Reggie Thinks 3rd Parties Don't 'Get' The Wii

[Dante]

The third-parties-on-Wii debate has raged for longer than we care to remember. In fact, we now counter accusations that the console lacks great third-party titles with the same, well-rehearsed response: "de Blob Zack & Wiki Resident Evil 4 World of Goo The Conduit No More Heroes Little King's Story Blast Works LostWinds Guitar Hero World Tour Okami Boom Blox Let's Tap Geometry Wars Muramasa Mega Man 9 Trauma Center." It's a bit lacking in coherency and punctuation, but people usually edge away when we shout it in their faces.

 

Nintendo bossman Reggie Fils-Aime (who is earning a reputation for frankness) is the latest industry figure to question the Wii's third-party output, suggesting that third-parties don't yet understand the platform. He reckons people who purchase Wiis are interested in games that sell strongly on other systems, but that the quality is missing. "I will be able to say our licensees 'get it' when their very best content is on our platform," he told Forbes. "And with very few exceptions today, that's not the case."

 

NintendoFanBoy

 

 

Fobes Interview:

 

The Wii will get social but not how you might expect it to.

 

The latest battleground in the console wars, to hear Microsoft and Sony tell it, is community.

 

Both companies are making major pushes this year to get players to interact beyond the game. While Sony readies "Home," which gives PlayStation 3 owners a "Second Life"-like world in which to explore and interact with each other, Microsoft is relaunching the Xbox 360's dashboard, with a large initial emphasis on gathering with friends and more updates on the way.

 

Nintendo, however, has been pretty quiet on the matter of community so far--a curious stance, given the Wii's significantly larger installed base of customers. That silence might be coming to an end soon, hints Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime.

 

Want to hear what Chris is playing this week or share your latest gaming passion? Check out "Meta Data."

 

"Nintendo has always had a vision on community," he says. "The issue is that we define community differently than our competitors. ... Our consumers do want a sense of community, and we're going to deliver that--but in a way that is unique to Nintendo."

 

Fils-Aime declined to specify when the company might elaborate on its plans, but next year's E3 conference is a prime candidate.

 

It's unlikely that the slow move toward community will have any dramatic impact on Wii sales. While most CEOs are getting mighty nervous about the holiday season, Fils-Aime is relaxed.

 

The big fear, in fact, is that for the third year in a row, the company won't be able to meet consumer demand. Nintendo has been steadily ramping up production of Wii consoles--and while it can't guarantee you'll be able to find one this year, it's less concerned than in years past. For shoppers trying to get their hands on the popular "Wii Fit" game, though, that's another story.

 

"With Wii hardware, I think we've got a good shot at meeting demand during the holidays," Fils-Aime says. "With 'Wii Fit,' I know we'll fall short. That's a product we have consumers lining up for each morning outside of our Nintendo World store [in New York City]."

 

"Wii Fit" has become something of a phenomenon. Nearly one-third of all Wii owners have bought a copy--and demand has not let up. That's particularly impressive given the product's $90 price tag. Some retailers, hoping to take advantage of the overwhelming demand, are only selling "Wii Fit" in bundles (at notably higher prices), a practice that's typically reserved for console launches.

 

Another thing you won't be able to find at retail this holiday season is the Nintendo DSi. The revised handheld gaming device, which includes larger screens, a built-in digital camera, a memory card slot and built-in browser, is on sale in Japan but has not yet been launched in the U.S. market.

 

Blame the ongoing success of the DS for that.

 

"The DSi in Japan was critical to that market," says Fils-Aime. "Momentum [for the DS] there was slowing. Conversely, our DS business in 2007 was a record year. In 2008, we're running 19% above those 2007 numbers. So, for us, the strategic need for the DSi will happen later in 2009."

 

While the Wii's popularity continues to build, most third-party publishers haven't been able to capitalize on the new audience. To be fair, there has been a lot of shovel-ware for the Wii--awful games churned out in a blatant attempt to court the "casual" audience--and consumers have quickly learned to sniff out quality. But some of the more thoughtful efforts, such as Electronic Arts' "All Play" sports games, aren't connecting either.

 

Fils-Aime says this is because third-party publishers still don't quite understand the Wii audience. Tweaking the game-play mechanics is only part of the equation. This audience, he believes, is just as interested in games that do well on other systems--but, to date, publishers have been reticent to bring those to the Wii.

 

"I will be able to say our licensees 'get it' when their very best content is on our platform," he says. "And with very few exceptions today, that's not the case."

 

That might even mean games that wouldn't seem to translate well to the Wii's more casual audience, such as Take-Two's "Grand Theft Auto" or EA's "Spore" (a Wii version of that game is currently in development).

 

Of course, what gamers would love to see from Nintendo is a Wii price cut. Given that the company still can't keep hardware on store shelves, though, it doesn't take an economist to figure out that such an action is far from imminent.

 

"At some point, it will be time to adjust the [price]," notes Fils-Aime, "but we're nowhere near that point now."

[Ganepark32]

While Reggie is quite right to question the output of third parties, and we all are considering we own the console and would like games to play on it, I don't think talking to Forbes about it in an interview is the best way to go about it. Ok, it'd be time consuming to talk to each individual developer but really, that would be the best way. A few tips and points would probably go down better than 3rd parties hearing from a news article. But then it could go the other way. Really, he should have stayed quiet. We all know that some 3rd parties out there are very guilty of giving us crap on the console and I'm sure they know themselves. It's really whether they can be bothered investing more money onto the Wii which is strange that they might not want to because of the lower development costs compared to the other consoles.

[Emasher]

The community bit I think is the most interesting. Though I'm glad he's telling EA off for the All Play games. Who buys sports games? Chavs and Hardcore Gamers (to a lesser extent) obviously. But they're trying to make the games look casual? It just doesn't make sense.

[ThePigMarcher]

Good to see that someone recognises that the All-Play range isn't connecting , perhaps EA will take note , highly unlikely though.

 

The reason why the 'all-play' games aren't connecting is because EA definitely don't know what market they are aiming at , serious sports gamers won't (or shouldn't) give them a look because they have largely been dumbed down beyond repair , and the casuals will still assume that they are the more 'hardcore gamer' type games. Not all sports gamers are chavs either , talk about a retarded comment , when done well they can be just as good for multiplayer gaming as any other genre as well as giving fans of the respective sport a chance to enjoy/relive a digital representation of their favourite other pastimes.

 

TBH , it's not really just EA and third parties. You could argue that Nintendo themselves are pretty directionless at the moment , as they do seem to be struggling to juggle between entertaining the more traditional/historical gamers and the new expanded audience.

[Emasher]

Um, I said a lot of them are. If your read my post I said there are also Hardcore gamers who play them, and quite a few. But their main market is still mostly chavs.

[Hellfire]

TW is the best golf made so far and Madden is damn good, so let's not get carried away. I'd say EA has been getting it pretty darn well. Not perfectly, but good.

[darkjak]

It's good that Nintendo are seeing the problem. But seriously, Nintendo should be acting because of this awareness. How about using these massive ammounts they've earned to start new teams, or pay third parties to release good games exclusively. How about snagging some major third party franchise away from Sony and Microsoft?

[Ganepark32]

^ This is Nintendo we're talking about. They really don't like to spend money if it's not necessary. Most of the money they make will probably go into R & D for the next consoles.

 

Perhaps Nintendo should bring back the 'Seal of Quality.' Would prevent a lot of the crap out there on the Wii getting released in the future. Ok, it may mean longer waiting times for games but it would get rid of a lot of crap.

[david.dakota]

Community? In a Nintendo way?

 

Surely to F, that should've been Animal Crossing?

[darkjak]

^ This is Nintendo we're talking about. They really don't like to spend money if it's not necessary. Most of the money they make will probably go into R & D for the next consoles.

 

 

Back in the N64 days, Nintendo bought the Bond rights, and they bought the rights to make a Ridge Racer game come out for the N64. Back in the GC days, Nintendo went quite far to make MGS happen. During the SNES era, Nintendo made Rare a second party developer, whom pumped out lots of games that complemented the Nintendo franchises very well.

 

This generation? Niente!

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

Firstly, Disclaimer: The following message is merely the honest and open opinion of the user King_V - not to be mistaken for flame.

 

I agree with Pig Marcher in that Nintendo seem pretty much aimless at the minute, its as if their made the Wii as their last resort and didn't go to depth what sort of generational advancement they want to proceed with in terms of software. The hardware, sure, is 'revolutionary' but whats the point when you don't have great direction with the software to utilize it? Nintendo just don't seem like market-leading material where software is concerned.

 

This is probably what has confused 3rd parties, seeing how Nintendo arn't even on top of producing for it's own machine. I don't believe the fact that the Wii is less powerful than the 360 and PS3 is the major reasoning behind Wii not getting a horde of 3rd party games that they get. A Wii-specific dept. could easily be created and either make technically dumbed-down ports of games or make a whole unique Wii game on equal terms and not with missing features etc.

 

I don't believe much will change for the Wii. Its far too late.

[ShadowV7]

That just seems like poor reasoning to me.

 

There's a horde of good 3rd party games coming to the Wii, and chances are, much more to be announced in the Wii's life. Nintendo is trying to aim at the hardcore/non-gamers, although more at the core-gamers expense since they've dumbed down games quite a bit in terms of difficulty, but nothing that 'core' gamers need to take a hissy fit about.

 

3rd parties could easily make a Wii dev team for better games, but they're making a profit from crap games since non-gamers are idiots and don't know what they want when it comes to games, so they pick up waggle games for some fun not knowing which ones are actually good, they don't know any better. 3rd parties generally don't care about the 'core' gamers, aka Ubisoft who pile a load of crap on the Wii, make a profit, then make high end games with good graphics etc for the 360/PS3. They make enough money, so why bother with making better games on the Wii? Probably since they think the hard core folks only have 360/PS3.

 

Yeah the Wii has a lot of crap, getting more crap, and more crap to be announced, but there's loads of decent games from Nintendo and 3rd parties coming anyway so it's not like I care about the state of the Wii anymore anyway. It's getting better anyway, so it's hardly 'too late'.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

That just seems like poor reasoning to me.

 

There's a horde of good 3rd party games coming to the Wii, and chances are, much more to be announced in the Wii's life. Nintendo is trying to aim at the hardcore/non-gamers, although more at the core-gamers expense since they've dumbed down games quite a bit in terms of difficulty, but nothing that 'core' gamers need to take a hissy fit about.

 

3rd parties could easily make a Wii dev team for better games, but they're making a profit from crap games since non-gamers are idiots and don't know what they want when it comes to games, so they pick up waggle games for some fun not knowing which ones are actually good, they don't know any better. 3rd parties generally don't care about the 'core' gamers, aka Ubisoft who pile a load of crap on the Wii, make a profit, then make high end games with good graphics etc for the 360/PS3. They make enough money, so why bother with making better games on the Wii? Probably since they think the hard core folks only have 360/PS3.

 

Yeah the Wii has a lot of crap, getting more crap, and more crap to be announced, but there's loads of decent games from Nintendo and 3rd parties coming anyway so it's not like I care about the state of the Wii anymore anyway. It's getting better anyway, so it's hardly 'too late'.

 

...As you play your Xbox.

[ShadowV7]

I have like 7 360 games to get through

 

So little time to get through them all aswell. Only chance I get on the 360 is late at night/early hours of the morning cause of the Wii and WoW...

 

T_T

 

Huge backlogs aren't fun.

[dazzybee]

There is some bullshit being spouted in here The Wii has LOTS of fantastic games and (most importantly to me) it has the most innovative and original software too. Braid for the 360 and LBP for the PS3 are amazing; but Wii has lots of fantastic software like this - De Blob, Zack and Wicki, LostWinds, World of good by all accounts, Eledees....all 3rd party, all fantastically orginal. Nintendo's first party stuff have been icredible too!

 

And this doesn't even include the other more traditional 3rd party games - Shaun White, Tiger Woods, Pro Evo, Guitar Hero, Force Unleashed, Skate it etc which are all meant to be as good or even better than their NEXT GEN counterparts!!

 

And then of course is the NEW games like Wii Music, Wii Fit etc. Which I think are great, but obviously not to everyones tastes.

 

I'm sorry, whats the problem? I have all three and am COMPLETELY bored with PS3 and 360 - Fallout is impressive but dull, Gears is amazing but I've done it...nothing grabs me. Theres some technically outstanding games with bags of content, but the fun is being drained away. 360 and PS3 is like Hollywood, the Wii is like the independent film scene!

[Ren of Heavens]

The problem is that non-casual games don't sell.

[Pit-Jr]

Fils-Aime says this is because third-party publishers still don't quite understand the Wii audience. Tweaking the game-play mechanics is only part of the equation. This audience, he believes, is just as interested in games that do well on other systems--but, to date, publishers have been reticent to bring those to the Wii.

 

Nintendo's very own 'Play on Wii' series negates any finger-pointing he is attempting.

 

Also, best sellers from the 360/PS3 are designed with that type of machine in mind. And by that type, i mean HD, online community, and storage-friendly. The Wii supports none of these things so its a bit silly of Nintendo to expect them to appear on the Wii

[dazzybee]

The problem is that non-casual games don't sell.

 

Except Metroid, twilight Princess, Red Steel, Tiger Woods, pro Evo, house of the dead, ghost squad, Mario kart, excite truck, guitar hero, resident evil 4, resident evil umbrella chronicles etc etc.

 

Though some may argue that Mario kart and guitar hero are casual games!!

 

Fils-Aime says this is because third-party publishers still don't quite understand the Wii audience. Tweaking the game-play mechanics is only part of the equation. This audience, he believes, is just as interested in games that do well on other systems--but, to date, publishers have been reticent to bring those to the Wii.

 

Nintendo's very own 'Play on Wii' series negates any finger-pointing he is attempting.

 

Also, best sellers from the 360/PS3 are designed with that type of machine in mind. And by that type, i mean HD, online community, and storage-friendly. The Wii supports none of these things so its a bit silly of Nintendo to expect them to appear on the Wii

 

Call of duty waw does a good job, same with huitar hero and rock band, same with........

 

I'm sorry, what online isn't possible on the Wii? What is it about HD graphics that make the game, why is a graphically scaled down version MUSCH worse? Storage is shit on the Wii, but again, how does this make certain games not be able to work on the Wii?

[Hellfire]

Back in the N64 days, Nintendo bought the Bond rights, and they bought the rights to make a Ridge Racer game come out for the N64. Back in the GC days, Nintendo went quite far to make MGS happen. During the SNES era, Nintendo made Rare a second party developer, whom pumped out lots of games that complemented the Nintendo franchises very well.

 

This generation? Niente!

Niente!

Fatal Frame? Niente!

Monolith? Niente!

 

Nintendo's very own 'Play on Wii' series negates any finger-pointing he is attempting.

How does play on wii does any of that? Fans have been asking for those games for ages and everyone was ecstasic when they were announced!

 

I also don't see how Nintendo is aimless. Simply enough, if they were aimless, they wouldn't be having the huge success they're having. That's as far from opposite of aimless as can be. Being aimless is releasing a console aimed at the Hardcore but then wanting a piece of the casual market and playing catch up for some years without a clue how to do it. They've been securing some good IPs like Tenchu, Fatal Frame and Monster Hunter, they have all types of games coming out and lots of high quality material. That's market leader material.

[rokhed00]

Meh, Reggie has turned in to a prick.

There's been far better third party support for the Wii than there has been first party lately.

[Grazza]

You can't have it both ways, Reggie. You can't release last-gen hardware and expect developers to treat it like a current-gen machine. Hardware moves on every five years or so and, thankfully, there is still a market for that.

 

The 360 and PS3 don't just have better graphics and "HD". More processing power is needed each generation to calculate the entire game in so many ways.

 

Secondly, Nintendo should demonstrate how it's done. They haven't exactly gone all-out, have they? Not only is the hardware extremely underpowered (and overpriced), the primitive motion controls in no way improve games.

 

Super Mario Galaxy is by far the biggest reason to buy a Wii, and even that wouldn't persuade a developer to design a game on Wii rather than 360/PS3.

 

Twilight Princess is great, but then so is Wind Waker. Neither are Wii games! I'm not that fussy. All it takes to make me buy a Nintendo console is a Zelda game, and they haven't even done that yet.

 

Metroid Prime 3 is OK, but it's difficult to notice any improvement over the GameCube games. The increased loading times are very noticeable though. The pointing's fine but, again, no real advantage over a 2nd analogue stick.

 

With a proper generational jump in horsepower, even routine updates like Smash Bros, Mario Kart and Animal Crossing would have been far less underwhelming.

 

So, that leaves games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, which 3rd-parties have copied - with cheap cash-ins (which is the best Nintendo can expect). Nintendo have been cheapskates with the hardware, and so developers are treating it the way in which it deserves.

 

I'm a genuine, long-time Nintendo fan, but I can't understand how those of us who marvelled at Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker et al could be overly impressed with the Wii. Worth buying? Maybe (if only for the 1st-party exclusives), but otherwise a massive disappointment.

[mcj metroid]

i still blame the fans for a lot of this in fairness.

Animal crossing will continue to be a massive success.. YOU people will buy it even though there is practically no difference to the ds and gamecube game.

 

in fact there really hasn't been anything good since super mario galaxy has there.. don't get me started with wii music....

 

but anyway I blame the fans..you buy the games and support the games regardless

 

Meh, Reggie has turned in to a prick.

There's been far better third party support for the Wii than there has been first party lately.

I agree.. it's improved so much.. sonic unleashed has suprised me... in fact sega have been fantastic sport with the wii..

 

sqaure enix however are still idiots.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

You can't have it both ways, Reggie. You can't release last-gen hardware and expect developers to treat it like a current-gen machine. Hardware moves on every five years or so and, thankfully, there is still a market for that.

 

The 360 and PS3 don't just have better graphics and "HD". More processing power is needed each generation to calculate the entire game in so many ways.

 

Secondly, Nintendo should demonstrate how it's done. They haven't exactly gone all-out, have they? Not only is the hardware extremely underpowered (and overpriced), the primitive motion controls in no way improve games.

 

Super Mario Galaxy is by far the biggest reason to buy a Wii, and even that wouldn't persuade a developer to design a game on Wii rather than 360/PS3.

 

Twilight Princess is great, but then so is Wind Waker. Neither are Wii games! I'm not that fussy. All it takes to make me buy a Nintendo console is a Zelda game, and they haven't even done that yet.

 

Metroid Prime 3 is OK, but it's difficult to notice any improvement over the GameCube games. The increased loading times are very noticeable though. The pointing's fine but, again, no real advantage over a 2nd analogue stick.

 

With a proper generational jump in horsepower, even routine updates like Smash Bros, Mario Kart and Animal Crossing would have been far less underwhelming.

 

So, that leaves games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, which 3rd-parties have copied - with cheap cash-ins (which is the best Nintendo can expect). Nintendo have been cheapskates with the hardware, and so developers are treating it the way in which it deserves.

 

I'm a genuine, long-time Nintendo fan, but I can't understand how those of us who marvelled at Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker et al could be overly impressed with the Wii. Worth buying? Maybe (if only for the 1st-party exclusives), but otherwise a massive disappointment.

 

Exactly how I feel. *man hug + pat on back*

 

Its actually quite sad as a long time Nintendo fan, for what Nintendo have created in the past, I regarded them much more than simple game developers but something a little bit deeper - this is what kept me during the dryer N64 and GC spells. Its just disappointing to know that they don't share the same enthusiasm regarding their fans. I felt like the Wii was actually ruining gaming for me as a hobby and making me less interested because I was just so bored or the games were of the pick up and play nature.

[Tellyn]

i still blame the fans for a lot of this in fairness.

Animal crossing will continue to be a massive success.. YOU people will buy it even though there is practically no difference to the ds and gamecube game.

 

in fact there really hasn't been anything good since super mario galaxy has there.. don't get me started with wii music....

 

but anyway I blame the fans..you buy the games and support the games regardless

 

I can't even begin to describe the amount of things wrong with everything you said right there (nothing new). What an eejit.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

I can't even begin to describe the amount of things wrong with everything you said right there (nothing new). What an eejit.

 

Why the offensive tone? Just say your piece and move on... You didn't even comment on what was actually wrong with what he said.