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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Are companies being short-sited about the Wii?

Pristine20 on 19 October 2008
The_vagabond7 said:
I think it's just the opposite. I think they are taking the distant view.

The wii is a flash in the pan, but it's one that will last for 5 or 6 years. A relative flash in the pan, it's only a single generation and it will end. Major strides are being made in graphics technology, AI, complex physics, new kinds of motion capture, online networking, ect ect. Methods of programming and how games are made are moving forward. Those strides are not being made on Wii. To NOT learn these new skills, techniques and programming methods is suicide when the next generation comes. What happens in 8 years when all the new consoles are out and none of your staff knows jack about how to make games on them because they spent the last six or seven years building games off an upgraded gamecube architecture with virtually no network support? They end up waaay behind the technology curve.

So the solution? Put your A teams, the best you've got, working on learning these new techniques, methods, keeping up with the industry as it develops. Put your B teams making wii games that make money on whatever demographic, you don't really care. Then when the next gen comes out Team A will still know what's going on and team B can be integrated and trained that much easier.

I actually never saw things this way...good points

 



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Sephiroth357 on 19 October 2008

@Falcon You used those two games to represent," some." PS3 outsold the Wii in both games. So it's not considered, "same or more." Madden 09: Yes, because some how Madden on the Wii will sell another 440,000 copies, meanwhile the PS3 version stays the same. Both came out on the same day, but one outsold the other by around 200+ percent. Unfair? Not really.




SaviorX on 19 October 2008
The_vagabond7 said:
I think it's just the opposite. I think they are taking the distant view.

The wii is a flash in the pan, but it's one that will last for 5 or 6 years. A relative flash in the pan, it's only a single generation and it will end. Major strides are being made in graphics technology, AI, complex physics, new kinds of motion capture, online networking, ect ect. Methods of programming and how games are made are moving forward. Those strides are not being made on Wii. To NOT learn these new skills, techniques and programming methods is suicide when the next generation comes. What happens in 8 years when all the new consoles are out and none of your staff knows jack about how to make games on them because they spent the last six or seven years building games off an upgraded gamecube architecture with virtually no network support? They end up waaay behind the technology curve.

So the solution? Put your A teams, the best you've got, working on learning these new techniques, methods, keeping up with the industry as it develops. Put your B teams making wii games that make money on whatever demographic, you don't really care. Then when the next gen comes out Team A will still know what's going on and team B can be integrated and trained that much easier.

 

 That is actually a really good way to look at things. If only they used Team B instead of Team F.



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Lolcislaw on 19 October 2008

I think the right statement would be that Companies WERE short sighted about the Wii, and things do change now. Because HD Gaming is expensive and does not always return a profit plus wii has significant market share advantage, things are changing. Few Examples

EA , heavily supported the PS3 from the start, now they shifting towards the Wii and some might not agree with all-play approach (i like it , but hate the boxarts) but overall the 09 titles were much improved compared to 08 especially FIFA and Madden who are both very good, and have something different to offer from their HD brothers. They also are preparing Harry Potter game for the Wii first as their pririority.  They got more under their sleeve.

Japanese developers (the smaller ones) seem to be shifting entirely to the Wii, and finally the console is getting good numbers of ambitious projects like JRPG's (which is what i've been waiting for).

Namco is putting their next main Tales title on the Wii, and TOS Spin-off seems to be a good game. I think Fragile without a Doubt will be released in the west, Soul Calibur Legends did not sell because it did not deserve to sell (it is a bad game)

Capcom also tries, the games they released like Zack Wiki, RE:UC are good, the releases of RE4 and Okami were also great titles. I know they could do much more but MH III on the Wii shows that they treat it as an important platform. (God i still hope for RE game for the WII)

So i think the tide has turned and Wii is getting some great 3rd party support now, and it will only grow in the future.

I know some companies: SE, R* are ignoring the Wii but i dont expect this to continue, if DS version of GTA sells well (and it will) R* will make some sort of Wii game.



noname2200 on 19 October 2008
Pristine20 said:
noname2200 said:
mike_intellivision said:

I will say this, though: it seems like quite a few Japanese companies are breaking out of this mold. Sega's the biggest of these, but Japan as a whole is daring to tread the path blazed by the Little White Box That Could. For their sakes, I actually hope they take the time to grow the userbase with Bridge Games and the like before going all-in with the fully-traditional stuff, but I wish them the best of luck either way.

does JP really have a choice? all other home consoles already have their obituaries written in the Japanese papers.

Granted, but as this thread points out, there's still the option for Japanese developers to just pick up stakes and go after the West instead. That's exactly what they did at the start of this generation, although the level of commitment they have to that strategy has been decreasing with time. Why would being the market leader in one region (the smallest one, no less) be enough to dissuade them from that?

Further, some of the Japanese developers are increasing the number of Western-oriented Wii games; The No More Heroes sequel, Mad World, Fatal Frame (which has always sold best outside of Japan)...I'll admit the examples aren't as abundant as they could be, but they do still exist. So why make Western games if Japan is what you're primarily interested in? Alternatively, if the West is your biggest concern and you don't feel that the Wii is viable out here, why would you develop games exclusively for it?



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Viper1 on 19 October 2008
flagship said:
Attachment ratio is almost as important as market share. Currently the Wii attachment ratio is poor and the 3rd party attachment ration is atrocious, in fact the biggest 3rd party Wii hit has MARIO in it.

So as a developer I could either make an HD game for the 360/PS3/PC where I know even it if flops a couple hundred thousand people will pick up my game or I can make it exclusively for the Wii where it will be ignored by the majority of the user base who clearly based on their purchasing habits like first party games.



Actually, they don't really care about attach ratio because it doesn't mean anything with regards to actual profits.

 

For example, we'll use RE4

PS2 - 88 million install base - 2.7 million RE4 sold - 33:1 attach rate

GC - 17 million install base - 1.7 million RE4 sold - 10:1 attach rate

 

Do you think the fact GC had 3 times the attach rate on GC over the PS2 means anything to Capcom even though the PS2 version sold 1 million more units?

It also cost less to develop on PS2 because the game endinge, art assets and major development had already been done by the GC development team.

 

Attach rate is nothing but a PR figure.

 

 



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Jo21 on 19 October 2008
Soriku said:
Uh...Namco isn't hesitating to bring Fragile over. Heck we don't even have a Japanese release date yet. What gave you that idea? That dumb article on 5 Wii games that may never come to America?

i dont think the expect to fragile be a million seller either.

 



Jo21 on 19 October 2008
Soriku said:
What does it being a million seller have to do with anything?

Many of Namco's RPGs (and RPGs in general) don't sell a million so how is that a problem...or relevant at all?

 

it have to do, more millions seller more support for third party.  fragile may be comming to the wii, but its not AAA title that will sell millions.

its put there to make profits.



trestres on 19 October 2008

@Soriku: He posts to get his post count up. Don't try to find an insightful comment.

BTW you should be posting more, 20k is quite near.



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noname2200 on 19 October 2008
Jo21 said:
Soriku said:

it have to do, more millions seller more support for third party.  fragile may be comming to the wii, but its not AAA title that will sell millions.

its put there to make profits.

....

I thought making profits was kinda the point. For all games.

If you want to argue that it won't be profitable to localize Fragile for the West, that's one thing. But the million seller thing is tangential to the topic.