Nintendo obviously felt it was time for a change in Video Gaming. If everything was the same it would be boring and stale.

Dunno about comparing them because theres the ever present debate about which games are Core/Mainstream/Hardcode bla bla bla.

But it would be at least equal numbers anyway.

actually, if the ds wasnt succesfull, the wii wouldnt exist, or it would be very different

One thing that people never seem to pay too much attention to is the lag time between the market changing, publishers realizing that the market has changed and producing games that take advantage of the new market.

Although publishers do some of their own market analysis they also depend heavily on market analysts to give them projections of what the market will look like when a game they haven’t started will be released; what we know is that up until the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 most market analysts were expecting an inevitable drop in sales for the Wii when certain big titles were released. After Halo 3, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto 4 all failed to kill off the Wii most analysts have (finally) started to accept that it will remain the market leader long term.

Now, after you know the direction of the market you can start moving projects in that direction. Unfortunately, because the Wii isn’t similar in processing power to the HD consoles, you can’t simply switch the target platform for most games in the middle of development which means projects can only be started on the Wii as development resources become available.

Finally, even though Wii development is less expensive and requires less time most Wii games will still take 12 to 24 months to complete.

What we’re seeing from third party publishers today can best be described as the leading wave. The bigger budget more "Core" games are coming from the more proactive third party publishers who saw the direction of the industry very early on … The more "Casual" games come from both publishers who saw the movement of the industry awhile ago and didn’t have a lot of spare resources to devote to a large project, or publishers who are slow to react and will only now start considering the Wii as the dominant platform.

I realized early on what Nintendo's plan entailed, and predicted that it had to be something like this because this generation was the one that was supposed to offer up the big changes (like the 1st, 3rd and 5th generations also did).


I don't believe Nintendo has abandoned the core gamer since Fatal Frame IV, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Kid Icarus, Kirby, and Animal Crossing are all still coming. Hell, out of the three mayor players this time, Nintendo is the only company that delivered it's killer apps in it's first year with Mario Galaxy and SSBB. Gears of War and Bioshock didn't come out until well into the second year of the Xbox360. All of Sony's hyped "killer apps" (like Lair, Haze, Heavenly Sword, Uncharted, etc) all failed in one way or another to actually become killer apps. It wasn't until well into their second year that they finally delivered MGS4. Three other titles lost exclusivity: Assassin's Creed, GTA4, and FFXIII.

Nintendo's E3 sucked, to be sure, but I agree with the sentiment that it was their best chance to push out a ton of new info for the Blue Ocean gamers to hear about. Tokyo Game Show will, I'm pretty confident, have them unveiling some more hardcore titles (hopefully, finally, some solid info and previews of Disaster).


I also believe there's some merit to Nintendo's plan/vision that follows this line of thinking (the Blue Ocean mindset):

1. Make a video game console that looks friendly, inviting and easy to use.
2. Make software that will attract non-gamers (Wii Sports, Wii Fit).
3. Gradually introduce the nu-gamers to more hardcore-style titles (Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy).
4. Make the nu-gamers into regular gamers.
5. Long-term goal: Overall more gamers with a broader range of tastes.


We all started out this way. We all started gaming (especially those of us that started young) with questionable taste in video games. There was a time when licensed shlock was something that could be good to us (like Simpsons games or movie tie-ins). Gradually, we learned what we liked, we expaned our tastes and we became more hardcore. The same movement will happen with a lot of new Wii adopters. Not all, of course, but many. And in the end, that will benefit the industry as a whole.


The other thing that's important is that the industry needed Nintendo's monkey wrench jammed into it's gears. Sony and Microsoft lacked the ability to innovate or be creative. If their direction was kept, this generation would see a financial crisis that could've led to a new crash. Keep in mind, most developers and publishers all lost money over the last fiscal year. Profit margins are far too narrow on the HD consoles. As the Wii looks to be the console to offer more and more profitability, more devs and publishers will move there. If this generation had continued being little more than a higher-horsepower, gratuitously more expensive version of the last generation--we'd be on our way to another industry crash right now.

Nintendo is, essentially, the only company effectively preventing that right now.