Why Nintendo Won't Reveal Who is Developing Their Games

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Hi! There has been so much discussion about why Nintendo refuses to confirm who is developing their games these days. It happened with Princess Peach Showtime and now it's happening with Mario & Luigi: Brothership. Why is this happening? We worked at Nintendo for over 25 years so let us try to explain what Nintendo might be thinking. What do you think? Do you really need to know who is developing a game before you buy it?
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[@Shadowninja8]

Sometimes the Internet is like. "I don't want that dev doing this game. I dont like that". Hiding it i feel quiets that down a bit.

[@noaramboa2913]

Not knowing about the developer never really hurts the devs, as long as they’re in the credits they’re all good

[@TMS-Oddbot]

I think what they were getting at though was developers not being as capable of receiving or asking for feedback on anything… I’m not quite sure I understand. They were speaking as though they’re being taken off social media. They can’t be in the press before the game release apparently.

[@darrenmacqueen9884]

How many people actually pay attention to the credits though?

[@mjmk6647]

​@@darrenmacqueen9884That would than be your Problem. I'm mean, you Guys want to know who's developing this.

[@darrenmacqueen9884]

@mjmk6647 No, it's the developer's problem. They do all this work making the game but the people playing it assume it's being made by Nintendo and give them the credit. When I first played Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon, I thought it was made by Nintendo. I happened to see Next Level Games in the credits and looked them up afterwards and then was mad. It was a great game, but I'll bet tons of people don't even know it wasn't made by Nintendo and falsely give Nintendo the credit. It's scummy of Nintendo to do that. When Retro Studios makes a game, you see their logo before you even get to the title screen. But for other developers, they don't put it on the title screen. They don't put it on the box. They don't announce it. They make you think they made it. It's disgusting.

[@mjmk6647]

@@darrenmacqueen9884 I understand what you want to say, but I think most development studios are happy to develop games for Nintendo. Without Nintendo, they probably wouldn't even have the financial means to do so. Unfortunately, something sentimental like praise is secondary, because this is simply about the developers' job. At the end of the day, everyone just does their job and gets paid accordingly.

[@SobmicSSBB]

I'm surprised Nintendo is singled out for doing it when other studios do it too. Arc System Works has been slapping only themselves in the copyright notice to all non-licensed games they've published for the last 10 years, even outsourced ones and stuff like Double Dragon and River City, games they didn't originally create and only bought the rights for. I think the dev harassment might also find its way to studios not behind a game. If the new Mario & Luigi is by ILCA and turns out to be good, the conversation might shift to arguing about Pokémon BDSP being the way it is because of Game Freak and the Pokémon Company after all. People want to know because we're in a post-"separate art from the artist" era. They know the devs' previous work and what they think makes a good game will also be in the new one, one way or another, and want to know beforehand what might await them.

[@willwunsche6940]

I think the difference here is it's a change and Nintendo is a lot more well known wider publisher. For me the most important part is developers are just getting properly credited, which I imagine they are. I get the impression Nintendo cares for their employees well. But in the olden days video game studios would hide credits to keep a leash on employees and make it harder for them to find new jobs somewhere else at a different studio. Nintendo didn't credit the original devs of Metroid Prime in the latest remake which was disappointing, but I hope that was the exception. I imagine this strategy is about branding and I am fine with it. Judging a game on it's own merits and reviews works for me. I just hope they release studio information later as it is good for public knowledge. The upside of devs being shielded by the small minority of bad actors in the public is very good silver lining good too.

[@PIKMINROCK1]

I mean, you typically attach the copyright to things you own. That's normal. The problem would be that there is no notice of a "developed by so&so studio" alongside the copyright notice nor is there any development information released prior to release and seldom info post-release outside the credits.

[@enriquepinero707]

As much as I have been annoyed by Nintendo's secrecy and way of doing things; I am starting to appreciate it more; especially in light of what the other companies are doing. As long as Nintendo sticks true to their game develpoing roots and love for gaming in and of itself; then I can tolerate the way they do things. Ultimately; it is less distracting and OCD.

[@madnessarcade7447]

4:25 also it protects devs from harassment and death threats which distracts them from making the game Maybe the death threat which led them to cancel the Nintendo live event in Tokyo was the catalyst Edit: Ok u mentioned it

[@okayemjay]

I personally don’t mind as long as the devs are properly credited when the full game comes out.

[@KEE_Wii]

Found your channel from Threads! Good content and I’m not really worried about specific dev teams to be honest could mean something or it could not. Plenty of dev teams I have never heard of make great products and plenty of seemingly great devs lay an egg every once in a while.

[@dillonwright13]

I wouldn’t be surprised if was the developers of the Thousand Year Door remake that developed Brothership.

[@batofdestiny7801]

I thought it was revealed to be ILCA, who did the development for Pokemon BDSP. My strong dislike for that game aside, I think that it's a different situation for Brothership, because you have several devs who worked on the original M&L. You also probably had a lot more time to work on that game in a timely matter than it was for BDSP.

[@kami_in_the_skye]

I continue to be baffled by people hating ILCA for BDSP when the only good two good ideas those games came directly from them. The Grand Underground seems to be what little survived of their initial ambitions for the games, going by concept art from their side that later came out (they pretty clearly had ORAS-esque expectations going in). And I also recall ILCA employees saying they had to fight like hell to get those more competitively built late/post-game teams in there. TPC's bad ideas & micromanaging ruined those remakes. Perhaps ILCA weren't capable of fully executing a vision of their own with the likely lack of time/resources/freedom given. But when they're responsible for the only redeeming qualities in what is otherwise the cheapest, laziest, most cynical cash-in in the entire franchise, laying the entire disaster at their feet just feels kinda insane to me. If they're doing the heavy lifting on Brothership, then I'm very excited to finally find out what they might truly capable of as a developer.

[@madnessarcade7447]

@@kami_in_the_skyebdsp wasn’t that bad it was cute It wasn’t lazy it was quirky and cute I find the game to be misunderstood and over hated Clearly it still sold well so most people liked it

[@madnessarcade7447]

@@kami_in_the_skyeit wasn’t even that cynical yall love to over exaggerate

[@madnessarcade7447]

@@kami_in_the_skyeonly things cynical are your reactions toward a wholesome game

[@diegozcastro1061]

Anyone else really like these one off videos discussing a quick topic?

[@LivvieLynn]

I don't disagree with Nintendo. Unless there is a specific need there is no reason to know outside of including them in the credits. Plus it's not like you can't easily look it up before buying. That said, I think it would be immoral for Nintendo to offer pre-order bonuses without first telling consumers who made thier game. But pre-order bonuses have always been questionable.

[@papapiplup]

People used to buy games first, then figure out the developers later, when they booted up the game and saw all the logos on the initial loading screen; now everyone literally wants to judge a book by its cover by figuring out who made what. Honestly, people should just wait until the game drops to see

[@XiTSlash]

Avoid devs harassment, there are lots of crazy weirdos out there

[@tylertichoc7330]

This is honestly "in regards to the return of the Mario and Luigi series and Alphadream living on and being done proud" that Nintendo has made an incredibly smart and sensible decision and will help them and the Developers and spokes personnel. I think it's honestly somewhere along the lines of proper behavior that would have saved you two a lot of stress and prevented your less then favorable end to your time within the company. Regardless, I'm just glad to see you two doing alright and now being able to freely speak from the heart and objectively so. This is what I think is the exact kind of thing the late Mister Iwata would've wanted and probably would have left a comment on right here in the comments section of this video. I am sure he approves and greatly appreciates what the two of you are doing now. So here's to all of us going as I learned back when I first started my journey into the world of Pokémon "Onward, to our respective futures." 🔲🌠🔳

[@JacienV]

To be honest we now find out who the developer is by datamining the demos or leaked releases lol.

[@cadegcn]

I had 0 issues with the diamond and pearl remakes. Hopefully ILCA will do better because this is Nintendo and not the Pokemon Company

[@nicolassanchez3047]

I kinda like the guessing game. That can also generate some buzz around a new game. I was suprised that goodfeel was behind PP:ST. But in a good way

[@AlejandroGonzalez-CaNaVaDeR]

I think what Nintendo is doing is good. I know people would not agree but think about all the positive that comes with their decisions. Unfortunately people do make judgments with a Dev name that they might not like.

[@TheGift137]

Never played a Mario & Luigi game before. The gameplay looks like a lot of fun. I'm in no way concerned about who the devs are

[@MagillanicaLouM]

I don't really care tbh. I get why folks like to know, but as you say the games will speak for themselves even in trailers. Its not like i go researching studios after every announcement unless i already recognize em but even then its like "oh cool". Don't need to know right now, especially if im already considering the game. I could live with or without the info at least for Nintendo published stuff. Besides i dont think most care that much. Maybe KZbinrs are curious for M&L especially because of Alphadreams situation which makes for juicy content i guess.

[@pencilcheck]

ILCA is good dev for sand land though

[@thepokekid01]

Sheesh! BDSP really hurt ILCA's credibility! Apparently no one thinks about One Piece Odyssey. Really, the problem with BDSP was the Pokemon Company. Don't Worry! If Brothership is a broken mess, Reviewers will let you know, that said, it's highly doubtful. Mario and Luigi games are simpler than Pokemon Games, even though they are more mechanically dense.

[@thepokekid01]

It's also been like this for a while too. I think we didn't get to know until the credits rolled that for example Monolith Soft worked on Skyward Sword as well as Bandai Namco working on Mario Kart 8, so I think in some ways it's perspective.

[@King_Luigi]

@@thepokekid01 Well it makes sense in those examples. They weren't the _main_ development team behind those games, they were just brought on to assist with certain parts of them.

[@sirmel11]

What was the problem with the Pokemon games?

[@CrypticMantisTX55]

It's true, sometimes I do want to know the developer because it'll influence my expectations. Like with Peach Showtime, there was some concern whether it would be designed as, you know, an easy mode nothing baby game because it stars Peach and you can't make a game like that TOO hard. Well, it was made by Good Feel. From what I've played, my opinion on their games is pretty mixed. Yoshi's Crafted World was pretty boring and sleepy. Wasn't a huge fan of Kirby's Epic Yarn. Didn't play Yoshi's Woolly World. Wario Land: Shake It was alright, but a step down gameplay-wise from Wario Land 4. That affects my expectations for Peach Showtime, because their games generally tend to have really solid, interesting style and art direction but the gameplay is on the weaker end (no comment on Woolly World, since I haven't played it). Makes sense why Nintendo wouldn't want me to know that, but it is something I want to know. And in Kit's devil's advocate role-playing as Nintendo, Nintendo sounds suspiciously defensive, which isn't great. Not that I'm not particularly concerned about Mario & Luigi....it looks great, and original staff are involved. And I don't ILCA were to blame for BDSP anyway. That seems like a "poor decisions were made at the top" thing.

[@threeswordssama]

I think people can be blinded by their opinions of a studio based on past work that may or may not be Nintendo related. Kinda like Nintendo sticking to their guns here to protect their brand

[@emf_owl]

When a player wants to know the studio, it is a way to check another project they have done and compare. However, some players like to harass the studio.

[@Jormunguandr]

Credit scene is so 2000

[@crobinson2624]

Why do you need to know who the developer is? Is it a determining factor in the purchase of the game?

[@orangeslash1667]

At good example is Metroid Prime 1 because Retro Studios wasn't known, people the game would fail because of that. Everyone wants companies that are recognizable, like Platinum games making Starfox.

[@TRQDude]

The developer is absolutely a determining factor in buying a game. You can usually tell the quality of a game from the team's previous track record.

[@crobinson2624]

@@TRQDude which developer made Mario Kart 8 deluxe? Do you know off the top of your head? What about Splatoon 3? If you have to look it up then your argument is complete bull.

[@Ray-dl5mp]

As a gamer I want to believe it’s all Nintendo with their quality standards. And I’m sure that’s exactly what Nintendo wants me to think. Not about the studio. About Nintendo and what we associate with that word. I think it makes a lot of sense and obviously has worked perfectly. So why change anything.

[@hellsong23]

It avoids cults of personality around franchises. It's a good thing.

[@AS-lg4yf]

Yep. Look how people treat the maker of Smash.

[@HigherQualityUploads]

NOA should probably forbid their employees from having social media as well, especially the Treehouse. We don't need any more memes as a result of their localizations.

[@emptyset1312]

I'm not very fond of this strategy from Nintendo. I think a potential downside is that hiding the developer might actually draw MORE attention to the question of who they are. So, if the goal is to draw attention to the game itself and not the developer, this strategy could potentially backfire. Unwillingness to share information could easily be read as having something to hide, which could drum up both intrigue and skepticism. In a world where ILCA was openly credited as the developer from the start, I could see a certain type of person saying something like "Well, I have some doubts about ILCA, but this game looks solid, so I'll give them a chance" - whereas, in our world, that same person might be saying "If Nintendo wants to hide the fact that ILCA developed this game, they must not have much faith in them as a developer themselves, so I'm skeptical too" It's sort of a reverse counterpart of how Nintendo's rationale is presented in the video - Nintendo is saying "If you think the game looks good, then why do you need to know who the developer is?" whereas I think some fans might reply, "If YOU think the game is good, then why do you feel the need to HIDE the developer?" Furthermore... what if this game actually ISN'T developed by ILCA? If Nintendo doesn't tell its community what's going on, the community might come to its own conclusions... and those conclusions might be wrong! The reputation of a game could be hurt by people jumping to incorrect conclusions. To put it another way, Nintendo not sharing information could mean losing control of the spread of information, which could easily be to their detriment.

[@ausgod538]

They are credited

[@orangeslash1667]

@@ausgod538 At good example is Metroid Prime 1 because Retro Studios wasn't known, people the game would fail because of that. Everyone wants companies that are recognizable, because at the time Nintendo using third party companies to make games was new.

[@Ray-dl5mp]

Most people aren’t caring who any developer is. They are just playing games. The people that would even click on a topic like this is a very fringe part of the gaming community.

[@emptyset1312]

@@ausgod538 Hmm? Who are credited? Where? I don't understand what you're trying to say.

[@gtothem1850]

2:10 To answer Kit's question: Nintendo fans have grown to appreciate and love the outside developers of Nintendo games, over the years. Especially when, over time, franchises have changed developers and by extension changed the overall feel and creativity of the same franchise; Be it aesthetically or it's overall quality. An example of this is the Mario Party series which, ever since it went from Hudson Software to NDCube, the franchise has been on a questionable direction not liked by many fans of the core and original gameplay style of the series, that being it's monopoly style as opposed to the car style or just the sole focus on minigame collections. These days, with how some Nintendo franchises have been under a questionable state due to a shift in direction after the IP has been handed down to another developer, Nintendo fans see it as important for them to make sure the game they may be buying will be just as quality as the entry from before, because nobody wants to be burned by yet another experimental shake-up to the franchise with subpar results, as some transitional Nintendo's IPs have undergone back in the 2010s.

[@pakaman9101]

Bad take. People change behind the scenes all the time. For example at Retro studios, the original people that made Metroid Prime 1 are not all involved in Metroid Prime 4. What you want to know might be more about the director or producer not who the team is. Notoriously the Paper Mario fanbase hates Sticker Star but that was developed by Intelligent Systems which also made fan favorite TTYD. Why care about the developer when you can see reviews, trailers, and gameplay to judge if it’s for you or not. People can change, positively and negatively as well. It just seems like you guys are trying to be biased against or towards specific brand/teams.

[@PIKMINROCK1]

I do want to mention that NDcube is the Mario Party team from Hudson Soft. What changed was that they were no longer bound to contract development so they explored ways to solve the "problems" like game time.

[@gtothem1850]

@@PIKMINROCK1 Oh! I wasn't aware of this myself. Most sources that ever mentioned them always failed to mention this background of NDCube; My bad. Thought the example was good since I thought the shift in direction had been result of an entirely different team working on the IP.

[@MagillanicaLouM]

@@pakaman9101 that's my opinion as well. Love Mario Strikers Charged. Same studio in Next level games also made Battle League which I'm not touching with 20 foot pole. I learned that from watching pre realease gameplay and letting it speak for itself. Then it turns out after release that the folks that made the game i loved back on wii arent involved with battle league, despite the studio name being the same. Its about individuals, not titles, which we mostly didn't know until the credits rolled anyway. I think ppl are just hung up on M&L in particular because of the AlphDream situation making folks think itd never happen, and it makes for good juicy KZbin content to milk.

[@johnlucas1543]

+gtothem Here's one problem with one of your examples. NDcube IS Hudson Soft. You didn't know that? When Konami bought Hudson Soft, the bulk of the Hudson Soft devs flooded into NDcube. So the same people are making the Mario Party games. There was an old Iwata Asks interview where the then-President of Hudson Soft Hidetoshi Endo laughed at a joke from Iwata that NDcube may as well stand for ENDO-cube. The original formation of NDcube was a partnership between Nintendo & Japanese ad agency Dentsu. The 'D' in NDcube used to be lowercase because Dentsu was the minority partner: Ndcube. The whole point of that Ndcube was making particular games in the Gamecube era. The Gamecube era passed & Ndcube was sort of dormant house until the people of Hudson Soft entered it. Nintendo had long bought out Dentsu's stake in the company so it was 100% Nintendo's making the 'd' obsolete. And check out this little known spiritual link. The first Mario Party for the Gamecube, Mario Party 4, was all based about the story of the Party Cube. So it totally made sense to turn NDcube into the Mario Party house. Dice are nothing but Cubes after all. Thus NDcube became the go-to party game developer. What does the 'D' in NDcube currently stand for? Probably the 'Do' in Nintendo at this point. Maybe it's 'Dice' for the Party. Who knows? But the soul of Hudson Soft exists in NDcube today.

[@FFXIgwyn]

The reason I want to know is because it affects my decision to buy it. If it's developed by serial employee mistreatment/sexual predator executive harborrer Ubisoft then I'm not buying it.

[@MarsupialGamer]

I think in an era when developers seem to think it's okay to attack gamers and even other developers on social media, it's a good idea to just not talk about the developers. There's no benefit to it and potentially a lot of downside. Especially in a time when AAA games are failing and studios are shutting down, they don't need their developers going out and saying how much they hate their customers like we see at other publishers.

[@fabioalvesshow]

If the game is good i don't give a f... who made

[@robl6933]

I admit I don't pay attention to the studio making the game, I just consume.

[@MadfireMonkey]

I feel like Nintendo has never really said whos developing any game so I don't know why its suddenly become such a topic of interest

[@sfbsfb]

The new Mario & Luigi game is maybe a special case - at least for fans of the series - given that Alpha Dream was (unexpectedly)dissolved some years ago. So it’s natural to wonder who is developing the new game. At least, that was my first thought when I saw this revealed at the Direct.

[@LadyRegalli]

​@@sfbsfbAgreed, it's an odd case due to studio closure and the thought occurred to me when I saw it, too.

[@mysticdigital5936]

They don't announce it, but it's usually made pretty clear in trailers/ads, even just a Studio logo at the bottom is better than secrecy

[@ausgod538]

They don't, they just got asked before

[@MadfireMonkey]

@mysticdigital5936 It's clear when it's Monolith Soft or intelligent systems or when they get outside help like with Bandai Namco but usually it just says Nintendo they don't specify what division you find out in the credits

[@rodrigo53]

You are all forgetting Nintendo is a japanese company. The real reason why Nintendo is not disclosing their developers before launch is protecting their employees’ honour and dignity.

[@aegisleague4053]

The fact that Nintendo still asks for preorders while hiding this information is utterly ridiculous. If they want to hide such crucial information until the game comes out, then they should know it’s not fair to the customer to sell their game that way. A lie of omission is still a lie, no matter what excuses they might try to make.

[@AREAlhero]

This is exactly why they do that. You perceive the developer as a piece of crucial information to determining the quality of a game, when that largely isn't the case. Great games have been made by studios that aren't perceived to be good, and the inverse is equally as true

[@jkdeadite]

What do you mean? The developer absolutely is an important piece of information. Yes, devs can make good or bad games at any time. But there's a huge difference in expected quality from GameMill vs. Naughty Dog, as an example. Forget whether the games are actually "good" or "bad" - you may just not like games made by one team while you do like games made by another. That's obviously helpful information when you're talking about spending your money, particularly before the game is out.

[@ausgod538]

​@@jkdeaditethen don't spend money. No one is obligating you to do that

[@AREAlhero]

@@jkdeadite It really isn't though. Given that developers can produce games of such varying qualities, would not watching how the game actually plays be a better way to judge a video game than guesswork based on pedigree? The combination of watching gameplay to see if you'd like a game coupled with reviews at a game's launch is unmatched in actually determining a game's quality with reasonable accuracy vs just guessing at a game prelaunch based only on the developer

[@aegisleague4053]

@@ausgod538 Try having some standards and expecting product transparency for once. You’ll be much happier for actually knowing what you’re getting into rather than being complacent with being lied to.

[@Djungelurban]

Sounds to me like what Nintendo is communicating here is that you should never buy a Nintendo game at launch... Got it...

[@Graphomite]

This is some oldschool Disney "don't let anyone knows the voice actors" level of creepiness. It's greedy and dehumanizing to covette the identity of the people who made what you're selling.

[@jkdeadite]

Honestly, hiding those details just makes me suspicious. It would be one thing to not put it front and center, but it's another when they refuse to answer when asked. I understand what they're trying to accomplish, but the fact that these conversations are popping up shows that actively hiding the information before launch is also a distraction. It's not weird for people to want to know who makes the things they may spend money on.

[@D3stinySm4sher]

I think it’a SUPER rude, straight up, to HIDE who is making a product you are asking people to buy. It’s rude to the consumer, sure, but it’s especially disrespectful to the developers. Name ANY other industry where obscuring who is making a thing is an accepted practice. Sure, you may wanna keep certain actor cameos a surprise but outside of that? Nuh-uh. Because it’s rude! I definitely think ya’lls reasoning “makes sense” in that corporate Nintendo way, though.

[@sirmel11]

Why does it matter what studio is making it? If it's good, it's good.

[@TRQDude]

Hiding the developers behind a game is blatantly anti-consumer. There is no legitimate reason for a consumer to not be allowed to know who developed a game they want to play, other than companies wanting to trick people to buy games from less talented studios.

[@sirmel11]

How is it tricking you? Lol The game could be good, you won't know until you play. If a studio makes bad games, I doubt they'll be around forever.

[@kayh.4114]

In those times, where developers get harassed, treated like shit on social media and getting threatened, i totally support that decision to wait for letting know who the developer is, until the game is out.

[@adam145]

Literally the first comment on Twitter about Mario & Luigi developers was that they are lazy and they will probably release a crap game. I swear, these people should be locked away from internet access.

[@Cytrusy]

The fact that the "until the game is out" is a very finite timeline, often within a year of a gameplay trailer, makes this make sense. The studios with pristine PR will still boast before release, and for everyone else you can wait till day 1 (or media preview copies) for the information.

[@M64bros]

Exactly! Also and I know people will disagree with me on this but I'm really starting to get sick of people whining about "video game companies" or "video games is dead" 24/7

[@Mubashar_Asghar]

​@@adam145 there really should be an IQ restriction to post publicity on social platforms, imagine all the dumb shit and headache we'd save ourselves.

[@pokemonduck]

@@Mubashar_Asghar intelligence has nothing to do with being an asshole

[@balidr]

I like this kind of small videos, one topic and thats all.

[@clapiotis]

Nintendo hid what developer started creating the initial Metroid Prime 4 that got cancelled by them but did announce who the new developer will be, Retro Studios, because it worked favorable to audiences and the market. So, Nintendo does reveal developers when they see a benefit.

[@TeknoThom]

But didn’t they initially reveal it was being developed by Bandai? Or did we somehow learn this info from somewhere/someone else?

[@KBroly]

Despite rumors and internet gossip, we still don't know who was making it before, just that it was a 'new team.' But this has the benefit of not burning bridges with a developer to ground, metaphorically speaking, in the public eye.

[@KBroly]

@@TeknoThom No, they did not confirm. It's all rumors and innuendo that everyone acts is fact.

[@willwunsche6940]

​​​@@KBroly It was basically confirmed when they posted the LinkedIn hiring pages. For the first game that went amuck that was their Singapore and Japan Bandai studios. Now they are on the United States Retro Studios

[@willwunsche6940]

​​​​​@@TeknoThom The Bandai Namco one was said by Nintendo America's Bill Trinen in 2017 that the game was being developed by "a talented new studio team" The confirmations came from Eurogamer reporters and LinkedIn job offer posting from what I can tell. That goes beyond just basic internet trolls and speculation, it is essentially confirmed at that point

[@RetroReloaded]

The devs will still get their player feed back when its shown off. Just not so direct. Knowing how vicious people can be on social media, I see that as a plus.

[@1originalaccountname]

I think they'll let it be known who is making the game in cases where is it very obvious or in cases where it's a studio who's name can help move sales and drive hype in the case of it not being done kind of sequel. Let's say they announce a Luigi's Mansion 4, it wouldn't be too out there for them to say Next Level is making it as most would assume so after they made 2 and 3. Or if say MonolithSoft, Retro or NLG came out with a new IP, they'd probably like the fans of that studio to know so they can get the hype going.

[@darrenmacqueen9884]

The logo of Next Level Games has never appeared when you boot up the game yet. Not even in Luigi's Mansion 3 after they made the second one. Only in the credits at the end. I'm willing to bet a lot of people didn't even pay attention to the credits and still don't even know they made the Luigi's Mansion games. I happened to notice it in the credits of Dark Moon, but I thought I was playing a Nintendo game the whole time until that point. Nintendo is presenting the illusion of everything being a Nintendo game, and is essentially taking credit for other studios' work. The Luigi's Mansion games were really well received, but Next Level Games is not even close to being the household name like Retro Studios. Retro Studios got to have their logo appear in the very first Metroid Prime's title sequence. Which was the studio's very first game. After that, every Nintendo fan knew their name. Your comment is a rare occurrence of anyone uttering the name Next Level Games.

[@ironyoffate333]

6:01 This sounds a weird take for me. Isn't this a good thing? A lot of developers (that i've worked with) wants working environment like that, they just want to focus working on the product. Looking at users' reception usually a job for a different role.

[@soopakoopa6461]

Honestly, I can't really say I'm surprised it's happened with the track record Nintendo fans have. The internet as a whole has grown more and more vitriolic over the years, but Nintendo fans in particular seem uniquely predisposed to throwing death threats around or pulling potentially career and reputation ruining accusations directly out of their butts as soon as they see something they don't like. Remember the fake accusations against Junichi Masuda after people learned about the dex cut?

[@samusismyhero]

I agree with Kit's Devils Advocate question. In the end it's all about control, Sakurai in a recent video stated for developers to be careful of the echo chamber the internet brings. By not saying who the developer is, you control the conversation.

[@SobmicSSBB]

Masahiro Sakurai mentioned!

[@AS-lg4yf]

And look how many people are in his face all the time about adding certain characters to Smash. Has to be annoying. Better to avoid that spotlight.

[@johnlucas1543]

It's futile. All it's gonna do is create a NEW cottage industry of discovering Nintendo's secrets like the Direct leaks were. And besides, ax experienced Nintendo fan can suss out almost instinctively who designs what because each development house has a unique signature in their design. In 3rd Gen & 4th Gen, you KNEW what a Konami game was, a Capcom game was, a Square game was, a Sega game was. I figured Princess Peach Showtime was Good-Feel from the beginning because they have a certain design style/signature. Nintendo lives for their secrets. It's part of their playing card maker DNA, I suppose. Card games are about the surprise. But they fail to realize that their penchant for intense secrecy only invites personality types who like to sleuth & uncover those said secrets. You make it a game of Where's Waldo & they're gonna do their best to find Waldo. Good luck to 'em.

[@dangermouseuk78]

As some have said you can't always judge by knowing a dev because staff changes. Retro for example not many prime 1 devs are still there, they have employed many others even though its Retro the game coukd turn out bad. No ones forcing you to buy it you don't need it day one, infact waiting for them has proven to be the best because of shoddy games across the industry. Look at gameplay, read reviews is the better way to judge a game over a Name.

[@CrypticMantisTX55]

As far as the point "We'll mention the studio when it benefits us because of the prestige of the studio", I feel like that can have the inverse effect of "oh, Nintendo didn't mention the studio this time, must be mid"

[@TMS-Oddbot]

Perhaps, but are you really suggesting Mario & Luigi will be mid? Idk I think I heard Princess Peach Showtime kinda was though.

[@sirmel11]

That's not a good assumption to make.

[@NinToby]

Who’s to say that developers aren’t getting the information they need? They can still read viewer criticism in the comments of the trailers. I feel the only thing keeping them under wraps is affecting is the harassment directed towards the developers themselves

[@cyberrb25]

I feel like we've seen other companies with extremely social developers end up getting those take the hit for the company, it might be better that the company shields the developers from that kind of asshole harm.

[@RukileinchenChan]

Yesterday, I talked with my husband about why I don't understand this, but then I remembered who is going to do the Silent Hill 2 remake and the shit storm that came with the annoucnement of the developer and then I understood Nintendos stance a bit more... ^^;

[@geofatic]

I think the negative reaction to it potentially being ILCA is unwarranted. ILCA made BDSP because the Pokemon company hired them to make it. They weren't in charge of the scope of the game or its release window. I don't think we should judge their future games negatively just because a greedy company hired them to develop a cash grab game.

[@willwunsche6940]

I am fine with them obfuscating that information before launch, as long the devs are properly credited and I would prefer they let us know the studio eventually. The game and reviews can speak for themselves free of bias. Them not crediting the original devs in Metroid Prime Remastered was a bit disappointing though. I don't think Nintendo is doing this but I think back to the old days when studios hid credit to keep a leash on employees and make it harder to transfer to another video game studio since you couldn't reference your work. The upside of potentially shielding devs from the minority of bad actors in the public is nice too.

[@joopvanhedel1372]

There were platinum locations in the Code of BDSP and ILCA even planned to make it an open world game. But Game Freak chose to make Faithful remakes because they wanted Legends Arceus to be the first open world game. It's 100% game freak's fault that BDSP was the way it was. But ILCA took all the blame

[@questionmarkquestionmarkques]

whats the source for the open world part

[@joopvanhedel1372]

@@questionmarkquestionmarkques I can't find it anymore. But what I'm trying to say is that if ILCA is indeed working on Mario & Luigi Brotherhood then it's in the right hands. Especially because the quality standards of Mario is the biggest of the gaming industry and much, much bigger than Pokemon

[@neoPeake]

I could see that that seems like something game freak would do. But tbh I don’t hate the BDSP games I would’ve preferred for it to be a lot more fleshed out but it’s not the worst thing people are claiming it is.

[@joopvanhedel1372]

@@neoPeake That's exactly what I mean. ILCA did quite well with the limited time and resources they had. I really think they could make a great Mario & Luigi game if given enough time and since it's Mario and not Pokemon they probably have more than enough time Mario Wonder for example had no deadline

[@neoPeake]

@@joopvanhedel1372 yeah from what we seen so far the Mario and Luigi looks really good. So I’m optimistic about it.

[@KaironQD]

The game will speak for itself 👍🏼 And as long as the developers are in the credits when the game comes out that should be fine

[@personalgamedevyt9830]

Games are made by teams along with dealing with a multitude of tasks and scenarios. I think it's good to keep quiet on who is working on the game. It's like reading a good book and someone deciding that it's bad because a certain person wrote it. The work should speak for itself.

[@sirmel11]

I'm glad to hear someone agrees wit hme. Why does it matter? That's what I wanted to ask. It doesn't matter. People are crazy.

[@christianvanmater3233]

I wish Nintendo was more open about about the teams and individuals making their games. I think It would likely be beneficial to them as well as to customers. There are probably games I normally wouldn't be interested in but would give a shot because I was a fan of their developers' prior work. I remember being incredibly hyped when the first Destiny came out solely because I was a massive Halo fan. I also played the most recent Ratchet & Clank game because I was a fan of Insomniac's work on Sunset Overdrive and Spider-Man. And I know for certain that I played The Outer Worlds because Tim Cain's involvement piqued my interest.

[@KBroly]

I doubt it will be that limited. I imagine any internal developer, Sakurai, and developers people already know are working with Nintendo, will likely be excluded from this to set them apart from new ventures.

[@DanielMonteiro87]

This method may actually be the healthiest way to develop/market a game. A lot of times gamers/journalists care too much about things that have nothing to do with the game itself, and that view changes the way they feel about the game, driving discussions and reviews to "unexpected territories".

[@Reggie21]

Personally I like what Nintendo did. Just show the gameplay. I trust that more than just developer talk without any gameplay

[@devilish5682]

i think its a bit split, we may be going back to a tose, ghost developer sorta setting where they aren't as prominent in the credits due to their controlling of perception it does feel weird that we have devs shrouded vs others that are coveted and are selling points to individual games (say what you will about platinum games, namco bandai, wayforward etc) and to potentially see late acknowledgement or none at all as a trade off for devs being "potentially" not harassed is hard to swallow or it feels bandaid to a nuanced problem with interacting with the public. companies change their policies and their tolerances all the time and this may be another change in those times and maybe someday we'll get dev diaries and asks in the future if willing

[@mango-man875]

I’m still excited for Mario an Luigi brother ship 🚢

[@田クリス]

if the developer or company name is not a marketing point, why bother.

[@TheChainTV]

ya, I though the Devs for M&L series got lay over... That means there is hope for a Partners in Time Remake in the future :)

[@NintenDub]

Theyve wanted total control,but now have total control. There wont be a backlach at a whole dev team, due to one workers stupid tweet or have the tean get backlash,or have a games hype dead cuz previously made x

[@theteeman]

It's good that there are limited information, especially with Mario and Luigi Brothership! Coming out of Inside Out 2, there's one big lesson, knowing too much or too little is not good at all. People are crazy these days and they're hard to please these days. I rather go in blind with the game versus going in with projected ideas. Let Nintendo do their job.

[@magnainsomnia]

Kit asks why do you need to know. Let me tell you, Kit. Its the same reason why when people hear Bloober Team, people immediately dismiss Silent Hill 2 remake.

[@SobmicSSBB]

That's what a lot of food manufacturers do though when a lot of brand and off-brand foods of the same kind are made in the same factory.

[@ausgod538]

​@@mysticdigital5936you're delusional

[@LG555]

​@@mysticdigital5936when the game is out, the reviews will tell you, who works on it. So if you wait till then and DON'T preorder, you will know it when it is relevant.

[@gregorymansour1763]

Counterpoint: Silent Hill 2 remake doesn't look very good. Most people are going to be turned off before they even hear that Bloober Team is making it.

[@magnainsomnia]

@@gregorymansour1763 I disagree, looking at the 10 minute gameplay demo, it looks fine. The facial animation is the only iffy aspect. It is being dunked on because its Bloober who hasn't had a big hit yet. So with ILCA, people want to know if they are indeed involved so they can start dunking on Brothership too.

[@quezcatol]

well it would def hurt their image if it was found out that they let lesser develop make their games.

[@pakaman9101]

I mean people tend to forget Nintendo themselves don’t reveal their developers. For example Zelda is EDP 3, but they don’t say EDP 3 is making TOTK! It’s just Nintendo

[@kbinsobeih]

I loved this episode

[@WhyYouWahYoo]

I have very mixed feelings about about this. It feels gross to hide info that’s valuable for consumer decisions and control the lives of devs this much, but the point about avoiding developer harassment and premature judgement is also really, really compelling, especially after some recent instances of developer harassment. It feels iffy, but as Kit said, not the end of the world even if it were purely a negative/

[@sirmel11]

Why does it matter what studio is making it? If it's good, it's good.

[@marksutter182]

If the game is good, why does it matter?

[@matthewbarry9603]

I get this philosophy, but people more and more want to know if the game is good BEFORE they buy it. And if next level games is the developer behind a new game, chances are it’s gonna be good. So it may be the other option, that they’re just afraid it will detract from sales if it’s a less respected dev.

[@Ozzy_08x]

2:15 definitely did not care when I was younger. But now as a working adult, knowing a game’s dev can determine if I’m willing to buy/preorder it before release Nintendo clearly knows this after the Diamond and Pearl remakes

[@sirmel11]

The Diamond and Pearl remakes were fine. I'm so tired of this mindset. People were upset because they expected other content. That's not the company's fault.

[@darrenmacqueen9884]

Not everyone even pays attention to the credits though, so a lot of people won't even notice and will assume Nintendo themselves made the game. When I first played Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon, I thought it was made by Nintendo themselves just like the first Luigi's Mansion. I found out when I watched the credits at the end that it was made by Next Level Games. But that's only because I actually pay attention to the credits. And I was mad. How many people didn't even know that? Despite how well received the Luigi's Mansion series is, I don't see many people talking about Next Level Games. Not like Retro Studios or Rare back in the day. It used to be that the developer's logo was shown as soon as the game boots up. But now you can't know who made the game until you beat it. If you actually think to pay attention at that point. Nintendo is basically taking the credit for games they didn't make.

[@infamousbird323]

Cause Nintendo is Nintendo 😂

[@sebastianguerrero6617]

But BDSP were really good games, the people who are angry at those games are in the minority and should be ignored

[@mysticdigital5936]

Nintendo is 100% being Anti-Consumer here which is unsurprising given their track record. The Dev team DOES matter because these teams and Devs have history. ILCA is a great example because BDSP were awful games and bad remakes, so obviously people dont want to buy a game made by them. The same could be said of the Balan WonderWorld Devs or Activision Blizzard, who have a really bad reputation right now. It feels very scummy to only credit Devs after the fact. Yes, people are rude and harass others online. Unfortunately that's the world we live in, but shielding Devs completely from the public eye also potentially *hurts* games. Think Xenoblade or Sonic Mania, who have prolific Dev teams and have created/worked on other projects. Their names can certainly *help* sell games to people, like Penny's Big Breakway.

[@ausgod538]

This isn't antocosumer nor scummy. Even more when everyone is credited, actual credits for the people not just a brand name

[@abdieljove2011]

My brother in Christ, if you think ILCA are the reason BDSP were bad, you haven’t been paying attention. >_>

[@sirmel11]

How were they awful? People really just say anything online I see.

[@thawhole9]

I mean I get it. Nintendrones are the most rabid and unreasonable fan base there is.

[@AREAlhero]

Cody, the console warring needs to stop. It's been over for this entire generation, did you somehow miss the memo? What did Nintendo possibly do to hurt you so bad my friend 🤣

[@FirstEmperor]

cry about it