Comments on: It's about time developers focus on the Wii

EA has finally said that it's focusing more on the Wii. But as Don Reisinger points out, more work needs to be done.

[Kwasiowusu]

Nintendo's attitude has always been to treat 3rd parties with their customary Nintendo arrogance and high handedness. It's not the business of 3rd parties to go out of their way to make anything for an underpowered console, that is barely more powerful than the Gamecube, and is even less powerful than the original XBOX in lots of ways, if Nintendo themselves have a hostile climate to 3rd parties. Game developers want to take games design to the bleeding edge(like Gears of war, MGS4 etc). they don?t want to be taking steps backwards to the 2001 technology of the Wii.
Microsoft has spent a lot of effort and money on 3rd parties to get them to develop great games for the 360. That is why the 360 has massively more high rated games than the Wii, and has the highest attach rate amongst al consoles, even in Japan.
Even in Japan, the 360 today has far more Japanese RGPG?s from 3rd parties than the Wii .It didn?t happen by accident. Microsoft simply didn?t sit at home, and expect Japanese 3rd parties, who hardly ever made and games for the original XBOX, to just decide suddenly on their own, that they are going to make games for the 360.
It took money, careful courting iof the Japanese developers, and certain guarantees about recovering their costs if any game that made did not sell well on the 360.
For the writer of this article to blame 3rd parties, for the stupidity and arrogance of Nintendo incongruous.
It?s like putting the cart before the horse.

[compudoc318]

wii started off strong, but where will it be in a year or two, i know tons of people who bought one, and now never play it instead playing the xbox or ps3. even the fit is a fad, just look at how many people buy exersize equip., use for a month or so, then store it away. real gamers, the ones who stick around and spend the money will play xbox 360 or ps3. and im sick of hearing about the sales on the wii, its way cheaper so of course its selling. the games thought, arent selling, thats cause mom and dad buy the kid a wii, and he plays it for a month or so, then goes back to his "real" systems.....

[iknow iknow]

I agree the article points the finger the wrong way. he's obviosly biased and trying to persuade people into thinking "Poor Nintendo".

Its correctly pointed out in other comments Nintendo is sleeping in the bed they,ve made.

Is it a fad? No, its not going anywhere soon but the gimmick is wearing off. I havent played mine for months and will sell it or give it to my nieces.

One obvious point Companys dont make alot of profit on the system themselves its the software that brings home the bacon.

Support your local community go bowling for $250 you can play alot of real bowling or tennis and the kids learn tangable skills.

[Chill05]

As far as the N64 is concerned, I believe Nintendo broke their partnership with Sony and the disc-based SNES attachment (which became the PSone) because they wanted to retain the fast performance of cartridges and avoid the slow loading time of CDs and proprietary discs of the PSone. They also were able to achieve better graphics with their new cartridge technology of the N64; unfortunately, the chips for the cartridges were incredibly expensive at the time, which made development for the system very difficult especially compared to the cheap discs of the PSone (Am I the only one that sees a similarity between that situation and the current one we're experiencing with the Wii and the PS3).
The N64 is arguably where Nintendo lost much of its 3rd party support to Sony and other game developers, and that carried over to the GC. The N64's heavy reliance on 1st party games and original titles ( along with Nintendo's new genre of 'party' games i.e. mario party, smash brothers, etc.) carried over to the Game Cube, which is also were they began to make their come back and retrieve lost 3rd party developers.
Again, I argue that Nintendo was trying to retain that cartridge-like load time/performance with the proprietary Mini-DVDs because the smaller discs can be read faster than standard DVDs.
Yes, I agree Nintendo has been more open with 3rd party developers this generation, but that's been a working progress from the Game Cube days (resigning of Square Enix, Capcom bringing RE4 to them, Ubisoft's Good/Evil, etc.), but they were also better prepared for the Wii's introduction by their earlier release of the DS, which seemed to catch developers off guard as much as the Wii has.
It's a new interface that warrants new ideas and doesn't shine as bright with the basic cursor and button controlled games. I'm sure Nintendo had plenty of practice with console-game developer relations during the first few years of the DS.
I still wonder why people are surprised that 1st party games were the early favorites on the Wii and the DS; obviously, the company that created the 'revolutionary' devices should be best prepared to develop and lead the way in thinking. Ok, maybe MS isn't that great with 1st party development compared to its 3rd party counterparts, but Nintendo isn't as new to the console industry as MS. I guess PCs are just that much more different than game consoles.

Anyways, my point is that Nintendo's relationship with 3rd party developers isn't the only reason for the slow support of the Wii. Like the DS showed, change takes time to get used to.
As for EA....I don't really expect much from them in terms of quality games or original games.
They're looking for that $ as quickly and easily as they can get it. Madden Nation can stay with the 360. They'll probably stick to using the Wii's "Everybody Play" as a 'foot-in-the-door' strategy to get more people playing their annual 'cash-cows' i.e. Madden, NCAA, FiFa, NBA Live.

Note: For those annoyed about the lack of new Zelda, Mario, Metroid this year, I believe the 3rd party developers will have you covered for another year. COD5, Conduit, FFCC, Shawn White's SB, Skate it...just to name a few....Although, I would really appreciate a serious car racing game on the Wii. (NFSU doesn't count anymore...)

[R3V3N4N7]

The only reason people buy the Wii is to see what it's all about. Once they have it and play it for a few days they realize that the MS and Sony offerings are better. MS has the best online service out of the three. With the Wii there's nothing. The stupidest part is the friend codes. Who wants to play the Wii online if you have to put in a long friend code?

[markrw1958]

This are all the same old arguments we keep hearing, the Wii has provided something different and by the time the Wii sales peter out Sony and Microsoft will be on to their next generation console and once again losing money on every unit they sell. Does Sony still sell their consoles at a loss?

I won't buy another system until the console makers truly innovate and guess what better graphics don't innovate they just make the game prettier. Video games now bore me, the developers have become like the movie studios, no imagination lets just do a remake or a sequel. Today they dwarf the money the movie industry makes but how much longer can they go on cranking out the same old crap?

[Kwasiowusu]

@ markrw1958 , neither ?Gears of War? nor ?Bioshock? nor ?Orange Box? are ?the same old stuff?. Those games are some f the most innovative games ever made in the history of video games And yes, graphics DO count and contribute to enormously to gameplay, and to entire gaming experience.. You simply can?t develop super games like ?Gears? or ?Bioshock? on a wimpy, low graphics system like the Wii.

[LenSp]

Sigh. The blindness of hard core gamers amazes me. The current non-Wii consoles, as well as PC games, are difficult to use unless you play a lot. Pushing buttons or a joystick are not intuitive nor do they fit most of the real world. Hard core gamers are used to it, so they think nothing of the time and effort it takes for most people to get proficient.

Personally, I can go to an arcade and have a lot of fun playing a shooter because a mock gun is usually used to handle the action. I've used guns in real life so playing one in an arcade (or on a Wii with a zapper) is easy to do. On the other hand, twirling my thumb on a joystick or pushing buttons to aim on a console/PC game makes me quit in frustration within a few minutes. The wonders of the graphics or the cleverness of the game doesn't matter if I can't even get past the opening scene.

I own a PS3 (for Blu-Ray) and bought a Wii for family a while back (and my little relatives still play it all the time). If I could just get the Wii controller combined with the PS3 graphics, I'd buy games every year to play. But as it stands, I'm a potential consumer left behind by the game makers.

I can see it now. In thirty years, Nintendo will making holographic chambers for the home while the hard core gamers will be complaining about the lack of buttons to control it. *g*

[ronnano]

The wii is pure genius from nintendo, motion-sensing/IR is the future of videogames no doubt. It makes games (even established genres like FPS's) much more accessible and involving. After using the remote since the wii's launch, i have trouble reverting to gamepads as its feels old and outdated. In fact i sold my launch xbox360 before last christmas and have not missed it a sec (playing FPS's with dual analog is inaccurate and frustrating after MP3).

My experience is that xbox360's and PS3's are the consoles that are starting to gather dust as people buy wii's and moves the other consoles to the back of their entertainment center. Active gamers on the other systems are mostly franchise fans (halo, mgs etc.), much like n64 and gamecube was mostly owned by hardcore nintendo fanboys.

Third party publishers must at some point admit the fact that the wii will be the winning platform this generation (by a large margin) and set their best teams and allocate most resources to wii developement. This will probably gradually happen in the next 1-2 years.

[Kwasiowusu]

@ ronnano , :? My experience is that xbox360's and PS3's are the consoles that are starting to gather dust as people buy wii's and moves the other consoles to the back of their entertainment center?
That is utter nonsense. Every research that has been conducted by Nielson(the same guys that measure TV ratings ands viewing habits), have concluded that 360 owners use their system more often, and play for more games than Wii owners. Not to mention 360 owners but a lot more games than the Wii in America. CD4 alone has sold over 4 million units in the US alone, and it?s an annual franchise that comes out every year.
If any console is gathering dust, it?s the Wii, which is typically retired to the basement after the novelty of the waggle has worn off. Note to Nintendo fan boys: Waggle does not equal great games.

[Bloodredsun]

I agree with LenSp, the majority of the comments are written by hardcore gamers who are living in a different world. Wake up and smell the coffee folks, the Wii is a completely different kettle of fish than the XBox 360 or PS3. It is not a system for hardcore gamers. So your criteria for what is important as a gamer is not applicable to many Wii owners, including myself.

Face the facts and let them soak in. The Wii is number one in sales because it has appealed to casual gamers, a completely different crowd than most of the folks making comments here. Casual gamers are not like you. The don't think like you and don't care about the things that you do.

I am in my late thirties and bought a Wii last year, hadn't owned a video game since the Atari 2600, and couldn't have cared less about any of them. The XBox 360 or PS3 are fairly useless machines to me, and I don't have any interest in the vast majority of the games. Why?

Because I can't play them with other people who are not hardcore gamers. Sure, I can play Gears of War with my hardcore gaming friend who owns an XBox, but try to bring it over to friends of mine who are not videogamers? No chance in hell. They are not interested, the controls and gameplay options are too complex, and it's not fun for them.

The Wii on the other hand. I've had my parents who are in their late 60s, my sister and brother who are in their 40s, and my nephews who are under 10 all playing the Wii. Everyone had a blast, it was easy to learn, and no one was left out. Social gaming, not hardcore gaming.

Would this happen with the PS3 or XBox 360? Nope.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing those systems. They are amazing pieces of technology and are the cutting edge systems for hardcore gamers. But the Wii is something else.

The Wii is a casual social game, like board games, card games, family volleyball, badminton, etc. It is made for playing with more than one person, easy to pick up, and fun. That's it. It's simple. It is treated like a board game or a deck of cards, something you pull out when guests are over, or you are with a bunch of friends just messing around.

Very few Wii owners play by themselves alone. Can the same be said for hardcore gamers?

Bottom line, if you treat your game system like a deck of cards, what do you think is more fun, a game of solitaire or a good game of poker with friends?

[sonymaster101]

it really isnt as great as a lot of people make it out to be. if you like it , that's great. but the fact are, the control system on the wii while only ever be used any good on Nintendo titles. take a good look and probably at least half of people that have a wii only have game made by Nintendo. plus that other than for wii golf, super smash bros., and Mario kart the controls are often extremely awkward. and the big question. why doesn't the wii have any third party games?

1- the games developed for ps3 and 360 are simply too much for the wii's underpowered hardware to handle, and often aren't ported because it takes a lot of effort to scale the game down to something the wii can handle. besides having a really crappy version of a game tarnished the games image. so, most of the 3rd party games on wii are in fact either crappy wii sports esque games, or ps2 ports.
2- Nintendo hasn't been nice to developers for the last 2 generation before wii, so developers weren't looking forward to working with Nintendo.
3-Many people that own a wii only have a few games, compared to that of all the other systems made by Sony and ms in this gen and last gen, and in many cases all the

i am not going to hide it. i am a hardcore gamer, but to most people that are "hardcore" there are still a lot of things that stick out even if they own one.

OK. so i am a hardcore gamer and play by myself. not really. on both my ps3 (which can also play my ps2 games) and my pc i can actually go ONLINE and PLAY WITH FRIENDS when friends aren't around. unlike the **** poor online system the wii implemented, i can relatively easily go online and play with people that i have become familiar with on the internet. and i don't have to worry about those gay friend codes either. i actually have a name, not a number. besides, i think having a wii would be a pitfall for most people like me if it was my only system. unlike a lot of people my age, i don't have a constant social life that allows me to always be within arms reach of a friend. most of mine are never around. see, one thing about your logic sticks out. you might very well have missed a stating yourself a very big pitfall of the wii.the wii kinda like a basketball game. you can play when your friends are around, but when they leave there is nothing to play.

[Kwasiowusu]

# 1. The fact that the Wii is selling a lot of units doesn't make the Wii a batter console than a 360 or a PS3. That would be like saying a Toyota Camry is a better car than a Mercedes SL 600, just because the Camry sells more units. There is plenty of junk out there, that sells millions in the market place.
# 2. In America, and worldwide, the 360 has a higher attach rate than the Wii, and 360 owners have consistently bought more games than Wii owners. The 360 is the software king right now, and 3rd parties sell a heck of a lot more on the 360 than the Wii, which is dominated by Nintendo first party sales.
#3. The 360 and PS3 are selling at much higher prices than the Wii right now. Its normal that the Wii sells more units because units much cheaper than the PS3.
# 4. Nintendo fanboys are forgetting that in the previous generation, over 90% of PS2 sales took place after the PS2 had hit the mass market price of $200. The PS3 is still selling at TWICE the price that over 90% of PS2 sales were made. Expect big increases in PS3 sales as the price falls.
#5. Despite all this talk of the Wii "bringing in a hole new casual gamer demographic who don?t do button mashing", the fact remains that the PS2 has sold up to a massive 140 million units to date, even using the same "button mashing" that the Wii fanboys keep insisting, is too hard for normal humans to learn.
# 6. Worth nothing that the PS2 continues to sell 13 million units a year up to TODAY, a good 8 years after launch. In America, the PS2 has sold over 8 million since the Wii was launched in Nov 2006, not that far off from total Wii sales of over 10 million. The "button mashing" never stopped the PS2 from making huge sales, and continuing sell in large quantities even after the Wii was launched.
#. When prices come down enough, the PS3 has every chance of making as much in sales as the PS2 did, over the same 8-10 year period.

[Kwasiowusu]

Its also worth noting, that wii sales in Japan are alreday down approx 300,000 so far this year, as compared to Wii sales in Japan last year. So despite what the fanboys say, there is every posibility that Wii sales could slow down, if the lack of quality 3rd party sofware continues.

[K_REY_C]

if we don't want innovation than what are we doing?

Go nintendo!

[OregonJeff]

My wife and I bought a Wii system in September and sold it before Christmas, replacing it with a PS3.

I am not a game developer, but I suspect that part of the problem with Wii game development is that the motion sensing controller, rather than expanding gameplay, actually limits it. Every Wii game we played had the emphasis on manipulating the controller as the focus, not the game itself. I don't know how enthusiastic developers are about designing a game around a controller...that's just not a barrier that the competing systems present. Beyond that, of course, is the lack of computing muscle that others have mentioned, above.

There's no question that Nintendo's innovation is here to stay, and there's a great market for the folks who shy away from FPS and complicated "button mashing". I'm sure that Sony and Microsoft are feverishly working on motion sensing add-ons, themselves. I'm also sure that 3rd party developers are trying to figure out how to make a fantastic game for the best selling console...who wouldn't want to cash in on that? I just don't think it's that easy...how many ways can you flip that controller around?

[sonymaster101]

you know a lot of poeple say sony copied nintendo with the sixaxis. despite what people say it is much more sensitive as far as leaning goes. at least it doesn't rely on that IR sensor bar like the wii does. the sixaxis is almost as much of a gimmick as the wii itself, but at least motion controls aren't presented as a core axis of the game play on the ps3 imho.