Official Wii Thread

[B-Ri]

I would lov ethe region free thing, but since the Wii is now a 3.3U, it kills the ability for me to install the homebrew channel to get to the region free program. Oh well, other than Milestone Shooting Works, there wasn't much I was interested in that hasn't already come here.

read joystiq and kotaku today, they already cracked the new wii browser and homebrew channel is back, so is freeloader i think,

[epmode]

Nintendo fucked themselves because they focused on bringing in a huge market of people who won't pay for games or pay attention to releases, and then put out a hugely underpowered system at the same time which absolutely can't rival either of the other two among the "core" gamer base, so I'm not really sure what they were expecting here.

Considering that Nintendo actually makes money on each system sold, it doesn't matter as much as you'd think.

[Cowutopia]

They're writing themselves out of the larger picture though, and trending back towards their "toy" roots. Almost every decision they've made really seems to be a decision you'd expect form a toy company.

[Rumpy]

It really doesn't matter. They've made their own picture.

[Cowutopia]

I don't buy that anymore. How many games have they sold? I'm sure they're still being profitable but...I mean it's just them and their first party games. Their own picture doesn't matter anymore.

I mean, I'll buy any game they put out that is as good as Mario Galaxy and right now, that's about it.

[Joust Williams]

As long as Nintendo can dupe people into rebuying a GC with a different controller, they'll be very relevant. Meanwhile, the other companies lose money hand over fist making things that advance gaming for gamers. And now you get third parties spending little money and effort making games like GAME PARTY, CARNIVAL GAMES, and MARIO AND SONIC...waggle harder to win! Game Party is Midway's most successful game in a long time. Carnival Games probably made 70% as much money as Bioshock did for Take 2 and Mario and Sonic is THE reason Sega still exists. What do all three of those games have in common? They suck, and not just from a gamer's standpoint. The controls aren't very good, for starters...

So guess what happens next generation (which is probably a LONG way off now)? Mediocre hardware and shoestring development budgets for everyone!

Because there aren't many companies that can survive making bleeding edge stuff. The only hope is that large publishers keep throwing stuff at the wall and are content with a COD 4 in their publishing portfolio making up for all of the losses their other real games make. But if they find that even that isn't worth it, it's over. Then of course, Activision throws a wrench into this already by making another COD this year from a team that isn't as good (not bad, but not IW level). So if they kill that franchise, then all that's left is the now-mediocre Guitar Hero and the WoW money from the merger with Vivendi...

I'd be willing to bet half of the development houses that have made something high budget of at least decent quality will be consolidated within the next couple of years. Gamers only have so much money, and even if they're willing to spend more per capita, you have a sea of retards snapping up some poo ass Wii games that they saw a commercial for thinking that it'd be a good babysitter for the kiddies. Then there's the other sea of retards, as in the ones that pray to Iwata and Reggie all day, that swear up and down that No More Heroes is incredible and The Conduit (have you seen this game?) stands up to the best the genre has to offer simply because it's a Wii-exclusive.

The blessing in disguise is that maybe there need to be less games anyway. I mean, less money I have to spend plus I'll play them all the way through more often, right? But I think the problem with that is that it makes competition go into the dumpster.

[YellerDog]

Mega budget games that under-deliver are what's killing the 'innovative' companies, let's not pretend that isn't the case.

DLC and "casual" games are doing gangbusters, and will continue to do so.

[Rumpy]

It's worked for their bottom line for over a decade and now they are destroying everyone in hardware sales for 18 months. Their hardware sells out when it hits a store (for a profit) and their titles sell extremely well. Pack in some goofy plastic shit in the box with a game, and blammo! another million sold. Once in a while, a non-nintendo game sells just as well. Welcome to planet Nintendo! Stop and take a rest while you're here! I really don't think Nintendo cares much about 3rd parties. They can crank a game out for cheap so the risk is small. It's just the shit that sits between Nintendo titles.

[Cowutopia]

casual games suck dick though, unless they're on XBLA. Are they really selling? What are the wii 3rd party game sales numbers?

[YellerDog]

"Zuma".