Is the Wii a fad? By Don Reisinger of CNET

[Bodhesatva]

naznatips said:

Bodhesatva said:

soccerdrew17 said:
lets look at who has seen success on nintendo consoles. nintendo, ea, sega, and recently ubisoft. ea is special in all areas as their brand can sell games not to mention sims and sports games just plain sell. sega has been embraced by ninty fanboys as they have finally been able to play sega games. ubisoft sold to mostly people who felt like buying a game with their console at launch (other than zelda). this doesnt look good for ninty third party. it looks like their sole savior might be capcom who are making mh3 on wii (and the rest on ps3, 360).

good games have flopped on ninty system so dont even say its cause of sucky devs. and yes, i would buy a wii for only ninty games (well, a ninty game called ssbb)

Can you please tell me precisely which good games have flopped on the Wii? I can name some okay games that flopped, but genuinely good ones? I can think of precisely 0.

Exactly. Any game that's had serious development effort on the Wii has sold well. For example: Rayman Raving Rabbids and Red Steel. Red Steel may have been a bad game but it wasn't half-assed. Ubisoft was rewarded for the money they invested with very solid sales. RRR was a pretty good game and again not half-assed. Other successful Wii games? How about Resident Evil 4 Wii, whicih has already doubled Capcom's shiping projections and looks like it will hit 1 million lifetime worldwide.

Crappy games sell like crap. Wii owners will tell you that 3rd party games to this point have been less than stellar. If you really want to talk about big games flopping, how about The Darkness with over an 8 on gamerankings flopping on the PS3 or 360. Or maybe Stranglehold flopping when it cost 10s of millions of dollars to make. That's what a 3rd party dev should really be concerned about. Spending 10X the amount of money it takes to make a Wii game to make a PS3/360 game that flops can destroy a company. Midway is already going under largely due to this effect.

I just think it's funny that this is the last resort. Oh, well the Wii may sell the best this generation, but 3rd parties will never make anything for it! Yeah, surely that's why nearly every 3rd party in the industry has claimed the Wii is their primary focus this generation. Surely that's why games like Fatal Frame and Monster Hunter are canceling PS3 and 360 versions in order to be made on the Wii. Surely that's why the Wii is getting more games between now and January than the PS3 and 360 combined (granted most of them cash-ins).

Contrary to the beliefs of many on these forums games aren't made instantly. Developers spend 2.5 to 3.5 years on PS3 and 360 games and 1.5 to 2.5 years on Wii games (except Nintendo who can take up to 3.5 on big games like Smash). If developers decide to change focus in the generation say, 6 months into it, how do you expect to see the results of that only 3 months from this announced shift? For that matter, how do you expect to see results of that a year after that announced shift. If you really understand that little about game development you probably shouldn't hang out on game websites that require detailed knowledge of game production and sales.

Rayman: Raving Rabbids
Metroid Prime 3
Resident Evil 4
Trauma Center
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Red Steel
Super Paper Mario
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves

This is a list I quickly compiled of games that fit either of the following descriptions:

1) Represented a significant financial investment

2) Was well recieved critically (for these purposes, I simply took the list of games with a metacritic score over 80)

If I'm missing one, let me know. And now the point: Every single one of these games is (or will be) a million seller, save Trauma Center (Which was still a serious commercial success, as Trauma Center and Cooking Mama are specifically mentioned as saving Majesco as a company) and perhaps Resident Evil 4 (although it may get there -- and it's already doubled Capcom's expected sales). 

So. Anyone? The only games I can think of that remotely fit the descriptions I've mentioned are Madden 08 and Boogie, although neither was well recieved and (presumably) neither was a major investment -- simply because their development cycles were too short to be otherwise.