Decent showing for Nintendo themselves at PAX, but what about 3rd parties?
Corner of Capcom's booth
If you watched my interview with Nintendo’s Kit Ellis, you would hear the question I posed to him. The question was about support at PAX for Nintendo. Just as a person in PR usually does, he elegantly dodged my question and instead pointed to two examples of support from third parties. This amused me because he could have thrown in SEGA’s Aliens: Infestation and Capcom’s Resident Evil: Relevations for good measure, but neglected to. However, it also made me wonder and worry a bit about what’s ahead for the company.
Heroes of Ruin at Square Enix's booth
Sure, Nintendo has a stellar lineup for the holidays with Zelda this and Mario that. These will keep the company going easily since these two franchises alone still command full market price. The same cannot be said for many third party games. If you browse discount websites such as Cheap Ass Gamer or Slickdeals, you’ll see third party games frequently going on sale mere months or sooner after they launch. To me, this screams that publishers don’t have confidence in putting their products on Nintendo platforms.
It was also telling when I went through the Exhibition Halls at PAX this year and saw no real support for Nintendo. Aside from SEGA, Square Enix, and Capcom, I didn’t find any other games on Nintendo platforms. Even Power A who does licensed Nintendo peripherals had those products on the back burner and had 360/PS3 gear at the forefront of the booth. Compare this to last year, which seemed to have more in the way of games for Nintendo. There was even a small little booth setup for And Yet It Moves (WiiWare) by the makers themselves.
Shinobi at SEGA's booth
This all worries me due to the fact that PAX is a hugely popular event the public is encouraged to visit. Why are there little to no third party titles to be shown to everyone? Is the stigma that Nintendo is hard to work with still present? Or perhaps it simply comes down to the money and the fact that many see third party games not selling on Nintendo systems. Support may be coming in the future, but will they sustain it, or simply abandon the console as many developers and publishers have done to Wii?
Unfortunately I don’t have the answers to these questions, but since my time at PAX this year, I felt they needed to be asked.
What are your thoughts?
