9th September 2006, 6:54 AM
DJ/ You and I would buy both and be happies. Though (on the average) throwing out 100 bucks at once seems iffy to me. Most people buy video games like they buy DVD's which translates to once in a while and for a specific movie they know they want. But the real deal is that you're looking at personal investment, time and money.
Have you ever gotten two games at once that are are must haves? I remember I got Metroid Prime 1 and Pikmin on the same day. The first five minutes of Pikmin and I was like 'Okay, this is like an RTS, hmm, yeah...... metroid now!" and I ended up ignoring Pikmin until I got stuck in Metroid. Then I caught on to Pikmin's gameplay and got in to it, I started to ignore Metroid. I kept going back and forth until I realized that going back and forth doesn't make me happy. I want to spend time on one game at a time and breathe it all in. So I devouted my time to Metroid, finished it (beat it on normal and with 91%), and then went to Pikmin.
From that time on, i've always made sure that if I get two games on the same time frame, the second game will be a pick up and play type and definitely not a big flagship game.
If you got two DVDs on the same day, you wouldn't watch one movie half way through and then go watch the other right? Well that's how I feel about games. After I talked to people I found they have the same mentality. The only time the idea of 'I want6 a different game' comes in to play is when they either get stuck or get bored of the game. That investment is what Nintendo looks at when it's planning its release schedule.
So ultimately, with many people needing to invest in one game at a time, by releasing two or more flagship titles the same day there is a good chance that one will get passed up. If I was looking at Zelda TP and MG in the store, I would pick Zelda simply becase i've been waiting for it longer. Then after a few weeks, maybe a month, i'll pick up Mario Galaxy. That certainly doesn't settle well with a company who is interested in selling their games during a launch period. It would be better to release Zelda at launch, then 3 or 4 weeks later release Mario Galaxy - Now you're getting million plus sales on each title release instead of making people choose which to invest in first had they been released on the first day.
So in the end, Nintendo would be competing with itself because both games cant be number 1 on the charts, both games cant have the highest sales, etc. Then you have the pie graph side of things. Nintendo is launching with almost 30 titles, the majority of them being third party across every genre. If Nintendo wants to make good with the third parties they have to plan their release schedule carefully. Out of all the third party games at launch, none of them are like Zelda, you have first person shooters (RS, CoD3, Farcry), platformers (Rayman, Monkeyball, the nine million UBI and EA platformers), racing (THDJ, SSXW, NSC, Monster 4X4 w/wheel, GTP w/wheel), adventure (SplintercellDA, Avatar LA okay i'm going to stop here. Basically, a lot of titles and none of them are action/adventure RPGs. But in each individual case of the third party titles, even with UBI who are releasing 8 (!!) at launch, none of them are like the other. They each offer uniqueness, so the spongebob platformer plays nothing like Rayman, etc.
For a company it works out better in the end to diversify your lineup and pace out your flagship titles. While releasing Mario and Zelda on the same day might be a bad choice, releasing Zelda alone from Nintendo's flagship along with some smaller quirky games among the sea of third party choices works out best for Nintendo and its third parties who will each be able to taome a piece of the pie instead of fighting for it.
One of the biggest gripes from third parties is that releasing a game on N64 or GC means you're competing with Nintendo's first and second party games, which everyone knows there is no competing with them. So with Wii I think we'll see a slower pace with Nintendo first and second party titles to allow third parties to breathe.
So, many paragraphs but it's just common sense for a company not to compete with its own products. NCL doesn't actually have alot on their plate right now with so many things out-sourced. They have Zelda, Mario... and that's it. So pacing is important.
Have you ever gotten two games at once that are are must haves? I remember I got Metroid Prime 1 and Pikmin on the same day. The first five minutes of Pikmin and I was like 'Okay, this is like an RTS, hmm, yeah...... metroid now!" and I ended up ignoring Pikmin until I got stuck in Metroid. Then I caught on to Pikmin's gameplay and got in to it, I started to ignore Metroid. I kept going back and forth until I realized that going back and forth doesn't make me happy. I want to spend time on one game at a time and breathe it all in. So I devouted my time to Metroid, finished it (beat it on normal and with 91%), and then went to Pikmin.
From that time on, i've always made sure that if I get two games on the same time frame, the second game will be a pick up and play type and definitely not a big flagship game.
If you got two DVDs on the same day, you wouldn't watch one movie half way through and then go watch the other right? Well that's how I feel about games. After I talked to people I found they have the same mentality. The only time the idea of 'I want6 a different game' comes in to play is when they either get stuck or get bored of the game. That investment is what Nintendo looks at when it's planning its release schedule.
So ultimately, with many people needing to invest in one game at a time, by releasing two or more flagship titles the same day there is a good chance that one will get passed up. If I was looking at Zelda TP and MG in the store, I would pick Zelda simply becase i've been waiting for it longer. Then after a few weeks, maybe a month, i'll pick up Mario Galaxy. That certainly doesn't settle well with a company who is interested in selling their games during a launch period. It would be better to release Zelda at launch, then 3 or 4 weeks later release Mario Galaxy - Now you're getting million plus sales on each title release instead of making people choose which to invest in first had they been released on the first day.
So in the end, Nintendo would be competing with itself because both games cant be number 1 on the charts, both games cant have the highest sales, etc. Then you have the pie graph side of things. Nintendo is launching with almost 30 titles, the majority of them being third party across every genre. If Nintendo wants to make good with the third parties they have to plan their release schedule carefully. Out of all the third party games at launch, none of them are like Zelda, you have first person shooters (RS, CoD3, Farcry), platformers (Rayman, Monkeyball, the nine million UBI and EA platformers), racing (THDJ, SSXW, NSC, Monster 4X4 w/wheel, GTP w/wheel), adventure (SplintercellDA, Avatar LA okay i'm going to stop here. Basically, a lot of titles and none of them are action/adventure RPGs. But in each individual case of the third party titles, even with UBI who are releasing 8 (!!) at launch, none of them are like the other. They each offer uniqueness, so the spongebob platformer plays nothing like Rayman, etc.
For a company it works out better in the end to diversify your lineup and pace out your flagship titles. While releasing Mario and Zelda on the same day might be a bad choice, releasing Zelda alone from Nintendo's flagship along with some smaller quirky games among the sea of third party choices works out best for Nintendo and its third parties who will each be able to taome a piece of the pie instead of fighting for it.
One of the biggest gripes from third parties is that releasing a game on N64 or GC means you're competing with Nintendo's first and second party games, which everyone knows there is no competing with them. So with Wii I think we'll see a slower pace with Nintendo first and second party titles to allow third parties to breathe.
So, many paragraphs but it's just common sense for a company not to compete with its own products. NCL doesn't actually have alot on their plate right now with so many things out-sourced. They have Zelda, Mario... and that's it. So pacing is important.