A couple days ago, Mark Rein of Epic Games (Gears of War, Unreal engine) popped his head from his HD-rendered palace, his foot just inches from his mouth, and made some partially-true-but-still-harsh statements like "[M-rated Wii games have] been huge financial flops" and irrelevant, borderline wrong comments like "Look at EA. Do you see the same Madden game on Wii? Of course not -- it's a dumbed down game."
Now Mark Rein is back to clarifiy what he really means. For the full statement, hit the jump, but for starters I'll tell you that Mark now now thinks that "Games like Madden are great, especially since the developer designed a user interface specifically for the Wii" and "Some [hardcore Wii games] have done well".
Huge change of heart, huh? It's funny -- I'd imagine if someone were to ask Yngwie Malmsteen about making an album with the Jonas Brothers, he'd just say, "They are terrible musicians and their music is sh*t. I wouldn't even pay them to caddy my vodka bag," yet Mark Rein apparently doesn't feel comfortable letting the world know his true feelings about the Wii. I admire the attempt at tact, but c'mon, do "clarifications" like this really fool anybody?
[Via GoNintendo]
The kind of games we make just would not work well on Wii. With our high-end engine, making a game work on Wii would spread our resources too thin and cause us to lose focus. Hardcore games have been hit or miss on Wii. Some have done well, some have not and we would not expect Gears or any of our games to sell well on the system. Games like Madden are great, especially since the developer designed a user interface specifically for Wii, but again, doing something like that would take up resources we are using to make other titles. Again, I never said making games for Wii was a waste. There are some great games for it, but it’s just not for us. -Mark Rein
Jonathan Holmes is the most lovable Associate Editor on Destructoid. Catch him on videos, original editorials, and on back episodes of the Destructoid Show and MTV's Road Rules. Jonathan is a retro gamer's gamer.
Likes
Mega Man 2, Resident Evil, Katamari Damacy, Bit.Trip, Metal Slug 3
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
29 comments | showing # 1 to 29
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
4:00 PM on 07.25.2009
| 
Plus the reality is that the huge financial flops have been HD games. There was no "partially-true" thing about his comment about that. It was either a statement of total ignorance or an outright lie.
making hardcore games on the wii is very difficult becuase the very people they are making the games for are the very people pirating them. the reason Wii Play, Wii Fit, and all the "casual" games sell is because of the customer. The people getting those games have no idea what a Wiikey is or who Twiizers is.
The "Hardcore" are ruining it for themselves. Everyone and their bro were clamoring for the release of Conduit, but the lackluster sales should only reveal one thing to journo's and gamers alike. THIS IS THE EFFECT OF PIRATING GAMES! Developers see this result for thinking they should support the "hardcore" gamer, but the gamer cares little to support the developer.
it's a sad situation, but what can they do if the hardware they're developing for is one of the most easily pirated consoles? same goes for DS.
But hey, leave it to the internet to twist someone's words to support their retarded arguments.
@Unicorn
I have a friend that pirates all his Wii games. Ever since he got that homebrew channel the only purchases he's made for his Wii are DVDs to burn the games onto and his Wii library is currently larger than my entire gaming collection. There are lots of people out there like this, and they're most likely in the so called "hardcore" crowd. Sometimes I wonder if Madworld has been downloaded more off bit torrents than it has sold games.
PS. Buy Madworld, it's ace.
GAZE INTO MY CRYSTAALLL BALL. SEE WHAT LIES BEHIND THE WALL.
Gears wouldn't work on the Wii? Resident Evil 4 sure does, and Gears is basically just that with cover added. The Online? The Conduit and Mario Kart Wii say hi.
"Hardcore" games do sell on the Wii, if they're good. If they are mediocre/average (which most have been) then they sell what they should (mediocre/average sales). Make a good game, it'll probably sell.
Then he has the gall to say that a Wii game would take time away from all the other games they make. As far as I remember, the only games Epic makes (currently) are Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, and Shadow Complex (which is either finished or mostly finished). Wow, three games from a BIG company! I can see how full their plate is.
I stand by my statements in the other, recent Mark Rein post: Epic makes most of it's money of licensing Unreal Engine III, which can only run on high-tech systems (Xbox 360, PS3, PC's). Mark is afraid for his business, since if (though it's very nearly a when) the Wii succeeds in disrupting the market and making the HD systems obsolete, there goes his and his company's main source of income. That's why he says those things about the Wii.
Mark Rein is a dog barking at a pipe filling the room it's in with water. All he can do is scream until he drowns.
CliffyB drives a Lamborghini, right? And Mark's the president isn't he? I'd imagine he'll be just fine even if Epic closed today.
People with a lot of money pay big taxes, which is fine as long as they keep making a lot of money. But if (when) the Wii succeeds in disrupting the current gaming market, Epic will start making less money, since there'll be less companies to sell Unreal Engine III (or a possible IV) too. Then how's Mark going to pay for the big house or Cliff for the nice car? I doubt Mark or Cliff have other careers in mind.
today:
"90% of wii games are shit!"
tomorrow:
"i'll clarify that i didn't mean "shit" in an offensive way, i meant it as a comparison with the other excellent 10% because it really makes it shine when compared!"
I'm sorry when did anyone ASK you to make Wii games? I agree that he just hates that "Hardcore!" games can sell without his graphical software. I agree mature games don't sell well but Mature=/=Hardcore.
Nintendo aimed to capture the casual market. They did, admirably. So why design great games for the hardcore Wii owners when they could spend 1-2 months developing a shitty casual game and it would sell JUST AS WELL as the hardcore game, which took a lot more money and time to design? It sucks for us hardcore gamers, but it's hard to ignore the business side of the whole ordeal.
Duh.
Its like he's pissed off that he can't make a game for that user base of over 50 million people. Even if the Wii was HD, he still would come up with the excess that the online is too shitty, or something like that, so whatever. Even next gen when Nintendo does HD, I bet we still won't see a Epic game on that system either, and quite franky who fucking cares?
Why do you assume that these "casual" games take less time/work to make than "Hardcore" games? Nintendo spent years developing Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Music, and Wii Sports Resort. They're good (not so much Music) because these games had a lot of hard work and thought poured into them (same goes for any of the better "casual" games from other companies).
@Crunshii
Why would they be better on the HD Twins? Because they would be in HD? I think the graphics are good enough on both those games that the gameplay won't be hindered, so I certainly don't see how the HD Twins would improve them.
@EternalDeathSlayer
How long can he save that money? Do you think Rein's is a good investor, or will be willing to cut back his lifestyle? Plus, as I said before, rich people pay big taxes, so if he doesn't continue having a big income, his money will dwindle away.