Alright, alright. There's a few things going on here. First off, Reggie Fils-Aime told Forbes "I will be able to say our licensees 'get it' when their very best content is on our platform, and with very few exceptions today, that's not the case." That's a pretty good conversation starter right there. He also lamented the absence of
Grand Theft Auto and
Spore on his platform, teased community features without spilling anything at all, and for kicks threw us this utterly hopeless word on a price cut: "At some point, it will be time to adjust the [price], but we're
nowhere near that point now." We're pretty astonished that a console honcho like Reggie would so summarily insult his third-party partners, but we can't help but agree -- though peep Nintendo Wii Fanboy's via link down there for an alternate perspective on the matter. To us, the question really lies in the blame game: is Nintendo's Wii strategy and unique hardware approach to blame, or is everybody else out there too dense to cash in? But really, this is just too wild, too incendiary, too
awesome for us to hog all the discussion. Hit up the vaguely-applicable poll option, and then let loose in the comments. We're all ears!
[Via
Nintendo Wii Fanboy]
What's to blame for a lackluster collection of third party games on the Wii?| Third parties aren't trying hard enough | 3908 (23.4%) |
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| Peripheral-oriented first party strategy | 1286 (7.7%) |
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| Nintendo's secrecy | 829 (5.0%) |
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| Graphics / processing limitations | 3887 (23.3%) |
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| Lack of serious online functionality | 779 (4.7%) |
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| None of the above | 262 (1.6%) |
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| All of the above | 5311 (31.8%) |
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| Lackluster? Not so fast. | 419 (2.5%) |
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posted November 19th 2008 12:40AM
Please try to explode in the other direction. I'd rather not have brain juice on my new shirt.
Everyone complains that the Wii doesn't have enough games and yet there's never enough of them in the market.
Honestly I think its Nintendo that doesn't get the Wii. Aside from Wii Sports Nintendo doesn't understand how to use its new hardware without making new hardware. All games can now be placed into three categories for the Wii:
* Copies Wii Sports motion ideas (mini games or small components that utilize the new capabilities while the rest is standard fare)
* Could have been controlled just as well or better with a real controller. (Zelda, Metroid, etc)
* Relies on additional hardware to improve experience (Wii Fit, Mario Kart, etc)
Not to say there aren't games that use the controller perfectly at times, but does it work that well through the whole game... or just from time to time? Getting right in the fight with shooting your 'mote like a gun in Metroid... but its a pain in the ass outside of shooting whats in front of you.
Heck, take a look at Super Smash Bros.
I was completely looking forward to that game because I always hated its control scheme. To me it felt unresponsive, indirect, sluggish, heavy... I found myself mashing buttons to little effect and by the end my fingers would ache because the game unnecessarily requires it.
So when the Wii was going to have Smash Bros, I didn't just think "I hope this uses the real controller;" I assumed it would! I assumed "this game would be superb," because with the Wii they could have it completely intuitive for once, and introduce some very neat, very tactile things. It's not like they need to keep rehashing the same game; the Wii is about being new. And why the Hell would /Nintendo themselves/ go against their own stuff? The Wii /is/ its controller.
Somehow they already forgot that. Smash Bros is only really playable with the GameCube controller, which means new peripherals for a lot of people. Oh, and it means a wired controller for a lot of people. It also means that the potential is completely lost. Smash Bros. Wii feels no different from Smash Bros on the GameCube to me, because it is played on the same weirdly shaped, heavy buttoned mass of purple plastic. There are no tilt controls except in the menu and it is just as difficult to comprehend. It is /not/ a group game -- at least not for the types of groups the Wii is meant to cater towards.
It should also be kept in mind that Nintendo is the publisher here. They are the ones who deliver the final golden stamp of approval for those third party games. They are the ones who provide services to third party developers to make their games good. They are the ones who provide the advertising and the development kit.
So I can't help but think this is really entirely Nintendo's fault for encouraging such incompetence throughout their ecosystem.
I think Nintnedo, specifically Reggie, need to have a focus group with developers and 50 ppl who have ben Nintendo customers of the last 25 years and let him know what "They" are not getting. Kicking your core fans and loyal customers in the balls (or eggs) and changing your platform over (which there isnothing wrong with money wise but you can;t just abandon your core audience either). Third party developers have no interest in the wii because their titles not only don't get enough exposure but are over shadowed by Nintendo's first party software. Third party developers may also have no interest in making software because they know that it will get pushed into the background by Nintendo to make room for their own shit to it's "new" audience. Nintendo is going to fall flat on their ass in the next 4 years when quite possibly those kids and soccer moms move onto other stuff as they are older and they won;t even sell their first party crap anymore. At which point they will find their old core fans to have moved on after this whole betrayal started back at e3 where they told ppl like me to stick it. Thus causing me to sell my wii.
@Reader:
Actually you can just press vote without selecting anything to see the results. No one ever seems to know that though.
But really I'm sure they all start at 0 anyway.
Damn you, Engadget comment system!
I picked "all of the above" but I'm excluding the "third parties" option. Having a console that's hard to design for, both from a gameplay design and actual programming standpoint, is really not a smart move if you're trying to lure in third-party developers. Furthermore, I almost get the feeling Nintendo would rather populate the console entirely with their games, and then blame third-party developers for the console's faults.
The technological disadvantage is enormous too, and frankly it's just stupid. Why develop a console with less power unless it's to prove some inane point? It's not to drive prices down, that's for damn sure. Nobody enjoys having to develop separate games just for the Wii, because multi-platform titles make more money and provide a far higher return on the initial cost with minimal effort required to port the code over.
You know, scratch what I said earlier, third parties probably aren't trying hard enough, but honestly I don't see a reason why they would at this point.
I think Reggie is mostly right on this matter. The Wii's specs do limit the number of games that can be developed for it, but not THAT much. Only a handful of games need HD graphics (which most people don't even have a TV for) and a large hard drive to be done well; the Wii's capabilities should be more than adequate for the majority. On top of that, it's the #1 selling console ever. Logically, it should be getting just as much attention from 3rd party developers as the 360. The fact that it isn't is simply bizarre. After all, software developers don't simply decide that they will target powerful supercomputers exclusively and not for the average PC.
Now, Nintendo does need a good kick in the rear for not being more aggressive with their technology and for making some bone headed mistakes. They have many thing to correct for their next console. Number one, use state of the art graphics technology. It doesn't have to be the absolute latest and greatest, but there should not be an obvious gap between the Wii2 and its rivals. Number two, include a large amount of internal storage; preferably an SSD, which should be cheap by then. Number 3, include a "memory card" slot and don't lock it down. It's ridiculous that virtual console games can't be played of an SD card, and it's even more ridiculous that we have to wait months for a software fix. It's also equally ridiculous that we can't put our game saves on a card and take the card and game to our friend's house to play on their Wii. Instead, we must take the entire Wii with us. Number 4, perfect the Wiimote. Motion plus (plus) should be integrated, and the sensor bar should be made to be more accurate. Regarding BluRay/DVD playback, it's too early to assume anyone will really care about using those formats for new content 5+ years down the road. If Flash ROM gets cheap enough, it can replace optical disks for physical game/movie distribution. Less load times, the media can be smaller yet dense and more durable, and there's no ceiling on storage since higher density chips/nanotubes can use the same physical interface.
Third parties focus on selling one game on everything they can. This generation it's impossible to see which console is the most powerful because most games have the lowest denominator as the most important to develop first. And sometimes slows a complete development to make changes, like Final Fantasy 13 and the original expected "Holidays 2008" release to "Holidays 2009", we is pretty much lowering some stuff so their are the same game on both consoles.
The Wii port will get a totally different team to make the game, and most of the time they get their amateurs like EA is doing with their sport games that felt like cellphone games. remember, EA.
To be clear, the sensor bar has nothing to do with the accuracy. It's basically just a a pair of infrared flashlights. A camera at the top of the controller picks these up and uses them to determine where the pointer should be. Motion sensing is handled by an accelerometer inside the controller. Motion plus increases the sensitivity by adding a gyroscope.
As for media... well, I don't have high hopes for flash memory. Sure it's getting cheaper, but then so is optical. I do however recall an article about Nintendo partnering with a company developing holographic discs. Perhaps this is what they hope to use next gen?
I want the old Nintendo back. :(
He must mean the Wii's control scheme, because it certainly doesn't have any other advantages over any other consoles. And if that IS what he means, I laugh at him. Passing the blame to the third-part companies shows that Nintendo can't get it's act together, and blaming those companies is certainly not going to get them to decide to release cool games like GTA on the Wii.
The wii was fun for a while--but the games just aren't engaging enough for me to want to play them in more than the most casual of circumstances.
Its kinda like the remote control car you got for christmas as a kid. Sure you raced against your brother's matching car a lot, and that was cool for the first week, but after that there was only so many ways/places to drive a remote control car.
The wii doesn't do enough for me to actually want to use it anymore.
That's my word... I ever meet Reggie, I'm gonna curse him out... The Wii has no play in my household. And I'm sick of mario themed games!!
Couldn't help but notice your rastafied Mario themed avatar...
I was about to vote "all of the above", but then I realized that by doing so, I would also be voting "none of the above", since that option is above "all of the above". Now, obviously that's a pretty self-contradictory vote, so I faced a bit of a dilemma: to vote, or not to vote? I decided I'd vote, but instead of voting in a nonsensical, self-contradictory way... I'd vote for the option I disagree with most: "none of the above".
There's two big reasons:
1) Developers like to make multi-platform games in order to maximize their profits. It's relatively easy to make a game for both PS3 and Xbox 360. Adding a Wii port means re-writing the game from scratch. It's just not economically feasible for most developers.
2) Nintendo treat their 3rd party developers like shit. Nintendo didn't reveal the Wii Motion Plus add-on to developers until the SAME DAY as the general public. As you can imagine, 3rd party developers were very upset about this.
option# 1 is kind of given isnt it? i mean if they did try harder, obviously there would be any lackluster. the question should be why third parties isnt trying it any harder. lack of ideas? peripherals? etc..
Peripheral-oriented 1st party strategy is the closest.
The main issue is that the Wii was made primarily to make N money and nothing else. They sell it with a pack-in game and permit massive shovelware to hit the shelves. A casual buyer (think your grandma) may not even know how to buy a new game for it. They don't know it only takes the games in the white boxes and not the green ones.
If they do know which games do run on it, they're still overwhelmingly likely to get a piece of crap shovelware if they just pick one at the store. And are they going to buy more after getting burned? Nope, unlikely.
But N doesn't care, they make money selling the console to you. If you never buy a 2nd game, they still cleaned up.
So the problem is the console strategy isn't conducive to 3rd parties making money, and so they don't.
"The main issue is that the Wii was made primarily to make N money and nothing else"
And Microsoft and Sony arn't looking at making money? Money and profit is the bottom line for all console manafacturers.
The Wii is NOT competition for Xbox360/PS3, there are aimed at different markets and most people that own a Wii probably have either a 360/PS3 as well.
I think N are doing a good job.
Phil
I agree with him. Most of the third parties are just not trying. The problem is that on PS3 nad 360 many of the games are actually quite poor but they cover this up with nice flashy graphics. The wii does not have this mask to hide behind and the skills of the game designers are naked for all to see. Zack and Wiki shows that capcom do get it and that their designers are indeed skilled but many of the others are just showing how poor they are. I am astounded at how many people in the pole above claim the lack of graphics power is to blame! Sorry but gameplay is King and that is a skill that seems largely to have been left behind in the 16bit era. The wii has a great new control system which should be bringing entirely new or at least refreshing ideas to the table but sadly the skills and creativity are lacking. I presume that building generic fps after generic fps over the years has lead to a severe loss of creativity.
i agree, the FPS plague has been eating away at the creativity that used to be video games
"None of the above" should have been last in the list: how can all of the above include none of the above?
Because of nullity.
Dividing by zero no longer implodes the universe.
I have a nintendo wii and I only enjoy three games: WarioWare SM, Pokemon BR, and Trauma Center SO
WarioWare SM and Trauma Center SO both use all of the Wii's strong points and try there hardest to hide its lack of power-
WarioWare is amazing fun with a group of friends and one of the few games you can enjoy with people that don't play video games
Trauma Center SO, the gameplay is alright, although still worse than the DS because slicing with a stylus is more realistic than slicing with a remote... but other than that the 2 Player mode makes this a pretty fun game.
on the OTHER hand Pokemon BR is fun.... but only because its pokemon
The game has terrible graphics, hardly better than pokemon colosseum- the characters edges are just rounded out in this one
the fact that its online pokemon is the only thing that makes it worth playing.
The problem i have with the Wii is its hardware- how can they make a "Next-Gen" console sans High-Definition?! (sure sure there are "HD" cables but they're not default and most games don't even improve)
Just like when TV switched to HD, i can't stand standard definition content anymore- same with gaming, when I'm sitting in front of a shiny new Sony Bravia I want to be able to see the character's facial expression
oh and to stay on topic, considering the games I like to play on the Wii- the third parties aren't at fault (if i were them I'd be making HD games for 360 and PS3)
I hate Nintendo for pulling a 180 on their old fan base and turning to people who never enjoyed Nintendo before- sure a great business strategy, and I guess I'm idealist to think that loyalty to their fans and passion for the industry should mean something
oh and to stay on topic, considering the games I like to play on the Wii- the third parties aren't at fault (if i were them I'd be making HD games for 360 and PS3)
I hate Nintendo for pulling a 180 on their old fan base and turning to people who never enjoyed Nintendo before- sure a great business strategy, and I guess I'm idealist to think that loyalty to their fans and passion for the industry should mean something
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So if you were a third party you would rather spend stupid amounts of money developing a game that might not even make that money back again rather than spending a lot less money on a game which is quite likely to make money? Great business strategy.......
Also Nintendo have not turned on their fanbase. Galaxy, SSB, Mariokart, metroid, Zelda etc are all great games and aimed at the fans. I do want far more great nintendo content but I have been gaming for 28 years and I still can't be angry at wii sports or wii fit as they bring a smile to my face when playing them. Exactly why I got into gaming in the first place. I do wish that they would now stop with the peripherals though and just make more games to use the balance board. Nintendo have provided the tools to create great gameplay and it is up to the third party developers to do something good with these tools. Some of the greatest games ever made were produced during the 16bit era with limited hardware and limited controls. Why has this creativity been lost.
I just remember the days of super nintendo and n64- they were home to the best of all types of games, everywhere from Mario to 007.
I own a Wii and a 360, and my neighbor owns a ps3 and bring it over all the time- so I am not being biased based on what consoles I play.
Today, if i want to play an RPG i play ps2- Digital Devil Saga, and as soon as FFXIII comes out- ps3.
if i want to play a shooter i play 360, Gears of War and Halo
if i want to play a racer i play 360 or ps3, Midnight Club or Need For Speed(looks MUCH better than its Wii counterpart)
if i want to play a fighter i play 360 or ps3, Soul Calibur(The Wii spin-off "SC Legends" is terrible) and soon enough Street Fighter.
if i want to play a sidescroller/platformer i usually turn to the SNES, but now that Little Big Planet(first fun sidescroller since snes) is out- ps3
and if i want to play a party game i play Rock Band/Guitar Hero WT, but if there is someone who doesn't play either, the number is getting smaller, i play WarioWare for Wii
and THAT exception is honestly the only time i ever play my Wii anymore, although i would love to see a innovative title on it- it just hasn't happened yet
I'm sorry, but that guy does NOT look like the CEO of a major corporation. That hair. That awful jacket. Yikes.
I think one of the issues with the Wii is it's audience...I had never before heard of 70-80 years olds playing video games and my parents had never really played either, but with the Wii this is all different. I have a Wii, but haven't bought a game since super smash and I haven't played it in a few months and that's sort of the problem here.
Even thought the Wii outsold any console to date (well last time I checked anyway) the ones that bought that console aren't the target audience for any of the FPS' or RGP's or RTS' or whatever...or if there are some, well you've most likely got a 360 or PS3 as well and you wouldn't buy the game on the Wii anyway.
And that's what I think pushes third party developers from the Wii.
it's the opposite, the media doesn't support any real audience. have you seen the latest crap coming out? it's for nobody, not even children want to play that crap...as for me, all I got are 3 great games that I played the hell out of, and only one of them is online! I ended up playing gamecube and retro games to keep myself somewhat entertained, games I played 15-20 years ago! sure the wii has hardware limitations, but that is no excuse to sell crap.
and that's all it boils down to, no developer is going to jump on this bandwagon, it stinks!
I championed the Wii for a long time and then I finally bought a 360 (I eventually want all three consoles, but Wii came first because it was cheapest) and saw what real online integration was like. I bought Smash Bros having never played the previous games because all my friends liked it. Then I figured out that playing SSBB online with your friends was kind of a pain. I can turn on my 360 and there my friends are. I know if they are online, I know what they are playing and if I want to join up with them, it's a piece of cake. Online gaming on the Wii is a PITA and third parties know it. First you have to pick the game you might want to play, then you have to load it up, log in to the online portion and finally, check to see if your friends are online and playing. If they are not and playing with them is all you care about, you just wasted 10 minutes of your life. Care to grab Mario Kart and see if they are playing that, next?
Next you have the fact that Nintendo continues to pretend they didn't screw the pooch by not putting a HDD in there of some kind (and the fanboys come out saying "SD Cards are fine"). No, they aren't and third parties know that, too. This is the way Nintendo has always been. Proprietary formats for no reason (N64 carts drove up prices, little disks didn't prevent piracy on the GC), bucking trends that actually make sense just to stand out from the crowd (ignoring online on the GC, ignoring HDDs on the Wii) and then walking around like they are king of the world and can do no wrong (though at least with Wii, they are semi-justified because of the sales numbers).
I love the Wii. Buried in the shovelware is a lot of truly innovative software, but damn it, they need to get with the program. Give us fans the ability to connect easily and give third parties a way to take advantage of that connection. Make it easy for parents to shut off from their kids and quit treating adult gamers like pedophiles in hiding because we want to play Mario Kart with people we know around the country. Stop trying to sell us friend codes and give us a way to build an online community. Then maybe, just maybe, third parties will see it as worthwhile to build quality games instead of shovelware.
I've got all three consoles and as of yet haven't found a replacement for my 360, sorry.(my PS3 has two games, is less than a year old and has spent more time folding than watching Blu-Ray or playing games, and has already failed and is being serviced)..... I wife loves 'My Sims' on the Wii, however, for a simple game with VERY simple graphics, I can still see pauses in the game (similar to what I used to see on my old xbox and ps2 playing the need for speed franchise), to the point they are obvious even to her when she plays.
Don't get me wrong, I like the Wii, but it's niched to a certain market segment that doesn't want top end games with graphics galore in my opinion. They need to realize that 480p is good, but when you have HDTV's being sold out the yin-yang, you have to make a platform that will utilize those screens.
Nintendo having 3rd party game issues? No kidding. They've been that way since at least the N64. I'm not surprised in the least. It's obvious that sales of their last two consoles proved they can't compete in the mainstream gamer market anymore so they changed directions with the Wii to target more casual gamers. That's not necessarily a bad thing, they've tapped into a huge market of non-gamers and have been wildly successful. But it's important to remember that they're not a true competitor to the PS3/360.
The Wii has a very limited lifespan with gamers. By gamers, I mean people who actually like to play consoles and not some 10 year old kid who has ADHD and cant sit still.
Personally, I think the reason this is happening is because Nintendo tried to go double-or-nothing with the Wiimote concept. It takes a significant amount of extra work to port a controller based game to the wii, and this is not worth the financial cost to a majority of developers.
Wii rocks. It's Reggie that needs retooling. He looks like a Mon-chichi in a poorly fitting second hand suit.
I had to go with 3rd parties not trying. Now, they might have good reasons for not trying but that's a different topic.
The simple fact is that Nintendo puts out some really good games so that eliminates all the other choices, except secrecy. While they may be secret about the roadmap and upcoming changes I don't think that is preventing them from putting out good titles.
It's not all doom and gloom. While the Wii could definitely stand to improve its third party offerings, the console is still selling significantly more third party software than the PS3.
You can't have "all of the above" appear under "none of the above"! Just doesn't work.
Nintendo has now ruined my life.
I was obsessed with the wii from the day that issue in 2005 of nintendo power came in. Now i am highly dissipointed.
Sure the wii was great for the 6 months that i played twilight princess for, sure it was great when i got SSBB for the first time. Now, i am bored out of my fucking mind. Nintendo promised us that they would cater to both us Hardcore gamers and to the people like my sister are obsessed with mario kart 64 from nintendo 64. Let me tell you, they skipped our table and catered right to those first-time gamers. Now i can't wait until black friday so i can get me and Xbox 360, with some true hardcore gamer games.
Check mark - Writing good game software is hard.
Check mark - It doesn't run Crysis.
I don't see how Graphics / processing limitations is a legit option.
There were a ton of "Quality" titles last generation in which all 3 systems were constrained by the same or worse graphics limitations. Yet 23%(so far) think this is a reason when its nothing more then a scape goat.
Let's see here:
Peripheral Oriented First Party Strategy - What the hell does that mean anyways? A computer uses a mouse and keyboard, flight stick, steering wheel or any other sorted peripheral INCLUDING gamepads. A console uses a gamepad, steering wheel, light gun, dance pad, guitar, arcade stick, and of course, any other sorted number of peripherals. So the Wii uses this sort of hodgepodge peripheral that essentially combines all of the above (sans a keyboard) and does a pretty decent job of it. So if a developer is having a hard time with the peripheral and/or controller scheme, they really just aren't trying hard enough.
Nintendo's Secrecy - I'm not sure about what types of secrets Nintendo is keeping from 3rd party developers. So there are two possibilities here, 1) Nintendo IS NOT keeping any secrets about their SDK or hardware that would prevent devs from making games of the same caliber as Nintendo. If that's the case, then the devs aren't trying hard enough. OR 2) Nintendo IS keeping secrets about their SDK and hardware so that their titles stand out among the Wii library. If that is the case, then Reggies comment about developers "not getting it" is true but the blame should be placed on Nintendo and not 3rd parties. If Nintendo expects 3rd party developers to be on par with what Nintendo creates, they need the same tools. Nintendo should fully facilitate their 3rd party developers so that they can make the best Wii games possible.
Graphics/Processing Limitations - Ok, so the Wii obviously doesn't stand up to the raw power of the 360 or the PS3, but that shouldn't matter. Anyone concerned with porting games from the PS3/360 over to the Wii is a fool. Hasn't this been proven time and time again? A Wii game should be designed for the Wii. Sorry all you money grubbing investors/marketers/developers/producers but just because you WANT your game to release world wide on every platform on the same day doesn't mean it SHOULD happen. The Wii platform has enough units on the market to justify creating a game exclusively for the Wii. Also, do I really need to point out that great visuals don't make a great game? Has anyone played a little N+ lately? Or how about Katamari Damacy? Both fantastic games that pretty much stand one leg... design.
Lack of serious online functionality - So we reached the first generation of truly online capable consoles, and Nintendo is obviously at the back of the line. But since when has online functionality been mandatory for a game to have good design and be fun to play? Yes, I agree that features like leader boards, achievements, and multiplayer do add to a gaming experience, but if you already own a Wii (like millions do) and a REALLY good game comes out (I mean something on par with what Nintendo releases), there's a good chance that you'll pick up a copy. Even if it is just a single player or party game. So what's stopping developers from making a good game that does not include online functionality? I would venture to say that they just aren't trying hard enough.
I am torn about this. On the one hand I love the idea behind the Wii; on the other, all of my high hopes seem to be languishing in the realm of nonexistence. There is probably plenty of blame to go around, but one of them should deffinitely NOT be graphics. Just because a game is low res, does not meant it can not be fun. Some of the best games have rather simple graphics. Yes, graphics can add to the immersive aspects of a game, but sometimes they can also detract from the experience as well. How many games have you run across that spent so much development time with the graphics, that the gameplay was simply ignored and broken?
Look at the success of flash games. Not many (if any) would stress out the Wii system, but how many of you have accidently lost a few hours trying out an interesting new game on some website?
Nintendo may be to blame for their poor third party relations; but if they have such bad relations with the third parties why are there so many third party DS titles? Third party publishers are also to blame for trying to shoehorn games from other platforms on to the Wii, when Nintendo has said from the start that this was a different kind of platform and not in direct competition with the other consoles. Third party publishers need to recognize that the Wii is not the same as a PS2 or an Xbox. What is needed are games to be built from the ground up tailored to the strengths of the Wii, not ports of other games with waggle controls tacked on. Where the hell is my Fight Night: The Contender? You know the bad ass boxing game that requires that you use two remotes (one in either hand), has an in depth boxing trainer that is accurate enough to teach you real boxing skills, and has an online Fight the World mode? If that game came out would you care if it looked as good as the Fight night on the PS3? No, probably not. You would be spending every minute honing your pugilistic skills so you could beat the snot out of that trash talking, squeaky voiced, ten year old. Or what about a swordfighting game of the same style? How about a martial arts game, maybe with it's own peripherals (that look identical to sparring gear minus the helmet, gloves that would let the game know if it was an open handed attack and boots for kicks)? I have no doubts that these types of games would sell systems like crazy. Wii Sports showed that this type of thing would go over well, so why hasn't it been done? If it is for lack of ideas, I am more than willing to join the payroll (that means YOU Rockstar, EA, Ubisoft, et al. I, Kali4, here by give permission for Engadget to share my contact information with interested game development companies.)
Nintendo has to loosen up a little and actively court the developers. They have lost the star power of their N64 heyday and need to recognize that fact. Third party developers need to get their heads out of their asses too. The Wii has the largest worlwide install base and is not slowing down, it is just stupid to not capitalize on this. Nintendo has created the market, all the developers have to do is capitalize on it. Nintendo needs to help the developers to capitalize on the market by lending them some of their insight into the system and allowing them to keep a larger share of their profits. The Wii is a wondeful system with a unique control scheme that lets you have a tangible input into a virtual space. We should be seeing amazing achievments and advances from the ridiculously creative gaming industry. Just look at the myriad different uses the WiiMote has been put to by people from all walks of life. I love my Wii. I lament that the little white box with so much potential is gathering dust because the experience I bought it for has yet to materialize. I apologize for the long winded diatribe, but you did ask for a discussion in the article. Oh well, I guess I will bide my time with my 360 and it's new dashboard.
The real problem is that the Wii was designed as a fad, not a game system. It is underpowered and lacks a decent feature set(no HD, no real online capabilities, etc). The only thing that is somewhat novel about it is the controller which loses it's appeal after about a week. The sad thing is that Nintendo did such a good job of telling people that they were looking at a marvel of modern technology that everyone started believing it. Great job on their PR departments side. The artificially created supply problem is a great idea. Not only are you telling people that it is a great device, but you create the ultimate keeping up with the Jones' attitude towards your product regardless of it's quality.
Game developers don't get it because there is nothing to get. The games that are being developed can't run on this hardware. And graphics are not the reason. there is not enough processing power for AI either. Nintendo's games are kinda novel but lack any sort of challenge other than motor skills. The same repetitive game over and over again. I personally didn't find their games enjoyable as a kid and they are still extremely lame to me. It is really only a matter of time until everyone wakes up and realizes they bought a pet rock.
The choices are out of order. "All of the above" is under "None of the above". By selecting "All of the above" when listed as they are now you are saying none of the answers were correct. That is the reason "None of the above" is always the last choice. Poll is flawed.
Spy Games: Elevator action. Nuff said... Looks like an adapted and ported N64 game, maybe SNES.
Umm Wii related:
http://digg.com/nintendo/Amazon_UK_Wii_Fit_customer_image_gallery_has_personal_photos
I love how all of the above includes none of the above