User blog comment:Salnax/Ohga Shrugs: On Console Launch Prices/@comment-5883269-20130412030859/@comment-665531-20130412041917

Thanks! And no, I have no special background in this sort of thing. I just gave myself a crash course in stuff like this when I became interested in technological alternate histories.

Japanese third parties and Ubisoft mostly stick to making similar games as in real life, only scaled based on the console market instead of a PC/Console hybrid. There are more open world games and third-person shooters and a few less FPS's, but the general mix of genres is similar to OTL. EA, Take-Two, and Activision make games for the PC first and port them to consoles if possible. This should give the Stream/Eclipse a decent early lineup, similar to how to the Wii U is getting 7th generation ports only more so.

Super Mario 3D Land simply doesn't exist in Ohga Shrugs. Instead, the 3D Mario team remains focused on their next console game, which should be shown at E3 2013 and released during the holiday season. Meanwhile, since Mario Kart 3D comes out later than our 7, Mario Kart will be a 2014 title instead of our timeline's speculated holiday 2013 release date. In other words, we can switch the release date of the next 3D Mario and Mario Kart.

The 3DS's big 2013 games are Monster Hunter 4 (Capcom) during the summer, and a combination of Pokemon Gen 6 (Game Freak) and Zelda 3DS (EAD 3) in the fall. Other notable games include the already released Mario Party 3D (Hudson), a Final Fantasy X (Square) remastering using the theoretical 8 GB game card, 3D remakes of Star Fox 64 (EAD 2 or 5) and Donkey Kong 64 (Rare), Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 3 (Chunsoft), Dragon Quest 7 (Enix), and Mario & Luigi 4 (AlphaDream). That sounds like a good mix of 1st party support for a handheld in its second year and early 3rd party support. Especially since latter 2013 is unclear for 3rd parties and many smaller games will be thrown in. Do note, however, that Luigi's Mansion 2, like 3D Land, is nonexistent, due to Next Level never forming a real relationship with Nintendo in this timeline.

It's worth noting that Nintendo in Ohga Shrugs did quite a good job releasing a lot of big games for the 3DS in 2012. NSMB2, Mario Kart 3D, and Nintendogs+cats were all sequels to some of the biggest Nitro games, as was Animal Crossing. The only real big franchises left would be Brain Age, Pokemon, and a 3D Mario. Brain Age 3 could be the same as in real life, and Pokemon is due for the end of 2013. A 3D Mario, however, would be delayed at least until after the Stream's 3D Mario comes out. Perhaps a developer other than EAD Tokyo could make it?

If any other studio were to make a 3D Mario game for the Nitro, there would be no obvious choice. Preferably it'd be a Nintendo studio, but the only spare studios would be relatively unskilled (Hudson, Left Field, etc.) That would lead Nintendo to seek help from a 3rd party publisher/developer. Oddly enough, the most obvious choice would be Universal's various studios, including Insomniac and Naughty Dog. A 3D Mario by an American developer would be... interesting...

I've put off Namco's fate for too long, and have paid too little attention to Sammy. Was it inevitable that Sammy would aquire/merge with an arcade company? If so, Namco would be their best bet. However, part of me wants Namco to remain independent, if only because so many companies in Ohga Shrugs already are part of other companies.