Why no Nintendo Wii Development?

[alanschu]

I'm surprised by how many older people seem to be entranced with the Wii. People I would never expect to play a video game console ARE playing the Wii.

 

 

 

Also, what is a second party developer?

[Joseph Bulock]

That seems to be very true Alanschu. I have friends that haven't owned a console ever that are looking for one right now. It offers such a different way to play that captures people who hadn't been into games since the days of the NES. Including Wii Sports in the box also helps, simply because it demos the capabilities of the machine pretty well.

[alanschu]

One guy I work with is a Wii owner, and I guess for his Christmas family get together (we're talking a bunch of adults here, parents and grandparents alike) spent the whole day playing Wii sports. I guess the Grandma dominated in golf :D

[Pop]

Also, what is a second party developer?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Second-Party Developer. They're getting more and more rare with the increasing cost of game development. Obsidian was a second-party developer for the Xbox with KOTOR2 up until the PC port, and is technically a second-party developer for the PC with NWN2. But the article doesn't seem to connotate PC development with the term.

 

The thing is, porting a game from a PS3 to a 360 or vice versa is relatively simple compared to porting to a Wii. For one, there's the obvious difference between controller types and accomodation of the Wii's motion-sensor capabilities. And the Wii doesn't have HD capability like the others, nor does it have near the processing power or rendering power. Games look different and play more different. So we're going to see over the next few years a lot of games that come out for the PS3 / 360 and not on the Wii (like Oblivion) and if we see games that come out for all 3 platforms the game is either going to be gimped on the Wii or is going to be different in many basic ways (Madden, for example, which actually turned out pretty well on the Wii)

[alanschu]

I figured they were still third party developers.

 

The bizarre classifications people feel compelled to use.

[alanschu]

Games look different and play more different. So we're going to see over the next few years a lot of games that come out for the PS3 / 360 and not on the Wii (like Oblivion) and if we see games that come out for all 3 platforms the game is either going to be gimped on the Wii

 

And you'll probably see games for the Wii that aren't on the PS3/360. Also, the only way the game needs to be "gimped" from what I can tell, is graphically.

[Guest Raymond Holmes]

I think many of us here would love to do a Wii game, most of my design group either has or badly wants one.

 

But game dev is a business, and it depends on what the publishers want to pay for and what Obsidian as a company needs to do both for itself as a business and for positioning itself as a healthy company.

 

That said, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility, just not happening right at this moment.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

 

I have enough common sense not buy a Console.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

To quote your Darque account:

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

I'm surprised by how many older people seem to be entranced with the Wii.  People I would never expect to play a video game console ARE playing the Wii.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

My mother, who does not play videogames that require somewhat fast reflexes (a Tetris related trauma, don't ask) tried a Wii longer than I did. And it wasn't with Wii Sports, it was with Zelda. Frickin' Zelda!

[Volourn]

Question: If all these non gamers are suddenly playing the Wii... why is xbox 360 still outselling it? From the talk here; this must mean gamers aren't playing/buying the Wii at all.. Hmmm..

[kirottu]

I understood it that non-gamer plays WII at gamer

[Sand]

Question: If all these non gamers are suddenly playing the Wii... why is xbox 360 still outselling it? From the talk here; this must mean gamers aren't playing/buying the Wii at all.. Hmmm..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Its outselling PS3 in Japan which in turn tromping all over the X Box 360 over there.

[alanschu]

Question: If all these non gamers are suddenly playing the Wii... why is xbox 360 still outselling it? From the talk here; this must mean gamers aren't playing/buying the Wii at all.. Hmmm..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Just because they are playing it doesn't mean they are out buying their own. The instances I have heard about have been at family gatherings, which require only 1 Wii to be present.

[Weiser_Cain]

unless you're dysfunctional like us, two wii's in this house.

[Sand]

That sounds anatomically incorrect but also lucrative if applied in the proper film industry.

[Volourn]

"Just because they are playing it doesn't mean they are out buying their own. The instances I have heard about have been at family gatherings, which require only 1 Wii to be present"

 

So, in reality, the 'non gamers' playing the Wii are irrelevant to the competition between the Big Three. They reallya rne't adding much to sales then.

 

 

"Its outselling PS3 in Japan which in turn tromping all over the X Box 360 over there."

 

And? Japan is only one market. XBOX 360 is still outselling them overall. And, PS3 isn't that far behind consideirng the limnited number actually shipped and its price.

[Joseph Bulock]

Question: If all these non gamers are suddenly playing the Wii... why is xbox 360 still outselling it? From the talk here; this must mean gamers aren't playing/buying the Wii at all.. Hmmm..

 

Also, the 360 has units on the shelves. The Wii has actually increased in demand since the holiday season, but Nintendo still cannot get enough units out to consumers. The same is true with the Wiimotes. A Wii owner who has managed to snag 4 Wiimotes is a rare thing.

[Volourn]

Yeah. But, that's the same excuse Sony is using. That's the advantage of having a head start. That's one of the main reasons why Sony one the last generational war - they had a head start on the competition.

[Llyranor]

PS3's aren't selling out, though.

 

Besides, what is Wii at now? 4 million? The 360 is at 10 million. 1 yr headstart, heh.

[Joseph Bulock]

Yeah. But, that's the same excuse Sony is using. That's the advantage of having a head start. That's one of the main reasons why Sony one the last generational war - they had a head start on the competition.

 

But many stores have PS3's on the shelf right now. Sony is having to deal with unsold units already. Nintendo still can't produce them fast enough for everyone who wants one to get one, and this is before the Mario title is even out, not to mention Warioware and Wii Play.

[alanschu]

"Just because they are playing it doesn't mean they are out buying their own. The instances I have heard about have been at family gatherings, which require only 1 Wii to be present"

 

So, in reality, the 'non gamers' playing the Wii are irrelevant to the competition between the Big Three. They reallya rne't adding much to sales then.

 

It was just an observation. It's not necessarily irrelevant either, because if people that don't own it, but enjoyed playing it, it wouldn't rule out them buying the system in the future.

[Alvin Nelson]

...before the Mario title is even out, not to mention Warioware and Wii Play.

 

Ahh, Wii Play and Mario! I'm so excited for the both of them!

 

The Wii is just a fun system to play with all your friends. I literally have people come to my house after hanging out at the bar, just to play a few rounds of Wii Bowling or Home Run Derby. Its annoying, actually...I never get a chance to play Zelda...

[theslug]

I wasn't a big fan of the Wii. My friend got one, we played wii sports and zelda. Sports was decent but zelda was pretty horrible from what i saw. It was just a bunch of running back and forth and pushing levers and shooting water arrows while fighting a few enemies here and there. And the boss fight was pretty lame for that dungeon. Then like a week later he sold it, so the feeling was mutual on the system. I mean the concept with the controller was very cool and extremely easy to get a handle on but it kind of just loses out after a while, especially on games like red steel from what i'v heard but thats more of a developers fault not the console. Maybe im just more of a conventional gamer or something but from what i'v played and seen 360 just blows wii out of the water, probably the same with playstation.

[Joseph Bulock]

I wasn't a big fan of the Wii. 

 

I'm trying to figure out if it's intentional irony that "theslug" doesn't buy into the Wii.

[alanschu]

 

I was confused because his first sentence made it sound like his dislike of the Wii was a thing of the past. It set the tone for the rest of the message, which ended up being rather confusing.