KLXVER said:
Well why didn't they put any GTA game on the Wii? |
I think there are a few reasons why a GTA on Wii was never released. For one thing, GTA IV was out of the question because the system was not powerful enough (a similar situation applies to Switch, where I don't think we will see GTA VI on this platform due to the power discrepancy). This would leave Rockstar with two options: 1) port an older GTA game that does run on Wii 2) Create a new game that exclusively runs on the Wii. But there were problems with both of these strategies. Porting an older GTA game needs justification that gives the market a reason to buy the older game. For example, on PS3/Xbox 360 ports of older PS2/Xbox/GC/Dreamcast games were touted for their graphical upgrades; on Wii, since the graphics were very similar to PS2/GC/Xbox, the main selling point for these older games would be the motion controls. The older GTA games didn't really have mechanics that would work well with the motion control system (in addition, it is possible that the Wii's lack of controller buttons would have hindered a port). As for creating a new game from scratch exclusively for that system, you need a fairly large reason to justify that. The reason for the DS and PSP's GTA games was because of the portability. On Wii, since it was a stationary system, it was likely that they saw that the group of people (young male teens/adults) that typically buy the game already had one of the HD twins, so they did not really need to make an exclusive game for Wii to reach those people.
On Switch I think we can rule out the likelihood that Rockstar will develop a ground up version of GTA because production values on systems like Switch have become far too high to warrant such a move for a single platform. Moreover, it is highly unlikely that GTA VI, a game that will most likely be built around the capabilities of the more powerful PS4, Xbox One, and modern gaming PCs will make it over on the less powerful Switch. However, there is a good case to be made for a port of GTA V (and potentially some of the older games that have been re-released on mobile platforms; since Switch's architecture is so similar to them) for Switch. In the case of GTA V, a Switch port will most likely see, at the very least, a modest improvement in graphics (which if the Switch was a stationary system would not be enough of a reason to port the game over, because again most of the stationary audience would probably have either an older system or a newer more powerful console to play it on), but more importantly it will provide a modern GTA game that can be taken on the go (and this is why a port would make a lot of sense on Switch; more so than it would on a system like Wii).The portability combined with good growth in the installbase (at least thus far) should increase the likelihood of ports of these older games.
