Messages

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Can the Wii get exclusives from the medium third party developers?

« on: June 11, 2007, 09:43:21 AM »

The problem with Medal of Honor: Vanguard is that it's just a bad game no matter the system.  Hard to aim, bad collision detection (not the best thing for an FPS), absolutely no effort given to the graphics.  I'm sure there's fun to be had, but Vanguard is just not something people should be holding up as some sort of victim of reviewer prejudice (it got ripped to shreds on PS2 as well).

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General Gaming / RE:New Pac-Man on xbox live

« on: June 11, 2007, 04:55:49 AM »

VC games with online play, you make me laugh.  If we get an online-enabled Pac-Man at all, it'll probably be on a Namco Museum compilation.

As to Pac-Man Championship Edition, it fails because it only has timed games.

[Adrock]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Dragon Quest Swords

« on: June 11, 2007, 04:42:58 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Adrock
I hope any quality game on Wii sells well. It's just been tough for any Dragon Quest game to sell well in America. The Crystal Bearers has a better shot at selling because it's got Final Fantasy in the title. It's still a spin-off, but at least people might pass by it and think, "Final Fantasy. I heard of that," and maybe look at the back of the box.

Well, Dragon Quest 8 sold ~500,000 copies in the States, and continues to sell now that it's $19.99.  I can see Dragon Quest Swords doing as well at the very least, barring a complete rejection by the Wii faithful.

As to the voicework, I could care less about Japanese voicework, and I don't expect it to be there since the Wii uses single-layer DVDs.  Personally, I'd rather they let the British house that worked on 8 do the voicework for Swords and be done with it.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Can the Wii get exclusives from the medium third party developers?

« on: June 11, 2007, 01:15:50 AM »

Ah, Red Steel...

See, this is the other part of the problem.  Red Steel was heavily hyped as an integral part of Ubi's big push on the Wii, and a whole lot of people were hyped up for it.  It sold well, in the way that games do at launch, but then people played it.

It's suddenly not hard to see how people are hesitant to look at 3rd party games, at least beyond niche titles like Trauma Center: Second Opinion.  Remember what I said earlier about bad 3rd party titles?  In this regard, 3rd parties sabotage themselves.  Whether by freak accident or by shoddy design, the 3rd party games we get most excited about on Nintendo platforms tend to be the crappiest (example: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on the Cube), and as a result, the market is ruined for everyone else.

Yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I doubt a Red Steel 2 would sell a whole hell of a lot.  Though forgive me if I was under the impression that Rayman was blowing that away as well, since that's the only franchise Ubi seems interested in continuing on the Wii.  

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General Gaming / RE:What would a hypothetical PS4 or PSP2 resemble?

« on: June 10, 2007, 06:38:56 PM »

Touch screen on the portables is pretty much mandatory now.  It just works too well with the DS.

What I'd like to see from the PSP2 is a slimmer design, analog sticks that don't just completely blow, buttons and a D-pad that aren't so stiff, and a more durable surface.  Of course, better battery life would be the best enhancement.

The PS4, however, has me wondering... The PS3 is already capable of amazing graphics, and will be blowing us all away by the time its tale is told.  What can the PS4 really offer us graphically?  What the PS4 needs is to be easier to develop for and come with both a standard and motion sensing control (not this tilt control nonsense) so that 3rd parties aren't scared off from either taking chances or going a more traditional route.  We're very close to the point where the laws of deminishing returns will apply with graphics.  Unless Sony's crazy enough to want us to buy ANOTHER TV to handle an even higher definition display, we're pretty much at the apex right now graphically.

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General Gaming / RE:According to IGA, the true Castlevania fanbase is on the PSP

« on: June 10, 2007, 06:31:19 PM »

I'm going to at least try to give the guy a little credit.  He can't be a complete jackass.  What I want to know is:

A)What were the sales numbers for each of the DS Castlevanias?
B)How much lower (or higher) are these numbers, on average, than the GBA Castlevanias?
C)Considering Konami's top PSP game was Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (definately not a game for kids), what were the PSP sales for it?  Perhaps IGA expects it to do at least somewhat as well?

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Can the Wii get exclusives from the medium third party developers?

« on: June 10, 2007, 06:26:43 PM »

Got a point there, Kairon.  It's hard to compare any game's sales to that of a game that is fundamentally $10 (the Wii remote by itself is $40).  Rayman versus Wario Ware is a much better comparison.  Still, it's the exception that proves the rule.  I might be wrong, but I don't think any 3rd party title has come even remotely close to Rayman: Raving Rabbids, even Ubi's other titles.  The perception among most developers, factual or not, is that Nintendo hardware is bought mostly for Nintendo software.  Heck, look at the DS.  What's the last 3rd party title on the DS to sell at blockbuster levels in the western world?  I can't think of one either.

[right now]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Can the Wii get exclusives from the medium third party developers?

« on: June 10, 2007, 05:56:29 PM »

In Japan, most certainly.

In America and Europe?  Who knows?

The thing with predicting 3rd party support for Nintendo platforms is that most people don't take into account the fact that 3rd party games just don't sell.  Yes, a lot of 3rd party games are horrible on the Wii, but even good ones like Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz don't sell that high, and that's the epitomy of the Wii's audience.  The biggest 3rd party success story on the Wii is Rayman: Raving Rabbids, and even that didn't have anything near the sales of Wii Play + Wii Remote.

3rd parties are going to look at the hardware sales, surely, but the fact is that Nintendo's consumers, for the most part, don't give a crap about 3rd party titles, regardless of titles.  And the non-gamers who are just buying the Wii for the novelty of Wii Sports are even less likely to look at releases than the average Halo or Grand Theft Auto user, so reaching them would take tons of marketing money, negating the lower development costs.  Contrast that to the 360, which has a very high attach ratio and where 3rd party games sell great routinely, and you're not going to see Wii 3rd party support skyrocket beyond this holiday's attempt to exploit the spike in sales.

And then there's the question of Wii's staying power.  The Wii is no doubt blowing the doors off the hinges right now, but will it continue to sell this well in a full year?  In two years?  The 360 isn't running full-speed, but it's settled into a consistant, somewhat reliable ~200,000 a month, with a 1,000,000 unit month all but assured when Halo 3 comes out (just like what happened with Gears of War last year).  The 360 is just the most profitable current-gen platform for 3rd parties who want to move on from the PS2.