| Tuanniez said: 1 in 5 games make a profit? That's actually pretty good. Cause i know that not 1 in 5 games are worth buying. |
Haha. Touché.
Personally, I'd say it's less than one in ten, and I buy more games than most people.
I think the point of this post is another allusion to the Wii and its third party support. As in this normal trend of game publishing, which hasn't been any different the last two or so generations in terms of the percentage of successful, profit making titles, should somehow mean that all third party developers should be focusing development on the Wii because development costs far less and because it represents half the console market.
But, not everyone wants to publish their best games on the weakest hardware, and not every developer is taken with motion controls (that would be the end consumers who love the Wii).
Non standard controls cut both ways. If a developer is publishing games for any platform other than, or in addition to the Wii, it means that multi-platform game was originally designed with a standard game pad in mind. Adding motion functions after that design process has been completed does not instantly improve the game. It's the main reason why motion controls in most multi-platform games feel tacked on. It's because they are.
"But you can use a standard controller with the Wii?" some are already thinking. Yes, but it's not the standard controller, and more importantly, nobody bought a Wii so they could use a standard controller "to make the games play properly" for games built around game pad play. And if you're one of the motion control pundits who think all games in the near future will be designed around Wii-based controls, I'll just say it's very unlikely and let history be the judge.
The best way to develop for the Wii, is to start with a concept that relies upon the control scheme rather than use it simply because some users find motion controls a novel approach to control mechanics.
Unfortunately, most games for the Wii that take this approach to design are party games or simple games aimed at a casual audience (the majority of the Wii user base), with low budgets and a quick turnaround time.
A high budget, 2-3 year project for the Wii is only likely to be seen directly from Nintendo and its studios. It makes little sense for most third party publishers unless they want to develop Nintendo-like games that aren't actually a part of the Nintendo game world. And that's still far from any guarantee it will sell like a Nintendo published title.
