Tyler B fears Nintendo Wii will dilute PS3, Xbox360 quality

[Bodhesatva]

Smash_Brother said:

ckmlb said:

A better argument would be after making garbage commercial movies, big movie companies rarely make deep movies and this is very very true. Be they targetted towards men or women, movies are generally a crapfest with big name actors attached to them...

 

...which is why ticket sales have been in a steady decline for years.

There ARE good movies being made, but generally by independent movie companies who never get a chance to shine outside the Sundance Film Festival.

Movie distribution is basically a cartel: it's either their way or the highway, and if you don't want your movie to be commercialized garbage, it's the highway.

The movie industry is an excellent example of an industry that is cannibalizing itself from the inside out. Lured by the prospect of quick cash-ins, Hollywood prefers to make garbage because it's cheaper, easier and they still make money.

They've forgotten the fact that they'll make infinitely MORE money if they actually make a movie good and give it a chance to sequel a few times.

The same is gradually coming to pass in the gaming industry: devs will go for the quick cash-ins instead of taking the time to make great games if people buy the cash-ins at the same amount they buy the great games.

But blaming Nintendo for this is just ridiculous. The industry WAS stagnating before the Wii came along. It was either expand the market or it becomes a niche and then everyone makes less money across the board.

Actually, Smash, rather than argue the point, I'd just say I think Ckmlb's analogy is totally off. I support the Wii precisely because I believe that it moves us more towards those "deeper" movies, and away from the garbage commercial movies.

Garbage commercial movies are high budget action flicks, usually specifically bent towards 15-25 year old males. PS3 and 360 are about high budget action games, usually specifically bent towards 15-25 year old males. Independant movies target adults and have much lower budgets. The Wii games have lower budgets and much more frequently target adults.

Ckmlb, it sounds like we want the same thing, but see this going different routes. Gears of War, God of War, Metal Gear Solid: these are akin to the action movies of our time -- lots of violence, big budgets, big graphics and special effects, and killing, killing killing the whole way through. These are games that are clearly aimed at young boys. The Wii is targetting adults and women, and using lower budgets to do it. We need more games like The Sims and Cooking Mama if we are ever going to see the target audience of independant films -- well educated adults -- and we need to get away from games like Gears of War, that are built around violence and space alien invasions.

So again, Ckmlb, I totally agree that I want adults to play video games too. I want to capture that "independant film" market. And guess what? Metal Gear, Gears of War etc. clearly are not doing it. Metal Gear Solid IS that garbage, big budget film in your analogy (a good one like Spider Man 1/2, but still just an action movie). The Wii is being hailed precisely because it captures that adult market. If you want to know why I seem to favor the Wii, it's because I can see myself playing it when I'm 35, and I can't imagine playing another game where I blow up space aliens or super villains or clones for much longer. It's simply too puerile, and the dialogue too heavy handed.