The Industry being stubborn

[Reasonable]

MaxwellGT2000 said:

Reasonable said:

MaxwellGT2000 said:

 

Heh that's not true at all, hell even the DS has had 2 Assassin's Creed games.  I mean you want more reinforcement of that look at Army of Two the 40th day or Dantes Inferno both of which have or will have a PSP version. 

Demographics follow games not consoles, its simple, you put the games that gamers want on consoles they sell, people have gone out and bought a Wii just for a few games, but they would buy more if more was put there, promoted it was there, and shown to be something worth buying other than the rubbish that third parties throw together and call a "real effort"

I'm not here to say "all games should come to Wii" I could really give a shit, I have all the consoles, I can buy them where they land, hell most of them like Assassin's Creed, Army of Two, etc, just aren't that great, but those types of titles have always been around, they are the life blood for most companies, you put out an average game, its said to be special, its not but it still sells, and you're onto the next game. 

But if that's going to be your plan for making money they can put it on the Wii for a fraction of that cost, hype it, get the gamers all excited, put out some nice ads, tell them why they should buy it, and like most games it'll sell, there has yet to be a real effort like that on Wii from third parties, everyone sees it, everyone knows it, but everyone wants to blame something else.  Hell we're in 2010 and there's been like a total of two Game Informer cover ads for Wii games, with the whole "info blowout" and such, first one being Red Steel that sold to gamers despite being an average game at best, and now Epic Mickey. Companies simply aren't putting in the time nor the effort both in marketing and in games on Wii and it's painfully obvious, but when they release their financial reports and they're still bleeding money it's also obvious their current plans aren't working right.

That sir is why I don't buy the excuse, cause that's what it is.

I'll say it one more time, then we're going to have to agree to disagree.

If certain games were put on Wii, advertised, hyped, etc. as you say I am very sure they would still fail to sell to expectations and would fall far short of their HD versions.  Note again I'm talking about the specific types of games third parties are focusing on for HD consoles vs Wii as that seems to be the thrust of this post - why aren't the publishers/developers focusing on Wii for those titles?

So they don't bother, apart from the odd experiment to see what happens.

According to this site CoD:WaW sold around 1.5 on Wii and Reflex less than 1M - that's not good enough given the install base vs the sales on HD consoles.

Also, the other point I'm making you seen to have missed is many of those developers clearly see the Wii as too weak.  IW and many others have made it clear they're not interested.  For them it doesn't meet their minimum specs for what they think they need to meet their goals.

On the other hand, look at what something like Wii Music can sell, or Mario, or Carnival games - or Force Unleased as you mention.  I just don't see a lot of those developers trying the Wii, although clearly some publishers, like Activision, will try getting others to port to the console to see if they can maximise profits, but that seems to be a minority activity at the moment, and I don't see it catching on.

The PSP is getting attention as a handheld (one of only two on the market of note - ignorning iPhone for a moment) and I think is a red herring in your arguement as the handheld market isn't the same as the home consoles and efforts on it should be viewed in a different light as I believe they represent a different strategy.

Now, as I said in an earlier post, when Natal and Arc/Gem/Whatever hit, and the option is there to release a title on all three platforms using motion controls, then we might see more support across all three, but until then it's very unlikely.  Post those releases I expect to see developers try and leverage motion controls across the board - but again I doubt we'll see that touch the very large AAA franchises that focus on HD consoles, and of course with Nintendo holding the keys to their franchises on Wii the basic divide will remain in place.

Anyway, I guess we just see it differently.

Your argument is based on "it won't happen" despite no one actually trying to do any of what I've stated.  That's not a very good argument until someone actually does try and then fails, and will be the day I shut my trap about it

As for CoD sales, they're much in line with last gen CoD sales, you know back when it wasn't advertised and hyped for consoles, like I've been arguing this entire time.  You know if you put effort into marketing it could sell.  Right now the CoD games on Wii are selling on name and the fact that they are good games, you really can't call someone out on a red herring and then do the same thing yourself because the Wii versions were put into a drastically different situation vs the other versions.

As for IW saying they're not working on the Wii cause of specs... well thats really just complete fabrications... they were the original ones to start porting the CoD4 engine to Wii, that sounds like development to me... they didn't have it done in time for CoD4 so they handed the engine to Treyarch to finish up and put their W@W game on, then they gave them a good budget to port over CoD4 while IW worked on MW2... it all makes sense from a development stand point, they're building a base on Wii but because of issues it missed the CoD4 hype train.

As for handhelds, its all apart of business I'm not talking markets, I'm talking why make a game that is basically like developing a ground up PS2 game for a system that really doesn't sell software that well, and if they're going to do that it only takes a little more effort to port it up to give themselves more profit and start to build userbases on Wii.  It really doesn't make sense and that was the point I made not some "well handhelds are different so they should be viewed in a different light" when people do everyday when a game for the Wii comes out and becomes a 100k "flop" but then sells a million + and has more million sellers then say PSP or PS3...

There's a giant pink elephant in the room that no company wants to address, it's there, it's large, it's obvious, they're losing a shit ton of money, and yet they still want to say it doesn't exist.

I take your point, but I bet it still won't happen!  I'd say it's pretty clear the die has been cast in this area.  

Infinity Ward

http://kotaku.com/5396559/infinity-ward-wii-cant-deliver-our-multi+platform-experience

Epic

http://www.destructoid.com/epic-s-rein-m-rated-wii-games-are-huge-financial-flops--141140.phtml

 

Now of course in any industry never doesn't mean never, but I think it's clear that in general most of the developers producing big hits for the HD consoles aren't falling over to support the Wii, and it's also clear they seriously doubt the sales of their titles on the platform.

I do too, obviously, but of course can't prove anything unless they try and fail as you say, but based on the sales of respective games, particularly by rating, I'm feeling pretty sure that the result is more likely to be a failure than a success (comparative to the potential sales on the HD consoles).

I just don't believe, and clearly neither do a lot of developers, that there really are huge numbers of Wii owners demanding certain titles vs the known genres that sell well on the Wii, or that millions of young male teenagers are looking at their Wii and wondering where the Epic, IW, Rockstar big titles are.  I think you represent a minority of Wii owners, TBH, and are more likely to remain unsupported than supported.  Note I'm not gloating or even saying this is right - it's just how I read the market and I don't see much chance for major changes.

Neither do I (or these developers) feel they are losing a shit ton of money.  MW2 is well over 10M, Gears 1 &2 has a huge haul, Uncharted 1 & 2 have a huge haul (going by Sony not VG), GTAIV is well past 10M, etc. etc. and those titles and many others I firmly believe would be more or less wasted appearing heavily cut down graphically on the Wii or adapted to its controllers.

So I'm still of the 'fragmented market' mindset, where different companies are going to bet on different consoles for the most part leaving this topic open until the end of the gen, whereupon, if the Wii has remained ignorned in the same vein, I'll claim victory by default.

The Wii is a huge success, and clearly Nintendo gave themselves the larger install base and great SW sales with the choices they made, but at the same time those choices also eliminated the chance for great SW sales and support in certain genres and areas, and I don't think that's going to change.

EDIT : one final point.  I'm not really sure Nintendo themselves would be that keen on a huge marketing push and hype for games like MW2 or Gears on the Wii.  The Wii is very, very heavily marketed as a family console, with neat familes of 4 or nice neat friends in groups of 4, enjoying it together having fun.  It's whole consistent image, I doubt, could easily support a major push for the console as being home to heavily online, competitive, violent games.  It just doesn't fit and I believe that's also part of the issue.