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The Wii has long been an equal source of praise and criticism from within the game development community. Nintendo's system undoubtedly leads the way in terms of sales and market penetration, but many developers rue the hardware's limitations. One such industry player is Epic President Mike Capps, who recently proclaimed the Wii a "virus" and offered his opinion that there's really only a few games worth turning on the system for.
In an interview with IGN, Capps laid out his thoughts on Nintendo's current-generation offering. Though he offered " great credit to [Nintendo]," praising the system's ability to bring families and people in general together, he quickly changed his tune when he began to discuss the big games on the system:
"...Zelda I really didn't enjoy on it. They back-fitted the control scheme on it, it was better on the GameCube. Mario, I wish there had been a button instead of wiggle and all that kind of ****. So I haven't played anything that I really wished hadn't been on another platform sadly enough.
"It's a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they're like, 'Oh my God that's so cool, I'm gonna go buy it.' So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they've showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on….
"They know what they're doing and they make money better than anyone else does. As an investor you love 'em, but as a next-gen console technology maker, they don't run UE3 and they can't. ... we go forward, not back."
Capps isn't alone in his opinion. Other developers have sounded off before—some slightly hyperbolically—about the Wii. However, the fact remains that the Wii has the market's attention at the moment, and the first developer to truly master the system that isn't Nintendo itself will likely find a goldmine of potential. Great graphics aren't the only way to push forward new technology, and that's a lesson that some developers don't seem willing to learn.
Ben's thoughts
Epic's in the Unreal Engine 3 business, so I get where the company is coming from. Still, the remarks seem to be stretching things a bit. While the plural of "anecdote" is not data, my Wii sees constant use both as a machine to not only play Blades of Steel on the big screen, but also for light-gun games and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
The Wii is a favorite when people of all ages come over and play and my good friend Scott, who is primarily a PC gamer, loves to play Super Mario Galaxy when he gets home from work. The way the Wiimote and Nunchuk system works, it's an easy game for him to play with two hands while letting his baby sleep on his chest. He, as well as many people I know, bought Guitar Hero for the Wii. These are not young gamers, and the Wii is the first system that interested them enough to purchase it in a very long time. Or, alternately, this is their first console purchase for personal use.
Epic is going to be profitable without the Wii, but when I get this many calls from previously nongaming friends about games like Mario Kart Wii, something big is happening in the industry. Developers and publishers ignore it, or downplay it, at their peril.
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I couldn't put it better myself. Bolded part is where a company like the one making Conduit and the Quantum 3 engine fits in. If they do this well, they will become big overnight.
