Rumor Control - IGN's Nintendo Voice Chat

[Cube]

No Wii game will embarass RE4 on GC

 

That's because the GameCube technically couldn't handle RE4. It runs at a lower resolution to account for that.

[pedrocasilva]

To explain myself better. In Twilight Princess for example some areas look better than others. The Castle Town looks stunning, while some parts, like certain areas of Hyrule Field, look significantly worse because of it's size. Is the Wii basically powerful enough to make games like TP look as good as the Castle Town all the way through?

In Twilight Princess case should be, in Hyrule Field graphics tend to be worse not only because of the bigger areas and lack of RAM, but also because Nintendo gave up a whole texture pipeline out of 4 in order to do the clouds moving in the area; Wii has 8 pipelines so even if they do it again, visually the price to pay will be significantly lower.

 

I don't think Castle Town looks that great though, the characters and the scenario is not that high in polycounts, but it certainly has life to it. Anyway I believe good graphics nowadays require more time and attention to detail than RAW power so with the limitations you talked about out of the day, and they mostly are, the graphics can maintain and surpass the level you suggested, instead of going under.

[Cube]

In Twilight Princess case should be, in Hyrule Field graphics tend to be worse not only because of the bigger areas and lack of RAM, but also because Nintendo gave up a whole texture pipeline out of 4 in order to do the clouds moving in the area; Wii has 8 pipelines so even if they do it again, visually the price to pay will be significantly lower.

 

Nintendo need to steel code from Star Fox Adventures. The grass, in particular.

[pedrocasilva]

Nintendo need to steel code from Star Fox Adventures. The grass, in particular.

They should know exactly how to do it, they just don't want to, but I agree, that would be a relatively inexpensive (and intelligent) way of making the grass in Zelda looking loads better.

[Mikey]

Nintendo would never do it, but they should totally lease the SFA engine from Rare, and upgrade certain parts of it for Zelda. It had widescreen support in it as well, despite all of the graphical effects. Great looking game, even by today's standards.

 

They should know exactly how to do it, they just don't want to, but I agree, that would be a relatively inexpensive (and intelligent) way of making the grass in Zelda looking loads better.

 

Not necessarily. I think I read somewhere about how Nintendo said the graphics in Donkey Kong Country for the Snes weren't possible, but Rare proved them wrong. Rare are masters at getting everything out of a console. I'd bet my ass if they were making Wii games, they could get some of their titles almost 360 quality. Look at their N64 games like Perfect Dark, and Conkers. They looked better than some of my Dreamcast games!

[pedrocasilva]

Nintendo would never do it, but they should totally lease the SFA engine from Rare, and upgrade certain parts of it for Zelda. It had widescreen support in it as well, despite all of the graphical effects. Great looking game, even by today's standards.

I thought it was great technically, but a little bland when it came to some environments and artistic direction. I wouldn't wish Nintendo used their engine, but definitely take some ideas, a Zelda engine could benefit from having the best of both.

Not necessarily. I think I read somewhere about how Nintendo said the graphics in Donkey Kong Country for the Snes weren't possible, but Rare proved them wrong. Rare are masters at getting everything out of a console. I'd bet my ass if they were making Wii games, they could get some of their titles almost 360 quality. Look at their N64 games like Perfect Dark, and Conkers. They looked better than some of my Dreamcast games!

I don't know about that, but DKC was only possible thanks for Nintendo paying Rareware the CGI stations, as it certainly wouldn't be possible without them. They didn't buy them expecting nothing, although I'd believe DKC was better than they envisioned, because I believe that was the first time it was made.

 

Nintendo was testing the same back then, considering Yoshi Island was supposed to be like it, until Miyamoto opted out.

 

But IMO, DKC games are nothing compared with what they technically did on the N64.

 

Rare are pretty hard working when it comes to pushing the graphical envelope, problem is that leading personal came out and they kinda lost their edge to good games, longer development times and average games that with the founders ultimatum made Nintendo sell them. One of the reasons starfox adventures looks so good is supposedly because it was almost stalled lots of times because rareware would finish their funds and ask Nintendo for more. These times with lesser funds allowed them to polish what they have. (the way I see it)

 

No doubt they'd be pushing some of the best visuals on the Wii, but it's N64 Rare that I miss, not GC/Xbox one.

[Mikey]

I thought it was great technically, but a little bland when it came to some environments and artistic direction. I wouldn't wish Nintendo used their engine, but definitely take some ideas, a Zelda engine could benefit from having the best of both.I don't know about that, but DKC was only possible thanks for Nintendo paying Rareware the CGI stations, as it certainly wouldn't be possible without them. They didn't buy them expecting nothing, although I'd believe DKC was better than they envisioned, because I believe that was the first time it was made.

 

Nintendo was testing the same back then, considering Yoshi Island was supposed to be like it, until Miyamoto opted out.

 

But IMO, DKC games are nothing compared with what they technically did on the N64.

 

Rare are pretty hard working when it comes to pushing the graphical envelope, problem is that leading personal came out and they kinda lost their edge to good games, longer development times and average games that with the founders ultimatum made Nintendo sell them. One of the reasons starfox adventures looks so good is supposedly because it was almost stalled lots of times because rareware would finish their funds and ask Nintendo for more. These times with lesser funds allowed them to polish what they have. (the way I see it)

 

No doubt they'd be pushing some of the best visuals on the Wii, but it's N64 Rare that I miss, not GC/Xbox one.

 

The only part of SFA which wasn't amazing, was the lighting. it was bog standard stuff. This is why I said Nintendo should lease it, but also modify it as well. A Zelda using the SFA engine, with Twilight Princess lighting, and Twilight's art direction would be amazing.

 

As for DKC, I was only going by what I read a while ago. Take it with a pinch of salt.

 

And yes, I do not miss the GC/Xbox Rare at all either. Nintendo did right to sell them.

[DCK]

Hmmm, I think this discussion is rather hypothetical... Graphics design is more complex than occupying texture pipes (the difference between Hyrule Field and the Castle Town is more than just the clouds) and the rendering technique of the grass (the power used for that will cause sacrifices in other areas).

 

Anyway, you made a good point last page Pedro - Wii games will never really outshine the best Xbox and GameCube games, but that doesn't mean it can't make far better graphics. To be honest, the 'Mario on Xbox' statement isn't that far out as some of you make it to be; the game's core processing (polygon/textures) itself doesn't seem extraordinary more advanced than what was possible on GameCube or Xbox. What sets Mario, and to a somewhat lesser extent Metroid, apart from last-gen is the beautiful use of bloom lighting, something that was too heavy for the last generation consoles. Take that away, and the game is not a very advanced game. Mario on Xbox is unthinkable, but not completely impossible.

 

That nice shader upgrade is a very nice addition to the hardware, and I'm really looking forward to see a Wii-made Zelda making use of that.

 

Also Pedro, what's you source on the 8 texture pipes in the Hollywood as opposed to the 4 texture pipes in the Flipper?

[pedrocasilva]

Hmmm, I think this discussion is rather hypothetical... Graphics design is more complex than occupying texture pipes (the difference between Hyrule Field and the Castle Town is more than just the clouds) and the rendering technique of the grass (the power used for that will cause sacrifices in other areas).

Of course, but it's been said the reason hyrule field does seem blander than the rest of the games comes from there, they wasted 1/4 of their texturing power on the clouds alone; on the Wii that would be 1/8, a lot more bearable.

 

As for SFA, of course they were wasting some juice in there, but they were actually pretty intelligent over it, only the parts closer to the camera and a little ahead of starfox were shaded that way and it would make it like that as you got close, this made it so there would be no extra impact if you did a area, say... twice as big, at distance it's a simple texture. (almost unnoticeable)

 

Should be made more often.

Anyway, you made a good point last page Pedro - Wii games will never really outshine the best Xbox and GameCube games, but that doesn't mean it can't make far better graphics. To be honest, the 'Mario on Xbox' statement isn't that far out as some of you make it to be; the game's core processing (polygon/textures) itself doesn't seem extraordinary more advanced than what was possible on GameCube or Xbox. What sets Mario, and to a somewhat lesser extent Metroid, apart from last-gen is the beautiful use of bloom lighting, something that was too heavy for the last generation consoles. Take that away, and the game is not a very advanced game. Mario on Xbox is unthinkable, but not completely impossible.

I disagree, it's not just lightning and particle effects, tracking objects in a 3D space is very intensive for the cpu, so with all that's going on with galaxy... I don't think xbox could even try to keep up with that.

 

That said... Of course you could try and shrink down the game until it runs, for example cut loads of geometry and leave mario and only that planet loaded, that way and for conceptual reasons I bet it would run, thing is the full game could not be realized. (even because the xbox doesn't have the loading advantages the wii has).

 

My query with IGN is not for saying something this rational like what we just did, it's that I find quite tasteless to go out of your way and suggest it could be done on xbox like if Wii is inferior.

That nice shader upgrade is a very nice addition to the hardware, and I'm really looking forward to see a Wii-made Zelda making use of that.

 

Also Pedro, what's you source on the 8 texture pipes in the Hollywood as opposed to the 4 texture pipes in the Flipper?

Sadly, I've seen no documentation saying it outright, but I've seen people assuming as such in their analysis and I'm going with that too.

 

Reasons for that would be the core shrinking, and how much area it has over what a shrinked flipper should be, given that area (more than double what flipper would be) best way of expanding power while maintaining the compatibility would be by doubling the pipes, so I bet they did; that doesn't answer what they did more in there though.

 

TEV pipeline got doubled too, no point in leaving the texture pipes like they were.

[Goron_3]

It's funny how a thread about rumours on games turned into this....

[pedrocasilva]

It's funny how a thread about rumours on games turned into this....

It'll always get on track with the next weeks "Wii-k in Review" update anyway, so there's no harm done; this is a generalist thread giving that in the podcasts they don't talk about one game alone, and we have separate threads for (most of) those.

[Mikey]

Although I don't know much about games form a technical point of view, I do find reading about it to be interesting. Plus, I learn from what others have said in this thread.

 

Of course, but it's been said the reason hyrule field does seem blander than the rest of the games comes from there, they wasted 1/4 of their texturing power on the clouds alone; on the Wii that would be 1/8, a lot more bearable.

 

As for SFA, of course they were wasting some juice in there, but they were actually pretty intelligent over it, only the parts closer to the camera and a little ahead of starfox were shaded that way and it would make it like that as you got close, this made it so there would be no extra impact if you did a area, say... twice as big, at distance it's a simple texture. (almost unnoticeable)

 

Should be made more often.I disagree, it's not just lightning and particle effects, tracking objects in a 3D space is very intensive for the cpu, so with all that's going on with galaxy... I don't think xbox could even try to keep up with that.

 

That said... Of course you could try and shrink down the game until it runs, for example cut loads of geometry and leave mario and only that planet loaded, that way and for conceptual reasons I bet it would run, thing is the full game could not be realized. (even because the xbox doesn't have the loading advantages the wii has).

 

My query with IGN is not for saying something this rational like what we just did, it's that I find quite tasteless to go out of your way and suggest it could be done on xbox like if Wii is inferior.Sadly, I've seen no documentation saying it outright, but I've seen people assuming as such in their analysis and I'm going with that too.

 

Reasons for that would be the core shrinking, and how much area it has over what a shrinked flipper should be, given that area (more than double what flipper would be) best way of expanding power while maintaining the compatibility would be by doubling the pipes, so I bet they did; that doesn't answer what they did more in there though.

 

TEV pipeline got doubled too, no point in leaving the texture pipes like they were.

 

BTW, I know the CPU in the Wii has been upgraded, but in what way as the GPU been upgraded? Is it basically the GC one, but faster, or is able to do more effects?

[pedrocasilva]

BTW, I know the CPU in the Wii has been upgraded, but in what way as the GPU been upgraded? Is it basically the GC one, but faster, or is able to do more effects?

It has been upgraded; we just can't outright say how much because we lack the documentation to do so.

 

Flipper (GC GPU) was manufactured at 180 nm, Hollywood (Wii GPU) by it's turn it's 90 nm, so...

 

GC Flipper - 180nm process, 110mm² diesize.

Wii Hollywood - 90nm process, 72mm² diesize.

 

The expected size of a simple Flipper at 90nm would be 26mm². the extra space taken amounts to a 175% increase. A lot of stuff could fill in there; we know that the TEV pipeline (Wii's programmable shaders) was upgraded but that's at most a extra pipeline in size so that still leaves a lot of space, I'd really go with extra texture pipelines, it's almost a no brainer upgrade to do.

 

Mario Galaxy's leap over say... Mario Sunshine also suggests that, it would be really hard to do with 4 pipes. (but we can't just look at a screenshot and conclude how many texture passages they're using).

[pedrocasilva]

This Wii-k's:

 

-Super Smash Bros Brawl - My Music. Can customize soundtrack on each stage - plenty of songs from all franchises. Insane list of composers. Matt expects the hype to continue to grow and Nintendo to just blow the game out, especially since this will very likely be the only Smash Bros. on Wii.

 

- Bozon doesn't expect Brawl to have 4 player online, but all three do expect online play to be in the game. Might struggle due to 60fps and so much going on - if anything, there could be 2 player onine at 60fps. Matt doesn't believe the game will ship without online.

 

- Brawl vs Halo 3 sales: Melee nearly kept on the original Halo's sales. Wii install base has already passed 360 and Brawl looks epic. Fran expects Halo 3 to convinvingly beat Brawl in USA (Matt expects it to be a lot closer than expected), but worldwide Smash Bros. should come out on top due to Halo's severe under-performance in Japan.

 

- Worms: Space Oddity - set in space environments. Modified physics to suit environment. Using IR, but some weapons also feature gesture control (eg: point grenade, then use motion to throw it). Worried this might hurt the game like overuse of stylus did hurt the first one on DS. Has online - 4 player. Also has WiiConnect24 for downloadable items.

 

- Mario Kart Wii - It looks pretty good, but seems to feature a lot of DS stuff. "Speculation" about 16 players online.

 

- Fran believes there's too much worthless scanning information in Metroid Prime 3. Doesn't like the first area of the game, but really likes the controls. Matt replies by saying the game is a lot better and different after the first area.

 

- Trauma Centre: New Blood - have first footage today. Features co-op - some operations designed for co-op (eg: have to perform actions at same time). Good stuff.

 

- Rockstar has delayed Manhunt 2 coverage by a few days - should be able to provide coverage later next week.

 

- Super Mario Galaxy - Gravity is a major component to the game. Planets have different gravity levels and this will play into the puzzles. Hopefully this is taken far since the physics based puzzles are awesome. Fire Mario is back. There's a haunted house level, water levels, etc. Should have some big levels rivalling the size of 64 and Sunshine. Hope Galaxy will have higher levels with greater falls. Excited because Galaxy seems to have a lot of the sunshine platforming levels.

 

- Battalion Wars 2 - can use naval forces as well - subs, ships, etc. Subs hard to target, ships move slowly. Adds lots of strategy. 3 multiplayer options. Great style but apparently the controls have come together (a lot better since the early controls of last year's version).

 

- Should have some Zack and Wiki coverage next week - will be able to show the game in motion.

 

- TGS - Nintendo is not going to be there but 3rd party Wii titles will. Tecmo showing a few things, SEGA, Square, Capcom, etc as well along with other parties.

 

- Nintendo keeps alluding to a seperate event sometime down the line. Spaceworld discussion, may be coming back. Still wondering what Reggie meant by the WiiConnect24 September surprise.

 

- Nintendo still hasn't got back to Matt about his editorial on the lack of a headset for Wii, but should be up next week. Will also sometime write upon about the lack of a hard drive.

 

- A "dark" Wii game that is kind of "spooky" (and has a resemblance to a previous game that Matt won't divulge in) [Eternal Darkness?] will be announced soon since the game recently got a publisher.

 

- New Smash Bros. boxart - Matt believes it doesn't mean anything - probably just a placeholder. Not completely official and Nintendo claims they have not released any boxart.

 

- Matt believes Metroid Prime 3 will still sell well despite Nintendo's efforts to ensure the opposite. (arse, the game sells well and he bitches) However, from their experience, they don't think it will reach as many people as it could have. Not enough people know about it.

 

- Nintendo games are the best selling games on VC. Stuff like Street Fighter is still doing decently well.

 

- Future of Resident Evil after Umbrella Chronicles. Hopefully franchise will continue on Wii as well. Matt unsure, Bozon thinks there will be another RE4 style game. Capcom are busy with RE5, and are really into graphics which the Wii cannot provide for them. Very much doubt they would bother downgrading RE5, could be done with a lot of time and effort, but most likely won’t happen. - it's working on a new engine and would take far too much effort.

 

- Believe that devs are starting to take Wii seriously. "Dark game" is targeted towards Wii and could turn a few heads. Zack and Wiki looks awesome. Even Medal of Honour 2 is promising and takes advantage of Wii in many ways. Plus more impressive games on the way.

 

- DS is the system that changed Nintendo.

 

- Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 - because RRR was a launch game, this helped its sales. RRR2 is funnier, controls seems about on par, seems a bit like a "pack update" rather than a huge improvement. Going to be more depth to the shooting mode. Matt thinks it will still sell pretty well but probably not as well as the first. (well, duh)

 

- Nintendo will probably focus on Japanese-developed VC games for little while longer, but US publishers will likely start putting VC games up soon enough.

 

- Matt called Julian Eggebrecht today. They would love to work on Wii and if the opportunity would arise they would do it in a heartbeat (maybe Pilotwings?). Willing to make a new Rogue Squadron game. Could maybe update the Rogue Squadron games from Gamecube, or preferably make a new Rogue Squadron game. Matt wants fans to make a petition and IGN would support it. (do it, now!)

 

- Matt not a fan of split-screen gaming for FPS, so not disappointed that games like MOH: Heroes 2 doesn't have split-screen even though many others are.

 

- Konami - don't really know what is going on with the Castlevania franchise on Wii. Apparently something in the works for PS3 and 360 but probably not Wii. There were rumours of Metal Gear on Wii but not anymore.

 

- There will be certain developers that prefer to work on PS3/360, especially those who love content, storylines, atmosphere, etc, and thus they won't want to work on Wii since it cannot fully express their ideas. In contrast, there will also be developers that prefer to work on Wii, especially small companies such as Atlus with Trauma Centre. Hoping that companies will start to put A teams on Wii - confident they will, especially with good sales of stuff like Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition.

 

 

- Matt thinks the best 3rd party game right now for Wii is Zack and Wiki. Believes Factor 5 would be the most promising developer to work on Wii that currently isn't.

 

- Worried about Zack and Wiki's sales. The name isn't good and may hurt sales, and though the style is awesome, it may be perceived as "kiddy". Matt, Bozon would market Zack and Wiki by drawing parallels to game mascots like Mario and Sonic. Wii demo disc for a demo would be great, in-store demo kiosk would help too. Capcom have an uphill battle, and retailers aren't giving Capcom an easy time about it.

Source: http://wii.ign.com/articles/818/818845p1.html

[peterl0]

Hey pedro, thanks for summarising these things.

For some reason can never actually get the thing to download anymore.

[Teppo Holmqvist]

Hey pedro, thanks for summarising these things.

 

These summaries are actually from NeoGaf and Pedro just drops them here.

[Zelda_Rulez]

- A "dark" Wii game that is kind of "spooky" (and has a resemblance to a previous game that Matt won't divulge in) [Eternal Darkness?] will be announced soon since the game recently got a publisher.[/Quote]

 

This sounds intriguing.

 

- There will be certain developers that prefer to work on PS3/360, especially those who love content, storylines, atmosphere, etc, and thus they won't want to work on Wii since it cannot fully express their ideas. In contrast, there will also be developers that prefer to work on Wii, especially small companies such as Atlus with Trauma Centre. Hoping that companies will start to put A teams on Wii - confident they will, especially with good sales of stuff like Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition.

[/Quote]

 

Weird reason for not putting games on Wii. Why couldn't they have storylines , content and atmosphere? Graphics shouldn't be the deciding factor on that.

[Zechs Merquise]

Interesting stuff coupled with the usual IGN rumours and pretending to know things.

 

Happy about Battalion Wars though, and I'm still unsure about Brawl, I think if this has full online it will beat Halo in worldwide sales.

[Hero-of-Time]

Best thing in all of that for me was the mention of the platforming levels from Sunshine being in Galaxy. Those sections in Sunshine were simply platforming gold and a return to that makes me very excited.

[Deathborn]

 

Weird reason for not putting games on Wii. Why couldn't they have storylines , content and atmosphere? Graphics shouldn't be the deciding factor on that.

 

Not if you are not skilled to create an atmosphere... They probably want to hide that behind graphics.

[Goron_3]

I agree with matts comment completely about MP3 sales. This was THE game to appeal to hardcore gamers and yet they bloody advertise it to casuals

[Teppo Holmqvist]

I agree with matts comment completely about MP3 sales. This was THE game to appeal to hardcore gamers and yet they bloody advertise it to casuals

 

Once again common sense doesn't seem to prevail.... Those who are interested about Metroid Prime 3 knew about it, and it also got serious magazine / site coverage. You don't need more than that for enthusiasts*. When Nintendo did dark and brooding marketing campaign for Metroid Prime 2, it fucking bombed. In fact, Wii Would Play campaign has never failed so far. Every game that has been marketed with it has been successfull.

 

* I prefer word enthusiasts to "hardcore", because whole word was only invented to make teenagers feel more mature than they are. Pretentious and stupid.

[Goron_3]

Once again common sense doesn't seem to prevail.... Those who are interested about Metroid Prime 3 knew about it, and it also got serious magazine / site coverage. You don't need more than that for enthusiasts*. When Nintendo did dark and brooding marketing campaign for Metroid Prime 2, it fucking bombed. In fact, Wii Would Play campaign has never failed so far. Every game that has been marketed with it has been successfull.

 

* I prefer word enthusiasts to "hardcore", because whole word was only invented to make teenagers feel more mature than they are. Pretentious and stupid.

 

Ok, so...there any people out there that don't know about it but would buy it? Because trust me, I know some hardcore PC gamers and they've never had an urge to play a metroid prime game because it was on a console. This is THE game that should make them interested in the Wii (they already like Resi 4 on Wii but they ent forking £180 for one console).

 

I'm just saying they fucked up their advertising for this one; it should have been better.

[pedrocasilva]

These summaries are actually from NeoGaf and Pedro just drops them here.

yup (sorry for any misunderstanding)

I agree with matts comment completely about MP3 sales. This was THE game to appeal to hardcore gamers and yet they bloody advertise it to casuals

I totally disagree, he's just being a dick, did you heard of the TV advertising for metroid on launch day?

 

They say it was everywhere, dozens of times over and over. And it's when the game comes out that it's important to mass advertise it, not when the game is not on-sale.

 

So really, I think he's being a prick, he only wants to bitch and say "look I was right" besides the darn game habing sold +300k on the first week, what's left to bitch? it's selling like cakes.

Weird reason for not putting games on Wii. Why couldn't they have storylines , content and atmosphere? Graphics shouldn't be the deciding factor on that.

Tottaly agree, basicaly they dislike the Wii, specially US developers, because it actually brings something new to the table and they dont like changes...

 

Basically... I think they're not even trying; it's not power... I can do this, I can't do that, they're lazy and against Wii, and most never actually touched the hardware, because they don't even want to (and if they did it would be against their will so they'd shovel something, or disregard graphics because they thing they can get away with it on the Wii).

 

For example:

 

The Wiimote is truly disruptive. Nintendo has disrupted our industry. None of Perry's favorite games or games he is looking for are on the Wii. When the great games come out for the 360 and PS3, people aren't going to be content bowling with their Wiimote.

Source: http://kotaku.com/gaming/austin-gdc-07/liveblogging-the-dave-perry-qa-297493.php

 

Blahblahblah, disruptive; just wait for OUR response in other consoles, etc... something new who brings more people and makes you re-think game development as disruptive. This guy is clearly a idiot, but he comes out and say's it... a LOT of US developers think just the same, hence why they don't want to develop, they're still praying that Wii is a fad, or that somehow they can miss it.

 

I'll be honest, you see it in reviewers and some game developers (specially Ocidental ones) the way they look at stuff like brain training and Wii Sports, for them it's some kind of radioactive Nemesis, something they don't want in their so called industry, hence why they rate it as low as they can... same as shoveling it away; but truth to be told they're not the target of that game hence why they hate it.

 

If Americans go after technology, as they always do, we'll end up with a situation like DS, most US made games (and Europe too) are crap... that's changing a little lately, but look at the best rated lists on some sites first 10 games... 9 are japanese, only tony hawk isn't. I actually always though PSP gets more US support than DS, Xbox also got tons of US support while it wasn't even a leader.

 

Basically what I'm saying is... they waste opportunities due to pride, the teams don't want to and they actually have input in the matter? hell no, "the damn thing sells just program for it", that's what happened with PS2 and DS in Japan.

 

That's why American teams (taking companies like EA aside) are never market driving or that prominent, they go after the horse they like, not profit, causing them to be always late and often push to the side they want even if it's a loosing side; the Japanese by instance end up really jumping on the bandwagon as soon as they realize which is the winning one; and they'll take profits from that strategy a lot sooner.

 

Sorry for the rant.

[Zechs Merquise]

So really, I think he's being a prick, he only wants to bitch and say "look I was right" besides the darn game habing sold +300k on the first week, what's left to bitch? it's selling like cakes.

 

Now that is good to hear, anyway Matt can shut his gob until the all format charts are released by NPD, then and only then will we see what kind of impact MP3 has had.

 

And what's more Nintendo are right with their advertising, all this rubbish about building hype is one thing, and I think there was plenty of hype for this game. But selling it is another thing all together, advertising a game massively before it has actually come out CAN be counter productive as there isn't a product actually on the shelf to buy.