rajendra82 on 07 January 2009
| bdbdbd said: @Picko: You jump into conclusions in a little too straightforward way, or atleast look at the thing from the wrong direction. But, you did point out the developers/publishers mindset extremely well. Even when graphics aren't the reason to pick Wii over 360 or PS3, it doesn't mean it wouldn't be a reason to pick a game by graphics inside the platform in the same way it is with PS360. Also, you should notice how Nintendo is dealing with graphics; Wii Sports/Play/Fit which are simple games have simple graphics, while SMG, which is propably the most complex 1st party Wii game, has the most impressive graphics on the system. Now 3rd parties look at Wii Sports is a game that sells and its graphics level and assume people buy games with the same graphical level, which is true up to this point, and then they look at SMG and see another game that sells, so they take graphics from Wii Sports and put them in a complex game like SMG. Now, on paper this may look like a win-win situation, but in reality they make a game too complex for the Wii Sports audience and graphically too shitty for the audience who would like more complex games. As you mentioned production values, think production values in the sense as it forming a square. One side is graphical level and the other is the games complexity. When both of the values are drawn so, that the squares all sides are equal, you basically have a winning formula. If you increase the value of complexity, you need to increase the value of graphics etc. You can also notice people to complain the games on HD consoles being too short, due to the twisted production value relation. What the values are, is just something that bases itself into the experience of the publishers/devs. |
Great analogy of a square. Here is the problem though. The area of the square equals the game budget. A low complexity game with low graphics (e.g., Petz series) has a low development budget, and there are plenty of those on the Wii. A higher complexity game with high graphics (e.g., SMG) natually requires a large budget and those are far rarer for this reason alone. Some developers have also brought in higher complexity games with low graphics (e.g. No More Heroes, numerous PS2 ports). What we are missing are the low complexity games with high graphics. Why couldn't Nintendo have pushed the graphics of Animal Crossing City Folk up quite a bit? Why can't we get some of those graphically wow games with short campaigns?
