Issues 3rd parties have with Nintendo

"Nintendo said they're going to try and improve their third party situation once again with the 3DS, and they'll be trying some new things. According to the boss over at developer Alchemist, Nintendo has 4 key points that they need to fix."

1. Repeat manufacture starts from X thousand units.
- Nintendo requires developers to start repeat printings of games with a certain number, which is in the thousands. Nintendo doesn't allow developers to go lower than this number, which means another printing could be a big risk for the dev.

2. Manufacture turnaround time is 3-4 weeks.
- Nintendo takes 3 to 4 weeks to print another run of a game, whereas other companies take 1 week.

3. Manufacturing costs have to be paid 100% upfront
- "let's say it costs 1000 yen per unit to manufacture" (actual cost depends on cart size), and if a game is expected to be a big hit and sell 1 million units, that's 1 billion yen that has to be paid upfront.

4. Nintendo could try to help with TV advertising
Link
__________

I always wondered why 3rd parties didn't want to work with Nintendo as often, it seems there are a variety of issues besides competing against Nintendo's first party games. I always find these things interesting; do you think Nintendo will correct these issues?

It is always good to see the other side of the coin. Now that the public might know about this, maybe nintendo will get the pressure and fix these? I don't know... 50/50.

This sounds like 3rd party devs. Is it the same for say EA?

EA would also be a 3rd party dev. I don't know if they have different rules for different folks though.

Luinil wrote:EA would also be a 3rd party dev. I don't know if they have different rules for different folks though.

Doesn't EA print it's own games? Why would they have to wait for Nintendo's timer or pay them a manufacturing cost? Since iirc they pay for them themselves

Edit: And when I said someone like EA, I meant a 3rd party publisher