Working Title 09.11.09: Working What If? - Nintendo Went Third Party

Posted by Jordan Williams on 09.11.2009

We've all sat down and wondered "What If" this and "What If" that...but let's be serious...what would happen if one of the most successful gaming companies ever stopped making gaming consoles?

Welcome back to the #1 Column to let someone else write it for them last week, WORKING TITLE. Last week I had to attend to some outside business so I had Adam fill in and he did a pretty good ass job. I must confess that I don't play many Pinball machines, but even then his column was a nice one.

I just wish he dropped the F-bomb a bit more.


BUT I AM FUCKING BACK AND THIS IS WHAT I FUCKING DO. SO FUCK FUCKING FUCK YEAH! Anyway, I figure since I have NO IDEA WHAT TO FUCKING WRITE ABOUT, I will kick off a new series once again.

No seriously. News and big announcements are slow and I honestly had nothing at all to write about. These I usually come up with these ideas for a 'new series' mostly because I think of one random ass idea as I type this little intro part and end up stretching it out to about four columns.

See? Just right now I thought about what would happen if random ass/impossible shit happened in the video gaming world and what sort of affect would it have. Like what would happen if video game movies were actually GOOD? Or perhaps Hot Coffee NOT being such a big deal?

Oh oh...How about this one...


Working Title: Working What If...Nintendo became a third party developer.


Oooh. This is a good one. You know how Sega called it quits on the hardware after the Dreamcast? What if Nintendo had called it quits after the GameCube? Of course it's sort of impossible to picture Nintendo giving up on hardware altogether because of the chokehold they have on the handheld industry, but let's just say for shits sake they just decided that the GBA SP and the GameCube were IT.

What would happen? What would become of the Mario, Zelda, and Pokémon franchises? Well how about I look into my non-existent crystal ball and find out?

Let's start with the most obvious choice...

Mario would become Third Party

This is sort of obvious, but it's still would've happened. With Nintendo no longer making hardware the most recognizable and popular video gaming mascot of all time would become a free agent. Nintendo wouldn't allow him to be locked down to one console, but he would still be appearing in tons of games.

The problem here though is that almost all of Mario's adventures took advantage of whatever new gimmick or quirk Nintendo could come out with for its console. The PS3 and the Xbox 360 wouldn't have much of these, on top of the fact that I doubt they would like the "One Mario per Console" rule they have adopted since the SNES (and to be broken next year). So Mario would run the risk of becoming like Sonic the Hedgehog.



The main problem with Sonic is that with his games spread across all three consoles there is no real general focus for them. They are only interested in getting a Sonic game. If and when Sega does try to make a Sonic game for one specific console it ends up just being a soulless shell of what a Sonic game COULD be. But I do not think Nintendo would go this route with Mario. First of all I think they will handle Mario a LOT better than Sega has with Sonic, and then Mario still has a mega backlog of spin offs that could keep Sony and Microsoft happy for years. Just imagine Mario Kart with the power of Xbox Live behind it. Or perhaps a Mario game that could fully utilize the power behind the PS3.

Mario would still be on top of the world as far as mascots go, but I still think some of his magic would be come with him being on other consoles.


Zelda would become THE "Mature" Nintendo title

Something that the Hardcore Heroes might be clamoring for. If Nintendo went Third Party I think you would see Zelda get more of an edge to it as it appeared on Sony and Microsoft consoles. I am not saying that it would become a clone of God of War or anything, but I definitely think that we would see it push the envelope of the T rating as far is it could go without hitting M territory.

Although, given the amount of sword play, monsters, and other mythical things that go on we might just see Link pop up in an M rated adventure. A lot of people nowadays think that Rated M means that there has to be blood, gore, gibbing, and just random smatterings of body parts everywhere. It could be realistic in the same sense that you just hit a fleshy body with a sword, therefore it bled. I think we would see THAT sort of edge when it comes to a third party Zelda game.

But by being the mature title, I mean that this would be the one that Sony and Microsoft would be rolling out the red carpet for like they do with third party gems like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. Mario may be the bigger name, but Zelda has some weird hold over the fans that I still don't completely understand that just translates into big money.

Also unlike Mario, Zelda wouldn't feel too out of place on another console. Mario is so "Nintendo" that if you were to see it on anything else it just doesn't sit right. Sort of like seeing Sonic on Nintendo consoles for the first time. But Zelda has such a wide appeal and isn't so closely associated with Nintendo that it could very easily translate over into say an Xbox 360 or a Sony. And since Nintendo would be a giant third party, they can set aside Zelda (and possibly Metroid) to be its 'mature' titles in order to keep places like Microsoft and Sony happy.

Microsoft and Sony would fight for exclusive rights to Pokémon. Sony would win.



This is the big ass money grabber. One of the most successful and bestselling video game franchises of all time. There is NO WAY IN HELL that Sony and Microsoft would share Pokémon. You would expect to see a bidding war like no other to get exclusive rights to Pokémon. And I think Nintendo would honestly sit there and soak up all the money as they watched Sony and Microsoft kill them over trying to lock Pokémon into some sort of exclusive contract.

The big question would be who would get it. Sony would seem like the obvious choice because they have an established handheld (and if Nintendo stopped making hardware it would be the dominant one) and a network to support it. On the other hand, Microsoft could easily either make a handheld to compete with the PSP, or shift Pokémon onto an XBLA style DLC game.

But since Pokémon (You know...Pocket Monsters) is built for handheld play, I can see the PSP gaining it in the long run. Nintendo always wants to stay true to what it originally wants to do. So you would see Pokémon get the power of the PSP, the PSN Network, and still be on top of the handheld market. Sony and Nintendo would make TONS of bank from it which would make the PSP the undisputed king of handhelds unless the iPod suddenly became a viable contender (and I still don't think it is). Don't think the Sony has what it takes to take a "Catch 'Em All" game work? Look at Monster Hunter.

You might not know it just from looking at it, but that game is FUCKING HUGE in Japan and has a nice little cult following here. Take that and slap a Pokémon game into that fan base and Sony is looking at some mad fuckin' money right there. If anything, it might mean we finally get that full 3D Pokémon game that everyone has been clamoring for since the DS was announced.

The Wii technology would become a peripheral for games much like the Guitar Hero controllers




Just because Nintendo would stop making consoles doesn't mean that they would abandon the whole "change the way gaming is seen" thing. I think the Wii as we know it would become more of a Guitar Hero/Rockband type experience. Not saying it's a music game, but I can see them releasing the Wiimote and Nunchuck and specific games to go with it. WiiPlay, WiiSports, WiiSports Resort. These would be some prime games to be bundled or used with the Wii Hardware. This would actually accomplish what Sony and Microsoft are trying to do now with the whole Natal and EyeScreamCone thing. And since Microsoft and Sony would be raking in the money from it (like they do with Rockband and Guitar Hero now) there would be no pressure for them to try to 1-up Nintendo by making a NATAL or anything of the sort. They would be able to keep that casual audience to themselves and better yet they would be able use the power of the consoles to make some games of their own even better.

I know it's hard to imagine it now that most of the WAGGLE is confined just mini-games and gimmicky things. But what if Microsoft built a game from the ground up to use WAGGLE and it was not trying to make something to be the (non-existent) Wii, but instead was making something for Nintendo. I think it would end up a lot bigger and better than how they are going about NATAL currently. Then we have PS3 with the EyeScreamCone, they could essentially do the same thing with Nintendo footing the bill and the technology for the Wiimote itself.

Now I know that this is severely unlikely, Nintendo has made enough money with the Wii to definitely sustain its life and more consoles for years to come. But this is simply what I think might happen if history was changed a bit. Although I do think a case similar to this could happen if Nintendo keeps trying to re-invent the wheel every time they do anything just to stay apart from the pack. I honestly think though that even if Nintendo keeps going on the way it is that giving Zelda that harder edge that I mentioned above is the right way to go with that series. If there is a game series out that there definitely needs a reboot/revamp its Link and his buddies.

Or perhaps they can still tell me what the FUCK Zelda has done that is so legendary.

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Working Question

Seeing as I am going to keep this whole column idea going, what do you think would happen if Nintendo decided to go third party? Also what other things do you think should be covered in here? Who knows, I might steal use one of your ideas next week or something.
No, really. Give me something to steal. If I can't think of anything I might just have to pull out some weird shit like "What if...Metal Gear Solid made sense" or some shit.

Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams...and I'll just leave this right here.