Actually both sets of those aren't being fully stated, as they vary per game (obviously GTA sells for different reasons than Mario Kart, and Wii Sports sells for different reasons than those two). Although immersion and narrative are likely in A/B/C, while fun factor is certainly part of X/Y/Z.

But for a specific example about two elements:

Dead Space was an action game with a lot of horror elements, but allowing you free control gave players the control of how they played. So while there was immersion, there was also the fun factor (I haven't played the game yet, but these are from what has been said about it). Dead Space Extraction (again, what has been said about it) was a slow-paced rail shooter, which was all about immersion (hence the "guided first-person experience" phrase), but since rail shooters are about action, it cost the fun factor. So while it go praise, it only had what the critics liked about the first game, not what actually sold the first game.

EDIT: Now I defended their choice of genre for the Wii at first, since I thought they were just seeing what worked on the Wii. But since they took away what does work for that genre, I won't defend their choice of how to handle the game.

Great write up. While you could have some small quibbles over all your message is pretty dead on. ABC are Elite values where as XYZ are mass consumer values. While i have have been saying this message from Wii launch. I'm hoping yours will take on more footing with the community. Well except this is the internet and your reasoning while valid goes against the Elite who are ABC. Anyways props for a good write up.

BTW, I don't really mind A/B/C. I mind developers putting those above X/Y/Z, not only in the case of denying Wii support because they think Wii can't hand the HD games, but also how it can drag down some HD games. Case in point, when I heard GTA IV was putting a greater emphasis on ABC over XYZ, I was turned off from playing it, even if it otherwise played like the GTA games I loved, same with FFXIII (although I could forgive that if the game actually allowed me to play as Vanille most of the time).

It's a cluster of respones, all relevant to what you are talkg about here.

That's a good article, but I still feel that one of the things hurting the sales of a lot of good/great Wii/DS games is the lack of proper advertising. Games that would or could appeal to the expanded audiences (like Deadly Creatures), fail to garner sales because those people have no way of knowing about the games. Deadly Creatures was pretty much only known to industry insiders, and worse, only to Wii gamers desperately watching for unique games.

Yeah, marketing is an issue as well, although that applies to great games on any system.

I don't have anything else to say except that I agree with you 100%. Is not a secret that game companies are very dettached from the customers and are closed in their greatness bubble.

3 years and we still see the wii treated like a lepper just because the 3d parties don't want to understand what it is the wii user base really about? Is pathetic.

And because they don't undestand what the HD userbase is about. They think because they like graphics as detailed as possible, with loads of narrative and immersion, that the people who buy those games want those as well.