Capcom was one of the biggest third party publishers supporting the Wii a few years back, porting a number of classic PS2 games as well as producing some pretty big exclusives such as Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles. However, the Japanese publisher has been disappointed by the performance of its Wii games lately, and believes the future of its biggest franchises now lies on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
Capcom France boss Antoine Seux says that "gamer's games" just aren't selling on the Wii anymore, with the Wii version of Resident Evil 4 only doing so well because things weren't quite as competitive in 2007. Darkside Chronicles sold a pitiful 16,000 copies in three weeks, and Seux admits the number was "below what we'd hoped." The lack of success for such games is a "clear concern" for the company.
"Development on Wii [is] very difficult, with an oversupply [of games] and a gamer market that has radically changed," states Seux. "[Hardcore games] are selling less and less on the console, [be it] MadWorld or Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop or House of the Dead: Overkill. Two years ago, there were still [hardcore] gamers on Wii, [but these have been] diverted from this console in favor of the new generation."
"The Wii console is very much a family commitment [and] rates relatively low. So for us, Capcom, the future is the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360."
With Sega also deciding to give up on "hardcore" Wii games, it would appear that the Wii has been condemed to forever look like a kiddy game and shovelware console, however true that may or may not be. It's a shame, because the Wii has serious potential for engaging, provocative and deep gameplay experience. It's both terrible that developers really capitalized on that, and gamers never seemed interested in it.
Capcom: Hardcore gamers have disowned Wii [CVG]
Contest:
10:00 AM on 01.06.2010
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Expected, but...disappointing.
The Sony motion-dildo might actually have been a good idea after all. Wii's innovation + true next gen hardware. Time will tell.
Even at E3 (watched by hardcore, not by casual) they still pandered to the casual gamer. Sure there were one or two hardcore games but the majority of time was spent masturbating and jerking off casual gamers.
waggle = money
waggle + better graphics = MOAR money.
I just got Darkside Chronicles yesterday, and while it isn't RE5, it's still fun as hell.
It isn't about graphics or "epic scales" to me, just make a fun game, but they can't just rely on that, is that what they're saying?
This. Not that the Wii is a failure or anything but it has certainly been disowned by the majority of the community and it's sad.
Everybody wants Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles on the PS3 and X360, right? Right? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Also how are the sales for Silent hill?
That's one title that might get me to return to the wii, maybe.
If Capcom's president doesn't understand that, he probably isn't very good at his job.
Yes it did a lot of good for gaming, bringing it into the mainstream, etc. Honestly if it wasn't for the Wii I don't think lots of my friends (and parents) would be convinced to jump on over to Rock Band, and then Castle Crashers, and before you knew it playing Left 4 Dead, Halo, etc.
So in that regard the Wii has been very good for gamers. But for those ALREADY deeply invested in gaming, there is unfortunately little on the Wii. Yes you can point to the 10+ hardcore games on the system, but considering the other two systems usually get that many games in months, rather then years (and much less then the entire lifetime of the console thus far), there really is no comparison.
I actually think this is a good move (prepares for his public lynching). Nintendo has proven it makes its main money off casual gamers, and hardcore gamers don't really buy a lot of Wii games. If they were to switch gears completely and cut all hardcore gamer ties on their wagglemachine, they'd actually probably end up making more money in the long run. Until the fad died down, of course.
Either way, I'll be playing my DS, which luckily has had no lack of Hardcore oriented games (Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is one of the best games of last year).
Oh, please.
The ideas that a game has to be rated M to be good, that if a game doesn't have HD graphics it isn't worth the disc it's printed on, and that the Wii has nothing to offer a hardcore gamer need to die in a fire. They're nothing but ignorance, and the fact that hardcore gamers as a community let them foster just makes me sick.
HD doesn't matter. Horsepower doesn't matter. ESRB rating doesn't matter. FUN matters.
Each has their place, this is just a game site frequented by mostly hardcore, and as such they probably don't see as much merit in the Wii as, say, my parents or in-laws do.
They are both very focused, seemingly un-shakable demographics. They are both, by some definition, casual markets. So when Capcom says "gamer's games" aren't selling on the Wii, I don't know what games they're referring to. They're trying to reproduce a market that's pig-headed and dense on the Wii, when the Wii already has one of those markets. Just instead of sweaty-palmed teenagers gasping for Modern Warfare's "EPIC SHIT DUDE", the Wii has adults stretching over virtual yoga.
Now I'm sure most of us shake our heads in disapproval of Microsoft's repeated attempts to capture the family market and make it profitable. So why are we rooting for the Wii to create a profit market for the "hardcore"? It's just as implausible.
But I'm not saying that the Wii is doomed to only have fitness games and nothing else, while the 360 and PS3 thrive with better titles. What I am saying is (getting back to my first point) that there are many kinds of games that work with the Wii's market that are better than the lowest common denominator, without trying to recruit the blind "hardcore" market. And if anyone has figured this out, it's Nintendo. Mario, Metroid, Zelda -- these are franchises that have lasted and profited not because they're hitting the "hardcore" crowd or the "family" market. They sell because they aren't trying to copy anything.
tldr: Capcom, do what you will, but your failure is not because of the "hardcores" or the "casuals" -- have some class and look at what you're doing instead.
I have very little free time for games so I've pretty much become a one console guy and I considered the Wii, but you just know that you're going to be missing out on so many AAA games if that's the only console you have. There will be lots of great games to play on the Wii for sure, but I want to see the new GTAs and MGSs and GOWs and CODs and all those other hype machines, and I knew the majority of those titles wouldn't be appearing on the system.
Wii sales were beyond great for the short-term, but in the long-term Nintendo's business model is only hurting their future. With more and more shovel-ware and casual games released, the core gamers who actually purchase games long-term have moved away, leaving casual gamers, who frankly don't feel the need to purchase title after title.
I guess I figured since EA had figured out the whole, "If we release good games gamers will buy them," shtick that everyone had, but I guess I was being overly optimistic.
Also, I played Madworld. That's what hardcore is? Blood and cursing does not a hardcore game make. Hell, it doesn't even make a good game!
5 years from now every single one of you will say the exact same thing: "THIS NEW NINTENDO CONSOLE IS TOO KIDDIE, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE AWESOME WII"
It happens with every nintendo console, and if you disagree, you clearly don't understand how right I am.
So, all i'm saying is, bitch all you want, nothing is going to change.
That's not to say I don't love my Wii hardcore games- No More Heroes and Silent Hill Shattered Memories prove that the Wii has some unique, grade A stuff on the system thats worth playing.
Who here is salivating for the days of the GameCube?
Nintendo has to learn to cater to all types of gamer.
I find it funny though that people consider the family-gamer type to be 'casual' I agree it is casual but aren't these people with an Xbox 360 or a PS3 who only have these Generic Online War FPS games, Casual gamers as well? I think so. I don't think there 'Hardcore' at all, and if thats what the gaming companies call this crowd, fine by me, but I don't want people to think of these people as the true gaming community.
With that said, I hope they do a true revamp of Darkside Chronicles for the PS360. Use the RE5 engine, but with Dead Space controls...because standing while shooting is ridiculous.
See, ten years ago most of us WERE kids, or at least teenagers (in my case), and so the fact that the games were geared towards me as a kid worked fine.
The problem is gamers grew up, and the people (like myself) raised with the Commedore 64 and NES don't want to play "kiddie" games anymore.
The reason we look back on the old NES and SNES games with "awesome!" was because 1. We are seeing through glasses of nostalgia and 2. There were actually TONS of great games on those systems.
The N64 was, in my opinion, the beginning of this end. Nintendo realized it either had to go the way of the Playstation with its M rated games and advancement towards a more adult audience, or hold back and retreat to what it knows how to do best: make games for children. It tried to move ahead with the 'Cube and you saw how badly that failed (this coming from a guy who owned and loved his), so backing up and just making a gaming system for children (and apparently older non-gamers) fit their previous business model. It ended up working fine for them.
So...yeah. Pretty sure I'm not going to look back on the Wii and miss it, save maybe the Metroid Prime Trilogy.
They should re-release their RE1 remake on PSN and XBL for download. That shit would sell mad style.
Then port all their current Wii RE exclusives over to the big boy systems as well and somehow make the controls work. I’d buy that shit in a heartbeat.
So I'm not so sure that as gamers we gave up on the Wii or if it's simply a case of self-fulfilling prophecy. Seriously, how is any company not even going to put its main franchises in full-fledged iterations on a console and then tell me it's the console's fault? Chop 'Til you Drop? How about you actually make a game for Wii instead of shitty ports, how about that?
Funny thing, my Wii will be getting dusted off in the near future for Shattered Memories (hardcore game) and I'll probably be picking up the new Castlevania Adventure: Rebirth (hardcore game) and Tatsunoko vs Capcom later this month. So...what was Capcom's point again?
So having played Darkside Chronicles, you can say to anyone that it's a boring game based entirely around the way it chooses to allow you to interact with it?
But what you really want is to take a game built around the idea of an on-rails experience, and turn it into something exactly like a dozen other games that have come out this generation? Because that would be better?
That doesn't sound stupid to you?
Wii developers are making money churning out crap games that casual gamers don't read up on. A casual gamer won't read a review or recognize a game developer's name and their track record, but a hardcore gamer would.
MadWorld, Overkill, and Umbrella Chronicles were entertaining for a weekend, but not great games that I want to own and replay.