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State of the Wii. (8 months later)
Eteric
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
When the Wii was first shown, many of us already knew it would be a hit. "Something refreshing, something new, a revolution!" we thought, fantasising about various sword fighting games, and shooters that would be made possible. Then came launch, the Wii sold out in the USA and Japan, and has pretty much remained that way since. It's been nearly 8 months now, and Wii has found it's way into the homes of around 8,000,000 people. But amongst all the success, all the analysts clamoring about it, all the youtube videos, there's us; "the gamer."
And really, we have one question.
"Where the FUCK are the games?!"
It's always been said that the console with the highest userbase, will get the most games. People like myself; who knew the Wii would be a success, bought it with expectations of it becoming the market leader. We expected it to have the most diverse library, due to it's unique controller and affordability of development. But now, I'm looking back and wondering what's going on. Sure, it's been out 8 months, and it takes longer than that to make a good game, but we haven't even gotten many "announcements" that aren't ports or mini-game/Wii Sports clones. Most of the games that we ARE getting look to be cheap cash in games, with a few exceptions (Zack and Wiki, Dewy's Adventure, the Square-Enix games).
When I watched E3, I saw the sales talk. That was all good and what not, but even in their little montages of game footage, games like Soul Calibur Legends look uninspired. Same deal with Resident Evil: UC.
So the question is, when will those who chose the Wii get any big games worth noting? Or, will we always be stuck with the spin-off cash in games?
It feels like developers are trying to turn a blind eye to the success of the Wii. If that's the case, I'm going to be pretty pissed off.
And really, we have one question.
"Where the FUCK are the games?!"
It's always been said that the console with the highest userbase, will get the most games. People like myself; who knew the Wii would be a success, bought it with expectations of it becoming the market leader. We expected it to have the most diverse library, due to it's unique controller and affordability of development. But now, I'm looking back and wondering what's going on. Sure, it's been out 8 months, and it takes longer than that to make a good game, but we haven't even gotten many "announcements" that aren't ports or mini-game/Wii Sports clones. Most of the games that we ARE getting look to be cheap cash in games, with a few exceptions (Zack and Wiki, Dewy's Adventure, the Square-Enix games).
When I watched E3, I saw the sales talk. That was all good and what not, but even in their little montages of game footage, games like Soul Calibur Legends look uninspired. Same deal with Resident Evil: UC.
So the question is, when will those who chose the Wii get any big games worth noting? Or, will we always be stuck with the spin-off cash in games?
It feels like developers are trying to turn a blind eye to the success of the Wii. If that's the case, I'm going to be pretty pissed off.
Eteric on
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And the DS
And the Dreamcast
And the Gamecube
And on and on and on
Every single time people get all excited over a system and have to be the very first to own it. Then they're surprised when, holy shit, not that many games have been released yet. It's like there's some sort of lengthy development process or something.
See, while those are all great games, I'm more worried about third parties. While Nintendo's line up is excellent, they can't support the Wii on their own (and keep it a huge success).
I'm worried about third parties, to be honest. I'm getting this sick feeling that they're going to refuse it, no matter how much it sells.
At the store.
Also, online, at the Wii Virtual Console.
If you want to PLAY them, I suggest buying them.
They don't just materialize, or nothing.
Yeah, like every one of the really big games ended up pushed back by about a year, but that's hardly surprising for Nintendo-published games.
I can't believe I ever fell for the Mario--->launch window! thing. You'd think I'd learn by now.
Elebits was great, and Dewey's Adventure looks good, too.
There's also other stuff.
And you know that Nintendo TOTALLY could carry it.
I probably should have said, "good, new games." 8-)
How many other consoles have they "supported" on their own?
But I agree they can't make it a "huge success" on their own
the big PROBLEM however is that it's very very easy to look at the current lineup of wii games and say "well...that's not for me" or "hell, I'm not going to pay $50 for that." like i said, plenty of good games but a shortage of stellar titles. there are games coming. really good ones. stellar, AAA games. It's taken 8-12 months for them to get here but starting at the end of this month, there should be a steady supply of great games to buy.
I meant that they can't sustain market leader status by themselves. They're going to absolutely need third parties, but alas, we've heard mostly silence. :x
Eight months is pretty damn new.
It's not Nintendo's fault that you didn't realize what being an early adopter meant.
How many new games do you need per month? From what I've seen, there's been a decent one ever month-month and a half.
If you have the money to buy a new game every week, I suggest you save it up and just pay to fund YOUR OWN games.
Well, lets see. I have Zelda, Rayman, Super Paper Mario, and Resident Evil 4. Many of the games released since RE4 aren't that great. And a lot of the ports on the Wii can be bought for $19 on the PS2.
Which is another problem entirely (third parties charging full price for old ports).
Why is the goal to be market leader?
That isn't Nintendo's goal this time around. Their business plan to open up new demographics, and they're doing it well. YOU may want to see that as winning some console war, but that really doesn't look like their main focus anymore. I'm not saying that they wouldn't accept it if they got it, but they're striving for something else.
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RE4 came out just a month ago, like I said, how often are you really expecting amazing games to be coming out?
PS3 blows, people will just get a 360 instead. And the Wii is so different it's just a stand alone thing that people buy because it's so cheap.
It's over boys.
You need to lower your expectations a bit, I think.
Except that they showed they couldnt with both the N64 and the Gamecube.
I'm not so sure about that. I think they're still going for market leader, but in a different way. Even Iwata said that he'd like to see the Wii surpass the PS2.
And traditionally, the market leader gets the games. Without games (casual or not), the Wii won't be able to hold itself up. Nintendo isn't a huge company, they can't make games for every demographic, so if they want to reach that goal, they'll still need third parties.
Hmm, bad example. Okay, there hasn't been anything that great since Super Paper Mario (cept RE4, lol). :P
Sure, but that doesn't invalidate it as an option for people who don't keep old consoles, or never owned them to begin with.
It's over?
Pfft. A majority of the people I know that invested into a PS3 are enjoying it. Most of the people who denounce the PS3 are people who have never touched one.
I never meant to imply it did.
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Hmmm?
Nintendo turned a very large profit on the Gamecube. Larger than Sony turned on the PS2, I believe.
I really think some of you don't understand the purpose of a business.
The hell are you talking about I touch PS3s all the time in Demo Kiosks.
I wouldn't even STEAL a ps3.
You have no idea what we've touched.
I shook that THREEAXIS so hard, and it was entirely useless.
The PS3 isn't really as bad as people make it out to be though.
Yes, but in the eyes of many gamers it was a dead system. They made a profit, but they didn't have the numbers to put out enough games to keep the system afloat.
Hence why I'm saying they can't hold up by themselves.
What? Silence? You're kidding, right? Haven't you seen the countless news bits over the last few months that development companies are focussing more of their time and effort on the Wii? Moving away from the PS3 and even the 360 to develop exclusively for the Wii? The last one was Activision, I believe, which stated it would be concentrating more on original games, rather than ports. All of them have seen how Ubisoft has cleaned up with the Wii, even though they haven't had an AAA game yet. For the love of God, Rockstar has never developed (as far as I know) on a Nintendo console before as Rockstar, yet they've been promising massive support... they've outright said, like many companies, that they would be focussing more on the Wii than any other console.
These games take time to develop. This Christmas and beyond, there's going to be a shitload of games coming for the Wii. Go and take a look at the Wikipedia list of games - those that are out, and those that are coming out. The future is very bright for the Wii and original, exclusive AAA games.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
they did for 2 generations. i think what you mean is they can't hold themselves ANYMORE. by the time the GC died, the majority of the mainstream audience had become disenfranchised with the old nintendo glory. That's why they needed to reinvent themselves. That's why they did.
Anyhow, back on topic, I don't know about any of you guys but when the end of this month comes, I'm gonna kick all kinds of ass in the inevitable PA strikers game on thread.
Do they really need third-party help though? Nintendo has sustained this tremendous growth pretty much all by themselves based largely on a)Zelda and b)Wii Sports and c)the Wiimote functionality. 8 months later, I still get 20 people a day asking where to find one. And the number of people looking will only increase as time goes by. I don't know the future, obviously, but my guess would be that the supply won't even come close to keeping up with demand until well into next year.
The only third-party games they need is not necessarily big games, but just games in general. Big third-party titles help, obviously, but the size of the library is pretty important, and as the (in-my-mind) inevitable market leader, they're going to get plenty of titles. Maybe they won't all be as good or significant as they should be, but there will be a lot and the size of the library can be pretty important for people making purchasing.
Not that this needs to be worried about too much. There will be companies that produce big titles for the system simply because of the size of the userbase, and those that stubbornly fail to recognize the potential sales they could have on the system will likely suffer for that stubborness.
No matter what though, The Big N's gonna get theirs. If third-parties fail to make significant efforts on the platform, it just means that Nintendo will sell more copies of their titles. Most people will fail to care whether "big franchise x" comes to the system, as long as there are a somewhat consistent supply of new games.
Huh?
When was the gamecube not afloat?
The whole problem with gamers who get into a "system wars" mentallity is that it has NO bearing on how the industry works from a business perspective. Companies like to outsell eachother, sure, but you don't have to be the market-leader to do the best if you're smart about your costs and know your market.
But, yeah. At what point were they unable to "keep the game cube afloat"?
Yeah, but what are they focusing on really? Many of them seem to be trying to emulate Wii Sport's success by making mini-game compilations. And while there's nothing wrong with mini-games, the market is getting flooded with the things.
Ironically, I think Rockstar is one of the companies making a mini-game compilation. Carnival Games, I think?
When everyone jumped ship, that's when it was no longer "afloat." Hell, even EA was going to stop making GC games, but Nintendo pursuaded them not to.
What are you talking about? Yes they did keep the system afloat. Holy Zombie Jesus, it's like if it doesn't sell two hundred million units it's an abject failure to you people. The system continued to receive quality titles throughout its five+ year lifespan and not once was the company ever close to running out of money. I don't know what your definition of "afloat" is here. You want a system that couldn't "stay afloat"? The Dreamcast couldn't stay afloat. Unless your system is doing like the Dreamcast did, it's fucking "afloat".
This is just how the industry cycles.