When you consider our third-party support with the N64, Gamecube's treatment is more than adaquete. But compared with the PS2, it is quite small. So...

Is Nintendo taking enough steps to rebuild third-party relations?

Franklin: This is a tough one, cause personally I don't see Nintendo taking any steps to rebuild relations with 3rd parties outside of Japan. The only 3rd parties Nintendo seem to building good releationships with are Capcom, Sega and Namco. As is evident with Nintendo allowing them to work on some established Nintendo games and putting their own make on the franchises. And also there is Konami but it's the other way around with them, with Konami allowing Silicon Knights work on Metal Gear Solid. Other than those four companies I have to ask the question are Nintendo rebuilding relations with 3rd parties?

Link" Yes and no. Nintendo is targeting some specific big name 3rd party developers/publishers, but not in the way that they really need to. So Nintendo has gotten a bunch of exclusive games from Capcom, is getting some support from Sega, has started some collaborations with Namco, has gotten MGS back on a Nintendo console and has finally patched up a relationship for Square with an exclusive FF game; these are no small feats and are great, but it is not what Nintendo really needs. I think we all know that if Nintendo is good at one thing it is having great exclusive games,they can do that themselves; what they need the from 3rd party companies is other games. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be happy with all of the exclusive games that we're getting, in fact I am very excited about a bunch of them especially because they're exclusive, but it would be nice, for once, to see a game being cancelled for other systems instead of the GameCube.

On the other hand, though, we don't want Nintendo to become too 3rd-party friendly. I personally wouldn't want to see GTA on the GameCube. As fun as some of those games are it would destroy Nintendo's image of being the odd one out, the rebel even, the console for hardcore gamers. What we don't want is Nintendo to become mainstream.

Tim: They are with a few 3rd party developers. I am refering to the ones that get to do some of Nintendo's franchises. It is smart of Nintendo to outsource the development of for example F-Zero and Star Fox 2. It brings in a lot of profit for those companies, and makes them more interested in developing less profitable games for the GameCube.

On the other hand, Nintendo is not working with 3rd party developers when it comes to its strategy. Nintendo wants to make profit, and they don't care about the 3rd party developers when it comes to making profit. I have heard it from Ninty this week myself. They agreed with me that the low hardware sales aren't very attractive for the 3rd party developers, and thus decide to cancel a game now and then. Though Nintendo still makes profit and therefore is happy. So if you look at it that way, Nintendo is not investing a lot in rebuilding its relationship with them.

Ben: All things considered- Nintendo are doing quite well. They made quite a few enemies and forced a lot of developers away in the period when the '64 was up and about; but they've done a pretty good job tying up those loose ends so far. We have Capcom, Sega, Namco and Konami producing their own games for GameCube- as well as using Nintendo-owned licenses. Capcom have devoted undoubtedly their most successful franchise to GameCube- Resident Evil- Sega are bringing out exclusives such as Billy Hatcher and Namco are working on Star Fox and the PacMan conversion.

Nintendo have also patched up their relationship with Sqaure- something I never thought I'd see- We have Iwata-san to thank- and we've got a Final Fantasy exclusive out of it.

I agree with Franklin- Nintendo seem to be concentrating on Japanese 3rd parties. It'd be nice to see them work closely with EA, Acclaim and Activision. Only tim will tell- sorry, time.

Ash: It is certainly a step up, considering the amount of 3rd party games there were during the N64. Developers are finally deciding to use the GameCube after hearing or experiencing bad things during the N64 days. Whether Nintendo is helping towards this is something different.

Developers disliked the N64 because of the carts, and now they've got mini-DVDs of such to work with and they're still a little put off with that. Thats Nintendo's fault because obviously they designed them.

However Nintendo seem to be working harder towards building relationships with big 3rd party developers, which is good for big games and everything, but they seem to be ignoring the smaller 3rd party developers. Nintendo picked up Rare, made them huge and then sold them. Nintendo should try this with some of the good small developers out there who are unique and niche. Nintendo could really help make these developers bigger and better, and could make them 2nd party.

So to sum it up, Nintendo are working harder but not hard enough.

Conor: Nintendo are certainly working hard to repatch relations with third-parties, that much is certain. Look at Namco, Sega, Capcom, Square and Konami. Sure, we might not be getting it as good as Sony (that much is to expected), but it is definitely much better than what we got in the N64 era.

Nintendo aren't stupid. They know that in order to do well in the console race, they have to get the big boys on board. We might not be console number 1 for these developers, but you cannot turn third-party relationships around overnight. By the time the next generation comes around, I think the support from the big Japanese publishers will be a much bigger factor. But are Nintendo missing the smaller developers in their quest to woo over the big ones? Quite possibly.

A lot of smaller developers aren't working on the Gamecube, for various reasons. I believe Nintendo needs to reassure the little fish more, and over incentives for Gamecube developerment. But apart from that, I think Nintendo are doing enough. For Nintendo at least, it is more than I expected. But they'll need to keep it up.

What do you think? Are they really doing enough? Post your comments.