Key Weakness of the Wii - Graphic Capabilites?

[noname2200]

Good thread fkusmot. If you don't mind though, I'd like to approach it from a slightly different direction. I'm going to say that amongst a certain segment of consumers the Wii's graphics are its greatest weakness, but that for the most part the Wii's graphics are one of its greatest STRENGTHS.

Allow me to explain. The Wii is stronger than the original X-Box when it comes to graphics, but not by a monumental amount. This may sound like it's bad for consumers: you're "settling" for a product that's clearly inferior in one area. And yet because the Wii requires so much less from developers, consumers ultimately benefit from the lower development times and costs that the Wii offers over the HD consoles.

I've already written a massive (if still incomplete) post on why HD costs are going to be the death of our industry, and I believe that by letting developers continue to make games at reasonable prices the Wii is ensuring that more studios continue to survive and be independent, which brings us more games and more ideas, which means that in the end we the consumers benefit. This isn't much of a stretch: companies like Hudson, Marvelous, and Red Fly have come right out and said that they simply could not have afforded to develop console games were it not for the Wii, because they can't afford to gamble $25 million+ per game. In other words, the Wii's "weak" graphics are the only thing that lets small and mid-sized developers continue to make new console games. That lower price tag, I'll submit, also means developers won't be as shy as taking risks (Boom Blox and Zak and Wiki simply could not have happened on the HD systems: they would not have been approved by the bean counters).

Further benefitting the consumer is the fact that Wii games take, on average, one year less to complete, which means we're getting the games quicker than they would come out on the HD systems. The release schedule has already proven this: where few thought that the Wii was worth developing for during its first nine months, most publishers now have Wii games scheduled for release in the near future. That's a turnaround that simply couldn't have happened on the HD consoles, at least not with the same speed.

I'm actually less into the argument that developers will be "forced" to rely on gameplay with Wii games because it can't compete graphically: art direction matters more to how a game looks than anything else, as games like Mushroom Men seem to prove. Add in the fact that most third-parties are pretty lazy, and that strength seems to melt away entirely. Still, because the Wii's graphics mean that gaming companies can deliver timely games while not being driven out of business, I'd put them down as one of the Wii's greatest (although not only) strength.