Nintendo to schedule first-party games around third-parties

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said he wants to "decide on dates after we know the release plans of other companies" so that third-parties can be successful on the 3DS.

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Nintendo has hit a rough patch with third-party publishers in recent years, and is now hoping to mend fixes and spur on third-party success with the 3DS. In a financial Q&A (via Joystiq), company president Satoru Iwata said the company will be scheduling around third-party dates so that (ideally) both will be successful.

"We want the other companies to be successful," he said. "In order to accomplish this goal, we would like to decide on the dates after we know the release plans of other companies' games so that we are able to consider how we can maximize the sales of our titles without affecting the sales of other companies in the short term."

This willingness to work hand-in-hand with third-parties is an about-face from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime's comments from about a year ago regarding the Wii. At the time, Fils-Aime remarked that providing a large install base and software development tools was as far as their first-party responsibility went. If Iwata carries out this plan of working closely with third-parties, it could reflect a serious change in the corporate tone.

Citing this as the reason, Iwata stopped short of giving release targets for Mario Kart 3DS or Super Mario 3DS. But we've previously heard that Mario 3DS is coming this year, at least in Japan, so third-parties better announce their plans release plans soon.

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  • reply
    May 2, 2011 2:45 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Nintendo to schedule first-party games around third-parties.

    Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said he wants to "decide on dates after we know the release plans of other companies" so that third-parties can be successful on the 3DS.

    • reply
      May 2, 2011 2:49 PM

      look who's coming crawling back to the third party developers.. question will be whether it's too late to woo them...

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        May 2, 2011 2:51 PM

        What are you talking about? The DS does great with third parties.

        • reply
          May 2, 2011 3:06 PM

          He's talking about the Wii's lackluster third party support. It's not too unreasonable to think that might bleed over into their next handheld but you're right, the DS had excellent third party support. Of course, it didn't have any realistic competition for a long time (the PSP did admirably against it but it took quite a while to get to that point)

          • reply
            May 2, 2011 3:21 PM

            yeah sorry, should have clarified..it feels like nintendo is trying to position themselves back in 3rd party graces just in time for the HDWii launch, after snubbing them for the past ~4 years or so.

            • reply
              May 2, 2011 3:25 PM

              [deleted]

              • reply
                May 2, 2011 5:30 PM

                I like enough of the shit they shovel, but pretty much only end up getting select staples. It's not like Wii was ever there to compete with 360 or PS3. Tiger Woods, Rayman and a few of Nintendo's first party stuff is all I needed to justify the purchase.

                I'd think Nintendo would be good to work for if they decided to 'court' third-parties. Just them suggesting they'd alter their own release dates says alot. They could release Legend of Zelda on Christmas eve you'd still have people giving up their families to sleep out at Best Buy.

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