation of Wii Fit-like products.

Why do you feel so confident about that? Though they're all about hyping their QoL endeavors, they prefaced that by emphasizing how games will still be the core of their business. That, and throughout their history, they have been happy to partner with small developers and/or eventually buy and transform them into first-party groups.

Even if we were to believe they would eschew game development after this calendar year ends, though, there are other reasons to buy other game software companies. To run with the previous example, Sega Sammy absolutely could help them accomplish those QoL goals. They don't just make software, but they have combined their ability to do that and build amusement machinery to create taxing interactive experiences, a la Nintendo's home-based Wii Fit. They have talent and other resources Nintendo could use on all of those fronts.

[Correction]

I don't think Nintendo is going to taper off their game development, I just don't see a good economic reason for game-related M&As. The stock buyback means they're eyeing new markets with their reserves, which will probably come with higher premiums than buyouts in markets they're already connected to.

The spectrum of game software companies they could afford to buy right now is limited by the baggage the Wii U carries, and further limited by the benefits it would confer to either party. A publisher or dev house of any size is going to wait for Nintendo to act on their miserable 2nd party marketing efforts and watch the performance of Bayo 2 and the Lego game very carefully. They aren't going to want to be absorbed by Nintendo before that. There's also nothing in such an acquisition for Nintendo. They have an army of extremely talented game designers and programmers, so buying more just increases their costs, when they could receive the benefits by entering into publishing agreements, like they did with Platinum. Hell they could just as easily cut Platinum loose, wait for them to fold then just hire people they wanted. A merger would be nonsensical.

To run with the previous example, Sega Sammy absolutely could help them accomplish those QoL goals.

I seriously don't see anything in it for Sega Sammy, and a hostile takeover would probably backfire.

[BaneTheBrawler]

nintendo and SE should merge and make a smash bros game with FF characters in it (in addition to the usual suspects) and for XI and XIV have a character creator where you can build your own Smash character on the various character models.


they seem to be doing pretty similar things in the gaming market these days anyway

[Kiarax]

But SE already did that...

[fantasticdan]

If I were nintendo, I would start porting all my shit to steam/pc, and make a steambox + universal PC gamepads/etc if I really wanted to keep making hardware. I think the market for their games alone is still huge, but the market that wants to buy their hardware to exclusively play a handful of those games per generation, and/or deal with gimmicky motion/touch controls is not.

[Ksandra]

nintendo and SE should merge and make a smash bros game with FF characters in it (in addition to the usual suspects) and for XI and XIV have a character creator where you can build your own Smash character on the various character models.

....-.-;;;;


http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs28/f/20...y_AriesJoe.jpg

[Galkaeater]

yeah but good

[Qalbert]

putting the diss in Dissidia

[Elcura]

yeah but good

Because Brawl was good.

[Lordender]

Not surprising to me, the WII-U had awful written all over it. Even the biggest fanboys I personally know of Nintendo were skeptical the whole way and were down on the WII-U.

[BaneTheBrawler]

i said in addition to the usual suspects, not JUST FF characters. meta knight v galka samurai gogogogo

[Kohan]

I seriously don't see anything in it for Sega Sammy, and a hostile takeover would probably backfire.

I don't disagree with what you said in relation to everyone's "wait and see" approach, but the Sega Sammy example was essentially used to demonstrate what Nintendo could get out of their company, and why they might be interested in companies like them. However, I do have to agree with you on this. Nintendo has problems, and Sega Sammy does not. If Sega Sammy did, it could be a potentially useful acquisition on Nintendo's part.

The only benefit I could think of there would be Sega Sammy having a whole new bevy of IPs to slap on amusement machines, but I don't know if that's the kind of brand expansion Nintendo would want. Can't say it wouldn't be profitable, though.

[Correction]

More juice from the Investor Q&A

Q5: You have explained your concern about users being divided by hardware. Currently, you have both a handheld device business and a home console business. I would like to know whether the organizational changes that took place last year are going to lead to, for example, the integration of handheld devices and home consoles into one system over the medium term, or a focus on cost saving and the improvement of resource efficiency in the medium run. Please also explain if you still have room to reduce research and development expenses.

A5: Iwata:

Last year Nintendo reorganized its R&D divisions and integrated the handheld device and home console development teams into one division under Mr. Takeda. Previously, our handheld video game devices and home video game consoles had to be developed separately as the technological requirements of each system, whether it was battery-powered or connected to a power supply, differed greatly, leading to completely different architectures and, hence, divergent methods of software development. However, because of vast technological advances, it became possible to achieve a fair degree of architectural integration. We discussed this point, and we ultimately concluded that it was the right time to integrate the two teams.

For example, currently it requires a huge amount of effort to port Wii software to Nintendo 3DS because not only their resolutions but also the methods of software development are entirely different. The same thing happens when we try to port Nintendo 3DS software to Wii U. If the transition of software from platform to platform can be made simpler, this will help solve the problem of game shortages in the launch periods of new platforms. Also, as technological advances took place at such a dramatic rate, and we were forced to choose the best technologies for video games under cost restrictions, each time we developed a new platform, we always ended up developing a system that was completely different from its predecessor. The only exception was when we went from Nintendo GameCube to Wii. Though the controller changed completely, the actual computer and graphics chips were developed very smoothly as they were very similar to those of Nintendo GameCube, but all the other systems required ground-up effort. However, I think that we no longer need this kind of effort under the current circumstances. In this perspective, while we are only going to be able to start this with the next system, it will become important for us to accurately take advantage of what we have done with the Wii U architecture. It of course does not mean that we are going to use exactly the same architecture as Wii U, but we are going to create a system that can absorb the Wii U architecture adequately. When this happens, home consoles and handheld devices will no longer be completely different, and they will become like brothers in a family of systems.

Still, I am not sure if the form factor (the size and configuration of the hardware) will be integrated. In contrast, the number of form factors might increase. Currently, we can only provide two form factors because if we had three or four different architectures, we would face serious shortages of software on every platform. To cite a specific case, Apple is able to release smart devices with various form factors one after another because there is one way of programming adopted by all platforms. Apple has a common platform called iOS. Another example is Android. Though there are various models, Android does not face software shortages because there is one common way of programming on the Android platform that works with various models. The point is, Nintendo platforms should be like those two examples. Whether we will ultimately need just one device will be determined by what consumers demand in the future, and that is not something we know at the moment. However, we are hoping to change and correct the situation in which we develop games for different platforms individually and sometimes disappoint consumers with game shortages as we attempt to move from one platform to another, and we believe that we will be able to deliver tangible results in the future.

tl;dr: Nintendo intends to create a hardware agnostic platform for software developers. Game publishers are currently having to invest extra resources to make games for both Nintendo platforms--or worse, choose one exclusively over the other, as is happening with the 3DS/Wii U disparity. Think: nOS, like Android or iOS.

[Kohan]

I don't believe it's a bad idea in theory, but Nintendo's platform install bases could never hope to compare to those of Android or iOS. It's a decent comparison for the sake of layman understanding, but it doesn't address what makes programming specifically for iOS or Android actually worthwhile: their ridiculously huge install base. That, and it glosses over Android devices having radically different architectures, so programming for them is not in fact that simple, but that's getting into semantics—nonetheless, a more accurate comparison would forget Android altogether, leaving us to just think of Apple devices, and iOS programming.

Apple is closed and controlled, which Nintendo would be, because of course they would be—they always have been. With cartridges and small-size discs shutting other people out, Nintendo has always made it clear that they want to provide a unique user experience, and on their terms. Now, by creating a universal digital ecosystem, they could somewhat alleviate their consoles' smaller libraries by having titles made for their portables also available on said consoles... but that doesn't guarantee that anyone is going to give a shit about it. They still aren't going to attract companies if the install base doesn't grow, and I don't know if the technology alone will be enough to get them psyched.

It's still Nintendo providing a Nintendo experience. I don't think it's a bad idea, and to me it seems like a natural extension of the Wii U games being playable on the controller screen—with this, you actually could theoretically go from the screen, to your living room, to your commute and to wherever else, and back again—but is it enough to get anyone else on board?

[Correction]

It's still Nintendo providing a Nintendo experience. I don't think it's a bad idea, and to me it seems like a natural extension of the Wii U games being playable on the controller screen—with this, you actually could theoretically go from the screen, to your living room, to your commute and to wherever else, and back again—but is it enough to get anyone else on board?

Consumers should be on board with this, 100%. Imagine if you could move SMTIV from your 3DS to your Wii U tablet or TV, with cross-save tech?

http://i.minus.com/ibh4gclIJpqZzV.gif

Developers will at least appreciate the tighter toolkit and asset pipelines this promises. Costs going down is very attractive.

[Drai]

Honestly, I think the next console should be what the Wii U should have been, the console would have had something like a 3ds card slot on it, the gamepad would also have had the same slot, you could put the game in the console to play on the TV, or in the gamepad if you were going out, saves could be transfered from gamepad > console and vice versa easily, buy both a handheld and home console all in one.

[Kohan]

Consumers should be on board with this, 100%. Imagine if you could move SMTIV from your 3DS to your Wii U tablet or TV, with cross-save tech?

http://i.minus.com/ibh4gclIJpqZzV.gif

Totally. I love many Nintendo franchises, and both privately and professionally appreciate how endlessly talented their development teams are. For their fans, this is solid gold.

Developers will at least appreciate the tighter toolkit and asset pipelines this promises. Costs going down is very attractive.

This is also truth. If Nintendo gets more serious about digital distribution, it would be even better.

[Ryko]

Because Brawl was good.

May not have been, but make no mistake, it was easily their greatest financial success of the franchise (unavoidable due to the growth of the industry).