In der Fragerunde nach der jüngsten Nintendo-Investorenkonferenz musste sich Nintendo-Präsident Satoru Iwata auch zu dem vielfach vorgeworfenen Mangel an Third Party-Spielen für 3DS und Wii U äußern.
Iwata begann mit dem 3DS. Ihmzufolge unterstützten sehr viele japanische Publisher den Handheld. Westliche Entwickler würden sich jedoch eher auf Heimkonsolen konzentrieren und daher den 3DS trotz seiner auch im Westen hohen Verkaufszahlen weitestgehend ignorieren. Allerdings habe man auch im Westen in der letzten Zeit mehr Anfragen von Drittherstellern erhalten. Nintendo kümmere sich selbst um die Problematik, indem es 3DS-Spiele japanischer Dritthersteller im Westen veröffentliche – beispielsweise Monster Hunter oder Bravely Default – und dies auch in den nächsten Jahren so machen werde.
Finally, in terms of third-party support, while many point out that Nintendo has traditionally been weak in terms of acquiring it, if you
consider the Japanese market, it is fair to say that the number one
dedicated video game system that Japanese third-party publishers are
focusing on is Nintendo 3DS. […] On the other hand, if you turn to the overseas
markets, as home consoles are more popular, many publishers are not as
focused on handheld devices. […] [T]he fact that Nintendo 3DS has now sold
over 10 million units in both the U.S. and Europe seems to be news for
third-party publishers, and we have recently been receiving more
proposals from third-party publishers. However, as many overseas
software publishers are specialized in developing games for high-end
home consoles, while they are very interested in Nintendo 3DS, it
appears that they are currently investigating what they want to develop
on our platform. Also, we sometimes distribute, or even publish
depending on the circumstances, games that were made by Japanese
software publishers in the overseas markets, and you can expect to see
more examples of this this year and the next.
Bezüglich der Wii U äußerte Iwata, dass auf Kinder- und Familienspiele spezialisierte Dritthersteller die Wii U weiterhin stark unterstützen, gestand jedoch ein, dass dies auf manche andere Third Party-Hersteller nicht zutreffe. Indem man durch die Veröffentlichung starker First Party-Titel die Verkaufszahlen der Wii U stärkt, wolle man eine für sämtliche Dritthersteller attraktive Plattform erschaffen. Dies sei das langfristige Ziel, um Dritthersteller für die Wii U zu begeistern.
As for Wii U, opinions significantly differ among
third-party publishers. Software publishers that develop content that
has great affinity with audiences that Nintendo has historically been
strong with, namely children and families, are still very active
supporters of Wii U, and their enthusiasm for Wii U can also been seen
from the fact that they have even reached out to us to help people
upgrade from Wii to Wii U. On the other hand, software publishers are
not necessarily keen on making games in genres that have weaker affinity
with audiences that Nintendo has not been as strong with, where making a
huge investment does not guarantee a sufficient return. With regard to
Wii U, we first need to create a strong foundation in areas Nintendo
excels at and achieve a sufficient sales volume. If we manage to do so,
those publishers in the overseas markets who are currently not
interested in Wii U will be attracted to the Wii U platform, as they
were to Nintendo 3DS. This is going to be our approach in the near
future.
