Why did Nintendo largely abandon Mario Maker 2 post-release?

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Nintendo EPD finally added friends multiplayer after months and months of criticism and they promised another update in the unspecified future but... the one update to turn on friend lobbies has been all their support for the last five months.

There's been like no events, almost no levels from indie devs or Nintendo themselves post-release, no competitions like "make levels with the Superflower! The most popular will get a clothing prize!", no fixes to the massive game breaking problems Mario Maker 2 has online in some levels (rising poison/lava and SMB1 doors being the biggest), no new modes, and no additional building parts at all.

I understand Nintendo not giving post-launch support to single player titles as people can just beat those and be done with the game, but Mario Maker 2 is a game that will have people playing continuously and yet Nintendo has done... nothing to help that.

It's just one of the strangest things I've seen in gaming for a while. Nintendo just doesn't care about their incredible Mario game at all. What happened?

 

[ThatsMyTrunks]

Because it was already perfect.

Or more that they just didn't care.

 

[laziboi]

Not sure why. They could be holding them back until after the Holidays? I really don't know.

 

[TheDutchSlayer]

NO clue it sold very well and has a tons of improvements but the community at larger scale has moved on sadly because of the lack of updates.
It just needs more updates and community support it could live on for YEARS to come if they did that.

 

[Lady Bow]

Last time I played in August the multiplayer was still literally unplayable. It would seriously act like a slideshow at times. Shame it's been so rough post-launch with this game.

 

[NuclearCake]

Have to leave room for Mario Maker 3

 

[Mediking]

The whole Nintendo squad has been moved to work on BOTW2 and Metroid Prime 4

 

[Deleted member 873]

Nintendo EPD finally added friends multiplayer after months and months of criticism

Click to shrink...

somehow I think this is the reason. must have made them shift priorities and now they'll just bundle some features for a 2.0 update early next year

 

[Nocturnowl]

My headcanon is that they're saving content to come alongside the potential extra game style with a big ol' update either before Christmas (looking unlikely!) or January when they presumably have their start of year direct.

Now if by then we still got nothing then I'll lose all hope.

 

[DrArchon]

Nintendo's weird when it comes to post-launch support sometimes. See also; Super Mario Party.

 

[klastical]

It's super weird in light of how much support mario maker 1 got.

 

[Lothars]

They don't care for whatever reason.

 

[Deleted member 873]

Nintendo's weird when it comes to post-launch support sometimes. See also; Super Mario Party.

Click to shrink...

that's not weird at all. When you can just make SMP 2 and sell as much

 

[DrArchon]

that's not weird at all. When you can just make SMP 2 and sell as much

Click to shrink...

You can say that about every game Nintendo makes.

 

[Tatsu91]

Nintendo EPD finally added friends multiplayer after months and months of criticism and they promised another update in the unspecified future but... the one update to turn on friend lobbies has been all their support for the last five months.

There's been like no events, almost no levels from indie devs or Nintendo themselves post-release, no competitions like "make levels with the Superflower! The most popular will get a clothing prize!", no fixes to the massive game breaking problems Mario Maker 2 has online in some levels (rising poison/lava and SMB1 doors being the biggest), no new modes, and no additional building parts at all.

I understand Nintendo not giving post-launch support to single player titles as people can just beat those and be done with the game, but Mario Maker 2 is a game that will have people playing continuously and yet Nintendo has done... nothing to help that.

It's just one of the strangest things I've seen in gaming for a while. Nintendo just doesn't care about their incredible Mario game at all. What happened?

Click to shrink...

They released the Multiplayer update and announced more is coming a couple weeks back?

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

It's baffling. Mario Maker 1 had better post launch support! Thing is this game was literally the only reason I got Nintendo Online and I doubt I'm the only one. This game could be much bigger than it is.

 

[unicornKnight]

Because it didn't sell as well as they had hoped for.

 

[rochellepaws]

I suppose they've had a busy release schedule since then and had focus elsewhere but now that things are quietening down I'd expect some news in the next 3 months. It'll be incredibly surprising and disappointing if this is just it for the game.

 

[TheIdiot]

Did it sell well? I feel like most people moved on 2-4 weeks after release, though I could be wrong.

 

[LumberPanda]

We really don't know. The fact that (a) they claim to be working on future content updates, and (b) the first game got plenty of updates implies that the intent is definitely there to have more updates.

So, it could be anything. Maybe they're looking to do one very big update. Maybe the request for lobbies meant shifting things around and delayed a lot of progress on other features. There could have been too many employees that left the team to work on other projects at Nintendo, whether by their own choice or by an order internally from an executive.

Did it sell well? I feel like most people moved on 2-4 weeks after release, though I could be wrong.

Click to shrink...

The first game had really long legs. I haven't looked into what sales are like for MM2 but given its on the Switch it's likely more popular than MM1. If you mean you don't see much discussion, you're not going to find many new threads on Era about the game. Instead you gotta look at the OT in Gaming Hangouts, or look in Mario Maker communities like the subreddit, various discords, youtube and twitch, etc.

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

Perhaps the game sold less than they were expecting so they diverted their attention elsewhere.

 

[Deleted member 873]

You can say that about every game Nintendo makes.

Click to shrink...

and that's what they do, isn't it? no odyssey dlc for example

 

[Axisofweevils]

It's so weird, especially as the Wii U version had a superior way of sharing levels via the bookmark.....

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

What post release content did Mario Maker 1 receive in the first six months? I don't remember at all because I stopped playing after about a month and a half, like this one.

 

[abellwillring]

I mean.. y'all are comparing it to Mario Maker's post-launch support.. the Wii U was an abject failure and they had to try and keep existing customers happy in some way or another. There is a massive user base who can continue to come to this game as a new user without any additional effort on their part. That didn't exist with MM. They had to do what they had to do then. And they don't have to do it now.

But I bet they'll put out some more stuff soon.

 

[Datajoy]

Crazy that is just vanished from the popular gaming conversation so quickly. I expected it to linger a lot longer.

 

[Mekanos]

Bomba

(This is tied with RE2 for my GOTY but seriously Nintendo...add pools of water as an option! Please!)

 

[Komo]

and that's what they do, isn't it? no odyssey dlc for example

Click to shrink...

Nintendo honestly could care less about "DLC" or "updates" if it isn't a bug

 

[maximumzero]

Nintendo's weird when it comes to post-launch support sometimes. See also; Super Mario Party.

Click to shrink...

Why make more content for Super Mario Party when you can sell Super Mario Party 2 instead and make more money?

 

[Lylo]

I suspect that even Nintendo games are being affected by the fact that we have way too many games available on the Switch.

 

[OGlol]

Same reason they abandoned Super Mario Party.

 

[stilgar]

The multiplayer mode is flawless for me ?_?

 

[TYRANITARR]

It's so weird.

I'd buy 29.99 Season Passes for Mario Maker 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Pokemon SwSh.

I have no idea why they don't release more premium DLC on their first party games. Hopefully it's coming !

 

[Decarb]

Remember when people expected them to add 3DW support to make actual 3D levels?

 

[Dyle]

I love the game, but it's a hot mess sometimes. Hard to say why, maybe they ran into trouble in development or staff had to be redirected to other projects, but it's pretty sad. It will no doubt be simultaneously my game of the year and my most disappointing game of the year, which is immensely frustrating. It's really sad when a game that will sell less than half as much as the sequel, without the additional support of a paywalled subscription, will likely end up with a stronger batch of post-launch support.

It's been five months with only one meager update that was promised more than a month before the game launched...

 

[Instro]

Well if you consider the kind of game that MM is, and the things that Nintendo is historically not so good at, the end result is not surprising. It is very strange that the support is seemingly worse than the first game though. I think the bigger issue probably that it didn't sell as well as expected so they just moved on. Pushing resources onto making a new 2D Mario is a more lucrative endeavour than supporting MM. In general I don't feel that Nintendo is a very trustworthy company when it comes to post launch support.

Similarly I would guess that in the early Switch days Nintendo management likely thought that their online services concepts(app, etc), and their subscription service, would be much more well received and popular than they turned out to be. Given that it hasn't turned out that way, and the prolonged/delayed process to even get their online service out to consumers, a lot of things have probably changed along the way that may have impacted their software post launch support plans, and general online and development plans for their games that have since been released.

Beyond all that I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo is lacking the resources to appropriately support their games post launch. Most of their dev staff is in Japan, and they rely heavily on Bamco for heavy lifting and outsourcing.

 

[Empyrean Cocytus]

Who says they aren't? The game isn't even a year old. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe got free DLC almost a year after it came out.

I'd expect something in the January/February direct.

 

[n00bs7ay3r]

This game would work well under a GaaS model but I don't think Nintendo know how to do that

 

[Rodney McKay]

I abandoned it too, I just wish I'd bought it physical instead of digital. :/

I was hoping the game would have local co-op on a single Switch, but the one time I tried to look for it it was a confusing pain and had to just pass and play a level individually.

I rarely ever play multiplayer games, so the rare time I find someone who wanta to play I want it to be an easy, user-friendly experience. Not going through menus and weirdly named features to find what I want (if it's even in the game).

For my needs I probably should have just bought NSMBU for the Switch instead of this, even if I do vastly prefer the old game graphics in MM2.

 

[NeonZ]

Personally, I thought Mario Maker 2's content seemed odd from the start. They added plenty of stage themes, but that's it. They were oddly conservative with new enemies and power ups (especially for anything besides the 3d World style, which lacks contents in other ways), so I'm not surprised updates are oddly slow either when even the base game seems like a rather uneven upgrade in spite of the long development time.

 

[Aswitch]

I assumed that the community would do all the work at this point, but those are valid points considering there was post launch support for the first title too. I always wondered that too actually. Maybe a huge update down the line possibly?

 

[808s & Villainy]

Nintendo honestly could care less about "DLC" or "updates" if it isn't a bug

Click to shrink...

Aside from Zelda: BOTW, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Mario Aces, Fire Emblem: 3H, Captain Toad, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Daemon x Machina, Tetris 99, SSBU, Splatoon 2, ARMS, Kirby Star Allies, and that's only the games I remember from the Switch...But aside from that small amount of fairly niche titles, and ignoring the Wii U and 3DS, i guess you're right

 

[anaa]

I love the game, but it's a hot mess sometimes. Hard to say why, maybe they ran into trouble in development or staff had to be redirected to other projects, but it's pretty sad. It will no doubt be simultaneously my game of the year and my most disappointing game of the year, which is immensely frustrating. It's really sad when a game that will sell less than half as much as the sequel, without the additional support of a paywalled subscription, will likely end up with a stronger batch of post-launch support.

It's been five months with only one meager update that was promised more than a month before the game launched...

Click to shrink...

So much this, the post launch support of Mm1 was so good, and that game had insane legs as a result. I don't know why Nintendo decided it wasn't worth the effort this time. People itt pointing out that Nintendo did in fact say more is coming does nothing to dissuade the feeling that by comparison MM1 was getting much more support at the time. It's not just extra content, but all the ancillary events and stuff, that made MM1 really feel like a 'live' game that grew a community.

Christ, even ARMS had way more frequent content drops and mini events... what the hell??

 

[Quinton]

I was honestly on the fence about buying this in the first place because I don't really harbor much love for "builder" games in general. I almost bought it anyway but decided to hold off. Kind of glad I did.

Hopefully more life is charged into this game with a sizable update.

 

[Woetyler]

They've done it with a lot of their Mario games on switch
Super Mario Party literally having 0 support after launch lol.

 

[WestEgg]

I think it's more that they had to prop up the first one since it was one of the few big hits on the Wii U, and now 2 sells fine without the ongoing support so there's less incentive to push it aggressively. I'm sure updates or DLC are coming, but they'll probably be fewer and further between.

 

[TheGravityBreaker]

When we got the Multiplayer Updates, they said that future updates would have course elements and the like so I believe that stuff is still coming….but it's definitely a frustrating situation. I boot up the game every now and then to play levels (and I watch a few Youtubers play it as well(, but a new update would get me to a level-making mood again.

Hopefully we'll get something in the next Direct. If we don't, then I'm not sure what to think.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

The post launch support for SMM1 was a lot better in terms of dropping constant updates and Nintendo created levels. I agree there. I think for 5 months in they have dropped the ball.

I disagree with people stating the game had little added over SMM1 though. They didn't add many traditional enemies but you got a ton of gadgets, alternate night themes for every core theme, vertical levels, scroll stop, on and off blocks, multiplayer, custom scroll, rising and lower lava and water, more music and sound effects. It's staggering how much more game this title has compared to SMM1 on the creation side.

I stopped playing SMM1 because O felt limited. Haven't got anywhere close with SMM2.

 

[Pokémon]

That's a good question and I have no idea why they dropped the ball in that regard. I really thought they would constantly update the game but so far we just had one update and that's it.

 

[Seesaw15]

People bringing up SMP as an example for Nintendo's lack of post launch support seems odd. They've always released at least 3 Mario Party games per console generation. The only console that only got 1 game was the WiiU that was DoA. They rebooted the franchise, got a solid base and for the next game in they'll add more content.

As far as SMM2 updates go it makes sense why they've been slow. They misread the room and launched the game without online multiplayer with friends. Post launch they worked hard to add that mode in and its really fun imo. All that additional work clearly set back whatever updates they had in mind by at least a few months. During the last update Nintendo tweeted that more course parts would be added so I don't know why folks are freaking out.