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What Nintendo Needs to Do in Order to Get 3rd Parties on the Wii U
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I find something very troubling with the Wii U. There are only 14 confirmed 3rd party games coming to the platform in the next year, and we cannot forgot that that list includes several licensed games, including Disney’s Planes and Disney Infinity. Fortunes are not looking good for those who only bought the Wii U and aren’t planning on picking up the other systems when fall arrives. This situation begs the question: What can Nintendo do to get 3rd parties on board?
Give them money
You know what publishers love most of all? The answer is money, and Nintendo has tons of it. At last count, Nintendo had over 9 billion dollars sitting in the bank. They obviously are not anywhere near a financial wreck, no matter how little the Wii U is selling. Nintendo needs to spend money in order to make money. By funding The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2, Nintendo is already showing that they somewhat get the situation, but they need to go further. Imagine if Nintendo payed Ubisoft to keep Rayman Legends on the Wii U. It wouldn’t have been that costly, and the company could’ve definitely afforded this. What if Nintendo payed Rockstar to make GTA on the Wii U, and payed for exclusive DLC? That would boost Wii U sales immensely, and it is something that Nintendo could’ve afforded as well.
Many 3rd parties are calling the Wii U underpowered, and it may be in comparison to the PS4 and Xbox One. But, if they’re getting payed well, it won’t matter; 3rd parties will develop games for the system and find technical work-arounds.
Get those indies
As an extension to paying 3rd parties for games, Nintendo could fund several small indie projects, in exchange for console exclusivity. This is the one place where Nintendo could compete directly with Sony, the current leader in console indie games. During its E3 press conference, Sony revealed that many indie games will be console exclusives on the PS4. Nintendo needs to go out of their way to fund these indies, and get them on the Wii U exclusively. All it takes is one Minecraft, and the console would sell incredibly well. An investment into the indie scene is an investment into the future, and Nintendo needs to fund these smaller projects in order to expand the amount of games coming to their ailing console.
Wave fees
Did you know that although Ubisoft may sell Watch Dogs for $60, they don’t get all of that money? Obviously, the retailer gets a cut of the pie, but so does the console manufacturer. Off of every $60 game sold on the Wii U, Nintendo gets about $10-$12 in fees from the company. Obviously this is a large chunk of money, up to 20 percent of the product. Nintendo needs to wave these fees in order to get 3rd parties on board.
One of the biggest barriers of entry when publishing a game is the fear that a profit won’t be made. We already know that porting games to the Wii U isn’t very expensive, since several developers have already pointed out that the architecture of a Wii U is similar to that of a PC, so the problem isn’t that porting the games is too expensive. If Nintendo took off fees for a game until it became profitable, then companies would be much more enticed to make games for the Wii U, since there is a lot less risk and they’re not losing out on 20 percent of the profits due to fees. Honestly, I think this could trigger one of the biggest changes in developer attitude toward the Wii U if this policy was implemented.
Overall, Nintendo has a lot of work to do if it wants to get 3rd parties onto the Wii U, and obviously the biggest things it can do all require money. As the saying goes: “You have to spend money in order to make money”, and this is no different. Nintendo needs to pay 3rd parties for support, fund indie games, and wave fees if they want any change in the current 3rd party approach toward the Wii U