Well, while we're on the subject yet again, the 'amount of people' you can have on screen is entirely dependant on the type of game it is.  If its a 2D sprite based game, the Wii could easily handle 100 characters all at once.  The PS2 and even Dreamcast could do this, and so can the Wii.  It just depends on what kind of complex interaction you are trying to do with the sprites and the environment (as well as how well the game is programmed).

But even more than this, look at a game like Pikmin on the GameCube.  At times, you have well over 100 'units' on the screen (100 Pikmin + Olimar +  multiple large enemies + items + environmental objects).  And the game runs fine.  And that game is a 3D polygon based game.  If the GameCube could run a 3D based game with over 100 objects, the Wii can do so as well.  Its just all based on your programmers and game design.

Has Marvoulous published any games in the US/Europe? I know Red Star handled a lot of their games in Europe, and XSeed in NA.

At Voltaire,

No More Heroes was published bei Marvelous in Europe.

Interesting read indeed! I'm happy that he didn't just blame someone (Nintendo) for the low sales but instead seems to analyze why games don't sell and try to figure out how to better reach the customers. Keep on making original and fun games Marvelous! And good luck with your mission.

That too (which is why I get annoyed when people compare dissimilar games). If it meant enemies with independent AI (assuming The Grinder is like that), then the HD systems can have more, because of their multi-core processors (but how good the AI is still depends on the developer).

Marvelous needs to start looking at a worldwide audience for their titles, and not merely a small pocket of the Japanese audience to purchase their games. Start looking for projects that have the appeal in other regions outside of that small group of Americans/Europeans that get off on buying niche Japanese offerings. That market is not big at all. In fact, maybe Marvelous needs to look towards branching out from those super-Japanese centric games and start publishing more western focused titles in addition, or concetrate on those types of Japanese titles that appeal to other regions, like say a japanese racing game or a japanese third person shooter. If they really think they're going to become the next Capcom by publishing Harvest Moon, Little King's Story and Legend of the River King, they're seriously deluded.

........In the interview, they acknowledged that this is their biggest problem.

What is for you the biggest challenge in developing your original titles?

"We are not at the point we have a global knowledge of trends and tastes that would allow us to create the contents that would appeal to the many. We are still making the games that we feel fun. The challenge for us then is to convince users that this game is indeed fun and that he/she should buy it. The fun comes when playing. But to play such game, you need to buy it, to pick it from the shelves among the many titles in display. That process is very hard. Investing heavily in TV advertising is not making that many more users buy your game. Investing in the web with some creative official homepage does not solve the problem either, as most of the people are reading all the features that are part of the fun of the experience you are about to deliver.

In the past, you had few forms of entertainment available and videogaming was the star, getting most of people’s attention and time. Users did not feel they were wasting their time in playing videogames. Today, you are flooded with various forms of entertainment. The TV offers hundreds of channels. Checking the huge information that is available nowadays is already requiring lots of time. So little time is left for videogaming. At the same time, you may feel the need for movies, music, reading, and so on. Videogames have to offer such a full experience in the very limited time available to convince users videogaming is worth it. So our task is huge and still needing much work!"

WHile they do need to come up with a new plan, just changing the entire focus of your company and trying to make games you think will appeal to another type of gamer (in this way, American and European gamers with FPS/Platformers) is not always the best option.  Look at how well it went over with Square when they stopped focusing on the game series they were known for and tried to make games that 'focused on the American market'.  And many other Japanese companies have done the same, with a similar result.

No, the problem isn't the games as much as the marketing, distrobution and name brand recognition.  As they stated in the article.

What games are you talking about regarding Square? The most western-centric release I've seen them make in a good long while is Kingdom Hearts and that is a raging success. It's exactly that kind of thinking Square needs to do more of.

My point regarding Marvelous is that their hybrid RPG/simulation games are NEVER going to give them the recognition they crave, because that is quite possibly the most upstream of any title imaginable. They need to start looking towards titles with a more global appeal, or even titles with a stronger japanese appeal, because a lot of their games aren't exactly lighting up the charts over there also. The point is to be known for the name, and be able to branch out from there. Look at their model, Capcom, they can make shooters, RPGs, racers, action titles, adventure titles, platformers, whatever and still be entirely Capcom.

Come on man, stop lying. We all know the Wii can only have 6 enemies on screen at once.

A friend of a friend of mine said so, it must be true.