lol

@HappySqurriel

What would be the ideal scenario for the Wii, in your opinion?....a lot of 'casual' and "hardcore" games?....more 'casual'?..more 'core'?

I want an application that doesn't disconnect the Wiimote and you can set to vibrate in different lvls and it doesn't stop, that's what she said.

And once again we get in these discussions...

Companies like EA are huge and what companies like Majesco do can not be applied to them...

EA has to generate billion of $ of revenue just to break even due to its size.

And still most people suggest they should focus on very small cost games that are profitable but don't generate huge amount of revenue.

Do you realize how many 500k selling games EA would have to release every year just to break even due to its size ?

Of course they could always fire 80% of their employees and become Indie but I'm pretty confident not even the shareholders want that.

So EA has to release games that sell a huge amount of copies and so far the HD console is the only medium for this....

This is the model of Activision by the way, a company so successfull it could probably absorb a few of the smaller publishers if it felt like it.........

First off, I think the focus on trying to define games as "Casual" or "Hardcore" generally is a bad approach ...

Games like Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, and The Legend of Zelda (along with a lot of other games) have demonstrated that there is a market for games that are based off of more complicated gameplay mechanics than the kinds of "Waggle" that most developers focus on with their "Casual" games; on top of that these games are not any "easier" than popular games on the HD consoles so there really is no need to create dumbed down games simply because they are on the Wii.

The primary differences between conventional games that Nintendo has been successful with and third party "Failures" on the Wii is that the Nintendo games are original games based off of an existing popular franchise, in a popular genre, released exclusively for the Wii, at a high level of quality, with a large marketing campaign ...

"in a popular genre, released exclusively for the Wii, at a high level of quality, with a large marketing campaign ..."

I suppose that´ll be the case with The Conduit.

A lot of people say that game will be 'the real test'...do you agree with that?

I wasn't suggesting that EA duplicate Majesco's business model, but they can learn a lot from it (and EA is one of the few publishers that I think truely "Gets it").

For every HD game that you produce you can easily afford to develop a Wii game at a similar scale, a few lower budget Wii games or PSP games, and a handful of DS games or WiiWare games ... By spreading out your development resources across multiple platforms in multiple genres across a year you minimize the risk associated with development and create much more predictable revenues.

What a lot of third party publishers have done is they have created a few projects for HD consoles at very high development costs, marketed them heavily to (try to) ensure sales, and struggled to turn a profit because one or two of their games falls far short of expectations. In contrast, they have only put their third rate teams to develop games for the Wii with tiny budgets in niche genres ...

They should ask these questions as the PS360 version of COD: WaW outsells the Wii version 8 to 1? As Mario and Sonic @ the olympics outsell Zelda wii? As Carnaval games sells more then triple what Okami, No More heros, Dawn of a New World and Madworld sold combined?

Why ask questions for which you already know the answer?

Well I would say that the first real test was Red-Steel which sold exceptionally well for a third-rate first person shooter ... Beyond Red Steel there have been quite a few third party games that have sold well and easily demonstrate that there is a demand for "Core" games on the Wii.

I find it kind of sad that anyone would look at a game that is being developed by a previously very minor developer, who has never produced a particularly good game that sold well, as being a sign of how games like this can sell on the Wii. I think that most Wii owners (including those who are looking forward to The Conduit) are fulling willing to admit that their is a pretty decent chance that The Conduit could turn into the Wii's "Lair" ...

Actually to be honest, none of the huge hyped HD titles at the big publishers this gen have failed to turn a profit( GTA4, MGS4, CoD, Madden, Re5, Assassin Creed). And that part of the strategy seem valid to me.

The title that usually fail to turn a profit are more the middle titles at huge publishers( Midnight Club LA, Mirror Edge,...) or single projects at smaller developers ( Lair, Haze,...)

Publishers with a problem are usually small ones that have banked everything on one HD title, typically trying to create a new franchise at the same time, or publishers that just lack star franchises ( this is the issue of EA which aside from Madden has a lot of medium known titles but no huge megablockbuster).

Heck companies like Capcom and Konami have more blockbusters franchises in their catalog than EA does this gen if you discard Madden...

And I don't think EA gets it. Because instead of trying to develop one very powerfull start franchise they are still going to release a battlefield bad company 2, mirror edge 2, deadspace 2 and co this year so basically sequels to titles you know will sell 1 million units accross HD platforms but sure won't sell the 4 million+ units EA really needs from a couple titles...