superchunk said:
Its not free to add another port. Let's make a pretend timeline for developing say... CODBLOPS2. October 2010 BLOPS is successfully released. Part of the team continues working on title for a few months to patch and finalize downloadable content. By Jan 2011, the leaders of team have already begun storyboarding the development of the sequel to launch in 2012. Managers have defined development budgets based on past COD games with resources for the HD version (PC/PS360) and SD version (Wii). All that is done VERY early and WAY before they had any idea of WiiU development needs, kits, SDKs etc. 2011 Teams roll off of BLOPS patch/DLC and begin working the now finalized story and requirements for BLOPS2. This consumes 100% of their manpower as its focusing on the game with minor testing to make sure new stuff is fully workable on the various platforms. Very late in year they get initial kits from Nintendo, probably with big push from Nintendo ($$) to get game on platform. Managers have to find a whole new set of funds and as well as entirely NEW team members to start looking at WiiU, its SDK and hardware. Determine how much rework is needed to port the base HD game over. This is not trivial or easy. It takes a lot of money (likely paid by Nintendo as they would want this big 3rd party holiday game) and human resources that who nows if the devs even have available as its unlikely there are people just sitting around waiting to do something. 2012 Teams are moving into last 25% of game and a lot of time is focused on testing as well. The new seperate team has determined it will take relatively moderate to minimal effort to port base game (evidenced by what many other devs said). The go ahead is given probably Feb/Mar. Then they have to play catch-up to other teams. They would need to have a final beta build done and ready for testing by no later than the end of September. While others likely had that a month earlier. Also keep in mind the porting process is not the same as PS360. They also had to include visual usage of the gamepad's screen and take into account the difference in base architecture from CPU heavy design to GPU heavy design. New or heavily tweaked engine.
Summary, these teams had at least a year less overall time to create a game and the managers had to find available development resources and money for the port well after all that was already determined for the game. There's a lot of cost analysis that goes into that, especially when considering its entirely new hardware and there will be a learning curve. We got Ubisofts big games because they wanted to be a primary partner with Nintendo as well as likely some share resources from Nintendo. We got EAs sports because they have to put them out on every console due to contractural obligation. We got MassEffect3 and COD likely due to money paid by Nintendo to help with development. We're getting exclusive rayman, lego city, bayonetta2, and likely others due to Nintendo's efforts on sharing resources and money. DS2 may never come as well as big games like GTA5 due to too many cost related factors, timeline, and frankly no human resources available at the company to do the work even if they wanted to. The only multi's we have a chance with will be late 2013 and beyond titles and only those Nintendo probably helps with or published by Ubisoft as they've had the most experience so far with the hardware/SDKs. E3 2013 will help define WiiU's future with 3rd parties. We should hear any final current gen ports by then as well as the beginning of next-gen ports and exclusives. My only hope is that Nintendo doesn't focus much if any time on titles like WiiU fit or some other casual types of games. They need to focus on their one big IP for late (Retro's title) as well as give 3rd parties a solid presentation (if they do come). Especially considering MSony will have a lot of nextgen talk. |
that.post.was.epic.
