A reader suggests Nintendo start releasing its games for PC, in order to have a safety net in case one of their future consoles is a flop.
The thing that strikes me most about the arguments over Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard is the inevitability of it all. We all know they’re going to get the go ahead for the deal and the more governments make a pretence of investigating them the more absurd it all seems. Microsoft have money, lots of money, so they will get what they want. It is the way the world works and it’s patronising to pretend otherwise.
There is nothing anyone will do to stop it and it will be several years until it’s clear that all the arguments against it happening were right, at which point… nothing will be done, again. This is the beginning of the end for Sony. You can see they know it from how desperate they’ve been to stop the deal going through, and while it will take a long time for them to fade out of the industry, I feel it’s inevitable. They and Microsoft do essentially the same thing when it comes to games, except Microsoft has 10 times the money.
Nintendo, however, are a very different business. What happens to Call Of Duty and the other Activision and Blizzard games is of almost no relevance to them. However, that doesn’t mean that Microsoft becoming the biggest games company won’t affect them. It will inevitably move the focus more onto Western developers and technologies and game styles that Nintendo has no experience or interest in.
The fact that Nintendo is so different to Microsoft does give them a chance though. Xbox is bludgeoning its way to success at the moment, but I don’t see it making any significant in-roads in Japan or in the kind of family friendly gaming that Nintendo specialises in. Using normal Microsoft logic they’ll try to buy their way to success, there but as gamers have known for decades there’s no one else quite like Nintendo. So there’s no one they can really buy to rival them.
So does that mean Nintendo can just sit out the acquisition wars and carry on as usual? Knowing them, that’s exactly what they’ll try to do but I think that would be very dangerous. Nintendo is only ever one flop console away from disaster and they’ve had plenty of flops in their time. In fact, it’s almost a case of one on, one off – so that means there’s a good chance the Switch 2 won’t be successful.
Nintendo need a back-up. That used to be portable consoles, but those days are over and in any case they’re pretty risky as well, since they have to make the hardware themselves. I’m sure you see where I’m going with this but the obvious answer to me is the PC. Don’t ignore it, embrace it and bring all your games to it.
Imagine a proper Virtual Console, containing every Nintendo game on every format, for PC that you could subscribe to. That would sell like nobody’s business. Heck, they could make everything based around that and simply add other new games to it as they come out.
Now, obviously there are some games that would be difficult to port, because they use motion controls, but I think that’s fine. Just make it clear these are PC versions, and a bit different, and it’s fine. It even gives fans a reason to own both versions, which means more money for Nintendo. Who wouldn’t want to play Zelda: Breath Of The Wild in 4K with an unlocked frame rate and a special high-res PC texture pack?
There is one major problem though, and I don’t know how obvious it is to some people, but one of the many reasons Nintendo would be against this is modding. Nintendo hate people messing with their stuff and I’m willing to bet it’s the thought of people playing around with their code that puts them off supporting the PC more than other more legitimate reasons.
I don’t know the answer to this problem though. Perhaps there’s some technological answer, that can keep others from not hacking the games, but that’s going to be like a red rag to a doll for some people. I hope Nintendo can get over the issue, though, because I’d hate to see them start on the road to extinction that I feel PlayStation is already on.
By reader Lask
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