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Over at IGN Matt Casamassina posted a blog update complaining about how third Party Wii games are selling like ass. He's right, so far apart from Rock band barely any third party game has sold more than 2 copies. Suda 51 recently scratched his head over why his psychopathic genre mash of a blood fucking orgy flopped in Japan, and now all the developers seem to sitting around saying "What's going on?".
Know what the problem is? Production value. Every third party Wii game is a budget effort. Where as some games on the 360 and PS3 are costing around $20 million up to $70 Goddam million (MGS4), I'd say most games on the Wii cost around $5 to $10 million. Gamers see that, weigh it up to the dollar value of purchasing it, and then just grab COD4 instead. I mean seriously, who the Christ is going to choose Medal of Honor over COD4? Who is going to choose Rayman over Mass Effect? Who is going to choose Red Steel over Bioshock or MGS4? Now I realise that a lot of that budget it because it's top end hardware and the production costs are higher, but the Wii software is nothing even near the quality of what the PS2 had. Why? Even great games like Z&W are low budget games. They are small games, testing the water games, and gamers don’t want that. We are on better hardware than the PS2, yet I've seen no game that gets anywhere near the titles that console had - what we have now is all the crappy filler that was between good PS2 games. Developers seemed to have a field day with the PS2, yet when it comes to the Wii nobody seems to know what to do. When a game gets released on the Wii with a production value of $20 or $30 million gamers will know and they will respond. It will actually sit up there with God of war 2 or Shadow of the Colossus or Ico or Gran Turismo. But at the moment the only people making high production games are Nintendo. Is it any surprise that those are the only games selling then? Will we ever see third party games equal to the quality of PS2 games? Is the secret to making a better game on the Wii as complex as "put some fucking money into your project jackass"?
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Living the dream since March 16, 2006
A major reason why Wii games don't cost as much to make as 360/PS3 games is because they don't need to cost as much. High-def support inflates the budget to a huge degree.
Throwing more money at a title isn't the answer. It's getting jaded gamers who have given up on Nintendo's third party games to check out and support the good stuff that does come out. If developers actually see it paying off, you'll see the quality of these games improve.
Um...the last time I checked, Rock Band was only on the PS3, 360, and PS2.
But yeah, I agree with Mxyzptlk: it’s not about how much money a developer spends on a game. In fact, I’d say that one of the games you cited, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure, is a prime example of that — it may not have cost that much to make, but it’s an absolutely fantastic puzzle game; hell, it’s one of the best games available on the Wii altogether.
I think that the problem with the Wii is what makes it unique: its touted motion controls. Until now, most developers have had trouble integrating the Wiimote in ways that don’t feel gimmicky, let alone stupid. Capcom did a great job with this in Z&W, but aside from that and a select few other games (e.g., [i]Metroid Prime 3: Corruption), it’s been tough going for innovative and intuitive Wiimote controls. There’s no easy solution — hell, there may not be a solution at all — but I think that’s the main issue at hand.
Zack & Wiki is actually a good case for WHY they need to spend more money. The marketing campaign was non existent, Capcom sent out barely any copies to any stores (I still can't find it anywhere), and the whole game was a cheap test to see how well that game might sell. It needed a bigger budget.
I hope Z&W 2 has a bigger budget to really give it a chance to become a killer app, gets some ads on TV...drops that stupid name.
1.) Non gamers are buying the system, and companies are assuming these people are idiots and will buy anything with a flashy cover.
2.) The reality is, they don't even walk past the Wii section while they're feeding their nine children at walmart, so the console is essentially just taking up space next to their TV.
3.) The people who do actually own the console and are gamers as well, are waiting for big releases from the mario and zelda series.
I agree that a bigger budget won't necessarily cause better games to be released, but I do think the majority of third party games out on the Wii don't appeal to the average Wii owner, whether they're an avid gamer or casual gamer.
I know this may piss some people off here, but I don't like different games for the sake of liking them because they're different. Doing this doesn't make you profound, cool, or any more "hardcore." I'll like a game if it appeals to me and that's how it should be for everyone else. I'm getting sick of people who try to put down other people for not buying into to these unique game ideas.
Games like Endless Ocean, No More Heros, and Zack and Wiki don't do anything for me. Sure they may be a step up from the average third party Wii game, but I say so what? Just because the developers are trying something different doesn't mean it'll catch on. Don't expect people like unique concepts. They'll either catch on (Katamari) or they'll fail (No More Heros).
That's a good point. It's odd that I cannot imagine in any way a Gran Turismo style game on the Wii. My brain keeps going "Oh pshaw, as if it would be any good on the Wii with it's poor graphics and poor physics", yet Gran Turismo was born on the Playstation and hauled ass. On the other hand I can imagine verily easily 'Captain Tom-Toms bomb rocket racing", which "Uses the Wimmote in ways never seen before!". It's like I wish the developers would stop trying to be so..is niche the right word..errr..so desperate to be different I guess, and just make some good games based on established genres for once. I don't need every game to be a testing ground for a new wacky genre.
We are yet to see a good RPG(third parties I mean). We are yet to see a good driving game. We are yet to see a good third person game. It's all just weird new genres. It's probably no surprise that my favorite two games are pretty standard genres - Metroid and Mario Soccer.
It's like I've been forced to watch indie movies for the last year, and finally I'm like "You know what? Just give me Die Hard for a while".