Michael Pachter has said that without support from key third-parties like Ubisoft and EA, the Nintendo NX will suffer the same fate as the Wii U. Pachter stressed that Nintendo must avoid the same mistakes they made with the Wii U, which saw several high profile third-party publishers pull their support from the system.
If Nintendo gets the same level of support for NX that it got for the Wii U, it’s doomed before it launches. That’s much, much more important than the price. If they get third-party support, if they make it in such a way that everyone can port every game over and the incremental cost to make it for Xbox One, PS4 and NX is $1-2 million, every game will be there.
If it’s a whole different language, or requires a whole different programming scheme, or requires something to do with the GamePad where you’ve got the controller different the way Wii U works, it’s doomed. No one’s going to support it.
Pachter is quick to make this point after being asked about the price point for the NX and whether or not Nintendo will be able to launch a console/handheld hybrid for less than $400. Pachter says Nintendo needs to conform to industry standards to get third-party publishers interested in their platform again, because they’ve been burned by both the Wii and the Wii U and are likely skittish about investing in something else that may contain difficult-to-develop-for gimmicks.
I think the publishers are leery of Nintendo, the third-party publishers. I think they got burned by the Wii, they were never good on the Wii, they got burned by the Wii U – especially Ubisoft. So, I think they are going to be very, very cautious.
This is a pretty obvious statement as we see the situation the Wii U finds itself in in terms of support from both third-party publishers and gamers in general. Obviously Nintendo wants to strike gold with the NX by creating a platform that’s enticing to both publishers and gamers, but its reputation could hurt it.
Do you agree with what Pachter has said?
