Harmonix on Wii: It Needs a Hard Driv

[alpha_dk]

mrstickball said:

thetonestarr said:
*snip*

*snip*

 So to me, atleast, it seems like Nintendo could fix these problems oh-so easily:

#1. Increase the initial size of the SD card included with each Wii to atleast 4gb = more revenue from DLC, VC, and WiiWare

#2. Implement 1st and 3rd party benchmarks for online components, like Microsoft has. Nintendo has a treasure trove of coolness with the Internet, Forecast, and Mii channels. Why not ask devs to use more of it in games?

#3. Hire a 3rd party company, or internally, to help Nintendo with it's online capabilities. This way, Nintendo isn't seen "lagging behind" the Big 2 for online.

As much as people want to excuse Nintendo from the DLC-Less Rock Band, I tend to NOT think that Harmonix and EA just want to magically gimp Rock Band on the Wii - which if handled right, could easily outsell the Xbox 360 and PS3 version combined. It has the market, and power to - look at GH3, and the uber-casual games. Yet if it doesn't, it lands squarely on the gimped version of Rock Band, which again, do you think would be in Harmonix's best interest to gimp? Atleast with the PS2 version, there's absolutely no hardware specs to allow for proper network intergration, and add-on content since no built-in storage system exists. But the Wii does. It's next gen. Next gen is supposed to be better in every way, but if your getting last-gen content, and "real next-gen controlls", it's not very fair to the consumer, is it?

With your numbered points, I agree completely. Except for #1, all of them are one-time (well, not really, but basically don't increase with the number of consoles) costs that could easily be made up with the increased revenue from the markets added, and #1, while it won't necessarily add to revenue, there is a good chance that combined with #2 and #3 would end up as a positive.  I would be fine if #1 were replaced by "A bit more useful SD card integration".

 With your unnumbered point, I disagree wholeheartedly.  We've already seen IN GAME (if you include japan) all the features that Harmonix says they can't do because of Nintendo.  There is blame to be had for this, and it lies solely on Harmonix putting their name on a sub-standard release of their title.  All your blame-game is doing is obscuring the FACT that we've seen all these features before, and Harmonix saying they can't be done is really only saying "We would rather make a cheap port of a game we already have than provide the best user experience we can to our customers."

 If that's how Harmonix wants to be known these days, then fine; they can be welcome to the assuredly vast numbers of Wii owners that will buy their product anyways.  I will be investing my money in companies that seem willing to put some effort into their last-gen ports (read: Capcom.  Even though RE4:Wii was a cheap cashin port, I liked it more than any other RE game because of the controls, and Okami really should have been on the Wii to begin with [control-wise]).  Even though I am getting a cheap cash-in, I give many many more props to Capcom for these ports than Harmonix does for Rock Band, as they tried to add value to my purchase whereas Harmonix seems willing to offer a sub-standard release rather than please their customers.

This goes double for not allowing the use of GH3 controllers, if those rumors are true.  That alone gets waaaay more ire from me than the DLC issue, as I could live without DLC and online play, but I refuse to buy different peripherals that do basically the same thing.