By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - The meltdown of Wii haters continues

2008: Nintendo Waves Goodbye to Gamers

Staff Blog entry on April 23rd, 2008

This week we’re going to see just how divided the market has become over the past two years. Two massive titles both being released at around the same time, neither of which will impact the sales of the other in the slightest. This week we see the first clear-cut fork in the road: GTA IV shows us the future of hardcore gaming machines, Wii Fit shows us the future of an entirely new direction in gaming which has become so complex and massive that the term ‘casual’ just doesn’t seem to do it justice anymore.

A week from now a large proportion of the gaming world will be tucking in to a healthy portion of Rockstar’s latest behemoth GTA IV. The hype’s becoming unbearable - even I’m hugely excited, despite having had no love for either GTA III or San Andreas. In terms of worldwide impact in retrospect it’s going to make Halo 3’s launch look like the kind of event that has more food laid out than booze… You know, the sort of party where you spend half the evening nursing a plastic cup of punch trying to brew up an excuse of why you suddenly have to leave whilst your overzealous host orders everyone to get ready to play charades whilst sliding another S-Club 7 CD into the stereo.

So in the gaming world everyone and their dog is going to be playing GTA, that much is clear. But what happens after that? Halo 3’s lifespan was short lived - being quickly usurped by the rather excellent COD4 - but is there anything that could possibly take gamers’ attention away from GTA in the near future?

The fallout is going to be tremendous: how can any release hope to stand tall in the shadow of GTA IV? How long before gamers are ready to start playing something new again? One month? Two? Even triple-A titles such as Haze might fade away without a bang, simply because GTA will be dominating minds and disc-trays of hardcore gamers the world over. At the same time on the other side of the spectrum, how can anything hope to take casual gamers’ attention away from the frenzied word of mouth caused by Wii Fit’s glossy coverage?

The crossover of hardcore and casual gamers between the two console types is going to wane soon enough: whilst all of us had hope for the Wii because of the potential the wiimote provided, it’s been almost two years now and there are still practically no games that make good use of the Wii’s strengths. Sure, we get thrown a bone once in a while- but Mario Kart and Smash Bros. don’t really cut it (the former in particular seems to have ramped up the luck factor considerably, in what I suspect is a planned mechanic to add more of a Wii-sports feel of the playing field being level regardless of skill). Don’t get me wrong - it’s still a fun little console - but as a primary console for serious gamers it’s simply never going to be able to stand up to either the 360 or the PS3.

Movement based controls are fun, but we’ve yet to see them used in a truly innovative way. But then, why should developers bother to work on such complexities when the average Wii user just wants to wave their arms about for twenty minutes? Anyone who still believes these magical games for gamers are going to materialize need to take the rose tinted glasses off and face up to the facts - Nintendo have been sailing their ship in a different direction for some time, and they’re showing no intention of turning it around any time in the near future… Oh, and there’s no point in third party developers making games for gamers on the Wii, because they just don’t sell.

Millions of people shooting people and stealing cars. Millions of entirely different people doing aerobics and waving their arms about. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future.

Matt works with a number of publishers as an independent research analyst for one of the world’s leading videogame market research companies.
In his spare time he writes articles and records podcasts for DarkZero.

http://darkzero.co.uk/blog/2008-nintendo-waves-goodbye-to-gamers/ 



Around the Network

Was your sig from the 1st week of January?
The memories...



End of 2009 Predictions (Set, January 1st 2009)

Wii- 72 million   3rd Year Peak, better slate of releases

360- 37 million   Should trend down slightly after 3rd year peak

PS3- 29 million  Sales should pick up next year, 3rd year peak and price cut

I don't know about this one...I don't see it as wii hate but as close to facts as you can get. Other than the "3rd parties don't sell" comment.

I 100% agree with this paragraph...

"Movement based controls are fun, but we’ve yet to see them used in a truly innovative way. But then, why should developers bother to work on such complexities when the average Wii user just wants to wave their arms about for twenty minutes? Anyone who still believes these magical games for gamers are going to materialize need to take the rose tinted glasses off and face up to the facts - Nintendo have been sailing their ship in a different direction for some time, and they’re showing no intention of turning it around any time in the near future…"



Hopefully Kid Icarus, Animal Crossing, Pikmin 3, and Disaster: DoC will use the Wii's strengths in brand new ways... We'll have to wait and see...



 

 

 

Guitar Hero 3/ Smash Hits
bigjon said:
Was your sig from the 1st week of January?
The memories...
Can't recall, it was the last time ioi updated the banners, I just haven't been motivated to change my sig.

Around the Network
disolitude said:
I don't know about this one...I don't see it as wii hate but as close to facts as you can get. Other than the "3rd parties don't sell" comment.

I 100% agree with this paragraph...

"Movement based controls are fun, but we’ve yet to see them used in a truly innovative way. But then, why should developers bother to work on such complexities when the average Wii user just wants to wave their arms about for twenty minutes? Anyone who still believes these magical games for gamers are going to materialize need to take the rose tinted glasses off and face up to the facts - Nintendo have been sailing their ship in a different direction for some time, and they’re showing no intention of turning it around any time in the near future…"
Is this a fact? Because I only like motion controls for certain aspects of games...  And the Casuals also get tired of it after a while, so I'd have to dissagree with this...

 



 

 

 

Guitar Hero 3/ Smash Hits

Who knew that one NPD report could cause so many meltdowns?



wow there is so much wii hate today why?



Nintendo Network ID: Sherlock99

Nintendo seems to have offended alot of people. They need to apologise or at least give these "hardcore gamer" bloggers some of their immense profits to apease them.



Biggest Pikmin Fan on VGChartz I was chosen by default due to voting irregularities

Super Smash Brawl Code 1762-4158-5677 Send me a message if you want to receive a beat down

 

Omg so many wii hate threads. They are just jealous of nintendo's super good money making skillz.