http://www.develop-online.net/features/712/Develop-Jury-The-Wii-dilemma

David Amor, Creative Director, Relentless Software:
Is the Wii alive to anyone except Nintendo at the moment? A couple of years ago I took calls from EA asking us to consider developing for Wii.

My answer then is the same as it is now: the Wii consumer is well served by first party Nintendo software and they rarely step away from the franchises they’re familiar with. Being a third party publisher with new IP on Wii is a commercially dangerous position. It’s a great machine but I doubt I’ll ever make a game for it.”

Ed Daly, General Manager, Zoe Mode:
The Wii was all freshness and innovation but there’s a danger of that being lost in a glut of derivative games.  Our experience is that fear that over-supply and fatigue from the mainstream Wii adopters is holding back some publishers and suppressing dev budgets – but there are plenty of great ideas as yet unexploited.

Anonymous – studio head at a leading international developer:
The Wii has, and will continue to, open up gaming to a much broader demographic than the other consoles have been able to. The accessibility provided by the Wiimote removes a barrier that scares many ‘non-traditional’ gamers from playing video games. However, the limited power of the console means it is difficult for it to compete with the very latest generation of games on PS3 and 360, at least in terms of the ‘wow factor’.
 I think there is still a big potential market for Wii games which are based on accessible and original gameplay for a whole range of gamers from both the core gaming world and new entrants.

However the relative ease of making a Wii game in comparison to PS3 and 360 development, means it has become too easy to flood the market with under-developed product which have the potential to confuse and disappoint the public. A few more high quality, high profile Wii only games would add much to its market profile.

Gary Penn, Creative Director, Denki Ltd:
I have an ongoing love-hate relationship with Nintendo. I love aspects of their projected attitude, like their child-like innocence and their belief that the sheer power of the technology isn't as important as what you do with it, which has resulted in some incomparable software and hardware – and plenty of tribute acts.
I hate most of what's done with the Wii – including most of its 'operating' system. I can't be arsed with most of the games on it apart from some of Nintendo's, but I have infinitely more fun playing with the Wii and my kids than I do any other platform.

The Wii's not exactly a barrel of laughs to work on either, especially after Xbox. It's a real love-hate challenge to get the most out of the Wii Remote. You have to fake it big time to really make it work and no one else seems to fake it as well Nintendo.

I guess most of the industry's still trying to be too clever for its own good.

Martin Hollis, CEO, Zoonami:
To make a game that truly uses the potential of the Wii Remote requires several things.

Firstly you will need imagination. You must unlearn what you have learned and put away cynical thoughts such as "it is just a gimmick" or "buttons are better". This degree of open-mindedness is not easy to find.

Our industry is focused on incremental evolution of tried-and-tested mechanics, interactions and input devices. Our industry is focused inwards on itself, and on its most loyal followers.

Secondly you will need patience. To give an example today's button-based platform game relies on over twenty years of game development across the world. Your first Wii Remote game will not compete.

Thirdly you will need humility. You need humility because you will be making games for people who are unlike yourself. Therefore you will need to place their wishes above yours.

Owen Daly-Jones, Director, PlayableGames:
The strongest innovation from Nintendo and the Wii has been the controllers. They offer so much potential for game developers and gamers alike. However, I don't think the range and quality of game titles has delivered on this promise.

Far too many titles for the platform are repetitive copies of various party and sports games. More adult-themed titles and a greater variety in general is required.  How many party or skiing games does one need in a collection at home?

Unfortunately the problem with adult titles and greater realism is that the hardware cannot support the graphics required. It is ironic that the MotionPlus improved controllers stress realism when the graphics in the game cannot depict the realist effects.

Chances are Xbox and PS3 will jump right on past with their motion sensing approaches, backed up by the graphics hardware and power to create realistic worlds.

Simon Gardner, CEO, Climax Studios:
Yes the Wii is a good platform to work on, we feel we now understand the hardware and the interface very well now, but the flip-side to that is that non-Nintendo publishers feel they haven’t done that well on it commercially. That’s the biggest issue.

From that perspective the Wii is a really difficult device to develop for, because as a hardcore games machine, Wii games are always going to be held up against whatever’s just come out on the Xbox 360 or PS3.

You know, I’m quite bored of reading things like ‘oh, the graphics are pretty good but not as good as a PS3 game’. Well, that’s obvious, but it’s still said all the time. So the second you try to make a gamer’s game for it you will get unflattering comparisons. That’s why it’s difficult.

I do think that there’s a problem with the installed base. Despite it being very large, I think the attachment rate is fairly low, and I think that colours publishers’ view on how much they can invest in the system.

I think that ROI’s on Wii games are probably low. I think publishers are very conservative on how much they can spend on it.

Of course, with Silent Hill Shattered Memories, we’ve made a gamer’s game, and we’ve put a lot of passion into the game to get it right. But we’ve now got to wait and see how successful it’s really going to be commercially. That’s kind of out of our hands, but it will be interesting to see if people will buy it as opposed to another first-person shooter.

We just don’t know if hardcore games can succeed on the Wii. I think it’s yet to be proven. I think a lot of people have bought Wii’s, but many aren’t buying software for it.

Actually developing for it is fine. I think we’ve done some really clever things with it, and I don’t think it’s much of a struggle to get the most out f it, actually.

I thought the most egotistical was David Amor from Relentless Software. His position is extremely arrogant when you realize that about all that development house has done is the Buzz series.

I think looking at it, after that there are some more realistic comments. I particularly liked Martin Hollis of Zoonami calling for humility. That seems to be lacking in the industry.

Mike from Morgantown

Interesting stuff.

I think the anonymous guy hit the best. Because of the ease of development on Wii there is going to be a lot of titles flooded on their with cheap budges in hope of "cheap" sales essentially as he describes it. Meaning more than ever, to garner big sales, you have to do what Nintendo does, and that is make high profile games with large marketing campaigns to separate it from the "flood" and be on top. Remember, Ninty has no problems getting the gamers on the systems to polarize around their franchises meaning 3rd parties can have similar success. They just have to do what Nintendo does. Many devs have talked about it, even on other consoles, but not too many have actually done it. Indeed as more and more Wii games come out and fill up shelf space, you have to make the high quality and big games more apparent. It's actually harder on the Wii than PS360 because they just don't have the same number of games nor amount of games with "staying power" on the shelves for a long time.

Also agree with a few others that in thinking for the Wii, you can't just put any crap on there and expect it to sell, but need to make sure you have the Wii in mind rather than just "porting" an idea. Love Martin Hollis haha.


Some pretty interesting comments though.

Go Climax!!!

"However, the limited power of the console means it is difficult for it to compete with the very latest generation of games on PS3 and 360, at least in terms of the ‘wow factor’."

This I've been realizing for a while that going for "wow factor" is adopting a fad mentality. You're spending loads of money to impress people, which requires even more money the next time.

I'm going to put this on my sig. These are my own words, but I say this is the key to this generation.

"A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever."

That is what developers should be focusing on.

I'm not really sure why attach rate is cited as an issue for Wii. Shipment data, which is more complete than Vgchartz data or the data of any tracker because it has to be government approved, shows that in the Americas Wii has a 9+ attach rate - probably slightly more even if you included downloadable games. Worldwide, the attach rate is 7.6, and through September that was 429m games or something shipped lifetime.

Look at the data through Sept (this is off the top of my head) and you see that basically half the Wii market is controlled by publishers making four types of games:

The Essential Wii Quadruple: MK Wii, Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Play total ~120m units of SW shipped

Big Nintendo Games 60m-70m?:

Brawl (9m), Galaxy (8m), Zelda (5m) Wii Music (3m), Excite Bots (2m), Metroid (1m), Punch Out (1), Fire Emblem (1), WarioWare (1), Wii Sports Resort (7m), Wii Fit Plus (1m), Play on Wii series (4m), Mario Sluggers (1m), Mario Strikers (1m), Mario Party 8 (7m), Animal Crossing (3m) I'm probably missing a few others

So in total, I don't think Nintendo has more than ~43% (185m/429m) of the Wii software market. For small third parties, another ~12% of the market is locked off.

Music Games: 15m-20m

Guitar Hero III (4m), GH: WT (3m), RB (1.5m), RB2 (1m), B: RB (1m), GH5, GH: Aerosmith, etc all add to it

Party Games 25m-35m:

Mario & Sonic 1 (7m), Rayman/Big Beach Party/Carnival Games/Cooking Mama and a bunch of other have done well

Fitness Games 10m-15m:

EA Sports Active (2m), Gold's Gym (1m), Jillian Michaels (1m), etc

To me, these above areas are basically off limits except to a handfull of publishers, mostly Nintendo, Activision, and Ubisoft. But if my figures are correct, those four proven types of game only account for half the market. Some other content has succeeded too, because even with half the market controlled by the games above, ~200m other Wii games sold in the systems first 34 months. Capcom, Sega, Konami, EA and a handfull of others have all had multiple titles top a million units on Wii that were not Music, Party, or Fitness games.

Super expensive core games will never be made for Wii because publishers only get ~$28 at most back of every $50 a customer spends on a game. You can get like $38 back on a PS3/360 game. So if you sell a million copies on Wii, you get $28 million - $4 million, $24 million. If you sell a million on PS3/360 you get $38 million - $10 million. It is more profitable at the million + level to make PS3/360 games with relatively modest budgets than it is to make Wii games. This allows Nintendo's content to dominate above the 2m unit level, while at 1m-2m its closers to a 50% share, and below that third parties dominate at a 60-70% clip which is enough to make good money, just not blockbuster money.

"Super expensive core games will never be made for Wii because publishers only get ~$28 at most back of every $50 a customer spends on a game. You can get like $38 back on a PS3/360 game. So if you sell a million copies on Wii, you get $28 million - $4 million, $24 million. If you sell a million on PS3/360 you get $38 million - $10 million. It is more profitable at the million + level to make PS3/360 games with relatively modest budgets than it is to make Wii games. This allows Nintendo's content to dominate above the 2m unit level, while at 1m-2m its closers to a 50% share, and below that third parties dominate at a 60-70% clip which is enough to make good money, just not blockbuster money."

Although the increased development and marketing can often offset that price advantage. From some company reports, selling a million is no longer enough to guarantee a profit on a big HD game.

lol @ Relentless. Sony contracted Shovelware Factory disses Wii, news at 11.

I liked the Denki guy best. I also like their games best coincidentally among the developers who participated. Denki Blocks DSiWare plz!

the anominous guy made alot of sence... the rest we have to just prove these bastards wrong dont we?... the anominous guy is right we do want to see big budget games on wii, thats why i have full confedents in red steel 2 because that looks like a high budget game