Yet to be fair, it's not really Nintendo's fault these games aren't selling. It's either: a) our fault because we bitch about the lack of hardcore games yet WE DON'T BUY THEM. b) 3rd Excuse Makers don't advertise them enough. c) Entertainment value and replayability. Conduit is good for an FPS... it's just so genetic, and Madworld entertains for only six hours.
You know the Wii is a great console when the company who makes it is just as confused as we are. I love you so much, Nintendo. :3
To be fair it really is Nintendo’s fault. I love the Wii, but I can see it for what it is. It has great Nintendo Hardcore games. It has fun casual multiplayer games, and it has some good quality B type games (Madworld, Conduit).
The problem started with the SNES. Nintendo was on top of the world. And because of this they were able to stick to very basic business principles. Everything that we do makes us money(usually lots). I’m not complaining, good businesses make money and they rake in a lot of my money. But the problem is, Microsoft and Sony play differently. They release consoles with features that far outstrip their price point (whether you want the features or not) and they are willing to pay $$ to get AAA games because they want their systems to be the defacto hardcore game system.
Developers were forced to deal with Nintendo with the SNES because it dominated the market. Then came the N64, and the costs associated to deal with Nintendo went through the roof. Developers came to Nintendo and said we’ll make an N64 game if you will help us out. And Nintendo said don’t let the door hit you on the way out. So they walked over to Sony (and then Microsoft) because the others were more than willing to do things to help developers get more sales and develop better games. Nintendo for their part thought they could fill the void, but 3d games takes eons longer than 2d games do for development. So us Nintendo fans started getting used to game droughts.
Then Sony domination started. Almost of the quality games (other than Nintendo and a couple of third parties) were home to the Playstation. Well, diehard Nintendo fans will most certainly have a Nintendo brand console, but most hardcore players either became Sony fans or And fans (owners of a Nintendo and a Sony or eventually Microsoft console).
These are the hardcore fans you see in today’s market. I’m not doubting that they own a Wii, but I’d be surprised if they own only a Wii. So then what comes up is where do the big players with AAA games put their games. This is what runs through their head.
1. The hardcore market is probably greater with x360 and PS3. As most Wii hardcore owners probably own one of those, and the self declared hardest hardcore wouldn’t own a Wii(image issues and all).
2. Sony and Microsoft will probably give us a discount on licensing fees to offset the costs (Nintendo won’t because that’s uncharacteristic of them) and we can charge 20% more than on the Nintendo console to offset the higher developmental costs associated with an HD game.
3. If we just develop for all consoles the Wii game sales will suffer because:
a. We don’t really have the resources to develop two engines at once (generally an xbox to PS port or vice versa would cost less than rebuilding the engine for the Wii.) So if we go the 3 game route, the Wii version is going to look pitiful and have poor physics.
b. The hardcore don’t want the Wii version. Graphics matter to hardcore fans. If controls were the same, hardcore would pick up the game with better graphics (budgets aside). And maybe you can blame this on the 3rd parties but Wii-mote is not accurate enough for most games. Anything that uses IR (FPS) is the exception but waggle for a serious competition falls short because it is not accurate enough.
I know I’ll get ragged on for this, but I’m a Madden fan. So naturally I tried out the Wii version. I may even try out the 2010 version because it has IR passing and uses mostly button pushes. But the first versions of Madden sucked because quite frankly there was no classic control option. An example, I’m Peyton Manning driving down against the Titans looking to seal up the AFC Championship game. I see Marvin Harrison streaking a post across the middle. I go to throw… wait, I go to throw… wait, now I’m sacked, oh I fumbled, oh they are scoring a TD to put the game away. But I’m sure that happens to Peyton all the time. Going down an important stretch of the game and the wii-mote malfunctions changing everything.
So in conclusion, no AAA developer is going to put their best stuff on Wii. The only way it would sell is with an exclusive so the hardcore players (which probably have all systems or at least a subset) will have to buy the Wii version. They know Sony and Microsoft will help them out but Nintendo won’t help them out even for an exclusive. So some of the extra development costs will be offset in choosing Sony/Microsoft. AAA games don’t start will 100 million dollar budgets, they start as good concept B games. Those are the games the Wii will continue to get because you can make a Wii game cheaper and the goal is to have the hardcore purchase it because it is Wii only and they are interested and hope it catches with the casual crowd which the Wii maintains.
I’m not saying Nintendo should just go throwing money everywhere, but Capcom (a known AAA developer some opinions aside) could have easily developed SF IV or RE5 or DMC 4 or on and on, but Nintendo hasn’t developed the relationship and they certainly haven’t cultivated that market on their own machine. To cultivate it would take time. We saw them almost do it when they bought Silicon Knights but again $ spoke to Nintendo with low sales and they decided to sell Silicon Knights to focus on what they knew instead of trying to develop that market.
Monster Hunter is an exception for two reasons. A: The main customer base is Japan and Nintendo is killing in Japan. And 2, the gameplay is much like Pokémon which means, that Nintendo has inadvertently created an audience for this game.
Silent Hill is tossing us a bone like Remake. It’ll probably be good. But it’s been remade so many times for PS/PSP that they really have no where else to take the series but to hope that they can reach a new audience with the Wii.
Topic: Nintendo - "Wii are confused." (Read 19109 times)
