| NJ5 said: Just one more thing: if you're a third-party developer, I would say, "Show me what makes such a compelling case for the Wii. Here is what makes a compelling case for the Wii: 1- It has nearly 50% of market share. 2- It's the platform which sells the most 3rd party software. 3- It's the platform with the cheapest development costs. 4- Good quality 3rd party titles have had success on the platform. 5- By developing for the Wii, you'll make your company and franchises known to many new gamers, and keep the previously existing ones mindful of them. The alternative is to let Nintendo regain most of the attention and brand recognition. 6- Focusing on the other platforms is proving financially disastrous. Aren't those enough reasons to make a serious effort with Wii development?
|
I in general agreee with your point, but I disagree with a number of the specifics.
1. This means nothing. What really matters is what type of games those people are buying.
2. Now we're getting somewhere. But again, which type of third party titles are selling well? Is it the type of game that id makes? id focuses heavily on online-centric FPSes that push the bar of technology. That doesn't really jibe with what the Wii is offering. Really, only the PC suits them, though they throw off some cheap ps3 and 360 ports for some extra change.
3. This also means nothing. If they only cared about dev costs, why not go with PSP/DS over Wii? Or PSN/XBLA? Or just release a small title via Steam? Audiosurf made a profit the very day it was released!
What really matters is what type of game you're trying to create. After that, you decide if there are any platforms out there that could feasibly support the title while bringing in a profit. Touching yet again on what I said above, id makes games that just don't fit with the Wii.
And even if a company does go ps3/360, they still wouldn't have to utilize what each console has to offer to the max, thus avoiding the huge develoment costs often associated with blockbusters released on the platforms. The Way of the Samurai 3 is currently lthe 17th best selling ps3 title in Japan, and from a technical perspective it looks like a Wii game, only at a higher resolution and with better AA. It probably didn't cost much more than its predecessors to develop, and certainly not much more than a decent Wii game.
5. Agree 100%, provided you actually market the games for the platform *cough*Ubisoft*cough*Capcom*cough*.
6. If you make an abomination like Lair, then yes. But if you manage to pull out a big title, it can be extremely rewarding. The main issue is developers assuming they have to push the consoles to the max in terms of graphics. Gameplay is severly lacking in many titles this gen, and that's an area that hasn't changed much this gen versus the last, outside of the Wii. Developers need to spend more time fine tuning that rather than trying to get as many cycles out of the Cell as they can.
___
In the end, third parties need to take the Wii more seriously, but first they need to determine if the Wii is right for what they're offering, and more importantly, how they can change what they're offering (if need be) to best suite the Wii. It's quite obvious some publishers are struggling with the latter, as shown by EA's disasterous "All Play" series.
