G-pinions

I always say the most important thing a system can have going for it is exclusive games. It's really the only thing that separates one system from another. I always rip Sony because they don’t really have many developers under their belt and very few franchises of any worth they can call their own. Microsoft and Nintendo seem much more intent on securing exclusive content and buying developers. Microsoft has some of the best in the world making games for their system in Rare, Bioware, Oddworld Inhabitants and Bungie. But it was the Big N who always had a lock on the exclusive department. Even after losing Rare a few years back they still have tons of talent. EAD is the greatest developer in the world with Mario and Zelda. Retro Studios only has one game to its credit, but Metroid Prime was so good you can almost place RS in the elite class already. HAL has always been more a fun little company, making hits like Mario Party and the Kirby series. And, of course, Intelligent Systems makes the all mighty Pokemon.

But, in the past year, Nintendo has already lost two of its best exclusive developers. Factor 5, who specializes in Star Wars games like Rogue Squadron, apparently is working on other systems now. Nintendo and Factor 5 have always been close - F5 is working on a PilotWings game for the new Nintendo system - so it was surprising that they would make games for other systems. They also lost Left Field, who made the great Excitebike 64. Maybe not the two greatest developers, but certainly two that focused on quality.

Now, they’ve lost another big gun: Silicon Knights. SK was bought by Nintendo before the GC launched. They burst on the scene with Blood Omen in 1996, a really cool, dark game that was extremely fun despite the wicked slowdown. Blood Omen has since spurned the hugely successful Legacy of Kain franchise. Nintendo made them a 2nd party with the hope that they would bring a little street cred to their system.

As great as all the developers Nintendo has are, none of them except for Retro make games that are geared towards an adult audience. SK was supposed to fill that void. Their first GC title was Eternal Darkness – a terrifying survival horror game with actual gameplay. Take that Resident Evil. Then they wasted a few years of development time by updating Metal Gear Solid. Sure, it got good reviews, but did they really need to update a 6-year-old game?

Now, Nintendo and SK have parted ways. They still might make Nintendo games, they haven’t been bought up by Microsoft yet, but they will no longer be exclusive. Nintendo better hurry up and secure some more talent. While its nice being able to lend your franchises to other companies, like Namco working on Star Fox 2 and Sega on F-Zero, you really need a team of your own under your belt. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo fills this void because they need to do something.

I was just rereading this and I realized that Microsoft might have pulled even with Nintendo with their amazing development team around them. Scary times we live in folks.