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.

Re:No

[JimboFBX]

Oh hey, I must be the other guy! Nice to finally meet you!

Re:No

[Toonol]

Yeah, there's a lot. And, keep in mind that some 'childish looking' games are absolutely very appropriate for adults. "A Little Kings Story" looks like a cross between Pokemon and a Fairy Tale, but has very sophisticated gameplay and humor.

Some of the games for the Wii you could consider 'mature' in the gritty/violent sense are: No More Heroes. The Conduit. Madworld. Resident Evil 4. House of the Dead: Maximum Overkill. Dead Space: Extraction. Left for Dead. Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers (I LIKE that one!).

Games that are good, but not packed with sex/violence, are: Fire Emblem. Phantom Brave. A Little Kings Story. Murumasa. A Boy and his Blob. Super Mario Galaxies. Metroid Prime 3. Tales of Symphonia: A New World. Okami.

Upcoming games that look to be good: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Final Fantasy:Crystal Chronicles:The Crystal Bearers (two colons in that one). Metroid: Other M. No More Heroes 2. Red Steel 2. Monster Hunter 3. Dragon Quest X.

I kind of went overboard responding to you, because experience tells me that there will be all sorts of posts saying that the Wii has no games, and probably complaining about the inch of dust that's accumulated. If you look, there are plenty of decent games.

wrong definition of mature

[Trepidity]

The Wii has plenty of games for "mature audiences", like your grandmother.

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.

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:Mature?

[cjfs]

Mature games == games for teenagers. Rather than games that an adult might enjoy.

I completely agree. As an adult I'd never play play a fps. I'd definitely not equip incendiary weapons and light my enemies on fire. I'd also not employ electrical weapons to shock them to death. Using the corrosive shotgun to disintegrate people is right out. I find absolutely no joy in any of this. Especially explosives, who needs them when you can play wii bowling.

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 ;) ).

Hardcore

[Grey Ninja]

Resident Evil 4 was one of the best selling Wii games. Just because The Conduit and Mad World didn't sell well, does not mean that there's not a market for M rated games. Fact of the matter is that they just weren't very good games, regardless of what the media said.

http://kotaku.com/5395956/the-10-most-avidly+played-wii-games-in-america-as-of-nov-1

Honestly, look at that chart. I'm seeing a shitload of hardcore games there (no, I don't judge whether a game is for the hardcore or not by the rating, any more than I judge movies that way). What I'm not seeing a lot of is deca sports and catz, regardless of what the media tells you. The Wii market is starving for hardcore games, and the 3rd parties just simply have not delivered. Nintendo sat this one out and made casual games, because the 3rd parties have been bitching bitterly for years that they can't compete with Nintendo. And what do they do? They follow in Nintendo's footsteps again. Pathetic.

Nintendo just needs to come back and rule the roost again. Metroid: Other M is a good start. New Super Mario Bros Wii, Mario Galaxy 2, and the rumoured new Zelda should do the trick. Hardcore gamers still own their Wiis. They just aren't buying anything because there's fuck all to play.

Re:Sold my Wii

[yanyan]

To be honest, the XBOX 360 was better then the Wii in every aspect except social gaming, and although my girlfriend would play sometimes, in the month I had the Wii, after the first week, I hardly ever turned it on.

Which one, your girlfriend, the Xbox, or the Wii?

Re:wii go postal

[snuf23]

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