kn said:
steven787 said:
kn said:
Spectrumglr said:
ok, Wii is selling like hot cakes (probably even at a higher rate than VGChartz's reports as NPD July sales figures were 18% higer than VGChartz) and clearly by the end of the year it will be the N°1 next-gen system by a great margin...but still there's a lack of support by 3rd party devs and not without a reason as 3rd party games are selling poorly (compared to the user base). Could this be an issue for the HW sales in 2008? How long can continue a success that's only based on 1st party games? |
Plain and simple, yes. If third parties keep using the wii for quick ports in a hope to cash in on the Wii "fad", they will kill the system in the long run. There is already a lot of shovelware on in and a significant amount of announced shovelware. (see outrun thread, lol). Nintendo does have the right to refuse to publish a game and they need to see to it that they exercise that right. As a side note, the intense battle between the 360 and PS3 is making both 1st and 3rd parties bring their AAA+ game. Both companies are working diligently with developers to coax the most out of the system. The best part about this is that it means we are seeing titles that are absolutely stunning. See Bioshock, Halo 3, Warhawk, UT3, Killzone 2, GT5, and so on if you need proof of that statement. No such driving force really exists on the Wii and games are therefore lacking so far. Hopefully SMG, SSBB, and MP3 all set a graphical "floor" which future development should seek to not go below. We'll see if Nintendo steps up and slaps the shovelware makers... |
Again: If you take out all first party sales for 2007 (In US and Japan, cant get software numbers for 07 off VGchartz) you will find that third party software has accounted for 8 million on Wii, and 13 million on 360, and the Wii only caught up to 360 hardware this week. (1st bold) 4 of the six titles you mentioned are first party. (2nd bold) You still don't get it, mainstream consumers just don't care that much about graphics; they are playing Nintendogs, training games, Wii play, Wii Sports, party games, games with more classic=arcade like controls, music games, nostalgic games, or sports games. Look how many of those games fall into those categories. Look at the two top 50's for software for 07 so far (NA and JPN). JPN is all Wii or DS, and some PS2. 50% of software in NA is from the graphically inferior Nintendo Consoles. (3rd bold) Shovelware is made because people buy it (early in a generation), it sucks but it's true. PS1 and 2 had plenty of shovel ware (especially in year one), NES, SNES, GB, GBA, DS and Genesis all had shovelware. 360 and PS3 don't have much shovel ware because it is so expensive to develop for, but you still see some (Movie games, sports games, Sony rushing out first party titles, Bomberman Act:Zero, etc.) |
Allow me to make it crystal clear that I'm not speaking in terms of "quantity" -- I'm speaking in terms of QUALITY. Yes, there was a lot of shovelware on prior consoles. I will agree. This generation is proving to be different, though. The internet provides a place for people to sort through the hype and to get closer to the truth about the quality of games than ever before. If 3rd party Wii titles continue to be garbage (there are some good ones, of course) the Wii can expect to become primarily a 1st party supported system over the long term. Quality of the title counts -- not just graphics, but gameplay too. There are quite a few 3rd party titles that are rubbish in every way. I certainly hope to see some better 3rd party titles as I own a Wii and don't want to regret my purchase in the long run you can no way argue, at this point in video gaming history, that shovelware won't hurt the system. |
its true, nintendo needs to push good third party games forward. But there are two isses with that... number 1 beingthat nintendo has a very long history of not giving a damn about third party developers, they just dont care. When they're ahead they don't care cause they don't have to, and they make more money when their titles aren't being competed with, and when they're behind they need to maximize their revenue with .. once again... less compitition.
They've learned from their past mistakes not to intentionaly hamper or get in the way of third party devolpers any more than their rivals (thus making development as easy and cost less as for the other platforms) but beyond that they have shown next to zero drive in securing awesome third party exclusives..... or even good ports, there are countless games out for both the xbox and playstation that just never see the light of day on nintendo systems.
I love my Wii, but i have serious doubts ill ever see Final Fantasy, Tekken, or a whole host of other games i love on it.
Nintendo sticks to what will make THEM the most money, and thus we dont see a very good online, we dont see much media content (enabling DVD would cost them next to NOTHING) and all sorts of other bells and whistles that aside from HD wouldnt cost too much to have been implemented.
That said, the other side of the coin is that developers will go anywhere there is significant profitablity to do so, they put up with sony's horribly difficult to program for PS2 (and PS3) and Sony's difficult to deal with management. And they ended up making billions out of it. MS is the only games company pushing third party Devs as hard as they can... And it has given them great rewards, but if MS cant maintain a market... the DEV's will flee.
Most Dev's without a stick up their *ss (looking at you rockstar) have began to put serious games in their pipeline for the Wii, but thats a 1-2 year minimum from their point of realizing the unexpected success of it (as early as january)... giving the Wii at leasta good year from now before we really start to see a lot of quality games that werent already in the works before launch.
Whats most importnat here is to note that the Wii by breakin 10 mil in half the time of the 360 is now a proven market with an insanely stable growth rate spread evenly over the world (unlike the 360 selling LESS systems in the US - its primary market- this year than it did last year on a month to month bassis)... Nintendo could be outright *ssholes at this point and devs woud still flock to it.
Lucky for us, nintendo has learned not to antagonise third party devs. This time around since they thought they were going it alone they got to reap the benefits of first to market (wii play, metroid, mario, zelda) and are probably quite happy to let things play out (remeber they run a profit on every CONSOLE SOLD).
While i love all around fun games (G-rating) ... nintendo still has big issues getting more "mature" games on their consoles.... and this is without them even banning them (as they have in the past).... and it would do them very well (nail in the coffin for sony/MS) if they could get some seriously AAA gritty realistic combat games beyond less than great ports of COD and MOH.
Metroid may be the only truly decent FPS for the Wii (COD was nice, but rushed), and in my opinion there is NO BETTER CONSOLE than the Wii-Mote for a FPS. A well made FPS with the light-gun is hands down way better than a dual analog (total ownage if a Wii-mote could fight a dual analog player).
I agree, early next year will be tough for the Wii, but by then it will have five or six incredible first party games, and quite a few great games from EA and Ubi (and rayman!!)
