The Industry being stubborn

[mike_intellivision]

Reading all of the posts here -- and all of the "news" on the Internet (including comments by "industry insiders"), you would think the Wii sold like the PS2 over the holiday season rather than cracking all sales records known to mankind.

A lot of people in the industry do not like the Wii. They don't understand it. It does not play under the same rules as the previous consoles. What makes this even worse is that they thought they understood it (knowing it was something different) and that did not work either.

Basically, Wii owners like rich and varied experiences. Why else would Just Dance become a hit.

But they do not see the need -- like other game players -- to have the same experience multiple times. Look at sports titles for example. Tiger Woods 2010 is hailed at the best golf game ever, but it has not sold its predecessors. One reason may be that many who wanted to play PGA golf saw no need to upgrade. (Another may be Tiger's own behavior as the sales of all three versions are down). In other words, sequels don't do as well as one would think (SMG2 may really be a litmus test for this).

This can also be extended to genres. No matter how well it is done, the demand for ANOTHER rail shooter on the Wii is just not there (in other words, no one was clamoring for Dead Space Extraction after 2 HotD and 2 RE games). This also explains why mini-game collections have gone from must have to meh.

But while Wii owners like different, they do not like too different. In other words, games too off-the-wall (Deadly Creatures) or too violent (Madworld) are just not going to sell well on the Wii.

Wii owners also resent being treated as second class citizens. Stripped down or long-delayed games are generally not going to fly.

So what must third parties do. They must make games that are fun, that work to the strength of the Wii (mixed button pushing and some motion), and that use the graphics capacity of the system (the GC had good looking games). With the balance board you could make an interactive FPS for example. Or you could make a high-end adventure experience based upon many of the existing AAA series found on other platforms.

The key to doing this is to make an effort and do it right. Wii owners don't necessarily hang out in Wii chat rooms. But they do learn what is not good. And they don't buy it. Not even Nintendo's name could rescue DK Barrel Blast for example.

Mike from Morgantown