| ultraslick said: It is a problem , its that simple, and that is sad because there is a lot of un-tapped potential for the wii. But as you sort of said, with the runaway success that the wii is, and the money dev's can make, why would they ever bother to tap that potential? |
I think one of the biggest problems in not just the video game industry, but most industries in general, is that publishers play the numbers game too much. Spend X on development, sell Y copies, make Z dollars. And that's all they consider when deciding what kind of game to create or how much effort they're willing to spend on said game.
The truth is, there are good reasons to spend the additional effort. Building a good reputation for a development studio or publisher is one. Giving the developers a real sense of pride in their accomplishment is another. Developers who really care about their games will work twice as hard on their next game. Yet another good reason is userbase expansion. If you can crank out a solid AAA title, you'll increase the appeal of the target platform. More consoles will be sold, and your future games will reach a wider audience.
The problem is that publishers (and companies in general) always seem to be locked into the short-term mindset, and only want to bother analyzing things they can easily quantify. It's difficult to predict how many more Wiis Nintendo would sell if 3rd parties were cranking out AAA titles, or how much interest there will be in Elebits 2 if you spend some more time working on Elebits 1. But difficult or not, publishers ignore these factors at their own peril.
