• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

StarTopic Nintendo First Party Software Development |ST| Nintendo Party Superstars

Reader mode
If you want to see a truly bleak hiring page

www.bioware.com

Careers | BioWare

BioWare develops high quality console, PC and online role-playing games, focused on rich stories, unforgettable characters and vast worlds to discover. Since 1995, BioWare has created some of the world's most critically acclaimed titles.
www.bioware.com www.bioware.com

It's really under talked about how bad of a state Bioware is in right now.

Ex Bioware devs seem to suggest (a lot more casually than I would expect????) that Bioware was engaged in accounting fraud by attributing a large chunk of Dreadwolf's costs to Star Wars The Old Republic by claiming that these people were working on The Old Republic when they were actually working on Dreadwolf.

www.resetera.com

EA’s BioWare lays off 50 and cuts ties with unionized Keywords playtesting group News

Seeing how big of a success Baldur's Gate 3 is, I wonder how Dragon Age Dreadwolf is going to be received in comparison, as it is supposed to be an action game like God of War...
www.resetera.com www.resetera.com

And then EA found out and fired those people.

And now Dreadwolf has had at least 20% of its staff cut with years left in development and EA doesn't seem to be hiring anyone to replace them so this is all extremely bleak.
 
The General Application/Submit Your Resume option has always been there, but this feels like the first time they've highlighted it alongside specific job openings. It's just been a button to the side before now, IIRC.
 
0
PlatinumGames was the exact kind of thing fanboy me would have wanted a few years ago, even though I knew it didn't make that much sense.

Seeing their output nowadays ... it makes even less sense and there's even less reasons to do so.
 
Tentacle-tropes said:
Even there I have my doubts about them acquiring studios. Too many things in the check list that make Nintendo pass over them.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, I was talking very hypothetically. Embracer would be mostly interesting for some of their mid-sized studios if Nintendo wanted to pad out their schedule. The larger subsidiaries are undesirable for a variety of reasons. But as I said, it's not like this would happen anyway (luckily).
 
AngryAlchemist said:
PlatinumGames was the exact kind of thing fanboy me would have wanted a few years ago, even though I knew it didn't make that much sense.

Seeing their output nowadays ... it makes even less sense and there's even less reasons to do so.
Click to expand...
PG output during the last 7 years would be quite different if they were Nintendo owned, still is a case that's for the better for both Nintendo and PG to keep things how they are PG can make all the games they want and Nintendo gets Bayo/Astral Chain which is what they want from PG.
 
Blue Monty said:
PG output during the last 7 years would be quite different if they were Nintendo owned, still is a case that's for the better for both Nintendo and PG to keep things how they are PG can make all the games they want and Nintendo gets Bayo/Astral Chain which is what they want from PG.
Click to expand...
I definitely am not as negative on their quantity of output as a lot of people. Astral Chain in late 2019 and Bayonetta 3 in late 2022, two pretty big games (relative to how small the audience is) releasing about 3 years, plus their smaller efforts like Wonderful 101 Remastered and Kamiya's pet projects isn't that bad ..

But it is kind of bad for a studio that wants to get into self publishing. They're also pretty big, if that was their output and they were fully next gen I would say it's impressive, but they're not so. Eventually they're going to want to have an actual hit on their hands rather than just helping devs make games.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Oh yeah, I was talking very hypothetically. Embracer would be mostly interesting for some of their mid-sized studios if Nintendo wanted to pad out their schedule. The larger subsidiaries are undesirable for a variety of reasons. But as I said, it's not like this would happen anyway (luckily).
Click to expand...
Even for some mid-sized studios I can see them passing by as Nintendo may deem them to “costly” given their size & output. At that point potential poaching for Retro, NLG, NST, & NERD would be better.
 
missed this from f-zero 99 credits
mike-ackerman-called-13-print.jpg

mike-ackerman-arrival-1920x1080.jpg

mike-ackerman-ghost-artblast-dc-omamori-designs.jpg

mike-ackerman-ghost-artblast-dc-mongol-carts-explosive.jpg

mike-ackerman-1-1-might-of-the-forest.jpg

mike-ackerman-2-6-gaea-s-grace.jpg

 
N75 said:
Pokemon SV credits

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet - Kyoto Report

kyoto-report.wikidot.com kyoto-report.wikidot.com

I'll dive deeper into it later, but a few things not mentioned by Chiffon:

  • ILCA worked on both the planning and story
  • James Turner still worked on both Pokemon and Trainer design. He's actually the highest credited person for the former, but I'm not certain on how they order credits when it comes to that.
  • This actually started with Arceus, but Tetsuya Watanabe has replaced Masuda as the General Producer from Game Freak's side.

Along with Matsumiya, I've noticed a few other notable absences, even some who didn't work on Arceus.
Click to expand...

ILikeFeet said:
glad Turner was able to get one more game in

also, I'm kinda surprised GF hasn't tapped into Nintendo-affiliated designers yet. like Mario and Zelda designers for pokemon, Splatoon artists for trainers, etc
Click to expand...
10 months late but
 

Buddy Mission BOND: “new mission” will be reveled at 12 PM JST on Oct. 6th. Not sure that it will be—a sequel, new DLC, or animation by Nintendo Pictures?
 
fwd-bwd said:

Buddy Mission BOND: “new mission” will be reveled at 12 PM JST on Oct. 6th. Not sure that it will be—a sequel, new DLC, or animation by Nintendo Pictures?
Click to expand...


It's an event of some kind (says so in the clip itself), details announced on October 6th, and whatever it is happening on November 26th. Based on the shooting star emote i'd guess another Meteorite Show (live event they did in 2021).
 
MondoMega said:
It’s an event of some kind (says so in the clip itself), details announced on October 6th, and whatever it is happening on November 26th. Based on the shooting star emote i’d guess another Meteorite Show (live event they did in 2021).
Click to expand...
Thank you. I’m not familiar with the live show and just looked it up. The show was held in 2021, the same year as the Buddy Mission BOND game launch. No sure why they plan to put on another live show to promote the game more than two years afterward. Yeah, it could really be just another show, but I hope that they’d announce some additional content.

Edit: typos
 
Last edited:
TheMoon said:
I thought the "well..." was posted after the news broke lol

He's been reading the thread, clearly. He was also sick of this endless N should buy PG discourse :p
Click to expand...
Now that Kamiya is gone most people won't care anymore.

Time to move on to "Nintendo should buy Kojima Productions" 😌
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Now that Kamiya is gone most people won't care anymore.

Time to move on to "Nintendo should buy Kojima Productions" 😌
Click to expand...
If it results in another Boktai/Lunar Knights for switch 2 where you can only play during the day or night depending on the character, sure why not.
 
0
the only ring present here is the deafening ringing in my ears, blood pressure surging as the nintendo first party thread continues to talk about anything other than first party development
 
Acquisition talk is inevitable in the current climate, I suggest people don't take it too seriously because it's going to get even more prominent.

If it's any consolation, @Raccoon's hypercube is more realistic than Nintendo loosening their wallet for PG lol.
 
Raccoon said:
the only ring present here is the deafening ringing in my ears, blood pressure surging as the nintendo first party thread continues to talk about anything other than first party development
Click to expand...
games developed for nintendo by third party companies are within the thread title's boundaries. that also includes health of said third party companies because it could affect those first party games
 
Raccoon said:
fair enough, but why say first party at all then? "nintendo published software development" would be more clear
Click to expand...
Pretty sure that's Nintendo's own terminology for games published by them. I guess I could see the argument to make this a thread for Nintendo-owned studios only but where does that leave the EPD groups that focus on external R&D? Should Pikmin 4 only be partially discussed because Eighting had a significant hand in its development?
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Pretty sure that's Nintendo's own terminology for games published by them. I guess I could see the argument to make this a thread for Nintendo-owned studios only but where does that leave the EPD groups that focus on external R&D? Should Pikmin 4 only be partially discussed because Eighting had a significant hand in its development?
Click to expand...
I guess I took it as, if you'll bear with me, (first party) (software development) rather than (first party software) (development)

my mistake
 
Raccoon said:
fair enough, but why say first party at all then? "nintendo published software development" would be more clear
Click to expand...

Obviously, there is the literal definition of the terminology: published by hardware maker is first-party and published by a licensee is a third party.

Now, if you want to try and get technical and draw a line as to what is first-party based on the developer, it becomes too subjective since there are too many parties involved. This was always the case even back in early days - when there were a lot of secret subcontractors helping make games. Now it's beyond that with the amount of staff involved.

The bottom-line is that even games where an outside developer is mainly involved, Nintendo is developing an aspect of the game. Only exceptions are when Nintendo acts more as a co-publisher or distributor across certain regions.

Let me add an example, like traditionally how often Nintendo's involvement was dismissed in what were deemed as outside projects. GameFreak Pokemon being a good example; where many would say "oh Nintendo is just a producer, they don't make it". But for many years Nintendo programmed the international versions, programmed the network/server, developed many of the hardware accessories (PokeBall Plus).

Nintendo's role as a production unit and co-developer with external developers on certain projects, changes their involvement but doesn't eliminate the fact that they were a developer.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
I think more generally it's just better this way so I don't have to read "second party" 🙃
Click to expand...
In defense of the term I think there are some valid implications to make things easier to explain but they are quite niche, which is basically cases in which a 3rd party company has some type of exclusivity clause that only allows them to work with the 1st party studio (NLG pre acquistion) . I think this just doesnt exist for any of the 3 platform holders since Nintendo bought NLG
 
OctoSplattack said:
To this day, I'm still not completely sure what a "second party" is supposed to be beyond the fact that Rare was one of them.
Click to expand...
The big problem is everyone who still uses the term seems to have their own definition for it and insists that's the right one, to the point where it's basically useless because you need to redefine it at the start of any conversation. Heck, one time I saw someone insisting that Retro is a 2nd party because they seemed to think only games made wholly within EPD counted as 1st party.

It's a nonsense term people made up basically just as an attempt to make sense of Rare's relationship with Nintendo during the SNES/N64 era, and can't really be cleanly mapped onto any other developer-publisher relationship because they're pretty much never identical situations.
 
Blue Monty said:
In defense of the term I think there are some valid implications to make things easier to explain but they are quite niche, which is basically cases in which a 3rd party company has some type of exclusivity clause that only allows them to work with the 1st party studio (NLG pre acquistion) . I think this just doesnt exist for any of the 3 platform holders since Nintendo bought NLG
Click to expand...
The way I see it, in relation to games, "first" and "third" party has much more to do with IP management than anything else. Which is why second party as a term doesn't really make sense, on top of the fact that everyone has their own definitions of what a second party even is.

It doesn't really matter that Luigi's Mansion 3 was made by Next Level Games, for example, it's an IP owned by Nintendo, it's a game exclusive to their system, they own the publishing rights. There's nothing distinguishing it from a first party release, it is a first party game. Despite the fact that Next Level Games was a third party developer. Just like how Monster Hunter Rise is a third party exclusive, because Nintendo doesn't own the IP. I realize that the party part of the term literally refers to the party at hand, but I don't think there's really much conflict of interest in a third party making a first party game, as is most of Nintendo's output. Besides, with the games industry requiring multiple developers on pretty much any project, you'd suddenly get into a nonsensical argument over whether stuff like Pikmin 4 is first party if second party as a term makes sense just because the talent at hand isn't literally internal.
 
Second party is mostly just not a relevant term anymore. It once referred to partnered developers who at least temporarily or predominantly worked exclusively on games for a first party platform holder (specifically Nintendo with its many partial ownerships or collaborations of yore) without said first party having acquired them. There may or may not be a certain financial investment from the side of the first party involved though (like Nintendo had with Rare or Silicon Knights etc which were laid out a page or two ago). For the past 20 years, this sort of thing has had little use as relationships have become more clear cut: you're independent (third party), you're part of a major publisher line-up of studios (third party), you're a platform holder subsidiary (first party). Nobody needs to use the term second party anymore other than when waxing nostalgic about ye olde days.

edit:

Dardan Sandiego said:
Post this if you want to send TheMoon into cardiac arrest:

"I wonder if Nintendo is going to acquire PlatinumGames or if they're going to stay a second party developer."
Click to expand...
81Kmhm0R3tL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
 
Last edited:
Post this if you want to send TheMoon into cardiac arrest:

"I wonder if Nintendo is going to acquire PlatinumGames or if they're going to stay a second party developer."
 
OctoSplattack said:
To this day, I'm still not completely sure what a "second party" is supposed to be beyond the fact that Rare was one of them.
Click to expand...
I mean you have to call companies such as HAL laboratory, Intelligent systems etc something because they are clearly Nintendo afilliated companies, sharing HQ with Nintendo and only makes games for Nintendo, they are not first party because they are not owned by Nintendo, but clearly the relationship is way more integrated and closer than a regular third party company. Nintendo has ties with a lot of smaller companies that have only made Nintendo games for decades, and it makes sense to call those companies another term than third party developer.

So Nintendo have all these close ties with a lot of smaller Japanese game companies that in almost every way functions as a first party studio for Nintendo, other than being owned by Nintendo. Some of these companies even share the same buildings with Nintendo, is there a better term to describe this reality? Maybe.
 
Last edited:
Raccoon said:
fair enough, but why say first party at all then? "nintendo published software development" would be more clear
Click to expand...
first party is game developed by Nintendo own internal teams, second party is game developed by closer partner of Nintendo, like Inteligent System making Fire Emblem, third party is game developed by developers outside of your own studios and is multiplataform
 
0
I get where @Racoon is coming from, and I kind of agree with them, but at the same time, the problem is that we have multiple arbitrary definitions of "Nintendo game":

  • A game at least published by Nintendo, so we are including Mario + Rabbids, which is a Ubisoft game, or Fitness Boxing;
  • A game at least produced by Nintendo EPD, and we are including Astral Chain, Pokémon, and Buddy Mission BOND;
  • A game at least (co-)designed by Nintendo EPD, and we are including Pikmin 4 and Metroid Dread;
  • A game designed and primarily developed by Nintendo EPD, restricting the definition to mainline Zelda, Mario and Splatoon,

This topic settled with the second definition, which is probably the most sensible in a business sense, though the two EPD-centric ones define a "Nintendo game" in a more creative sense.
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom