seanraaron Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 Okay, so I've mentally committed to buying a Wii in the next 60 days (once my redundancy money comes in), and I'm thinking of games that I've played on other platforms or styles of games from long ago that I'd like to see on the Wii. Many of the developers/publishers are still in business so I'm thinking that like I do with my MP I'd write and indicate my position on a certain title and how great I think it would be to see it come to the Wii in some form. Is this a waste of time or does such feedback get any reception? Specifically I'm hoping to see some kind of Shanghai title from Sunsoft, I think Bushido Blade would be just brilliant with Wii controls (I know the developers have gone through multiple buyouts, but Square-Enix is still around, right?) and I've already written Namco-Bandai about bringing Rebelstar or some incarnation of UFO: Enemy Unknown to the Wii.
Zechs Merquise Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 Yes and No. I think they won;t listen to your letter (unless they've had millions like it or in the unlikely event that you've thought of such a winning formula they have to develop it). However they probably listen a bit more when someone sets up a petition of sorts and gets millions of signatures and starts actually canvassing for a unmade game. Still, I'm not even sure how much that would affect them, after all signing a petition does not mean anyone is guarenteed to buy the title if and when it comes out.
jammy2211 Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 They will sort of listen, if demand for a game is high then sooner or later they'll make the game. As for your examples, I think the people who actually care about them games will be in a very low quantity, so I would expect nothing to be done.
DCK Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 To be honest, I don't think any publisher is really interested in revitalising old franchises for a few old fans, harsh as it may sound. If they saw a future in it, they would be working on it.
jammy2211 Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 To be honest, I don't think any publisher is really interested in revitalising old franchises for a few old fans, harsh as it may sound. If they saw a future in it, they would be working on it. Although this is true, I do think resurrecting old franchise could become quite a common trend on the Wii. Nintendo at E3 06 said that one of their main target audience was people who used to play video games, but then stopped when they got older. Also with the way the VC is marketed I think it could well built up a good audience for this sort of thing. It's probably too soon for alot of companies to tell, but we all know Nintendo are resurrecting a 'dead' franchise, and SEGA are resurrecting NiGHTS and Alien Syndrome. Also there was a strong rumour that whoever makes Bonk's adventure are making a Wii sequel, because of good VC sales. It's probably wishful thinking on my part, but I do think there is the potential for games to be resurrected on the Wii. Especially the ones which built up a strong fanbase in the N64 days, like Mystical Ninja, Gex the Gekko, Chameleon Twist, Body Harvest etc.
DCK Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 That's a good point. The bad thing is, I don't think Sega's resurrections will be a good example in terms of quality or sales - they won't be the ones that'll start a resurrection trend.
Zechs Merquise Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 That's a good point. The bad thing is, I don't think Sega's resurrections will be a good example in terms of quality or sales - they won't be the ones that'll start a resurrection trend. Mainly because the stuff they've been producing is sloppy. Ghost Squad looks WORSE on the Wii than in the arcade, Nights looks terrible and don't even start me on Alien Syndrome. Sega are a total joke.
david.dakota Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 Its all to to with dollar. Make them see the dollar.
jammy2211 Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 That's a good point. The bad thing is, I don't think Sega's resurrections will be a good example in terms of quality or sales - they won't be the ones that'll start a resurrection trend. I dunno, I think NiGHTs could end up okay in the end. It's not going to be incredible but I'm not going to write it off. I'm not really saying SEGA will set a trend, just that there's a good example. I do beleive that if Nintendo can bring together everyone who owned a NES, SNES and / or N64 we will see huge potential for some resurrected franchise. Nintendo need to get Kid Icarus back in all it's glory, that'll start the trend.
seanraaron Posted August 2, 2007 Author Posted August 2, 2007 Yes and No. I think they won;t listen to your letter (unless they've had millions like it or in the unlikely event that you've thought of such a winning formula they have to develop it). However they probably listen a bit more when someone sets up a petition of sorts and gets millions of signatures and starts actually canvassing for a unmade game. Still, I'm not even sure how much that would affect them, after all signing a petition does not mean anyone is guarenteed to buy the title if and when it comes out. Hmmm, I recall reading that actually what you're saying is opposite logic: electronic or other petitions tend to be ignored because they're too easy to fake up and so trivial to fill in that anyone who couldn't be bothered to do more than sign a petition probably doesn't care about an issue enough for it to be taken seriously. When dealing with customer complaints, if someone actually takes the time to pen an email or letter to a company about an issue, marketing-wise it's safe to assume that this represents significant unspoken customer dissatisfaction and is therefore worth taking seriously. However, in my case I'm just writing some PR people, so you're probably right, but many of these companies keep turning out the same rubbish because they blow too much money on development and don't want to take chances, hence the relative paucity of ideas in the marketplace; I'm thinking they aren't even creative enough to look at the back catalogue for what actually worked back in the day and the potential it has now. I mean why the hell is MAME so popular? If these companies didn't just sit on their assets it wouldn't need to exist. Which brings me to another question: why the hell is it that so many publishers/developers have no feedback function on their websites? You'd think they'd want feedback from customers rather than just pissing in the wind and hoping they score a hit. Midway is one of the only companies I've found that actually has an email form for something other than game support.
jammy2211 Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 Which brings me to another question: why the hell is it that so many publishers/developers have no feedback function on their websites? You'd think they'd want feedback from customers rather than just pissing in the wind and hoping they score a hit. Midway is one of the only companies I've found that actually has an email form for something other than game support. Companies ultimately use one source of feedback - sales. It's very hard to take what consumers think about a game and adjust it to that, as different people like and dislike certain aspects of a game. By using sales, companies can just do what they know works. The way companies develope games now is basically make a formula, if it works improve it with sequels and pretty much squeeze it until it's dry. It's a sorry state for the industry, and if you look at the majority of the 360 / ps3 line up you can pretty much see it in full effect, seeing as developement costs are so high no one can risk not making a game based on a formula which has proven sales to it's name. Wii's line up is a bit different, the lower developement costs and motion controls are allowing companies to try differentiate the normal games we get, which I guess is why I like the console so much. I think the reason the DS is so great is cause games are normally rewarded on sales by innovation, not how much of a budget the company has, and I really hope the Wii turns out like that. I think there are ALOT of creative people in the industry with alot of unique and great ideas, but most of them will never get the funding, cause another FPS or RPG is guarenteed to sell more copies. I think WiiWare could be a great platform for new and innovative ideas, too.
seanraaron Posted August 2, 2007 Author Posted August 2, 2007 Right, but if you only look at sales you can only say "well that title didn't work," but you cannot say _why_ without feedback.
jammy2211 Posted August 2, 2007 Posted August 2, 2007 Right, but if you only look at sales you can only say "well that title didn't work," but you cannot say _why_ without feedback. I'm not saying I agree with how developers treat their feedback or whatever, but that's how the industry works.
seanraaron Posted August 3, 2007 Author Posted August 3, 2007 Well, I'll carry on. It sounds like there's some kind of voting channel on the Wii, correct? Maybe this will evolve into something. Given how consumer-friendly Nintendo is generally, and how restrictive they are with whom they allow to develop on their platforms historically (I seem to recall that it used to be developers had to have Nintendo approval before a game release in an attempt to head off the glut of crap games that killed the Atari VCS), they would probably be interested in developing any system that garnered them some free marketing feedback, even on 3rd-party reception.
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