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Everybody Loves the Wii
1up is reporting on Ubisoft's enthusiastic adoption of the Wii platform. They'd previously only had two titles announced for the system (Red Steel and a Rayman game), but now claim to have seven different titles in production. From the article: "Ubisoft North America President Laurent Detoc ... praised the Wii several times during the panel, stating that he expects it to have 'a large audience and market.' He also stated that he personally felt that in a time when fewer and fewer games appeal to him, the Wii offers plenty of enjoyment. 'The first time I picked up that sucker I couldn't stop playing it.'" Ars Technica is also reporting that EA is gung-ho about the system. From that article: "EA not only indicated that they are taking the Wii and DS seriously, but the company also hinted that they will follow Nintendo's guidance and release games at or near the $49.99 price point. Nintendo has urged developers and publishers to respect the $49.99 price point, believing that it reflects a value advantage over other consoles. EA did not offer a firm commitment to that pricing, contrary to reports elsewhere."
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Take a look at all the kids demanding FFVII on the PS3. The dev teams are doing what they always do: trying to make money. If there's a market for it, they'll do it.
Cynical Idealist
The Wii seems to appeal more to the people who actually game because of the games. The PS3 and XBOX360 seem to appeal to people who game because of the image (however yes, there is some good stuff there, but they are selling an image in addition to the games). Just look at all the new "gamers" who jumped on the Halo bandwagon who tout it as the best fps ever, when PC gamers have been fragging each other for years already with games that are better than Halo.
So yes, everyone who loves gaming loves the Wii (well... almost everyone), because it's bringing us back to our roots with the old school Nintendo stuff. All the people who play because it's the in thing to do right now, well... they probably don't want to look silly flailing around, so they'll go with the other options.
Me... I'll get the Wii first, the XBOX360 soon after it's price drop, and the PS3 when it gets a price drop in a year or two.
you know that I love the Wii!
Seriously, if you look at the Nintendo Wii game announcement page you see such a wide variety of gaming genres, designed to appeal to people who don't just want sports and FPS games, but also casual gamers, women and girls, and a heck of a lot of cross-releases of games that are normallly only available in Japan and China, but are now available for English (US/UK/EU) players as well.
What's not to love about the Wii?
Plus, it doesn't have that annoying choice of do I get Blu-Ray or HD-DVD so that I can wait until 2008 when I actually end up buying a $300 HDTV set and decide for myself which player I'll get for $100.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Developers whose idea of a better game is bigger pixel counts will surely want to develop for the PS3 or the 360 -- at least until they realize how much more it costs to develop for those systems, that is. That's another aspect to the "GameCube II" angle your link derided.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Remember back when it was still called the Revolution and relegated to be the interesting-but-not-that-cool little cousin of the XBox360/PS3? It really is amazing how the news reports, and developer/previewer feedback have done a 180! (Take that 360). I recall Nintendo constantly stating with their chill/laid back attitude that they were staying out of the console wars and aiming for a fun, friendly product for everyone, rather than just testosterone filled fan boys. Don't get me wrong, I wish I could get all three consoles, but with the great price point and developer support, not to mention the cool Wiimote, Nintendo has really changed my attitude towards them.
The reality is that Nintendo's in an excellent position. They have a solid cash cow in the portable market and if the Wii was a total flop, it wouldn't kill them. Even if the Wii sucked they could reasonably plan to keep the market share they currently have with the Game Cube. This gives them the freedom to get a little bit experimental with the Wii and take a risk and this is why the Wii looks like it might be a winner. The Wii offers a unique experience and is cheap enough that owning one in addition to a PS3 or 360 isn't unreasonable.
For similar reasons, Microsoft is in a good position because they have piles of cash and big time cash cows in office software and operating systems. They can afford to lose a lot of money on the 360, so, once again, they aren't under a lot of pressure. Their approach is less risky though just evolving the platform a bit and more closely integrating the Live system into the unit.
Sony on the other hand is in a terrible position because the PS3 is basically the hopes and dreams of the entire company right now. They've been struggling for a while now, losing market share to cheap competitors in other realms of electronics. They are trying to use the PS3 to tie a lot of things together, a new high def video format, a new hardware platform, etc. If the PS3 flops, Sony is in a world of hurt. Even if it's moderately successful they may still be hurting depending on how much they lose per unit and how easily they can make those losses up on the back end.
Sony may pull things off but they are doubly cursed by high expectations and an almost desperate need for this to work out.
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I'm looking forward to the Wii and playing around with the games. If the Wiimote turns out to be a decent pointing device, I'm also interested in how it may effect human-computer interaction on other machines.
Apparently the Wii Remote is going to operate using Bluetooth. Hopefully Nintendo won't try to obfuscate the protocol (if they're making a profit on the hardware itself, they won't have any reason to), and it'll be fairly easy to interface with.
That's super duper cool. Guess what? It's the same for the DS/PSP match, the DS graphics are at a much lower level.
And you know what? No one cares, because the DS actually has fun games as in games that are actually games and not crappy PS2 ports, and by seeing the Raving Rabbids trailers I'm pretty sure that Rayman 4: Raving Rabbids will fucking rule.
Along with all the 1st party titles (Super Mario Galaxy, Legend of Zelda, SSB, ...)
Remember, Sam&Max Hit the Road was already ugly when it was released, and it's one of the games quite a few people are still in love with.
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
Fun thing is how Capcom still somehow managed to release a (graphically) magnificient Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube...
I thing the truth is much closer to "we can't be bothered to optimize the game for each of the 3 consoles, so we're counting on raw power to make up for it, and the Wii has a lower raw unused power".
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
I go into a games shop or look at gamespot and see nothing I really want to play, perhaps HL2:Ep1 but I am not bothered enough to buy it. Oblivion and Call Of Duty 2 both appeal to me, but my PC wont play those games and I am just not going to update. Give me something original that doesn't drink my wallet for graphics cards, lets hope the Wii provides that answer, the controller may be a gimick but hopefuly it may stimulate some fresh gaming experiences.
If this were really happening, what would you think?