Nintendo Shares Up, But Do Devs 'Get' the Wii?

kukyfrope writes "Nintendo shares have jumped over six percent since the Wii's unveiling at E3 last week." Despite both Peter Moore and Phil Harrison recommending you should get a Wii, the future of Nintendo and the Wii aren't assured. Next Generation reports that third party developers may not really 'get' the ambitious console.

They Will, Eventually

[knight37]

Remember, when the DS first came out not that many third parties "got" the DS either, but now they do, and we're seeing tons of titles coming out for it. Developers will figure Wii out, and since it's such an innovative platform, developers will WANT to develop for it. I can see Wii having much better third party support than the GameCube did, even though it was generally easy for a quick "port" to the cube. We won't see those cheap ports on the Wii, but we'll see some actual games developed specifically with the Wii in mind. Sure, we'll see some gimmicky crap too, but "90% of everything is crap".

It took them a while to "get" the DS.

[blibbler]

It took quite a few months before games that really took advantage of the DS's capabilities (the two screens as well as the touch capabilities) came out, but now the market is full of them, and the PSP is largely being ignored. It might take a while for developers to appreciate what the Wii can do, but hopefully they will make the most of it when they understand its potential.

Go back to sleep, Zonk

[Anonymous Coward]

No, Zonk, of course developers aren't interested in the Wii. After all, why would they be? Nothing could ever stand up to the developer heaven that is your precious XBox 360. The author of the blog you link is right, even though he's apparently never heard of EA [google.com] or Activision [google.com].

The massive outpouring of launch exclusive support by EA, Ubisoft and Sega unlike anything we saw directed at Nintendo at any point during the Gamecube era is just a coincidence. And not such a big deal either. After all, as the article puts it, nobody's getting involved in the near term except Sega and Ubisoft (merely two of the biggest game publishers in the world), and it isn't like any important names are getting involved (like, y'know, EA or anything), so what good will it be? Spongebob Squarepants Spongebob Squarepants Spongebob Squarepants.

Go back to sleep so the rest of us can look forward to Red Steel and Super Monkey Ball in peace.

Yeah right

[Anonymous Coward]

Tell me if I'm wrong, but this Pachter guy sounds like he doesn't know what he's talking about.

"no publishers would be able to take advantage of the installed base because they haven't fully committed to the early life of the platform"

How does that make any sense? Even if this were true, I believe there were 25 Wii games shown at E3? I'm pretty sure not all of those games are being published by a small number of publishers. Nintendo seems to have plenty of 3rd party backing for Wii.

Lack of Developer Support?

[DeadCatX2]

Say what?

There are lots of games [1up.com] coming out for the Wii.

And just because big third parties aren't frothing at the mouth doesn't mean anything. I'm FAR more interested in titles like Sadness. These less-known developers are going to take risks that you won't see any big third party developer take.

Re:The problem is vastly different capabilities

[egomaniac]

You could just as easily argue that this is an advantage of the Wii -- games can be made by smaller teams on tighter budgets. That's one of the reasons Nintendo's handhelds enjoy such strong third-party support: it isn't a huge investment to develop a game for the GBA or DS, at least compared to the home consoles.

So if Wii is cheaper to develop for and has innovative features which get people excited about gaming again, it may mean that developers will be more amenable to the idea of developing for it. After all, nobody seems to mind that the DS doesn't have the same horsepower that the PSP does -- if they likewise don't care that the Wii doesn't have the same horsepower as its competitors, then developing for it is going to look very attractive.

Speaking only for myself, I don't really give a rat's ass that the Wii isn't as powerful as the competition. Sure, high-def support would have been nice, but saving $350 by getting a Wii instead of a PS3 is damned nice too. And as a jaded adult with a wife and kid who has very little time for gaming anymore, it's been really hard to get excited about games lately. Sure, I bought a GameCube and a PS2 and (eventually) an XBox, but I don't remember being really excited about any of them. The Wii, on the other hand, has me positively giddy with anticipation. I'll get a PS3 and an XBox360 after a few price drops when I have nothing better to do with my time and money. I'll get a Wii at midnight on launch day.

Re:The problem is vastly different capabilities

[3.14159265]

as much as 3/4 of the manpower goes into art and *not* code.

Well, it seems to me that is precisely the game industry's major faux pas.
Everybody's just trying to copy bloody Hollywood instead of doing what they should: games.
Won't anybody think of the games??

It will take time to gain momentum

[LordZardoz]

Regardless of how great the Wii turns out to be, Nintendo is going to need some time to overcome the less then impressive image they have gained from the N64 and Gamecube. Part of it is that not many companies are going to be eager to bet on the guy who came in 3rd place in a 3 way race. Gamecube did better in Japan then the X-Box though, and that is why your seeing alot more Japanese publishers giving it a shot.

Aside from that issue, another more insidious problem is that people tend to hold grudges, and Nintendo has alienated many developers over the years. It took most of 2 console cycles for Square to do anything with Nintendo after Yamauchi said that Squares RPG games suck. And Nintendo also managed to drive away Silicon Knights shortly after the Metal gear port was done. There are many more companies that just dont much care for having to work for Nintendo.

The last issue is that even once the console starts to take off, most 3rd party games (except probably for those done by Sega) are just not going to feel as good to play as most of the Nintendo titles will. While the SDK is cheap, its going to take a while for the designers to get their head around the sort of things that are possible. WarioWare: Smooth Moves will be the best demo title for the sort of things someone can try with this console, and Metroid will point the way for FPS games. But beyond that, its going to take a while before 3rd parties come up with the sort of Original titles that will truly sell the system.

Its like playing a Texas Hold-em poker game, and your starting hand is 7 Jack, when your opponents have pocket aces and pocket kings. You will win once the flop comes down as 7, Jack, Jack, but its going to be a while before everyone else at the table watching the game realizes it.

END COMMUNICATION

Re:Lack of Developer Support?...

[Jinky Williams]

...I doubt it.

DeadCatX2: And just because big third parties aren't frothing at the mouth doesn't mean anything. I'm FAR more interested in titles like Sadness. These less-known developers are going to take risks that you won't see any big third party developer take.

Agreed. And the SDK (development kit) will only be $2,000USD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Revolution) , whereas the PS2 SDK was $20,000 at time of launch (same website), which will allow indie developers with considerably less venture capital to develop games and allow them to take more risks with innovative and different ideas. Yes, there will likely be tons of crap out there because of the bar being lowered, but the market will take care of that. I'm looking forward to the variety of games that will come forth for the Wii.

Re:Good Point

[Parham]

As far as Final Fantasy goes, I don't think Crystal Chronicles is as popular as the main series. I don't see many Final Fantasy gamers bragging about that branch of the series, even though I think it was a pretty good game.

Re:Exaggerating a Little?

[LordKronos]

I can't speak about the accuracy of his figures for the dev kits (I haven't a clue about that issue), but the comment you quoted doesn't seem to be talking about the dev kits to me. It seems to be talking about the expense of purchasing upgraded game engines or developing the upgrades to in-house game engines in order for them to take advantage, as well as related upgrades to development tools (editors, modeling tools, stock resource libraries, etc).

Re:The problem is vastly different capabilities

[keyne9]

There is some serious delusion on the part of some Nintendo fans on how well this system is really going to be able to compete in the graphics department.

There is some serious delusion on behalf of the PS3/Xbox360 fans in that graphics are the game.