Former Vigil dev sounds off on Wii U, says it’s “a $400 Xbox 360 seven years late”
August 15th, 2012 Posted in General Nintendo, News, Posted by Valay, Wii, Wii U
Former Vigil staffer and Darksiders II developer Xander Davis was asked for his thoughts on Wii U in an interview with Not Enough Shaders.
Davis wasn’t actually involved with the port prior to his departure. However, he’s apparently heard from “people who have actually played a Wii U as recently as a month ago” that “the games pretty much suck and the tablet is pretty much a complete gimmick.” He also suggested that the console is “a $400 Xbox 360 seven years late.”
Below are Davis’ thoughts in full:
“I’ve not worked on any Wii U version of anything (luckily). But, y’know, I very early on raised my major concern about this. Anybody buying any Wii U game that’s a port is probably buying it almost exclusively and specifically for how it can play differently through the Wii U’s alleged innovated UI. I’m already a known skeptic on whether the interface paradigm is at all anything but idiotic. But if you’re gonna do it? Fine. Then, you HAVE to do it right. You HAVE to innovate on the UI. You HAVE to enhance game mechanics and gameplay in a MATERIAL way that justifies all the hassle and a $400 Xbox 360 seven years late.
“I can’t comment on THQ / Vigil specifically. However, just in general, I doubt any studio or publisher is truly giving it the kind of proper UI design and thinking it deserves. Hell, apparently this is a huge leap for regular triple-A console releases. From what I’m hearing from people who have actually played a Wii U as recently as a month ago, the games pretty much suck and the tablet is pretty much a complete gimmick. Still tethered, not wireless. Maybe publishers can pull off something clever. But won’t it just kind of be clever for a little bit, then not really worth your $60 dollars and just annoying afterwards? Kinect comes to mind. PlayStation Move comes to mind. Mother******* Wii comes to mind. But, sure, we’ll have to wait and see… I can’t comment on specifics. I can only speculate, but as a UI Designer applying experienced critical thinking to game mechanics UI and the Wii U tablet, none of it makes sense to me to truly add value to gamers, even if you try.”
Link - http://nintendoeverything.com/96435/former-vigil-dev-sounds-off-on-wii-u-says-its-a-400-xbox-360-seven-years-late/
Ex Darksiders 2 developer bashes Wii U, makes a fool out of himself
Xander Davis, a former Darksiders 2 developer may have just ended his career in the video game business. And not for bashing the Wii U, but for flat out lying about the working conditions at his former employer, Vigil Games. But first, on his Wii U comments: in an interview with Not Enough Shaders, Davis called the Wii U an “Xbox 360 that’s 7 years too late”, and flat out said that the console was “idiotic”. Davis’ comments:
“Anybody buying any Wii U game that’s a port is probably buying it almost exclusively and specifically for how it can play differently through the Wii U’s alleged innovated UI. I’m already a known skeptic on whether the interface paradigm is at all anything but idiotic”
There’s just one thing: Davis states that “I’ve not worked on any Wii U version of anything”. He hasn’t worked on the Wii U version of Darksiders 2 or anything else, yet he makes such idiotic statements about the platform. Not only that, he bashed his former employer, complaining that he didn’t get credited for his work on Darksiders 2.
But there’s always another side of the story. THQ and developer Vigil Games released a statement saying that Davis was only employed for 90 days, on a game that took over 2 years to develop. Not only that, Vigil said that all developers who worked on the game were properly credited, unless they were laid off for, as Vigil puts it, “documented poor performance”. Vigil also added:
“We find it alarming that a former employee would personally attack and lie about other team members while falsely inflating his contribution to the game.”
The way it looks to us, Xander Davis is nothing but a disgruntled employee who was fired for not being able to do his job. Then goes on and bashes his former employer, and for good measure, throws in a few punches at the Wii U, just to make sure everyone hears him. Which make sense considering he just started his own indie game studio. We won’t say the name of the studio here. This guy doesn’t deserve it.
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Someone's been sipping on hatorade. Honestly, the Wii U 360 comparisons don't make sense to me. Even if the console itself resembles the 360 and even if you bring up the Wii U Pro Controller, the main focus is still the Gamepad which is nothing like the 360. So it amazes me that we can have developers be this ignorant and to be honest I don't know why he hates the Wii U so bad! Is it because others told him that it sucked? Why? Your thoughts and opinions please.
NINTENDO
nintendo forever . . .
