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Forums - Nintendo - Developers 'Nervous' About Making Wii Games

Gamerace on 11 October 2007

Seems some developers don't have much vision or faith in the Wii. 

 

Developers 'Nervous' About Making Wii Games
Japanese newspaper claims developers are worried about Wii's future.
by Rob Burman, IGN UK

UK, October 11, 2007 - Despite Nintendo reporting it can't keep up with demand for its Wii console, a Japanese newspaper is claiming that developers are concerned its bubble is about to burst, with some actually nervous about making titles for the motion-sensing machine, in case they don't sell.

This comes from The Nikkei Business Daily, which has been speaking to software houses about their thoughts on the future of Wii. Several developers claim that Nintendo has been the only beneficiary of Wii's success as it was able to predict demand for the console, while other publishers were forced to catch up quickly producing titles - some of which ended up as flops.

Meanwhile, others think that the Wii is only a fad and its popularity will fade. One unnamed president of a developer told Nikkei: "The Wii is like the 'Billy's Boot Camp' weight-loss program on DVD. People bought it out of curiosity, and it's likely a lot of them haven't used it".

According to Nikkei, concern is also growing in the Japanese industry after sales of Wii slowed considerably to just 168,000 units - the worst month of sales since December 2006. Now companies are "on guard for signs of a major change".

 

I do understand this attitude from companies that only make 'hardcore' games, but otherwise you'd think they'd learn from making this same mistake on the DS.



 

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HappySqurriel on 11 October 2007
Gamerace said:

Seems some developers don't have much vision or faith in the Wii. 

 

Developers 'Nervous' About Making Wii Games
Japanese newspaper claims developers are worried about Wii's future.
by Rob Burman, IGN UK

UK, October 11, 2007 - Despite Nintendo reporting it can't keep up with demand for its Wii console, a Japanese newspaper is claiming that developers are concerned its bubble is about to burst, with some actually nervous about making titles for the motion-sensing machine, in case they don't sell.

This comes from The Nikkei Business Daily, which has been speaking to software houses about their thoughts on the future of Wii. Several developers claim that Nintendo has been the only beneficiary of Wii's success as it was able to predict demand for the console, while other publishers were forced to catch up quickly producing titles - some of which ended up as flops.

Meanwhile, others think that the Wii is only a fad and its popularity will fade. One unnamed president of a developer told Nikkei: "The Wii is like the 'Billy's Boot Camp' weight-loss program on DVD. People bought it out of curiosity, and it's likely a lot of them haven't used it".

According to Nikkei, concern is also growing in the Japanese industry after sales of Wii slowed considerably to just 168,000 units - the worst month of sales since December 2006. Now companies are "on guard for signs of a major change".

 

I do understand this attitude from companies that only make 'hardcore' games, but otherwise you'd think they'd learn from making this same mistake on the DS.


The longer they hold out, the worse their sales will be and their stock price will suffer ...



Words Of Wisdom on 11 October 2007

I don't know why but this quote just feels right when applied to the video game industry mindset we see in developers such as the above:

"That's not why they watch TV.  Clever things make people feel stupid, and unexpected things make them feel scared. TV audiences don't want anything original. They wanna see the same thing they've seen a thousand times before."



Malcom on 11 October 2007

So because the Wii's sales slowed down, it's in trouble? What about the PS3 or XBox? Sure they slowed down, but those consoles have slowed down even further from their already poor sales. But they say the Wii is in trouble? lol..



Malcom on 11 October 2007

Nintendo has nothing to be concerned about. Thier extremely slow sales continue to dominate Japan.



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TWRoO on 11 October 2007

@Wow; i've heard that quote before, what is it from?

what people should tell developers is that if they make them, and they are good, people will buy them....If they run off scared and not make games for it how are Japanese developers going to make a profit at all when the other options are the PS3 with a lower attach ratio (in Jp) than Wii, or the 360 with at least a decent attach ratio but barely any consoles to sell to.

I could understand this attitude from any small American devs, because there if a game is not on the 360, or not made by Nintendo it has failed.



Saiyar on 11 October 2007

It is a Futurama quote.



takkxyz on 11 October 2007

To be honest, their excuse sounds something like this "We did not think Wii would succeed, so we never bothered to even think about making games for it, now that Wii is succeeding, all we can come up are mini games of the crappy quality and we blame the poor sales of these crappy games to Nintendo"



I am a PC gamer, and also have a NDS now, but without access to a Nintendo Wii until End of 2007.

Currently playing: Super Smash Brothers Brawl(Wii), Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer(DS), Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (DS), WiiFit(Wii)

Games Recently Beaten: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Normal; Very Hard after the next DLCs become available)

1 word: RTFA

choirsoftheeye on 11 October 2007

"This comes from The Nikkei Business Daily, which has been speaking to software houses about their thoughts on the future of Wii. Several developers claim that Nintendo has been the only beneficiary of Wii's success as it was able to predict demand for the console, while other publishers were forced to catch up quickly producing titles - some of which ended up as flops."

...wow. So basically they're whining because they had no faith in the system, and thus didn't make any games for it, and then it got popular and they threw together some trash and it didn't sell?

Seriously, wtf is wrong with developers? They've got no one to blame but themselves.



choirsoftheeye on 11 October 2007
takkxyz said:
To be honest, their excuse sounds something like this "We did not think Wii would succeed, so we never bothered to even think about making games for it, now that Wii is succeeding, all we can come up are mini games of the crappy quality and we blame the poor sales of these crappy games to Nintendo"

 Beat me to the punch...