The historic trouble that Nintendo have had with their systems has been third party support- for some reason or the other, Nintendo have had trouble attracting, and then retaining, as much third party support for their systems as their competition.
A lot of this has been attributed to Nintendo’s style of conducting business as a platform owner versus PlayStation or Xbox. Put simply, Nintendo prioritizes its own in house development, with third party support being considered ancillary- a far cry from Sony or Microsoft making third party support a primary consideration with their platforms.
However, maybe this understanding has been wrong. GamingBolt recently had the chance to sit down and talk to José Herráez, who handles PR for Tequila Works, of RIME fame. While talking to him, we had the chance to broach the topic of Nintendo and the upcoming NX.
“Nintendo has always surprised us in a good way, even if the sales of the Wii U haven’t been that brilliant as the sales of the former Wii were,” he mused, when asked about the NX, and its chances of success in the market. “But I have every reason to be excited about what Nintendo will come out with the NX. And I am really looking forward to more information about the console.”
When asked about the challenges that a console-handheld hybrid, which the NX is often rumored to be, would pose for third party game development, Herráez was surprisingly candid, painting a picture of third party relations with Nintendo that seem to defy previous stereotypes.
“Well, [a console-handheld hybrid] would be a really interesting proposition,” he said. “At this moment, I cannot be sure about how that would influence third party development, because we have seen literally nothing of the console. I have the very same information as you do. But it could- I’m sure that, being Nintendo, they will not only come put with a console that can do certain things, but also with a plan about how to make it work. They have always been – in my past experience working for other companies, such as Codemasters and Sega – they have always been very supportive of third party companies, and how they work with their platforms. And I expect that to be the case again.”
There are two takeaways from this- it sounds like Nintendo’s relations with third parties may not be as strained as is commonly understood. At the same time, and a bit conversely, it also sounds like Nintendo have so far not taken all third parties into confidence with the NX- certainly not Tequila Works. If so, then, at least as far as the system’s conception goes, it does sound like they have yet again designed a system for themselves. It may just be that third parties happen to really like it this time around.
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