I know how much you all love my threads, so here we go again! 2K games CEO had this to say today:
The global boss of 2K has predicted that publishers bringing non-licensed games to Wii this year could struggle – as the console’s market is “flooded by crappy titles”.
Speaking to MCV, Christoph Hartmann said that his company would find it difficult to secure the success it has enjoyed with its Carnival game if it had to release it today.
He said: “Where people go wrong in the casual market is that, while the development costs are exploding on the casual side, they’re treating the Wii like the old PC market – making cheap, accessible games. They think if they make ten titles and two are hits, they will finance the other eight. “But they forget these eight crappy titles will flood the market and will lead to problems in terms of production – and upset retailers. Also, the consumer will be pissed off because they’ll be confused.”
Of 2K’s own success on Wii with Carnival, Hartmann said that getting the title early to market was key.
He added: “Had we released it last week, it would have been much tougher. There’s far too much stuff in the Wii market [now] and it’s hard to shine. While the Wii is the strongest growing console, it’s a risk not to have well known brands in your games.”
So, while this is hilarious coming from the creator of Carnival Games, he has a point. The Wii has received far too much shovelware far too quickly. The non-gaming consumer, i.e someone that's not reading reviews, impulse buys in shops for their kids, has no way to tell if a game is shovelware or not. It's pretty hard for that person to find the diamond in the mud, so to speak. I'd even go as far as to say that it could possibly hurt software sales in the future as these people are put off with the crappy games they keep buying.
Thoughts?
Edit: link http://www.mcvuk.com/news/32941/There-are-too-many-crappy-games-on-Wii
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