NGAMER Magazine June 2011

 

At a recent investor Q&A session, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata made the surprising announcement that the company's age-old policy of self reliance is at an end. Iwata explained to his audience that the philosophy of 'jimae-shugi' - that is, doing things without the help of others - is no longer the best way of working for Nintendo, and that it's time for them to look at more collaborations.

'It is a great honour to succeed in a business by making the best of our own unique strengths, but on the other hand it is a shame to fall behind the times clinging to it,' he said. 'In the field of networks in particular, I admit that we cannot keep pace with the changes in the world and the requests from consumers only within our company. I feel that we would spoil the part in a negative way if we tried to create everything by ourselves based on the policy of jimae-shugi, and eventually it would make our business slow.'

Nintendo have already farmed out the development of big 3DS titles such as Pilotwings resort, and Ocarina of time 3D, and recently went on record as saying ther're keen to find more developers - particularly western ones - who they can work with.

Iwata also admitted that Nintendo had made mistakes when it came to online gaming, saying 'Wii's future could have been different if nintendo had made better partnerships with outside companies in the field of network services'. We're assuming this can only mean improved online functions are in store for Wii's successor.

Togeshroob

May 31 2011, 11:21 AM

^Especially not with Mario. I wouldn't mind someone else making a Mario RPG, or some other type of spin-off (like they already do), but Nintendo already does an absolutely fantastic job with the platformers (3D in particular); I would never want them to stop.

Anyhow, I read this a while back, and it really makes me respect Iwata and Nintendo as a whole. Not many presidents will come out and openly admit their faults!


As for Zelda, 3rd parties (albeit Japanese) have already made a couple games and done well with them, so I'm not terribly opposed. However, not just any developer should get to do it. They'd need someone who understands the framework and spirit of the series, not someone who would simply Westernize it for the sake of grit and money. Which is why I wouldn't mind seeing Retro develop one - they've shown twice now (Metroid, Donkey Kong) that they can retain a series original qualities while making something new.

Oh, and as for OoT 3DS being made by a 3rd party (Grezzo, to be precise), I speculate it's only because Nintendo themselves are secretly developing an original Zelda title for the 3DS. I think that'd be awesome - have a 3rd party handle remakes and such, while Nintendo themselves makes original Zelda games.