robio said:

You know, to play devil's advocate I don't really think Nintendo is doing anything wrong and they get a bit of a bad rap. There's been 3 New Super Mario Bros in the past 6 years. If you count the Galaxy games and Mario Land 3 its 6. In that same period of time there have been just as many Halo games. There have been more Assassin's Creed games, more Resident Evil, more Kingdom Hearts, and i won't mention yearly installment games like COD. Nintendo and Mario in particular get brought up more since the series has been around so much longer, but I don't think it's so aggregious since even with minor changes these games really only come out once every other year at most.

And to get specific with New Super Mario Bros, is 3 games on 3 different consoles over 6 years such a bad thing? Its important to remember not everyone buys every console a company puts out. Most rational people probably don't in fact. Whats wrong with putting out a similar game for people who may not have been able to play it on a console they didn't own?

+ 1

I didn't see anyone complain when God of War 4 was announced, or when Ass Creed 5 was announced - yes 3 is the fifth game. The new Halo takes the toll up to Halo 6 - yes ODST counts.

3 NSMB games over how many years? Pffft.

Dvader said:

There is only 4 AC games.  I count only 4 Halo games

Don't make me post that picture again, fool!

Iga_Bobovic said:

Takahashi came up with the idea, but he works for Nintendo. Not sure what you try to argue here. Monolithsoft is first party like EAD, Intelligent Systems, Tokyo EAD , Retro and so on.

Exactly, let's not be ridiculous here, otherwise Lionhead and Rare aren't MS etc. And half of Sony Studios are bought. If you are wholly owned by Nintendo you are a Nintendo studio.

edgecrusher said:

Nintendo's main studios that are their core talent and direction leaders, need to focus more on new IP in the same league of quality as Super Mario, Legend Of Zelda, and Metroid. Not neccessarily their offshoot, bought and paid for studios like Monolith Software, since they are already doing that (even if some of their games do not release to a worldwide audience).

The Mario and Zelda teams are the Mario and Zelda teams. These games take years to make. I don't see people expecting the Halo team to leave the series and make something else, or asking Sony Santa Monica to lay off God of War. It's a case of resources and market demands. Mario and Zelda are still hugely successful and need their franchises continually developed. If they just expand the studio it's no different than acquiring other studios into the Nintendo fold, but then people complain if a game isn't made by EA-Fucking D.

If it wasn't for Nintendo AND Retro, Metroid Prime would never have existed in the form it currently does. It wasn't Retro's genius which created it, remember the massive pile of suck games that had to be cancelled and the clusterfuck management at Retro that had to be ram-roaded by Nintendo for the studio to even work.

And let's not forget the new designs within existing franchises - Mario Galaxy could have new trappings and character models and be called a different frachise. It's a completely new design in Mario trappings. It is not Mario Sunshine and it is not Mario 64. If the Mario team was working on something else we might not have the most critically acclaimed game of this generation. Though I know it's not your favourite Edge.

If it wasn't for Nintendo there would be no Endless Ocean 1 + 2 this gen, let's not forget the games they pay to be developed and published - Fatal Frame 4, 2, Spirit Camera.

edgecrusher said:

I mean can you assholes imagine how badass Body Harvest would be on modern hardware and all the cool shit they could do with the controller? And let's not forget Rockstar would be in charge of this.

See its under the radar greatness like this that Nintendo could be enticing 3rd-parties to create as exclusives on their new console that would set my cock on fire.

But it wouldn't be internal, therefore it wouldn't count.

Dvader said:

But not Nintendo EAD.

What studios are internal Microsoft then? That weren't staffed or formed from previously existing companies?

It seems like you're putting this ridiculous clause on Nintendo that their internal studios are only the ones which existed during the 1980s.

Nintendo studios

Looking at the gems they have created, other than traditional Mario and Zelda.....Rhythm Heaven? Those games have received consistent 9/10 reviews across the board. Luigi's Mansion is a new franchise, Warioware is a new franchise, Nintendogs is new, the Wii Sports games etc, Pikmin, NSMB is a new franchise. Jungle Beat is a pretty radical interpretation of a Donkey Kong games. Paper Mario is awesome, not made by EAD, lets not forget that Intelligent Systems also makes the other Nintendo franchises Fire Emblem and Advance wars which are also excellent games. Disaster: Day of Crisis, Xenoblade Chronicles, Disaster is awesome BTW.  

Oh, here is one, Kid Icarus Uprising - brand new hardcore game, receiving great reviews, this game kind of flies in the face of what some were saying.

2nd party wise they commissioned the brilliant portable mario rpg series, Endless Ocean 1 and 2 which are awesome games. Golden Sun? The Last Story? Pandora's Tower, Elite Beat Agents, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Ouenden.

Cing – Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Another Code: Two Memories and tons of other stuff.  

First-party studios


Nintendo EAD Comprehensive Group – Super Mario 64 DS, Star Fox 64 3D
Nintendo EAD Group 1 – Mario Kart series, Nintendogs series, Luigi's Mansion[41]


Nintendo EAD Group 2 – Animal Crossing series, Wii-branded games


Nintendo EAD Group 3 – The Legend of Zelda series


Nintendo EAD Group 4 – Pikmin series, New Super Mario Bros., Big Brain Academy


Nintendo EAD Group 5 – Wii Fit, Steel Diver with Vitei


Nintendo EAD Tokyo 1 – Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Super Mario Galaxy


Nintendo EAD Tokyo 2 – Flipnote Studio, Super Mario Galaxy 2
Nintendo SPD – WarioWare series, Tomodachi Collection, Rhythm Heaven series, Metroid: Other M with Team Ninja[42]


Nintendo NSD – Personal Trainer: Walking


Nintendo SDD – Brain Age series


Nintendo STC – Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Crosswords DS, Metroid Prime Hunters[43]
Monolith Soft – Disaster: Day of Crisis, Xenoblade Chronicles[44]


Retro Studios – Metroid Prime series, Donkey Kong Country Returns[45]


Brownie Brown – Mother 3, A Kappa's Trail


Intelligent Systems – Paper Mario series with Nintendo, Fire Emblem series, Advance Wars series,[46] WarioWare series
Project Sora – Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Kid Icarus: Uprising


Nd Cube – Wii Party, Mario Party 9


HAL Laboratory – Kirby series, Earthbound series, Super Smash Bros. series

Second-party studios



Since the 1980s, Nintendo has built up a large group of second-party partners, through publishing agreements or collaboration.


AlphaDream – Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story


Ambrella – Pokémon Dash, Pokémon Rumble, Pokémon Channel, My Pokémon Ranch,[47]


Arika – "Endless Ocean" series, 3D classics series


Creatures Inc. – EarthBound (Mother) series


Camelot Software Planning – Golden Sun series, Mario Power Tennis


Eighting - Kuru Kuru Kururin series, "Master of Illusion"


Ganbarion - Pandora's Tower


Game Freak - Pokémon, Drill Dozer


Genius Sonority – Pokémon Colosseum, Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, Pokémon Battle Revolution


Good-Feel – Wario Land: Shake It!, Kirby's Epic Yarn (with HAL Laboratory)


Grezzo - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D


iNiS - Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! series, "Elite Beat Agents"


Kuju Entertainment - Art Academy, "Battalion Wars" series


Monster Games – Excitebike series,[48] Pilotwings Resort


n-Space - Geist


Next Level Games – Super Mario Strikers, Punch-Out!! (Wii), Luigi's Mansion 2


Noise – Custom Robo series [49]


Paon – Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, DK Jungle Climber, DK King of Swing


Sandlot - Chōsōjū Mecha MG, "Zangeki no Reginleiv"


Suzak - Wario: Master of Disguise, F-Zero: Climax, F-Zero: GP Legend


Tose - The Legendary Starfy series, Game & Watch Gallery series, Super Princess Peach


Skip Ltd. – Chibi-Robo! series, Art Style series


syn Sophia – Style Savvy


Vanpool – Dillon's Rolling Western


Vitei - Steel Diver (with EAD Group 5), "Rock N’ Roll Climber" (with EAD Group 3)


[edit]

Former affiliates


Rare - Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Star Fox Adventures, Diddy Kong Racing


Sold to Microsoft Game Studios in 2002.[50]


Cing – Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Another Code: Two Memories


Filed for bankruptcy in 2010.


Silicon Knights – Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem


Publishing contract with Nintendo ended in 2004.[51]


Factor 5


Closed in 2009.


Left Field Productions – Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside series


Bought out Nintendo's stake in the company in 2002.[52]


Marigul Management


Closed in 2003.


St.GIGA - Games for the Satellaview


Stopped making games for Nintendo when the Satellaview was discontinued. Eventually, they went out of business.


Radical Entertainment - Mario's Time Machine, Mario is Missing!


Stopped making games for Nintendo after the Mario Discovery series ended. Now a fully owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard.

Zack & Wiki sequel.

“I have a great deal of interest in doing a sequel. It’s one of several IPs that I want to return to."

YES!

"As for Nintendo 3DS…it would be fun if people could play and solve puzzles together.”

NO!

GG buddy ... Happy Birthday bro.

Many happy returns

I think Travo and Vader if I'm not mistaken also have birthdays very soon

Happy Birthday to all.

Also another congratulations to Darth on New Game Plus. Managed to watch some of it and it's good shit. Like Level 3, but much more polished. Total DSLR look which means instant modern production cred.

Has there been a new Rayman platformer been announced?

edit: nevermind, found and posted relevant article in the news

Strictly speaking Insomniac is not a first-party, they're just comissioned to do exclusives by Sony.  They're a free company though they can choose what and for whom to develop.

I think the first party Sony Studios are Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Sucker Punch, Media Molecule and all the ones with SCE in front of them.  Don't know which ones you consider "internal" out of those and which not, your distinction seems somewhat vague

edit:  Right, I wrote that before I saw your edit where you clarify your definition

Konami has Metal Gear Solid (which I presume is still good enough) and Pro Evolution Soccer which is their cash cow, but that's lost a big chunk of the market to EA's Fifa in recent years I think