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The 27 Known Wii Launch Titles
Via Joystiq comes a long list of the launch-day titles for the Nintendo Wii, posted at Nwizard. I was aware that they had quite a few coming out around launch, but 27 is pretty impressive. Selections include highly anticipated titles like Red Steel and Twilight Princess, as well as several titles that I personally am looking forward too, such as Metroid Corruption, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers.
Although release games do not mean much in the long run, this list is not the tradition batch of driving, shooting, and shooting while driving games that other consoles seem to love.
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
The Wii doens't need a price drop, as it will be priced well below the XBox 360 and the PS3.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Aren't these launch window titles (first 3 months)? The only launch-day games confirmed by Nintendo are LoZ:TP and Wii Sports. Hopefully about 15 will make launch-day, with another 20 or so coming in the following three months.
Sorry, but if there is no press release, then it doesn't exist. Everybody says it's confirmed, but nobody points to a press release or any article that would confirm this.
"The Wii doens't need a price drop, as it will be priced well below the XBox 360 and the PS3."
But the games are still priced at the same price as new current-gen games, $50. Launch titles tend to drop in price rapidly. Today even the best Cube launch titles (Metroid Prime!) are $9.99 new, $4.99 used at GameStop.
I'll buy the big titles I want at launch (Zelda, Metroid, maybe Wii Sports so I can force my non-gamer family to play it) and grab everything else when the price dives.
I really think they're right in that assumption, and I'll even take it farther: The average consumer isn't even going to be able to tell the difference. Hell, I myself can't really see any improvement in 360 or PS3 stuff over the best-looking Gamecube games (RE4).
Since when was Metroid Prime a launch game?
In general, Nintendo titles do NOT quickly drop in price after release. At least not first party titles. This has pretty much been the case with the Gamecube, and will remain to be the case on the Wii. How long did it take for the launch titles you mention to get to the budget price they're at now? It took years, not months! The only thing that tends to make a nintendo title quikly drop in price is when a sequel comes out. Unlike the other consoles, becoming a "players choice" title does not grant an immediate $20 price tag either. It just means that they'll keep making more copies of the game, with small price decreases every now and then.
Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata has said before that he feels the game market is much healthier if games are given an appropriate initial priced based on various development criteria and costs, and then not discounted at all for several years.
While the downside to this philosophy is that you do fork over a lot of money for the AAA titles, the benefit is that you also don't have to risk much on low-budget gems. We've also seen this philosophy being played out in the DS market. There, the AAA titles generally run $30-35, while "cheaply produced" titles such as Brain Age and Big Brain Academy hit the shelves at only $20.
I hope Nintendo are right in their apparent assumption that these days consoles have enough power, and the typical consumer doesn't care about running at ultra high resolutions.
Similarly, one might ask the question: have MS and Sony been right in their assumption, made years in advance, that the HDTV market would be mature by now? The market for their products is considerably narrower, limited as it is to those who already own or would own HD sets -- and their products themselves are perceived as much more expensive partly because they went the HD route.
Perceptions of "horsepower" aside, for me the HD feature is actually a potential drawback of those other systems. If I can't see games in all their splendor, why would I pay $500 or whatever for a console whose main claim to glory is the HD images? A whopping $2000 ($600 + an HD set) just to get in the door is a LOT to ask. Too much for me, personally.
So I see what you're saying, but it cuts both ways.
Note also that while MS and Sony are pitching to the dedicated gamer willing to shell out a big lump of bills, Nintendo's rhetoric has been all about broadening the market. With the DS, at least, it seems to work -- if my kids' 82-year-old grandma avidly playing "Brain Age" this last week was any indication...
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
To be honest, I'm kinda glad that a lot of the sports games aren't the first out of the box. Sports games are pretty much all sequels even if it's another company making it. When it's more of the same the best thing they can add is just perfect game controls. With how different the wii controller is compared to past controllers, game developers need lots of time and testing for it to play really well. Who wants a clunky sports game that isn't going to be as good as earlier ones? Let developers practice on earlier games and once they've really got it down come out with an awesome sports game. Same is true with fighting games. Those really fast paced games where a slightly different move makes all the difference is better off waiting for the second (or third) round of games.