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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens speaks out about the Wii

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/codemasters-ceo-doubts-wii-sustainability-envisions-wii-2/19021/?biz=

Notable quotations:

"The global event that's been marked as a surprise for most people is the huge success that Nintendo's achieved in every territory... The challenge that third-party software publishers face in supporting that market is that it's clearly a market dominated by the first party and always has been," he said. "If you look back at the Nintendo track record over the last 20-25 years, it's a typical situation where Nintendo will take 60-70 percent of the market and third parties will compete for the remaining 40 percent.

 

"I think this cycle has got a long way to go and it's certainly not over. Anyone writing off Sony and Microsoft do so at their peril. I could give you an argument that says there's going to be a 'Wii 2' pretty quickly because [Nintendo would need one] in order to sustain momentum over a 10-year period. And what type of software would it have then? Because right now it isn't driven by technological supremacy or power. I wonder if the idea of opening up a whole new audience to 60-year-olds looking to make sure their brain cells don't die off is a sustainable form of entertainment. Maybe they got it right because we are all an aging population in Western markets, but I somehow think as a form of entertainment that won't be the case," he concluded.

 

I've made the case on repeated occassions that some CEOs for software publishers seemed to be absolutely refusing to believe the Wii's success, to the point of almost hilariously steadfast denial, and this appears to be such a case. Furthermore, I doubt Mr. Cousens is alone on this.

Please keep in mind, folks, that I'm not agreeing with what he is saying. At all, actually. I'm just pointing out that there are clearly people who think like this, including important people with significant influence in the industry, and whether they are right or wrong, their perspective will influence software development from third parties. 



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I'm looking at the bigger picture here, Rol.

Again, I am absolutely not saying that Cousens is correct here. In fact, I think he's spectacularly wrong, and that these sorts of decisions will have profoundly negative financial consequences for his company. 

 

But that's not the point here -- the point is, whether he's right or wrong, this almost certainly means less serious support for the Wii from Codemasters. And furthermore, it seems unlikely that Mr. Cousens is the only one who is thinking like this: I would bet other major figures in the industry are having similar thoughts, and this means at least some patches of the industry will be resisting movement towards the Wii.  



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Soriku said:
O noz.

Don't care. Never heard of them. But they better STFU and make Wii games if they don't wanna become bankrupt.

 Ladies and gentlemen ...

 Exhibit A ...

Generic fanboy response to an attack against one's console ...

a) attack persons credibility 

b) make baseless threat

Repeat ad nauseam ...



 
Debating with fanboys, its not
all that dissimilar to banging ones
head against a wall 

Being that most consumers who buy videogames don't know there are publishers, don't know who publishes the games they buy, and don't know the difference between first and third party games shouldn't these publishers be asking "Why is Nintendo so successful on their platforms?" rather than complaining about how poorly third party games are performing?



@ Picko : I love the Wii, but I have to agree with you. There are companies who are not making Wii software and doing fine. And that was a fanboy statement.



BAM! There it is!
 
Wii Code 3456 7941 4060 2924
COD MW Reflex 541192229709
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I'm definitely stretching this hypothesis via circumstantial evidence, but I honestly believe Pacther may have gotten one thing right: third parties are afraid of Nintendo. They've spent the last few years investing heavily in 360/PS3 infrastructure, with physics engines, graphics engines, and 2+ year long development cycles. They've done an awesome job of completely ignoring the Wii so far.

Furthermore, the market the Wii provides is new to them. They don't necessarily understand it -- they understand what geeky 21 year old males like me want, but they simply have no clue how to adapt games for 10 year old girls or 60 year old men or 35 year old soccer moms. 

 

In short, many companies likely have a ton of time and money invested in "traditional" game development on the PS3/360, and even though most are (at best) treading financial water, their initial investments coupled with their uncertainty about how to even begin approaching the markets the Wii provides have paralyzed them. Rather than adapt, they're going to stick to what they know how to do it, whether it's financially savvy or not.

 

 

 

Again, I'm not saying my conclusions are necessarily correct (They are simply deductions from the way CEO's like Rousen have spoken), nor am I saying that all CEOs think this way (some companies do seem to be embracing the Wii), nor do I think he's right. I'm just saying -- some important people are clearly thinking this way, and wrong or not, it means less games for the Wii than it may otherwise deserve based on its financial strength and marketshare.  



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He is not refusing to believe the Wii's success. His points are entirely valid.

Successful marketing of a novelty product does not constitute a revolution, and casual gamers will not remain for the long haul like the hardcore. That's just common sense.

It's a good thing that not all developers are blindly following the money. It shows they have a little thing called integrity.



Guys, I absolutely agree. Let me emphasize that. One thing I always found extremely amusing is how someone can simultaneously make these two arguments:

1) The Wii is for casual gamers
2) Wii owners only buy Nintendo games

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't casual gamers be the exact market that would pay no attention to which publisher makes what game? I mean, hardcore gamers I might understand; we're the ones with extensive knowledge of all these games, which publishers and even individual developers have historically produced games we appreciate, and react to the market accordingly.

But casual gamers would be the exact market that would have no idea whose game they're buying, just that the cover looks good or that they heard good things about it from friends. The suggestion that there is some secret pact amongst all Wii owners to only buy Nintendo games is absurd.

But again, that isn't the point. It's totally ridiculous, but important people in the industry believe it anyway. And that means the Wii will see less support than it might otherwise. Which is bad for me.



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anyone remember back in the day when the snes and nes had the majority of third party support, and third party games sold well.
Apperntly codemaster's CEO doesn't
maybe he should think instead, hmm Heatseeker was an aweful game and there fore it didn't sell instead of it am nintendo's Fault
atleast Ubisoft and capcom seem to have put 2 and 2 to together



I HAVE A DOUBLE DRAGON CAB IN MY KITCHEN!!!!!!

NOW A PUNISHER CAB!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RolStoppable said:
Bodhesatva said:

I'm looking at the bigger picture here, Rol.

Again, I am absolutely not saying that Cousens is correct here. In fact, I think he's spectacularly wrong, and that these sorts of decisions will have profoundly negative financial consequences for his company.

 

But that's not the point here -- the point is, whether he's right or wrong, this almost certainly means less serious support for the Wii from Codemasters. And furthermore, it seems unlikely that Mr. Cousens is the only one who is thinking like this: I would bet other major figures in the industry are having similar thoughts, and this means at least some patches of the industry will be resisting movement towards the Wii.


That's kind of worrying, I mean it really seems like some 3rd parties would prefer to go out of business over giving the Wii serious support. As you can read in the article, this CEO fears that Nintendo could go sorta back to the old habits of the licensing they did in the NES/SNES days. 3rd parties generally don't want Nintendo to become dominant again for that reason I think.

Historically, Codemasters was among the first companies to pull away from Nintendo's restrictions and back Sega. For example, they released their Micro Machines games much earlier for the Megadrive and as slightly superior versions (the second game had a build in multitap in the cartridge).


Even though that's the only reason he directly hints at, I also strongly suspect that:

1) Codemasters has a good deal of financial investment in the PS3/360 platforms in terms of graphica/physics assets and any long term software projects that take years to develop
2) Codemasters have no clue how to appeal to young girls, women, or the elderly

Which would suggest that even if these companies didn't fear monopolistic tendencies like the one you're describing, it would still be an uncomfortable situation for them. Leaving the 360/PS3 quite probably means leaving behind a substantial amount of development funds. And why would they do this? Apparently, to attack a market they don't really understand and have never even attempted to cater to.

 

 



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