Is There a Future For Mature Games On Wii?

digitalfever writes "There are more than 50 million Wii systems worldwide. Logically, the audience for a wide range of games and interactive experiences should be rather big, but based on the evidence so far, either that's not true — or publishers have been hedging the wrong bets. No one has conclusively proved the case for (or against) the viability of mature games on Wii, but 2009 was a litmus test on a number of fronts, including the DS. The results aren't encouraging. "

Comments

No

[xtracto]

No, the two Wii owners who expected mature games on the wii (I am one of them) have already given up.

Next questions.

Why and why

[Jeeeb]

Firstly, why does the content have to be M rated to be for a mature audience?

Secondly, why would they want to target that market? PS3 and xbox 360 are in tight competition for that market. It seems the cost and risk of competing in that market is high, while the potential pay off is low (How much money is MS making from the 360 again?). For Nintendo targeting children, families, casual gamers .etc. makes great sense and is proving very successful.

Re:Why and why

[RogueyWon]

This is exactly what I predicted at the start of this console cycle. The Wii has amazing initial sales, due to the novelty factor of the controller and a media which is generally feeling disillusioned with Sony and MS and therefore happy to unquestioningly do most of Nintendo's hype for them. Then the same old Nintendo factor of "no decent games outside of a few first-party titles (which are themselves only popular with a certain niche)" kicks in, the limitations of the controller become more widely known, the system's hardware starts to seem more and more pathetic compared to its competitors and sales (particularly of non-bundled games) fall off a cliff.

The sad thing is that the few mature games for the Wii that are actually any good are being hit by the fallout from this. Dead Space: Extraction is an excellent game - a thinking man's rail shooter (which I would previously have believed to be a contradiction in terms) and it deserved to do well. Instead, if wikipedia is to be believed, it sold less than 9,300 copies at launch, despite a positive critical reception. I'm sure EA looked at that, compared it with the sales of the original Dead Space on PC, PS3 and Xbox360, and thought "remind me why we even bother with this Wii rubbish?". Had they published the game on the other platforms, with standard controller or mouse controls, it's entirely plausible that they might have managed sales figures 20 times higher (using the original Dead Space as a comparison).

Things will only get worse now that development for the 360 and PS3 is in a fairly mature state, with newer games taking full advantage of the system's capabilities. By contrast, I think the Wii is being harmed by the unexpected longevity of the PS2. With big cross-platform titles (eg. Force Unleashed, but there are plenty of other examples), developers already have to develop entirely separate versions of the game (with the differences often going far beyond just graphics). Often, there will be one broad version for the "proper" gaming platforms; the PC, PS3 and Xbox360. Meanwhile, a cutdown version is developed, for the "lesser" consoles. It makes sense to release for the PS2 and the Wii, due to their huge installed bases, but it doesn't make sense to develop a separate version of the game for each. So the Wii ends up getting a lot of titles which are just direct PS2 ports with a bit of lazy motion sensing tacked on, even though its (admittedly poor) hardware is capable of significantly better. So while PS3 and 360 titles released today generally look better than those from the system's launch, a lot of Wii titles actually look worse. This really won't be helping.

Mature?

[papabob]

So, if we have to believe TFA, "mature games" are those with dark ambient light, based on killing everything that moves and splashing blood in the walls... yeah, very mature. Maybe they haven't realized yet that Wii is a console for real "mature" people, you know, those who bring their mates to home after work and play simple games with beers and snacks, only looking for some laughs.

Re:wii go postal

[TheLink]

I've always found it a bit funny that "mature" seems to be associated with violence, gore and sex.

I guess "mature games" are a way for "mature" people to safely release their immature urges ;).

BTW it's not only adults who think about sex. Some (many?) children go about humping stuff. It's the adults who are supposed to know what's inappropriate behaviour (and brainwash the children accordingly ;) ).

Re:wii go postal

[snuf23]

The closer I get to 40, the more the "mature" games bore the shit out of me.

Re:wrong definition of mature

[tsotha]

I know this has been modded "funny", but it's absolutely true. My 70 year old parents went out and bought a Wii because they had so much fun playing it at a family gathering.

Calling a game "mature" because it's loaded with violence is just stupid. The main audience for that kind of game is adolescent boys not, in general, considered the most mature segment of society.