I think even the most diehard Nintendo fanboy must admit that their current system has a very limited amount of mature content games when compare to their HD cousins, Nintendo have rarely breaked away from their 'PG' approach for first party games and third party developers are simply not delivering.
Lets speculate on the reasons:
1) Third parties recognise that the demographic audience for mature content games are simply not there, most wii owner are either younger children or more 'family oriented' adults. Everyone who wants to play mature content games either have a HD console in addition to a Wii or simply don't have a Wii at all; since the financial incentive are not their, developers and publishers are simply not pushing it.
- This seems the most likely reason from a cursery glance at the top selling Wii and HD console games, and its also the answer I least like as it means a more or less permanent drought of mature content game on the most successful home console this gen. One can also argue that developers are simply not giving the Wii a chance, the myth that mature games doesn't sell keeps the blockbusters away and without those blockbusters Wii doesn't have any successful titles to draw reference from and thus perpetuating the vicious cycle. Verdict: terminal.
2) The Wii hardware is 'inferior' when compare to the HD console, the nature of a mature content game require 'authentic' and 'realistic' graphic that the Wii has trouble generating.
- A flimsy excuse that reeks of fanboyism, but there is a spark of truth in the statement. The Wii's graphic capability IS inferior to the PS360, but this shouldn't neccessarily discount it from mature content games. If such game could exist on the PS2 then they could on the Wii, the question here is if developers feel the same way (or rather, if developers think their audiences feel the same way). Verdict: terminal.
3) Developers and Publishers have been caught flat footed by the Wii's runaway success, it was not until it became clear that the Wii had became the current gen's market leader did development of games truly began and 2009 will be the years to see some of these blockbusters come to light.
- Monster Hunter 3 is the light at the end of the tunnel, the question here is; is other developers and publishers going to follow or is it a one off occurence that capitalised on the large install base of a system in conjunction with a hugely popular franchise? Verdict: termporary.
4) Nintendo is intentionally keeping the majority of the mature content game from the Wii in an effort to keep a 'clean image' with its target audience.
- Laughable but someone is bound to bring it up just for the conspiracy thoery factor alone.
What is your opinion? Are their other reasons you can think of? Or am I wrong entirely and their is a plethora of mature content game on the Wii that I've never heard of?
To remind people, I am basing my finding on a limited knowledge of the Wii library, I am not claiming that Wii does not have mature content games, just that it does not have anywhere near as much as its HD competitors. Having look at the holiday lineup of 08, I don't think it's unjustified.
