Can't we all just get along?

[diskoboy]

I was just wondering... What happened to the days when hardware companies were also 3rd party software companies?

For example - Atari made games for the ColecoVision, Intellivision, and every home computer under the sun. Mattel made games for Atari. Coleco made games for Inty and Atari. Magnavox made games for the Colecovision. Atari made games for the NES. Etc... Etc...

Seems so weird it was actually like that way back when....

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I think the amount of money involved in game development today may have something to do with it. Back in the days you're talking about, a single release could be the work of a single person. Today, you have millions of dollars and relatively "elite" R&D teams and producers and artists pouring their all into their first-party titles, so it could cost that much more money all over again, and stretch your talented team pretty thin, to have them doubling up to do a version for the competition. The only way you can double or triple up and publish the same title across three major platforms is to assign certain parts of the team to do those and those alone. They may be able to share assets such as artwork and sound effects, but each will have to code the game differently. I'm not sure how many publishers without EA-sized deep pockets are still doing cross-platform stuff.

And besides, it's all about coming up - or trying to come up - with a compelling enough game that it sells the console it's exclusive to, whether you're designing first-party for the console maker or you're a third party developing a console-exclusive game under license.

[SoulBlazer]

Quite a lot of companies still port some or all of their games to more then one console, or on one console and the PC. Konami, Capcom, Activision, Atari, Ubisoft, EA, Sega, Bethesda, Rockstar Games -- the list goes on and on.

For the companies that make SYSTEMS as well as games, though -- basicaly, what Earl said, combined with the fact that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft don't want to do anything to HELP their competition.

Also, there's more money to be made in the field these days and more systems out there. Consider Mattel when they decided to create the M-Network line to port their Intelivision games over to the Atari 2600. There were about 2 million Intelivision consoles out there as opposed to 10 million Atari's. It just made sence to port the games and make more money. Also, not many third party companies back then had the resources to port their games to multiple systems (Activision and Imagic the only ones I can think off right now that did it).

Now, there are MILLIONS of each console out there. No need for Nintendo or Sony or Microsoft to port one of their 'first party' games over. They make enough money on their own installed base.

So, the short answer is that it's partly due to compeition and partly due to not needing do due to money.

[Niku-Sama]

Atari made games for the NES. Etc... Etc...

Seems so weird it was actually like that way back when....

Nintendo didnt like Atari doing that, rember the lawsuits and what not?

[diskoboy]

Atari made games for the NES. Etc... Etc...

Seems so weird it was actually like that way back when....

Nintendo didnt like Atari doing that, rember the lawsuits and what not?

Unfortunately, I do. Nintendo didn't really mind until they found out Tengen stole the code for the lockout chip. Then having the better version of Tetris was the final straw.

[NeoZeedeater]

Atari made games for the NES. Etc... Etc...
Well, technically that was Atari Games which was a separate company from the Atari making consoles at that point.

The licensee based console model that began with the NES killed off first parties releasing games on competing consoles. The closest resemblance to the old way would be with Sega releasing console and PC games.

[Spartacus]

I was just thinking the other day about Sega's Fantasy Zone and how many different systems that thing has come out on. Even NEC, Nintendo and Sony have the game on their hardware. I wonder which game has the most cross platforming? Tetris, perhaps?