While primarily thought of as a film and television studio, Warner Bros. is also an international entertainment corporation whose reach extends into theme parks, music, and video games; where managing both popular properties and several game development companies makes them one of the gaming scene's most prominent power players. Major franchise brands like Lego, DC Comics, and Mortal Kombat mean that whenever new consoles are entering the market, Warner Interactive's level of support can often be an early indicator of success.
In which case, Nintendo fans should be cautiously optimistic, as WB Interactive president David Haddad has indicated support for the NX console.
As part of a wide-ranging interview with Venture Beat, Haddad was asked about his company's support not only for established consoles like the Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4, but also still in-development hardware like the Nintendo NX and Microsoft's newly-announced "Project Scorpio." While offering few specifics, Haddad elaborated by saying:
"We have great relationships with all the console platforms. We believe we play a role in each of them. What I saw with the announcements that were made at the show — I’m fairly bullish about he console cycle, about gamers spending time on them and finding great content, about publishers being able to find returns on increasing investments in that space. We’re constantly deciding how to navigate that, but supporting them is not a question for us."
While it's encouraging to Nintendo fans in particular to hear that one of the major publishers plans to support the NX, many potential fans of both still (largely) hypothetical consoles will likely be disappointed to not hear a stronger commitment in terms of what "support" will entail. The last two generations of Nintendo consoles, the Wii and Wii U, both emphasized revolutionary alternative controller schemes over hardware processing power, which aided in the creation of often excellent first-party titles but made porting multiplatform franchises difficult to impossible -- meaning that devoted Nintendo gamers who also wanted to play the latest games from publishers like Warner Interactive, Activision or Ubisoft had to own a second console to do so.
It was also unlikely that WB would decline to support a Nintendo console altogether, as games like Lego Dimensions are aimed at the same family audience as most of the Japanese company's products. The companies also have longstanding business ties elsewhere, with Warner Bros. Pictures being one of the major players still fighting for the rights to produce the live-action Pokemon movie. The question for many consumers will be whether big titles like Mortal Kombat X or Injustice 2 will again have a place on Nintendo consoles -- and that question is unlikely to be answered until what The NX actually is becomes much clearer.
Screen Rant will have more details on the Nintendo NX as they are made available.
Source: Venture Beat