If there's one thing Nintendo is good at, it's making overtly humble statements to make it look like it's got the common touch. Enter Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, claiming that his company relies on third parties to fill gaps in its own development.
"The fact of the matter is we know we create great content for younger consumers, we know we've got great content for more casual players, and we want fantastic content for that more active player who loves Metroid or Zelda but maybe also wants something like a BioShock 2 to play as well," claims Reggie. "And we also recognise that we don't create that type of content ourselves. We're not good at it and it's not a key focus area. So we want that content on our platform, so we have to court third-party developers and encourage them to make [those games], but it also has to be financially viable for them as well."
It's just a shame that most third parties only saw the Wii as a means to exploit idiots and made puerile crap for the system instead of games like BioShock 2. It would help if the damn Wii user base would buy some of the better games out there, too.
Nintendo: We can't make games like BioShock [CVG]
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Contest:
9:20 AM on 03.16.2010
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YEAH. Nintendo, it's totally your fault that everyone else makes shitty games on your system!
I mean, the game may have been sub-par, but they had the right idea, what with online multiplayer and wii speak and all.
"It's about time Nintendo has finally fessed up to losing the console war completely. The console is made for stupid inbred children and moron adults who wouldn't know quality like Killzone or Halo or Bej--I mean, DOOM! Yeah, that. Every person who owns a Wii should kill themselves, or I'll gladly do it for them."
Brr, what the fuck was that? Possession sucks. :(
It is nice that they're admitting to this flaw but really, it's not like just Nintendo is to blame, as said. The Wii could use a lot more love, and needs the support of people too who aren't looking for omgtehperrties and all. =\
Capcom and EA would like a word with you. Despite crap like the Dead Rising port and Boogie, they still gave the Wii top quality games like Zack and Wiki and Boom Blocks and even Dead Space Extraction. Then there are games such as Madworld and Muramasa which are also lots of fun.
It can be done, most studios just realize its not worth the effort. And the sales figures prove that it's not.
Sony and Microsoft realized that you need to set a tone with your quality control, and then produce examples for other companies to live up to. Nintendo has been so focused on their own IP's for so long, it almost seems like they've forgotten how to set that tone. Their games are great, but the lack of new IP's, and endless GameCube ports turned into Wii titles shows something of a lack of interest in the actual 3rd party games, and somewhat of a lack of commitment to their player base. It's why many consider the Wii a toy, and not a serious system, because, especially when compared to the 360 and PS3, it IS a toy. The few great games dont count, and you cant rely on others to help your image.
Also, dont give me any of that crap about how the Wii isnt supposed to compete with the other current gens. Thats not the point, because if Nintendo tried, they really could have had something better then what we have now, which is a good game every 6 months or so, with the gaps filled in by shovelware, Anubis II and Ninjabread Man.
But, Nintendo don't need to make games like Bioshock. They made money hand over fist by selling shitty little party games and shovelware, you know the shovelware that sold better than Conduit, Madworld and Dead Space did put together?
The Wii isn't aimed at you, or me, sure you might get some fun out of it, hell I even got a little fun out of it, but that's nothing more than a side effect.
The Wii is aimed at little children and old people who need to lose weight and think WiiFit will help them (sarcastic chuckle). Ever wonder why Carnival Games sold better than Conduit? Because 10 year old girls don't want to play conduit.
Wonder why WiiFit sold a million times more copies than Madworld? Because 40+ year old house wifes don't want to cut black and white enemies up, they want to pretend they're doing something that will help them lose a few pounds.
Hell if my son was a little older I'd get him a Wii (or get mine back of his nan and pops), I'm sure there'll be an alternative by the time he needs one, perhaps even Sony's move eh?
Sure, you've got a Wii, and you have some fun with it. Nintendo doesn't care, they thank you for your money, but what they really want, and what they got 100% was the family/casual/non-gamer/children/older generation market.
They got it, and they got it good. Good on them.
Just don't go expecting them to cater to your gaming needs, don't expect many more mature games after the last however many bombed. Get a fucking PS3, or even if you don't mind being wallet raped at every turn, get a 360.
suck it up nintendo. put some efort on this first parties, one Mario every year is not enough. We need more good games and I'm not talking about a Zelda next year and a Star fox on 2012,those are cool too, but how about new IPs?
Reggie is clearly stating that Nintendo knows they can't make these types of games but is willing to work with those developers to make that posssible on the Wii.
If I followed your advice, would I turn into you? That prospect doesn't make me want to rush out to the store.
Heads up: Your sales pitch sucks. Work up on the delivery a bit then try again.
Yeah, if BioShock had been a Wii game, us gamers would have ignored it. Just like we all ignored No More Heroes, Madworld, Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy, and just like we're ignoring Other M right now. Yeah.
On-topic:
I agree with Fils-Aime, Nintendo are not good at making games like BioShock.
Sure, some people would have still played it. And a lot would have refused to, and instead pouted about it not being released on a "real", HD console. It happens all the time, right here on D-Toid. Check any article about a Wii-exclusive, and you'll see what I mean.
I wasn't making that remark against Wii owners. I just got one, myself. I'm anti-graphics whores.
I agree with you that a lot of those crappy games should have never made it to retail shelves. I went to pick up Muramasa the other night, and I was just overwhelmed by the amount of garbage titles that I saw. Lots of good stuff, too, but Nintendo would have been doing everyone a favor by saying no to half that crud.
The same thing applies to Microsoft and Sony, to a lesser extent.
I didn't say Nintendo MADE shovelware.
Reading - learn some.
I'm not sure where you get that I'm filled with hate, and I'm also not sure what "bro-sumer" is supposed to imply. I'll continue to play the good Wii games, but one look at the store shelves and it would be hard to deny my point. Good day to you, sir.
Except when my girlfriend buys the shovelware party crap. Apart from that I love my Wii.
It's like Operation. You have to pick the right game without touching the bad ones around it. If you do... BUZZ! You lose! Your Wii will continue to collect dust because you don't have a very steady hand.
Nintendo went low-tech with the Wii's horsepower to minimize their investment in the system in case motion controls flopped, and the Wii didn't catch on.
Now that motion controls are a success, I expect to see a more comparable console from Nintendo next gen. Comparable graphics wise to Microsoft and Sony's next offering, which should help them get some third party love on their next mahine.
GameCube was comparable to PS2 and Xbox. They didn't help Nintendo. A machine with similar specs won't help if third parties flat-out don't want to make the games.
if they can rival the success of the Wii, it will sort itself out.
I mean if the Wii had similar specs, I'm sure it would have gotten a port if Bioshock 2.
With the Wii though, smaller third parties are able to make games for vastly lower production costs, and thanks to the context of motion controls over HD graphics, it renders the deep coffers of the larger third parties moot on the Wii.
Another thing to mind is that Nintendo's business strategy called for lowering the barriers of entry for new gamers to get into gaming. That means fundamentally asking what a game is. Most people don't want to play movies with gameplay tacked on as an afterthought. They would rather play more old-school, arcade like games like NSMB Wii, or Mario Kart Wii, or Carnival Games or Let's Dance. These all share old-school arcade gaming conventions.
What this generation of gaming is showing us is that most third parties are only seeing game development through HD tunnel vision. When they're challenged to make games outside of that context, they completely fail, and show an utter lack of understanding for the Wii's audience, even going so far as to show hostility towards them rather than trying to understand them.
I mean, that's what Nintendo did. Maybe there are people that can't own pets. Bam, Nintendogs sells gangbusters. Maybe people like to kinda give their brain a workout. Bam, Brain Age sells gangbusters. Carnival Games and Let's Dance are straightforward games, that don't require a time-investment and no bullshit hoops to go through to get their entertainment value from. These games sell gangbusters. And the people playing thse games are happy. They're enjoying themselves.
Nintendo finally made gaming mainstream. The stigma one once attached to gaming in recent years is rapidly eroding as everyone from all walks of life get into the Wii games. And all the while, the "hardcore" gamers are crying a river over the fact that Nintendo brought gaming back to its roots, and in doing so brought gaming to EVERYBODY. But the reality is a lot more stark, isn't it? This is exactly what happened during the 80s when the NES arrived on the scene. The third parties in the PC gaming industry sneered at the NES, didn't want to "lower themselves" to making games on the NES, and the hardcore PC gamers back then along with the entire game industry called the NES a kiddy system.
But the NES were making gamers out of people that the PC industry wasn't able, or willing to, make into gamers. Just like Ninendo is now with the Wii. There were a whole bunch of people that Sony, Microsoft, and the rest of the game industry couldn't, or wouldn't, make games for. Nintendo went to where the customers were, and it's as simple as that.
As for the fate of the core PC gaming market after the NES arrived on the scene. Well, it crashed and burned. Guess what's gonna happen to the core gaming market this time? Hehe, how's it feel witnessing the slow death of the core gaming industry?
Hey, I think you dropped these.
Sure they are giving out license to some new developers but there a a lot of big developers that failed to make good third party games on the wii.
Like 2K games the makers of Bioshock.
As a company I would be ashamed for even selling carnival games on the wii.
I know there is a lot of people with different opinions on Nintendo, however Nintendo should not have to pay a third party developer to make a good game on the wii( defeats the purpose of Third party games)
I see a lack of vision and creativity in the video game community.
Mainly because it is all corporate now; and they make games to make lots of money and not make games to make great games. Sure HD makes the picture look better but that is not an innovation that will make the game play more fun. Surround sound is cool but when it comes down to it stereo still accomplishes the same thing.
Most 3rd party developers are too busy making games look better and sound better, but they don't make the games play better.
Surprising enough Nintendo is know for two things
1) making games that anyone can play. ( control wise and the lack of profane content )
2) perfecting video game genera,
Sony and Microsoft have and are still copying Sega's business model to make Nintendo look lame
"Sega does what Nintendo doesn't"
and is making Nintendo Look like a Children's company in order to turn the older generation against Nintendo and get the younger generation wanting to play what the older generation is playing.
It is a great business strategy that almost took Nintendo out but they failed to gain mass appeal and lost all of their income and died.
Sony and Microsoft unlike Sega are making other products than just video games so they are much more diverse and have an almost infinite budget to loose so they do not have to worry about money.
Sega's other business model was to make 5 good games on the Genesis for every 1 amazing game on the Super Nintendo.
It game the Sega crowd much more diverse selection to choose from unlike the super Nintendo when there would only be one good game to buy every now and then.
However unlike Sega that was ALWAYS in debt Nintendo Had a Stable business model and survived longer and was able to claim victory .
But after all video game systems were toys and soon the adult crowd that funded Sega eventually abandon them and Sega left the bill for some rich guy in Japan.
A lot of people says Nintendo is stupid, but a lot of people out there that are stupid.
Nintendo has been in video games longer than any video game company and they have been more profitable than any other video game company.
I think they know what they are doing, I think its Microsoft and Sony that have no clue what they are doing and are trying to take all their money to make Nintendo look bad through adds and other propaganda.
who know there might be video game companies that fund this site.
So before you say anything bad about anyone you should ask yourself are these my words? or just some corporate BS that says HD is better.
Not sure I gather your meaning? You trying to tell me it's time for supper? I'm having beans for dinner tonight, as it happen...
It doesn't really have much to do with graphics, though. Providing lower resolution textures and less complicated 3D models would be relatively simple. All of the background processes have to be dumbed down as well to run on a significantly less powerful system: AI, hit detection, animation, and physical world simulation all use up the horsepower in modern gaming systems. Anyone who has the option of buying a game on a Wii and either a PS3 or 360 will almost never choose the Wii (an obvious counter-example would be Tiger Woods 10, which takes advantage of the Wii (formerly) unique control interface).
The Wii will always be a runner-up when it comes to "hardcore" games because there are so many other options for many hardcore gamers. The Wii does have some rather unique options for the Wii-only gamer, but these gamers are missing out on many great experiences.
"It would help if the damn Wii user base would buy some of the better games out there, too."
It would help to know they exist by promoting them a bit, you posted the very proof of this a few days ago: From what i've seenFlip's Twisted World is an interesting, great looking and seems to use the Wiimote in an inteligent way from what i saw in the video, yet somehow before that article i didn't even know it existed and this is from an avid Destructoid/internet/gamesite reader, how do you expect to reach the consumers that don't exactly fit that criteria? i can't entirely blame Flip's devs, they are just begining probably are tight on the money, but that excuse doesn't work for Capcom, Konami, THQ and the rest of big companies throwing good games out there with limited advertising budget only to whine "Why our games don't seel on the Wii" when they fail.
Hardcore gaming is dying. Core gaming is in decline. If the Wii hadn't had come around, the entire game industry's decline would be accelerating right now, but it's thanks to the third parties being able to "suck casual gamers' dicks" that they can stay afloat...for now.
The entire game industry must be prepared to transition over all of their efforts to the new gamers, which will ultimately become the new core gaming market. If they they refuse to do this, then they will ultimately sink as the game industry beings to tear itself apart from the inside. Gaming is no longer about gaming or gamers, but the industry's bottom line. Instead the industry is filled to the brim with Bobby Koticks, all looking for new and innovative ways to market the same hardcore games with a fresh coat of paint.
And the hardcore, being the industry apologists that they are, lap it up happily. The new gamers don't want those games because they realize that those games are not made to entertain them, but to rip them off of their money.
Gaming is having growing pains. The path the rest of the industry has been on has mostly been the wrong one in recent years. It's now leading to its gradual decline with lesser sales, growing customer dissatisfaction, and willful ignorance on the part of the industry towards showing respect for their customers' entertainment needs.
Nintendo realized this, hence the Wii, and hence their business strategy. Games that conform to and respect the entertainment values of the customers. And this approach will lead to their surviving this decline in the game industry, long after it has dashed itself on the rocks and sunk down into the murky depths.
Like what? Mushroom Men? Deadly Creatures? The Conduit?
Or do you mean games like RE4 or Reflex, both of which sold more than decently considering their being ports of older games?
The third party situation exists on the Wii because third party developers created it. In the face of a reality that demonstrated Wii audiences was more than willing to accept quality content, developers would rationalize that it was just a "fad" or that Nintendo's software was too good to compete with. To justify their malaligned perceptions, they created these little "tests" to "prove" quality games wouldn't sell well on the Wii, "tests" that not even the HD consoles would have passed (Deadly Creatures, MadWorld, etc.), even when anecdotes like the Okami Wii port selling better than its PS2 counterpart existed.
If the Wii had received BioShock, or Mass Effect, or Assassin's Creed, or Modern Warfare, you can bet your ass they would have sold well. Likewise, I seriously doubt Mushroom Men, Deadly Creatures, The Conduit, MadWorld, etc. would have done any better on the HD twins.
Have fun with Heroes' Paradise. I hope I'm also allowed to claim the HD consoles lack a core audience when that title bombs on those platforms, too.
That being said, yeah, the Wii needs more hardcore third party support. I mainly use it for VC, myself. :C