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Game Devs Warming Up To More Mature-Rated Games On the Wii
With the success of the Grand Theft Auto franchise responsible for the majority of publisher Take Two Interactive's earnings in the past year, the company's executives are looking more and more at expanding their M-rated products onto the typically family-friendly Wii. Take Two's CEO said, "Even though we think M-rated content is much more appropriate for the PS3 or 360, we have to look at the Wii as a viable platform across all our labels. We have to, because we can't ignore the installed base. You just can't." They're already planning to release GTA: Chinatown Wars for the DS to test the waters on a Nintendo platform, hoping for a better result than the controversy over Manhunt 2 last year.
Well, I could think of some interesting use cases for the Wiimote in an adult game...
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So in the future the lowest-common denominator for cross platform games, which for now is decided only by PS3/XBox360/PC for these games, will be dropped even further so the Wii can get in on the action.
Stunning also that the people who publish GTA of all things believe they "can't ignore" an installed base which was created by games diametrically opposed to the likes of GTA.
Manhunt 2 failed not as the platform was not up for M-rated game, but as it is rather paints. The Manhunt IP is just no that good anyway, add on to that the fact that R* is doing nothing with it other than scream "it has lots of blood and shit" and you have a rubbish, over hyped game.
So in GTA, the avatar you'd be controlling in your criminal rampage would be one of those cute, pudgy, simplistic mii things?
And all the passers-by and cops and hookers you shoot and run over would be the mii avatars of your friends and family?
Priceless...
And in other news the sales of Wiimotes has gone through the roof.
From TFA: Another said, "No wonder I can't keep a girlfriend. I had no idea that was how it was supposed to work."
And just below that quotation was this "If it ain't broke..." survey ad.
It's funny how most "mature-rated games" actually sound *immature* to me. I mean, stealing fancy cars and shooting big guns ? Wow, count me in, NOT.
I actually think a game like Animal Crossing is way more mature. YES, Animal friggin' Crossing, people! Just look at the plot : you move in a new city, all by yourself, you have to pay your mortgage with money that you earn by _working_, you learn to participate in the cultural life of the town by donating to the museum, you have to take care of public space, plant trees and flowers to make a great place for everybody. You meet a lot of people, some are okay, some are unbearable but you have to learn to live with them, and some will become your friends. Sometimes you'll have to help them out by buying their stuff, or finding the keys they lost. Some of them will eventually move out to other towns and you'll never see them AGAIN.
Now THOSE are some major life lessons, folks.
Resident Evil
Call of Duty
No More Heroes
Whether or no a game succeeds isn't about the rating, it's about the content and game play and story line (or lack thereof) and unfortunately, it's all too often about the lack.
On the Wii one adds in a need for supporting the Wii motion controls in a natural (Resident Evil Wii edition --- what's up w/ requiring pressing _2_ buttons to fire a pistol?!?) and reliable way (DragonQuest Swords I'm looking at you on that last), and even if the game is okay on other platforms, then it fails as a Wii game if it only involves mashing buttons (Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn, please re-write the UI to support more than just buttons!).
Yes, I know, only one of the games that I'm criticizing has an M rating.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Although the ability to lock out games rated above or below a certain threshold is useful as a general policy and provides a decent starting ground, as a parent, I still wish that the parental controls on the wii had the additional ability to whitelist or blacklist certain programs, which might otherwise be denied or accepted based on the game rating.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I admire the Wii's success. But, let's face it, it's really the console for casual gamers and kids (they kind of console parents feel is safe for both little Johnny and grandma at the home). I suspect that, no matter how many consoles they've sold, a hardcore adult title will just not sell nearly as well on the Wii as it would on the 360 or PS3. For example, the most popular shooter on the Wii so far has been Metroid Prime. And, despite the astronomically great Wii hardware sales, that game has only sold about a million copies. That's very good, but it's just a drop in the bucket compared to 360 and PS3 shooters like Halo 3, Metal Gear Sold 4, and Gears of War.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
This game rocks on the Wii. Much like many other games once you play with the Wii remote, you wonder why its even released on other consoles. (Golf games are great for that.) Patrick
Think Deeply.
Cartoons are cute and all, but I like blood, gore, and adult themes.
Cartoonish art styles and adult themes aren't mutually exclusive. Have you investigated the world of R- and H-rated anime yet?
That game wasn't controversial, it just sucked.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
I bought the Wii for the same reasons, and as much as I want to stick with it there is a good lack of game variety. Mind you checking with PS3 catalogue doesn't yield much of a better selection, though there are slightly more teen-adult oriented titles. I am subscribed to Nintendo Power and when I open it I hope I will see an RPG. Often I do, but it turns out that it is for the DS. Seeing that Tales of Symphonia was released for the Wii I jumped at the opportunity to buy it. There is one or two things they could improve, but having played an older version on the PS2 I was happy that it matched the game play I knew and liked.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
One game that must be mentioned is Mad World:
http://www.sega.com/platinumgames/madworld/EnglishUK/index2.html
This really looks like some pure crazy psychotic pleasure. Its black and white and red - the red being blood, and the black and white being everything else. I won't be buying it, but I am sure that there is a whole army of people who will.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I really enjoyed the first Manhunt for Playstation. When I heard Manhunt 2 was coming out for the Wii, I was psyched. Then, after all the controversy, they decided to censor the game by blurring out a major portion of the game - the violent cut scenes. I decided not to buy the game since I am an adult and should be able to buy the game uncensored.
My question is, why can't game devs release 2 versions of a game with different ratings - one being censored and one going all out?
People who say "money does not buy happiness" are just people without money trying to make themselves feel better.
So they're going to make some games suitable for 10 year olds? I keed, I keed!
So it's just a matter of time before we see Custer's Revenge for the Wii? I can't wait!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
So are they going to have more innovative mature peripherals?
It does not necessarily destroy his argument. Take a look at the Home section of VG Chartz, from your own link. Based on that site, the Wii has sold 42 million world wide. So that game sold to just under 4% of the install base, and is considered one of Capcom's primary franchises. The game cube total sales were about the same, and the Gamecube had a much smaller install base than the Wii.
That game is a financial success on the Wii because the dev costs were minimal. The game already existed, and the Wii supports Gamecube backward compatibility.
Gears of war is an undisputed hit on the Xbox 360. It has sold 5.56 million on an install base of 25.59 million. The game was able to appeal to 20% of the install base.
The Wii audience may be larger, but the Xbox / PS3 audience is still a more reliable consumer for most developers. If you want to put out a AAA game with mature themes, you probably want to hit about 6 million to consider it a monster it, and about 3 million to break even.
The marketing of the Wii has been effective from a bottom line point of view, but the platform has not done much to impress non casual gamers. I would like to think that the platform can still appeal to hard core as well as casual gamers, but it is pretty clear at this point that developers of games with mature themes are not targeting the Wii yet.
As a fan of the platform, and a hardcore gamer, I would very much like to see more studios put quality mature games on the Wii, but it does not seem likely at this point.
END COMMUNICATION
Finally,
I am so glad to see that over-rated, stupid, childish piece of plastic rubbish out of my house.
I got it for FREE and I was still ripped off, that's how useless the fucking thing is.
If you are a single player or hardcore gamer the thing is absoloutely of no use to you (ok, I exagerrate there's about 4 good games, maybe)
The system is a monopoly replacement, in a few days time the same old family members will go over to someones house and realise it's been a year, what did we do last christmas when the meal is over and we're all a bit bored and tired of talking to family? - out comes Wii bowling.
It's simply replace monopoly, seriously I'm not even joking here, the system is basically more of a toy than a games console.
If you're serious about good, linear and complex single player (or multiplayer) games with a good story and some immersion (plus some 2005 era graphics at least!) grab a PS3 or 360.
Hell I've heard people claim the Dreamcast had better graphics than the Wii.
That system is going to replace the PS2, as the cheap, simple console for people to play singstar (or some equivelant) on and keep young children entertained, despite the ongoing sales for the system it's a 'budget' console and eventually this bubble will burst.
In conclusion, fuck the god damned Wii and good riddance!
On the other hand, there's no reason there couldn't be a good Wii GTA, except that it would be much more disturbing than other console versions. In ordinary GTA games, your character does all sorts of bad things while you sit around pushing buttons on a controller. In a proper Wii version, you'd be miming doing the bad things yourself, which will seem a whole lot worse.
Well, there's a version of Bully for Wii - the main "immersive" aspect is fighting (motion controls for throwing punches) - other than that the controls don't make a significant difference. I had a lot of fun with it, personally.
Bow-ties are cool.
Fair points in the most part It'll be interesting to see how the conduit does, If it does what it promises then it could sell well and as a development platform Quantum3 might bring a means to get more developers building high end hardcore games. Personally I think they should corral the original developers of the Gamecube ResEvil4 along with whoever implemented the Wii Edition and see if they can do for the Wii what they did for the Gamecube. I do think though that with the naturally lower development cost of the Wii platform it doesn't take so many sales to have a 'hit' as with the big two.
What do you mean, life lessons? I sure as hell don't log onto a game to experience a sterilized version of an already sterile middle-class lifestyle that I lead IRL, thank you very much.