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jammy2211 on 06 January 2009
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Squilliam said:
jammy2211 said:
Squilliam said:
jammy2211 said:
It's all pretty true.

Whether upping their marketing budget and trying to take on Nintendo (And supposed other third parties) on a saturating market with a growing second hand market is viable remains to be seen.

Third parties will be upping their anti as the userbase grows, what sort of software this restuls in, and whether it reaps the benefits some would like to believe the Wii offers remains to be seen.

The games which will be most heavily advertised are the ones believed to be able to be enjoyed by the highest proportion of Wii users. So yes, the games that do hit that mark will probably be wide appeal, excellent titles that will probably sell a load of copies (If they judge it right).

 

 It's just whether third parties are going to be quick to put up the money to research the software developement / marketing and then market it. I'm sure they'll all dip their toe beyond their current approach of releasing games and hoping to get sales from the core audience via strong press reception and from the expanded audience by shelf-shopping buyers.

 I'm quite looking forward to it really, companies trying to actually take Nintendo down at what they seem to do best. I can't see many third parties having a greatly positive experience from upping their marketing and trying to get the gigantic sales of Nintendo's big hitters, but the financial benefits that potentially reaps are hard for them to ignore.

 When you start thinking about third party release like this, scale though, it does put the whole Wii developement costs being cheaper argument type thing as irrellevent. Hmm.

 

What do Halo 3, Call of Duty IV and Gears of War 2 have in common?

1. They are all easy to play.

2. They reach a wide audience otherwise they wouldn't sell, so wide appeal.

3. They are all considered top of their class in game design.

4. They have a big name, but in every case its well earnt.

5. They are some of the most "casual" shooters on the market!!!!

Any one of those games would sell on any platform you put them on because they are fundamentally right. You don't need niche software on the Wii, you just need FUN software. Core/Casual is B$, really now... Put that away. There are people who will enjoy the game and there are people who will not, those are the only two categories which really matter.

They don't need to beat Nintendo, they just need to release games that a lot of people will enjoy so a lot of people will buy them. Development cost has never been an issue anywhere... Talent sells games. Its not about attracting the bottom dollar, it has always been about attracting the best talent. Btw if you have an Xbox 360 go play Castle Crashers! (Best 1200 points I ever spent)

 

  I think that's far too simplistic view and third parties can't really build a business model on something like that, not to mention tackle spending millions upon millions of dollars of making, researching and marketing a game expecting a return. Also I think the 'casual' shooter market you describe, is completely different to what people generalize the casual Wii market.

 And no, they don't need to beat Nintendo, but they need to compete with them and many others. Making a game fun doesn't mean it'll sell, marketing it with lots of money doesn't mean it'll sell. You're living in this dream world where the best games sell the best and companies can just spend all their money on making games as best as possible.

 And I have nay Xbox 360, albeit a quick look at castle crashes on wikipedia makes me wish I did.