JoshuaJSlone said:
I'm disagreeing. I think competition with Nintendo's own games is a factor. However, with systems like NES, Game Boy, or Game Boy Advance, it's not like third parties had a viable alternative.
This is a huge myth which is still, absurdly, even believed today by some developers. A game being popular does not
decrease sales from other games. In more likelihood, it probably increases them. Sales of Brain Age of New Super Mario Brothers are not
decreasing sales of third party titles. They are either having no effect or increasing them (since sales of games like Brain Trainer are creating more DS owners who will then often buy other games).
Does anyone honestly believe that the popularity of titles such as Grand Theft Auto 3, Final Fantasy series, Gran Turismo, and the Metal Gear Solid series
decreases the sales of other titles for that system? Then why would someone believe that the popularity of Mario, Zelda, and Metroid decrease sales for other games on that system?
Would a mediocre game such as Children of Mana sell as well as it did if it were not for the reasons people got the DS in the first place with games such as Animal Crossing and Brain Trainer?
Nintendo is primarily a software company, not a hardware company. If I recall, Nintendo is the #2 publisher in the world, second only to Electronic Arts. The money in this industry is made from the software, not the hardware. So it shouldn't be a surprise that Nintendo is so focused on that.
Why does this myth persist? I think there are two reasons:
1) People confuse reality with Pie charts. They see the large slice of the pie chart dominated by Nintendo and visually assume that Nintendo sales are 'eating' third party sales.
2) Another reason why I hear developers say this is because they are in 'competition' to other Nintendo games out there (which isn't true. Good games do not compete against each other.) realize it is extremely hard to 'compete' against Nintendo's numbers. How do you compete against Electronic Arts' titles? You can't. But Electronic Arts sales are divided by platforms while Nintendo's software is all bunched up on their systems (which exaggerates the pie charts). Franchises like Mario are the best selling of all time and will probably remain so. If it was truly competition they were worried about, they could release their games on the N-Gage and own that pie chart. But none of them will for the obvious reasons.
Nintendo has the money to delay games so they get perfected. Most other game companies cannot afford such a luxury. This is a reason why Blizzard's games usually dominate on the PC. Third parties, being controlled by publishers, are more interested in another stream of revenue than perfecting the game. But that stream would become a river and perhaps a flood if more time was spent on the development side.
The lament of 'only Nintendo games sell on Nintendo systems' forget that if you combine all the systems, Nintendo's game sales
still make up a sizable chunk of the market. Nintendo is the software powerhouse. It is like comparing most third party companies to Electronic Arts. Its a stupid comparison. Most games get outsold by Madden, but no one is stupid enough to say the only video games that sell are football games. Madden's success doesn't cause the failure of other games.
There are many successful third party companies on Nintendo systems. Didn't Atlus say Trauma Center was their most profitable game? No wonder the sequel is launching with the Wii. Sega's games sell mostly on Nintendo's systems. Why do you think Sega was so eager to put their games on to the Virtual Console? Konami must be pleased with the sales of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow in the West.
The only companies who are complaining are companies such as Electronic Arts who do not know how to deal with disruptive technologies. Dealing with a disruptive system does not fit their internal business model very well.
Third parties sold well on the NES, GB, SNES, GBA. Amazingly, the high sales of games like Super Mario Brothers did not decrease sales of the first Final Fantasy or Castlevania. So why do people foolishly believe that high sales of games like New Super Mario Brothers will decrease the sales of other games?
