Gearbox might already be trying to kill off the NX's first year momentum.

The Wii U's momentum got killed off early for a lot of different reasons, resulting in one of the quickest cliff-drops to first year sales Nintendo has ever seen.

Of those reasons, one was late ports of games we already own being the predominant choice for the system's opening year of third party games.

Fast forward to now, and it seems a new rumor has cropped up that may indicate Nintendo is, yet again, doing nothing to prevent the mistake of letting old third party ports lead their latest system's opening charge.

A screenshot, captured on Twitter and various other sites, has been slowly making the rounds of the internet recently.

http://postimg.org/image/jm...

If proven true, it shows that Gearbox Software, the developers behind the latest Duke Nukem and Aliens, fully intend to lead the charge onto the NX with one of their most famous IP's.

Borderlands.

That's right: rather than something new and exciting, they are relying on a port of a game series that pretty much every gamer on N4G already owns on other consoles.

On a system where a fanbase inclined towards Gearbox's better titles was never formed via using previous systems in the same company line. (Gamecube, Wii, Wii U)

It seems Nintendo has not learned their lesson about stepping in when it matters most.

If this proves true, expect games like The Witcher 3, Call of Duty AW, Portal 1-2, Bioshock 1-3, and others to hit the system.

And expect sales to flop, because no one on PS4 or XBone, let alone Wii U, will want to get an NX for old ports.

[SimonSmith]

Sadly, I would buy the NX for Bioshock, Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite, I own them on the Xbox 360 but they are incredible games I would buy any console for. But yes I see your point that the NX will likely die if all it is getting is old ports. If Borderlands is coming to the system unless it is the first game I wouldn't buy it because I own the rest of the gsmes on the Playstation 4.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I still love and replay the first Borderlands to this day.
I own both 1 and 2 and I feel BL1 was the better game due to its gear and level scaling being far better than BL2, despite the story not being all that.

However, unless they released the collection of BL 1, 2, and the Pre-Sequel, with all their DLC at once, at the same time as other systems got it, I would not be able to justify repurchasing any part of the series on the NX.
When my PS3 still suffices just fine to play the first entry, it would be a waste of money to re-purchase it unless they made the content of the collection worth my while.

[oasdada]

Uncharted 1-3? bro u know those are sony ips right?

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I mis-spoke on that point. My bad.

[garrettbobbyferguson]

You made a blog of a terrible screenshot of someone's outlook? With no confirmation? You could have made this screenshot yourself. This is low quality.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

If the screenshot in question had a solid story to reference back to, I'd have used that as a source.
But since I have no website of my own and cannot track down the origin of the pic, this is the best I can show for now.

The most I know is that it cropped up first on either Twitter or Reddit.
And in either case, we've seen rumors with far less convincing evidence come true out of places like that before now, but still: it's just a rumor. Nothing more or less.

Hence why I put a "might" in the title: this should be treated as the rumor it is until further notice.

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

Don't worry, this is fake. Gearbox doesn't want to bring any of their games to NX, not after how Ubisoft was treated. There will be no easy scapegoats for Nintendo's next console and the remaining diehards might just have to blame Nintendo if the NX fails.

It wasn't third party games that hurt the Wii U in it's first year, it was the lack of first party games. Gamers looking to buy a Nintendo console for it's IPs had only a 2D Mario game for 7 months (and that game that didn't even support 2 players with the bundled controller).

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

It was both.
Nintendo didn't have the first party ready like they should have to hook more Nintendo gamers that left during the Wii era, and third parties failed to deliver games strong enough to drive their own fanbases into being interested upgrading from a PS360 to a Wii U for them.

The only ones denying that both Nintendo and third parties screwed up the Wii U's first year, at this point, are fanboys and apologists.

And after how Ubisoft treated the system's fans, they got their just desserts in the form of lower sales than they wanted.
Which is ironic, considering last I heard, Zombi U has actually sold somewhere around half a mill or more despite not deserving it, and Rayman similarly got higher sales than it deserved on Wii U after exclusivity was broken and the game held back despite being ready for release.
Let's not pretend they were somehow virtuous after all the crap they've pulled.

[SilentNegotiator]

This really doesn't prove that there won't be worthwhile software the first year, though. If Nintendo releases two bombshell first party games and gets some third parties to create NX versions of games coming out simultaneously (not a late port, I mean), it could still have a good launch lineup.

Nintendo hasn't exactly gone to great lengths to prove that they're going to fight to win over third parties, so I suspect that the NX could indeed wind up with similar issues, but what you have provided doesn't create any new concerns.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

True points, but just because the concerns aren't new doesn't make them any less hazardous.
The Wii U didn't exactly benefit from having older games like Mass Effect 3 and CoD Black Ops II heading up it's launch.

People keep pointing out that new titles just aren't financially smart for third parties in Nintendo's case.
But I'd argue that older games are more likely to fail harder than newer ones, and to drag newer ones down with them in the process once trust fades.
Wii U's first and second years are strong evidence of this, especially since there were far fewer truly new titles from third parties to choose from, thus making it far more difficult to get an accurate gauge of how well or poorly third parties would sell if they reversed the balace on NX, by leading with more new games than old ones.

Compared to the experiment of leading off with old ports that they tried and failed to profit off of with Wii U, I would like to believe that new fresh AAA games, at least one per AAA Third Party, have a better chance of selling, if they are interesting enough to pull gamers from outside the NX into buying it.

At the very worst, it can't be nearly as guaranteed to fail as having Advanced Warfare and Bioshock Collection become the type of norm for the NX's launch lineup would.

People love and greatly desire new and exciting experiences.
By that simple logic alone, third parties should try their luck with new stuff more than old, especially when they're attempting to generate sales for a whole new console.

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

"The Wii U didn't exactly benefit from having older games like Mass Effect 3 and CoD Black Ops II heading up it's launch."

Black Ops II released on November 12. The Wii U came out on November 18, which is when the Wii U version of Black Ops II came out. Working a little too hard there on the "old ports" talking point.

Mass Effect 3 I agree with that it shouldn't of been released on the Wii U. Sure it was the best EA game in 2012 and 2013 (and GOTY 2012), but its release was too late to matter on the Wii U. EA would of been better off not supporting the Wii U instead of losing money on Mass Effect 3. Of course, the Wii U has zero RPGs without ME3 (and another vilified port - Deus Ex) so there is that to think about. December 2015 cannot come fast enough for X.

Third parties are in the business of making games. It isn't their responsibility to try and sell consoles. If a console maker wants that to change, then they need to make it financially worth the third party's effort. They are not running charities. I think it is easy to expect them jump through hoops to make games for Nintendo fans, but that is because one isn't considering the expense involved with video game development and promotion.

[SilentNegotiator]

"True points, but just because the concerns aren't new doesn't make them any less hazardous"

Yeah, but that was the entire point of your blog, wasn't it?