Discussion Did Nintendo exclusive cameos on third party games dissapear after the Switch's first few years?

[ILovethegameAC]

During the Wii U, 3DS and late Wii era we saw a very big number of cameos of Nintendo series on third party games, both on exclusives and multi platform stuff, which is something that sometimes happened before like those EA Sport games on the GC with Mario characters/Little Mac, or Link in SC2, however in that later era it became something super common to see, like the Metroid Stage on DOA Dimensions, Mysterious Murasame Castle stage on Warrior Orochi 3, Yoshi and Zelda stages in Sonic Lost World, Nintendo consumes and Mushroom Battle on Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition, Nintendo costumes on several Monster Hunter games, Mario related stuff on Lego City Undercover, Mario costumes on Rayman Legends, Mario cameos in Scribblenauts Unlimited, Mario song in Just Dance 3, and more, plus when Amiibos were introduced a lot more games began to have stuff like that using those figures, like Ace Combat on 3DS or even a One Piece game in Japan.

At the beginning of the Switch era it seemed that this was goning to continue, since the Switch versions of Lego City and Rayman Legends retained the cameos, while some other new games like Rocket League, Starlink, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Skyrim also added some nice Nintendo cameos to the Switch version, however after this nice start it really seems that this era is over, since we basically never see these cameos anymore at all, and even more so some ports of games that used to have them removed them even on Switch like Fatal Frame 4 and 5, Scribblenauts Unlimited and Monster Hunter Stories; the only case released after Starlink that I can remember still having a Nintendo cameo was a re release of a 3DS Taiko game that featured Kirby cameos, but that's basically it.

Is it known why this may have happened?

 

[9-Volt]

They still collaborate with third parties with crossovers, such as 2022's Mario + Rabbids 2.

They can still have more but I don't think any third party coming out is big enough to have one. Maybe Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble could get a Nintendo themed DLC. Or Nintendo jet decals DLC in Ace Combat 7 like the one we got in 3DS game. It's possible I think:

Other than that, many of the upcoming third party games either too old or too niche: DQ3, Romancing SaGa, Sonic x Shadow Generations, Gundam Breaker 3, Ys Nordics, Reynatis etc... They need a big name or something relatively recent...

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

Nothing is really known but there could be a few reasons:

• As we saw with the Fortnite-Metroid “controversy.” It could very well be something like that. Companies may be moving away from exclusive content.
• Some of these may have been pushed by Iwata before & after his death. With new management they may see just licensing out & making a game more worthwhile.
• These were supposed to incentive consumers to buy the differentiated versions. Data may have shown it really wasn’t worth it & with Switch people were buying software anyway
• These still do take some amount of resources so companies may not be willing to redo or do them in general.

 

[MagiCarbo]

Nintendo tends to lease out their characters to third parties when they need to drum up developer interest in its hardware. Especially in cases where third party is lacking such as GameCube and Wii U. Once the Switch was able to establish itself as a successful platform for third parties, this tactic wasn't really necessary anymore, since the Switch had become a known entity by its fourth year.

I think we'll see third party collaborations at Switch 2 launch window.

 

[Apopheniac]

Many of the games mentioned in the OP were Nintendo exclusives at some point, and the cameos would have been nods to that. Nowadays, most of these third-party developers are making multiplatform releases instead of bespoke versions for Nintendo hardware, or at least intend to port the game after debuting it as exclusive, and there isn't much incentive to make something for only one version of the game when they could instead make something for every version.

 

[BlackthornOrion]

I think towards the start of the Switch, Nintendo was still kinda in "Gamecube/WiiU survival mode" a bit and that made them more flexible and more open to those kind of "we'll let someone else use our stuff instead of the other way around" crossovers

Like, remember how Mario and company were in NBA Street and SSX games? Or how Link was in Soul Caliber? Or Bowser and DK showing up in Skylanders? Those are the kind of deals you cut when you know you're in a bad spot and need to entice 3rd parties to your platform or give people a reason to buy your version of a game. Once it became clear the Switch was decidedly not gonna be another WiiU, I figure they pulled back on those kind of deals because they just weren't as necessary

 

[kirbyfan407]

As the OP shows, I think they did pull back on them. The practice does provide a reason for why you should buy a game on Switch over another platform, and honestly, it can work on me. However, maybe this incentive isn't needed as much once a person has built up a library of games on a platform, as I could see purchase momentum existing and people continuing to prefer that platform. With Switch 2 likely having backwards compatibility and people carrying over their libraries, I wonder if we'll see these cameos happen again or not.

One game not mentioned in the OP is Diablo III, which had Zelda items. I suspect Diablo IV is an inevitable release on Switch 2 (perhaps timed with a major patch or whatever expansion follows Vessel of Hatred), and it'll be interesting to see if that game has any Nintendo cameos to motivate people to buy it on Switch 2.

 

[JazzyFuture]

They still collaborate with third parties with crossovers, such as 2022's Mario + Rabbids 2.

They can still have more but I don't think any third party coming out is big enough to have one. Maybe Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble could get a Nintendo themed DLC. Or Nintendo jet decals DLC in Ace Combat 7 like the one we got in 3DS game. It's possible I think:

Other than that, many of the upcoming third party games either too old or too niche: DQ3, Romancing SaGa, Sonic x Shadow Generations, Gundam Breaker 3, Ys Nordics, Reynatis etc... They need a big name or something relatively recent...

Unrelated, but fun fact about the 3DS Ace Combat! It has the most recent official Captain Falcon art outside of Smash Bros, as it doesn't come from any prior game.

But yeah, I hope fun little console exclusive cosmetics and stuff continue to happen, they're always fun, Nintendo or not.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

I doubt these crossovers will ever go away fully, no. they’re just taking a breather.

they’ve been doing the same thing with Amiibo. staying relatively muted over several months, then dropping some things. (the Xenoblade 3 Amiibo being the most recent example.)
the fact they lost the active release cadence that was the Smash figurines is only going to exacerbate things.

 

[CyberWolfBia]

I'll be forever grateful that this happened (especially given the symbolism of Crash Bandicoot being heavily inspired by Donkey Kong Country)

If Crash never gets into Smash, at least I'll always have this one

 

[ILovethegameAC]

They still collaborate with third parties with crossovers, such as 2022's Mario + Rabbids 2.

They can still have more but I don't think any third party coming out is big enough to have one. Maybe Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble could get a Nintendo themed DLC. Or Nintendo jet decals DLC in Ace Combat 7 like the one we got in 3DS game. It's possible I think:

Other than that, many of the upcoming third party games either too old or too niche: DQ3, Romancing SaGa, Sonic x Shadow Generations, Gundam Breaker 3, Ys Nordics, Reynatis etc... They need a big name or something relatively recent...

I personally don't consider Mario + Rabbids since that's an entire game right there using their ip at full, more so just little cameos like that of Ace Combat.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

I imagine third parties back then thought only games with Nintendo characters would sell on a Nintendo console and thus asked for cameos if they were going to bother making games for the Switch.

Nintendo being in a bad spot for third party support probably moved them to giving away cameos cheaply.

Now that there has been a lot of money made by third parties on Switch, I imagine Nintendo is much more protective of their characters as they can get third party games without giving away their characters.