As part of an investor briefing today, Satoru Iwata revealed that Nintendo is hard at work on the next game in their flagship line of Wii-centric games. We're talking the ones with "Wii" in the title, like Wii Fit and Wii Music. The stuff where when it's about to come out you have to wonder how it is anyone can afford to market a product that densely.
That next game is going to be Wii Party. So, I'm guessing it's going to be Mario Party but without all the charm and character of the Mushroom Kingdom and instead using your Miis? Well, I'm at least right about the Miis, as Iwata's detailing of the game made mention of the feature. And it will be a "party" game, though that could mean just about anything by this point. Yippee.
I'm sure it will be obscenely successful.
Nintendo Unveils Wii Party [andriasang]
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
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Contest:
8:20 AM on 05.07.2010
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Imma go cry for a bit.
@ Ultor - Why should they? Ignoring criticism has been the most profitable thing the company has ever done.
Why should Nintendo listen to the people that want them to stop making "non-games" that sell over ten million copies a title at a quarter of the cost of anything on the PS3?
You hit the nail on the head, and according to one story, they're going to start trying to compete with Apple. That's some serious stuff to...
Maybe those whiny casual gamers will finally shut their yap about not having games to play...
INTERNETS MAKE ME ANGRY!! GRRAAAAAAA
whatever. I'm over it.
Because they are going to ride the idea right into the ground like they have with Mario Party, and like Activision has done with Guitar Hero and is in the process of doing with Call of Duty.
The main knock against the casual customer is that they either don't have the time, attention span, or interest to put in to a deeper product. How many times is Nintendo going to be able to go back to the well on selling people who really aren't all that into games a similar product? My in-laws have a Wii, and they've stopped paying attention to it completely.
The point is, that you can only throw hail marys to casuals so many times. They are going to fatigue and lose interest eventually if they already haven't.
I was being sarcastic cause this happens every year where they put kirby on the list then announce a new non kirby game.
Oh wait, the wii? nevermind.
Oh come on, in a year where Nintendo is potentially giving people a new Mario, Metroid, and Zelda in mere months from each other, that all just goes away because they're making a new Wii _____ game, which will make them shit loads of money. Shit loads of money that will help fund even more core games in the future.
People can mock Wii Music all you want, but it still sold almost 3 million units, which is bad for the Wii _____ games, but it'd be a major hit for any other game to sell that much. God Nintendo is giving the so called "hardcore gamers" more than ever before, but its still not enough for some whiny bitches!
Even then, I didn't find any of thier casual outputs to be bad games whatsoever. Oh right, Hardcore gamers are still stuck with their "Cool Kids" mentality. *sigh*
Actually, that's probably the BEST metric you could come up with. It's the only objective way to measure quality. The more people like something, the more it must be pushing the right buttons to appeal to them.
Not that I don't enjoy critical press hounds running fine-toothed combs over every major release, but let's be real.
Its just certain so called "hardcore gamers" who think that they're entitled to everything. I guess getting 75% of Nintendo's time isn't enough for them, becuase they want it all. If Nitnendo doesn't cater exclusively to them, than Nitnendo is dead to them. Its all, or nothing with these people!
That's a ludicrous statement to make. There is no truly objective way to rate a game, and how many people get suckered into buying any one game is pretty far away from being such. You could package a turd into a Wii game box, market it well enough and people would buy it. Doesn't make a turd quality.
The words used were "mass appeal," as in "appealing to many people."
What you see is people buying these games and, more often than not, enjoying them. Then word of mouth spreads and more people buy them. If a particular game did not have any worth to the majority of players, sales would take a nosedive.
I know people like to pretend that a couple of advertisements and a stint on Ellen's show will ensure 20+ million in sales, but that's only a small slice of the pie. The game has to be enjoyable, otherwise all the money in the world won't save it. "Marketing" is not this magic pill that solves all problems; if that was the case, there wouldn't be so many high-profile flops.
They have a very different metric of quality. They know exactly what they want, and Nintendo gives it to them reliably. Just Dance is a very good title by their standards.
@ tony and CALkulon
I agree with Tony. And the very most, I think Calkulon's definition only proves that core games with high sales are liable to be low quality, as core games like Call of Duty tend to get the most marketing. But popular casual games are super high quality according to consumers, as they tend to spread mostly by consumer advertising to consumer rather than a huge marketing budget.
You can't sucker a casual as easily as a core. They hated and were disinterested by gaming for decades, and the core side is only more core now then ever. They buy Wii titles because they want Wii titles, and outright reject core titles knowing full well what the core is advertised to be.
When you have differing metrics of quality among customers, declare victory by whichever one has the most paying customers, and subtract used from that because each used game sale is a lost customer. The game with the biggest base is the one that is most desired overall, and thus is the one with the highest quality. The makers of such a game has a deep understanding of how to make people happy, whether or not you yourself are happy with the product.
Also remember that even licensed titles make people happy. Context is 50% of quality. That is why the context in which a song is heard is incredibly important in determining whether or not a person comes to like a song.
Come on, admit it. Part of you laughed at that.
So is McDonalds "quality" food then?
Unfortunately quality isn't often the most important "button pusher" these days, hence the point about marketing. The vast majority of people will never know how much worth a game has to them until they've bought it, so I don't buy your sales argument.
"Move Party confirmed."
Sony beat you to the punch.
"You can't sucker a casual as easy as a core" - what?! Core gamers are (for the most part) much better informed than a casual. How many casual gamers would see an ad for Just Dance, think it looks good then pick it up without any hesitation? A good amount, whereas a core gamer is usually going to look it up and decide how much they want the game compared to others.
Besides, you're talking about core gamers buying casual games and vice versa, which isn't the point.
I'm really worried that people honestly think we can judge quality effectively by looking at sales. Sure it can be a factor, but thats about it. Appeal is not the same thing as quality!
And the problem is that core gamers are much more "informed" than casuals. Who informs the core? Is it the same organization that advertises core games? The answer is yes, and blatantly so. Core gamers get their info from organizations that are given their information from marketing departments and who actively advertise the games they inform you about; Heck, IGN is currently running UFC Undisputed 2010 ads, which guarantees that the previews for UFC will be positive. IGN is not going to anger it's revenue source, advertising.
Everything a core gamer looks up about a game is advertising up until the review, with reviewers often sponsored by the game's publishers. Obviously, the core is being much more manipulated than the casual, who isn't barraged by constant marketing and only occasionally sees a Just Dance ad.
Video game journalism is simply copy-pasting PR. Once you understand that, you will be a much smarter consumer, as you will be able to tell the difference between "news" and "advertising".
Also, let's stop using the casual strawman. Casual is just a placeholder for stupid at this point.
I think you should really say appeal means money. Who cares about quality if you're making money? That is (one way of doing) business. Sure you can redefine quality, but if you want to do that there's zero point in having this debate.
IGN is IGN. Just because one source of opinion (for one game) may be bought out doesn't mean they all are. Sites like Metacritic help gamers spot shameless plugs, so they are always more empowered. Personally I go by Games(tm), who know their audience would leave them in a heartbeat if they ever detected the slightest hint of bias.
Anyway, I'm done with this since you appear to want to remove the accepted definition of quality. To (again) use McDonalds, people buy use them tons because of convenience and cost, not because of quality. The numbers don't somehow make McDonalds quality.
Quality is a combination of elements. Compare McDonald's to a posh steak restaurant. Is McD's nutritionally better for you? No. Does it taste better? For most people, they would say no. However, for the price of a McD's combo, are most people satisfied with what they get? Billions served say yes.
Say you want to go to that steak restaurant. You probably need a reservation, and even then you'll probably be waiting for your table a good hour or two. The food might be fantastic, but as good as the beef round is, is it worth the $40 price tag? And what if the food was unsatisfactory? That's a lot of money down the drain.
It may be nice to treat yourself to fancy cuisine now and then, but McD's better meets people's time and money needs. Also, some people don't care for fine dining and would be happy with burgers and fries for the rest of their life. As a result, McD's is the more appealing destination.
And it doesn't even matter whether a gaming news outlet advertises games, as the other half of the problem is that all the information the different outlets receive comes directly from the PR department of the publisher involved. Often review copies and hands-on time are given out on the condition that the preview is positive and the review omit certain factors from consideration. The outlets that don't agree often simply copy-paste the previews of outlets that agree, but outlets that the don't agree are beyond rare.
Gaming journalism is inherently PR and advertising. You would be better off reading tabloids to avoid bias. You are being far more manipulated than any "casual" would ever allow themself to be.
Welcome shitty mini-game collection #245324
I mean, seriously, If stuff like Wii Party didn't exist, Nintendo's core games wouldn't have funding. Because if you look past the Wii ___ casual crap, you'll find that in reality, Nintendo has catered to us hardcore gamers more than ever this generation.
Or maybe the folks at Nintendo have known this secret all along and were keeping it in their back pocket for when the sales started to decline.
"Wii_____" = 10 x sales
"______Party" = 3 x sales
"Wii Party" = 30 x sales
Best selling game ever.
Until Activision makes "World of Warcraft: Modern Guitar Hero Party 2". That one might beat it.