"Wii Will Rock You" - Fortune Magazine

Zombrex

Interesting article entitled "Wii Will Rock You" (groan), in Fortune magazine (Intl edition) about the success Nintendo has had with the Wii

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/06/11/100083454/index.htm?postversion=2007060414

Its coming from a business side rather than a gaming/artistic side, but the numbers are impressive. Nintendo is making approx 1 million Wiis a month and it is still selling out, something that is almost unheard of in the console industry where sales normally noise dive after the Christmas rush. It has sold approx 7.29 million Wiis since its launch last year, compared with the 10.8 million Xbox 360s out there, after twice as long on sale.

While the article doesn't touch on the gamers issue with a serious lack of any where descent games, it does briefly touch on the fact that both Sony and Microsoft are dismissing the Wii as having limited long term appeal. Nintendo respond to this with a bit of a wink nudge nudge approach, hinting that they understand this and have a few tricks left up their sleeves. What these might be is not touched on.

Personally I think the Wii have caught everyone off guard (especially after the GameCube) and I think it is only normal that this would be reflected with a shortage of games for the system as developers play catch up. This was the same with the DS, for months there were only a small shelf in HMV or GAME, while the PSP had a wall to itself. Time has shown the DS to be far more popular. So I'm prepared to wait this one out.

Of more worry would be the idea that modern game developers, especially the game factories such as EA, simply have no clue what to do with the Wiimote as a game interface.

The Wiimote might have been what the mainstream public were longing for (as discussed in the article), it doesn't seem to have been what the developers were longing for. Figuring out a completely new way to interact with a game after 25 years of the slowly evolving gamepad is not going to be something that happens over night.

A lot of genres of games don't easily fit into being controlled by the Wiimote. Creating a new successful genre or twist on a genre (Super Mario Bros, Doom, Virtua Fighter, GTA) isn't something that developers can just plan to do on a spreadsheet.

I think Nintendo need to step up to the plate and lead the way in demonstrating WTF people can actually do wit the Wiimote. They weren't the best at doing that with the stylus with the DS (which often feels tacked on to games, where the player is required to use the stylus when buttons would be far better). They are really going to need to do this with the Wii.

I also think they need to realise that the truly revolutionary games for the Wii, that truly recognize what can be done with the controls, probably won't be coming from people like EA. They are going to be coming from small developers and publishers who are willing to take risks to get noticed. Nintendo need to support these people.

We have yet to see if the massive financial success of the Wii can be turned into the artistic success I think most here are hoping for.

Retr0gamer

Wicknight wrote:

Of more worry would be the idea that modern game developers, especially the game factories such as EA, simply have no clue what to do with the Wiimote as a game interface.

Have to disagree here, of all the third party developers EA have made by far the best use of the Wiimote so far. They have also been the first to realise just how popular the Wii is since they have set up a devision with a heap of very talented people dedicated to making wii versions of their franchises from the ground up.

There may be a serious lack of software but there is a trickle of decent titles and it's the same with every console after launch. The PS3 is in the same situation as was the 360 until Autumn last year. I'd say the big guns will be unleashed in Autumn on the run up to Christmas. Initial reports say that Mario Galaxy is going to be absolutely amazing and Metroid Prime is well Metroid Prime so can't be bad and the extra year Retro have had should really polish this title off. Screw Halo 3 I say, Samus FTMFW.

wake-up-your

"Of more worry would be the idea that modern game developers, especially the game factories such as EA, simply have no clue what to do with the Wiimote as a game interface."

I think your forgetting the all mighty Dollar in this equartion!

If there is money to be made they will find a way to make it.

I always thought the Wii was a Gamble,

Never thought it would pay off!

Zombrex

Retr0gamer wrote:

They have also been the first to realise just how popular the Wii is since they have set up a devision with a heap of very talented people dedicated to making wii versions of their franchises from the ground up.

Which is great of course (and a reflection of how successful the Wii has been financially), but I still don't think they know what they are doing.

Any of the EA games I've played are standard console games with the Wiimote control bolted on. And the majority of Wii titles coming out from EA are multi platform licenses, which would have been designed from the bottom up for multi platform interfaces (ie game pads )

The issue I would have with this is that ultimately it leads to a situation where the PS3 or Xbox360 versions of the game just play better to play because they were designed from the ground up with a standard game pad interface, and the Wiimote control was added later. Madden is an example of that, where EA put quite a bit of effort into the Wiimote control, and it was certainly interested, but really it just didn't work as well as the Xbox version. Defense is a nightmare.

The developers are having to relearn console interface design. Which is difficult. And the "bolt on" tactic I think is not going to be successful in the long run, particularly when people start buy Xboxs or Playstations to complement their Wii

Retr0gamer wrote:

Initial reports say that Mario Galaxy is going to be absolutely amazing and Metroid Prime is well Metroid Prime so can't be bad and the extra year Retro have had should really polish this title off. Screw Halo 3 I say, Samus FTMFW.

That is what I'm saying. Nintendo need to led the way in showing developers how to use the Wiimote properly, in games designed from the ground up around the interface

When it comes to interface design 99% is copying what has gone before. For the last 25 years game developers have been copying previous game pad interfaces, slowly building up from the NES to the modern Xbox 360 pad. Now they have a very different interface to work with. Its only natural that they wouldn't have a clue. It will be difficult for developers to just suddenly figure out how to do it properly, and build a game around the interface, rather than bolting on the interface around the game.

Put simply they need to copy from someone else who has already done it. This is where Nintendo comes in. Nintendo did this before (albet on a smaller scale) with the analog stick on the N64. Now it is hard to imagine a game that doesn't have analog control.

If Nintendo can nail the first person control with Metroid (and I'm hoping they will) that will allow every other Wii developer a demonstration of how you do a first person game with the Wii. If they can nail the control with Mario (again, I'm hoping they will) that will show every other develop how you do 3rd person platform with the Wii.

Nintendo needs to step up to show developers how to make a Wii game, rather than how to make a game that can be controlled by the Wii. Because I doubt EA are going to figure it out simply adding Wiimote control to their vast array of licenses, no matter how many people they stick in a room