Topic: Big Rooster's Tim Gerritson Speaks Highly of Wii

[AzureNightmare]

Big Rooster's founding member Tim Gerritsen calls the Wii "A much needed slap to the face" for the industry, but claims he's still waiting to see games that make good on the promise.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=14109

 In an interview conducted by Game Daily, Big Rooster's Tim Gerritsen was asked a question that inquired what his thoughts on the new consoles were. He responded by saying, "From a purely technical perspective, all of the new machines have great pluses and perplexing minuses. I love my Xbox 360, and that's the big winner in my home right now, and I can't wait for the kinds of experiences I'm seeing down the line on the PS3. The Wii threw the gauntlet down and made fun the priority over bullet point technical specs, and the industry quite frankly needed that slap to the face, but I'm still waiting for the games to follow up the promise."    

He then went on to say "In terms of approach to design, I don't see the Wii sharing many multiplatform games with the other two systems. It's not just a matter of tech specs but of fundamental design. A lot of games that would rock on 360 or PS3 would just not work on the Wiimote, and the Wiimote demands a style of design that simply won't work on the other two systems. I don't want to play a game like Call of Duty on my Wii, but a game like Wii Sports just wouldn't work on the 360."    

"The economic reality of that situation is that publishers and developers have to make a choice to design for one platform or the other, or make a port that's shoehorned onto a platform on which it just doesn't work. That means a split between Wii games and PS3/Xbox 360 games, or a lot of really bad ports churned out to make a quick buck." he added.    

Big Rooster is a fledgling game development company, whose founding members have a variety of accomplishments to their name, from developing military simulation games, to contributing to the founding of id Software and cultivating Human Head Studios' First Person Shooter, Prey. Big Rooster is currently developing a game called Talisman for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

[King of Twitch]

If someone said you were fun and special, but probably disabled, would that be a compliment?

[denjet78]

Big words from a company that's, as of right now, only working on a PS3/360 game. I'd be more willing to take anything these people say seriously if they were actually announcing games to back up their words.

And I don't just mean this guy, I mean everyone out there who's heaping the praise on Wii but still not supporting it as well as they should be.

[pSYCO-gAMER321]

A lot of companies are like that. I really do hope that these past tauntings by Miyamoto and now him will get the message straight about the Wii.

[Enner]

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78
Big words from a company that's, as of right now, only working on a PS3/360 game. I'd be more willing to take anything these people say seriously if they were actually announcing games to back up their words.

And I don't just mean this guy, I mean everyone out there who's heaping the praise on Wii but still not supporting it as well as they should be.

Well, maybe they are in the middle of developement. It wouldn't be good to back out from what they were doing to jump ship.

[denjet78]

Quote
Originally posted by: Enner

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78
Big words from a company that's, as of right now, only working on a PS3/360 game. I'd be more willing to take anything these people say seriously if they were actually announcing games to back up their words.

And I don't just mean this guy, I mean everyone out there who's heaping the praise on Wii but still not supporting it as well as they should be.

Well, maybe they are in the middle of developement. It wouldn't be good to back out from what they were doing to jump ship.

...

You don't know the video games industry very well, do you.

[Kairon]

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78

Quote
Originally posted by: Enner

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78
Big words from a company that's, as of right now, only working on a PS3/360 game. I'd be more willing to take anything these people say seriously if they were actually announcing games to back up their words.

And I don't just mean this guy, I mean everyone out there who's heaping the praise on Wii but still not supporting it as well as they should be.

Well, maybe they are in the middle of developement. It wouldn't be good to back out from what they were doing to jump ship.

...

You don't know the video games industry very well, do you.

...

Explain Denjet. I see nothing wrong with Enner's statement.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78

Quote
Originally posted by: Enner

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78
Big words from a company that's, as of right now, only working on a PS3/360 game. I'd be more willing to take anything these people say seriously if they were actually announcing games to back up their words.

And I don't just mean this guy, I mean everyone out there who's heaping the praise on Wii but still not supporting it as well as they should be.

Well, maybe they are in the middle of developement. It wouldn't be good to back out from what they were doing to jump ship.

...

You don't know the video games industry very well, do you.

...

Explain Denjet. I see nothing wrong with Enner's statement.

Same here.

[KDR_11k]

Quote
Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78

Quote
Originally posted by: Enner

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78
Big words from a company that's, as of right now, only working on a PS3/360 game. I'd be more willing to take anything these people say seriously if they were actually announcing games to back up their words.

And I don't just mean this guy, I mean everyone out there who's heaping the praise on Wii but still not supporting it as well as they should be.

Well, maybe they are in the middle of developement. It wouldn't be good to back out from what they were doing to jump ship.

...

You don't know the video games industry very well, do you.

...

Explain Denjet. I see nothing wrong with Enner's statement.

Same here.

Quotetrain FTLOL!

[denjet78]

None of you understand what I said? Or is it that I just didn't understand what Enner said...

Hmm...

Anyway, I assume he was saying that it wouldn't be good for the developer to drop their current game in order to work on a Wii title. LIES! ALL LIES! In fact, it would turn out to be incredibly beneficial to them. Sure they'd loose money in the short run but come on, Wii is the system to beat and it's going to make them a ton of money overall. Way more than the PS3 or 360. Quite possibly even combined. Besides, dumping support for one system in favor of another has never hurt developers before. I've seen it first hand over and over and over again. All those great N64 titles that never materialized. All those GameCube games canceled. Did any of that hurt any of the developers that did it? HELL NO!

Besides, the guy's an ass. He talks up the system but then says he hasn't seen anything to back up it's promise. Well then, where's his shining example of a game? If he thinks the system is capable of much greater things then where's his game to show that? He needs to put his support where his mouth is or else he's just another poser who may be taking a subtle jab at the Wii while trying to make it look like a compliment.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78
None of you understand what I said? Or is it that I just didn't understand what Enner said...

Hmm...

Anyway, I assume he was saying that it wouldn't be good for the developer to drop their current game in order to work on a Wii title. LIES! ALL LIES! In fact, it would turn out to be incredibly beneficial to them. Sure they'd loose money in the short run but come on, Wii is the system to beat and it's going to make them a ton of money overall. Way more than the PS3 or 360. Quite possibly even combined. Besides, dumping support for one system in favor of another has never hurt developers before. I've seen it first hand over and over and over again. All those great N64 titles that never materialized. All those GameCube games canceled. Did any of that hurt any of the developers that did it? HELL NO!

Besides, the guy's an ass. He talks up the system but then says he hasn't seen anything to back up it's promise. Well then, where's his shining example of a game? If he thinks the system is capable of much greater things then where's his game to show that? He needs to put his support where his mouth is or else he's just another poser who may be taking a subtle jab at the Wii while trying to make it look like a compliment.

You are right, but it may also be dependent on how far along a game is in the development process and how much money has been poured into it. You may be right, making games for Wii could be extremely profitable, but there is always some risk, and sometimes that scares companies away if they have alot invested already elsewhere.

[Enner]

Indeed, that was what I was getting at. I was just thinking that dropping a project that a publisher already paid for and perhaps announced would be at least a bit of bad face and a bit of negative morale for some in a development team. I realize it might be naive to think that would people care about such things.

As for Gerritsen should be making a Wii game, maybe after their current game is finished. Besides, it seems he was only applauding Nintendo's choice to banking on fun with "bullet point technical specs" as an afterthought. Perhaps he's too tied up with the studio's current game to be thinking about a next one. Also, this is just another developer/publisher general Q&A and it was inevitable for the System Thoughts question to pop up. I don't think it's something to hold so strongly against the interviewee.