EA Confirms Major Wii Support 150
Electronic Arts has confirmed they are 100% committed to the Nintendo Wii, reports Gamasutra. The largest game publisher in the U.S. has revealed six games currently in production for the console, which is scheduled to launch sometime in the Fall. From the article: "The EA statement on the matter comments: 'Each title will remain true to the hallmarks of its franchise but is being designed to maximize the power of the Wii hardware and take full advantage of the uniqueness and innovation of its one-of-a-kind controller.'"
Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:1)
Note: Yes, the Wii CAN do HD 720p or 1080i if it wants to. It'll be more powerful than the first X-box which can do this as well. Nintendo is just sticking to 480p as THEIR standard like they did with the gamecube (Hell the GameBoy Player supports 480p).
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2, Informative)
Note: To get Progressive scan you need the proper cables to send the signal. Either Component, DVI, or HDMI. So you can guarentee if Nintendo themselves will do games in 480p then they must produce a cable to support it (and hopefully Monster Cable as well).
The Wii will not be as powerful as the X-Box 360, or the PS3, but it will be more powerful than anything in this generation (most powerf
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
As opposed to pointing and moving with a thumbstick?
The Wiimote is interesting from an engineering point of view, but from a gaming point of view it's the most over-hyped "innovation" ever.
(Bracing now to get bitch-slapped in equal measure by fanboys and astroturfers.)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
Oh and here's a hug - now get ready to be flamed to a crisp
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
The past few years have seen a flourishing of alternate input devices for console games: DDR pads, Guitar Hero axes, touch screens (if you consider the DS a proper console), EyeToy cameras...
I think the market has shown that new control paradigms can be market successes if properly supported (and no, Xavix showcasing their silly sports simulators in Guitar Centers instead of el
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
Thumbstick has two degrees of freedom, the Wiimote has six, which makes the Wiimote one of the few devices, and probally the first mainstream one, that allows you to do full and direct movement in 3D. I am sure we will see lots of missuse of the Wiimote and badly adopted games, but what the Wiimote allows is *way bejoint* what you can do with a thumbstick in terms of gameplay. That doesn't mean that the Wiimote is necessarily the better controller, but
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:4, Interesting)
Technically true, but who cares?
What we care about is the full system, from the output of the human brain back into the input to the game device. At that level, there can be large differences in button vs. stick vs. something else entirely. Plus, not all signals are created equally; "analog" signals can carry a lot more info than digital button presses.
Now, I don't know what EA's plans are, and I don't know exactly how accurate the Wiimote is. But, if the Wiimote is as accurate with the accelerometers as it should be, and if EA is going all out, they could set it up so that you actually make a throwing motion, with full control over direction and speed as quickly as you can make the motion. This would be a qualitative improvement over any existing control setup, which has no feasible way to extract this much information from the player in any way the player could hope to deliver it. There is going to be no other way to tap into our throwing circuits anywhere near as well, and those are extremely refined by Mother Nature.
To the game, it's just another input. To the human, it's anything but.
This is supposition. I think it's possible that the Wiimote will be able to handle this technically (this is actually just an accelerometer application, exact positioning would be irrelevant, so even if positioning is wonky there's no good reason this won't have a sensing accuracy far in excess of the signals your body can generate), but I would be somewhat surprised if EA implemented this, as it would be a lot harder than button translation. But they are talking the talk, so one can at least hope they are walking the walk.
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
Rob
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:1)
Each "...true to the hallmarks of its franchise" (Score:1)
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:1)
You got piled on, but you're right (Score:3, Interesting)
EA is trying anyway. You're right, they could've just released new rosters and said the old controller was enough. They didn't just phone it in. If they actually get rebounding sorta right-ish in NBALive after so many years of painfully bad results, Heck will at least be a little cooler. Maybe not Hell...
EA was among the earliest 3rd-party developers to show major projects on the Wii, and from the start they were talking about Madden and how the controller would work. It's clear they've spent some thought
It's already out there (Score:2)
You mean something like this [easports.com] or this [electronicarts.co.uk]?
Re:Did Hell Freeze Over? (Score:2)
EA could go out on a limb and not spew more silly Madden, etc. titles- but I guess I shouldn't be too upset, they're taking the Wii seriously; seriously enough to put major titles, some of the big ones of the year supposedly, on the platform out of the gate. If the other publishers and studios are on the sa
Sports Games (Score:2, Insightful)
And the control's the thing (Score:2, Insightful)
A lot of people are talking about EA "dropping the ball" by just introducing the same old crud on the Wii that they've introduced on every other platform, and that people won't want to buy the same games all over again. They're mostly correct, but they're not taking one thing i
'Major Wii Support', huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:'Major Wii Support', huh? (Score:2)
No original IPs (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No original IPs (Score:2)
It comes down to... (Score:2)
Great (Score:2)
Re:Great (Score:3, Interesting)
So why won't you be buying a Wii?
Re:Great (Score:2)
Or perhaps this slashdot post was your last act before giving up all material posessions and moving to a hut at the top of a very cold and remote mountain?
Re:Great (Score:2)
Support (Score:1)
Wii all the way for us (Score:4, Insightful)
Other than the "poorer" graphics (intentional quotation marks), what bad stuff *has* come out about the Wii? Anything?
Re:Wii all the way for us (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wii all the way for us (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wii all the way for us (Score:4, Funny)
Apparently we're not the only ones who have made the connection, there have been some YTMND pages involving the wii and gonads and strife.
Re:Wii all the way for us (Score:2)
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.
Re:Wii all the way for us (Score:1)
It's good for Nintendo, of course. Certain other consoles have
Re:Wii all the way for us (Score:2)
Re:Wii all the way for us (Score:2)
Re:Wii all the way for us (Score:2)
So many great and innovative games for that console too: Chu Chu Rocket, Space Channel 5, Jet Grind Radio, Resident Evil Code Veronica, Sonic Adventure, (and all the ones you mentioned). Some of those were re-released on other consoles, others just disappeared.
I think the Dreamcast showed us that you don't need new and inn
Re:Wii all the way for us (Score:2)
"true to its fanchise"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"true to its fanchise"? (Score:3, Insightful)
What people should really be objecting to is crappy sequels, not sequels themselves. Whether EA's sequels are always crappy is very much a matter of opinion, I quite like some of them. And enough people buy them to keep those sequels at the top of the retail charts for a long, long time.
Re:"true to its fanchise"? (Score:3, Insightful)
George Bernard Shaw said that there are only two stories. Should we stop writing books because they borrow from old themes?
Just because something presents a familiar CONCEPT doesn't mean that it can't still be original in its execution.
Re:"true to its fanchise"? (Score:2)
Madden 07
NBA Live 07
Tiger Woods Golf 07
FIFA 07
Fight Night Round 4
SSX
Re:"true to its fanchise"? (Score:3, Informative)
you only got half of them right:
The Godfather
Harry Potter
Madden NFL
Need for Speed
SSX
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR
At least.... (Score:1)
This seals it. (Score:2)
The only "if" in Wii's corner was EA's sports franchises. This pretty much guarantees it as long as the final Wii controller has enough buttons.
Re:This seals it. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This seals it. (Score:2)
Re:This seals it. (Score:2)
The 360 is selling so poorly that even mediocre sales will put both the
Wii and the PS3 ahead of it. Nobody's played the PS3 yet, so it seems
silly to write it off the page as being unable to compete (although I
do agree that the initial price is daunting). Most of the interest in
the Wii is because it's the console that we have the least information
on. Once it's out and we've had a chance to evaluate the possibilities
of the new controller, then we'll be in a position to spec
This is news? (Score:2)
This is news? I don't think so.
News would be: "The biggest game software vendor declines to write games for the industry's next major platform, thus ceding leadership to bit players X, Y and Z."
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This is news? (Score:2)
I don't like sports simulations, so this means nothing to me either, but software drives console penetration that drives more software to be developed/brought over from Japan. And that's where the sweet things start happe
Re:This is news? (Score:2)
No surprise there. (Score:2, Funny)
You know if EA really wanted to make some news; they'd start a nude sports series that was adult only that was the same exact games except that the players were all nude. O.k. the only games of that line that I would want is women's track & field, women's ice skating, women's swimming & women's tennis. I wouldn't want N
Re:No surprise there. (Score:2)
Re:No surprise there. (Score:3, Insightful)
EA didn't actually port any game to the DreamCast... so no.
Not that this was a bad thing for the DC though.
Half-naked EA innovation (Score:2)
Shade your eyes. EA Sports Triple Play Baseball (either '98 or '99) for PC & Playstation had a secret team that consisted of the software developers and artists in their underwear. Cheat codes are available somewhere for that.
Re:No surprise there. (Score:1)
Please sir, may I have another? (Score:4, Insightful)
EA is reknown for treating employees less than fairly. And I don't really like many of their games. But strong 3rd-party support is something that Nintendo has been lacking, and this helps to dig them out of the hole just a little bit.
If Nintendo could get similar statements from other big companies, it would do so much for their prospects. I would really like to see Blizzard, Bioware, and Obsidian doing Wii games. I respect their PC games, and I think they could help to up the ante.
Also, I'm starting to get excited about Nintendo's new console for a different reason. People have struggled with RTS console games [penny-arcade.com], due to the controllers. But couldn't the Wiimote work similar to a laser pointer? If so, wouldn't that open up some better control mechanisms for RTS console games?
-Tony
Re:Please sir, may I have another? (Score:2)
mmm...
How about no?
A pointer isn't enough for an RTS by a long shot, it'd be barely enough to play Warcraft III, and Warcraft III isn't the most complex RTS out there by a long shot.
Console's low res would also mightily blow.
Re:Please sir, may I have another? (Score:2)
That's why there are buttons on the remote, the nunchuck with an analog stick and buttons (and also positional input), and optional attachments.
Re:Please sir, may I have another? (Score:2)
As far as I can imagine, the Wiimote doesn't seem to duplicate keyboard functionality in any way that would work in an RTS. So the question is, how important is the keyboard to RTS games? While I'm sure it's possible, and some people already have made games that rely on all those buttons, I also believe that it'
Re:Please sir, may I have another? (Score:2)
Pretty fucking important I say, if only for the regular click modifiers (create waypoints, select all of a kind or all of a screen of units, queue units by 1/5/20/100, queue constructions, ...)
And I'm not even talking about the requirements such as the ability to create unit groups that can be reselected/jumped to in a split second.
You could create a simple turn-based RTS (see Advance Wars), but definitely not a full blown TA-like RTS.
Re:Please sir, may I have another? (Score:2)
I love the games of all those companies, but all that any of them (in the case of Obsidian, we're really talking about Black Isle, of course) do is take games that people have already made, and make some truly excellent evolutionary advances. I'm not aware of anything those companies made that was 'new' in any way -- they're companies focused on polish, not on cr
I for one... (Score:4, Funny)
More bad news for the PS3 (Score:1)
Re:More bad news for the PS3 (Score:1)
If EA is in... (Score:1, Insightful)
This means that if EA is supporting the Wii, other big publishers will most likely step up and offer titles as well. This leads to more AAA titles and (hopefully) more innovative games that will truly make use of the Wii-mote.
There are hundreds of crap games for every Starcraft / Sims / Civ out there, afterall.
This could hurt Sony (Score:1)
The real people that are going to determine if the PS3 "wins" or the Wii "wins" are the develops/publishers. Whatever system they decide to release on most is the one that everyone is going to flock to because they w
Re:This could hurt Sony (Score:2)
...and the bad jokes keep coming. (Score:3, Funny)
I'm confused (Score:2, Funny)
All right! Sims and Spore on the Wii! (Score:1)
Forget the PS3, I have no further interest in it anymore
Good news for Nintendo. (Score:2)
And its strong 3rd party support that Nintendo has lacked since the N64.
I would also guess that EA is supporting the Wii as much due to lower dev costs as anthing else. EA likes profit, and lower dev costs mean more potential profit.
END COMMUNICATION
Does it matter? (Score:2)
Re:Yay (Score:5, Funny)
Wow! Talk about your inovative controler. More than a two hundred piece skeletal structure and fully thought controlled through a high speed interface with zero lag. Perfect force feadback as well as heat/cold sensations and actual pain when you screw up.
The visual interface features perfect High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting and infinate polygonal surfaces with fully translucent light scattering substructures.
The environment is not only fully destructable, but fully interactive. Every single object down to individual grains of dirt can be manipulated at will and that awesome controller lets you manipulate it through a 100% 3D range of motion including rotation, push and pull along every axis.
For sports games, why would anyone use anything else?
Oh yeah, you have to F***ing excersize. Screw that, I'm gonna try out that Wii thingy.
TW
Re:Yay (Score:1)
Re:Yay (Score:3, Funny)
Who knows what backdoors and exploits are left in a system like that...
Re:Yay (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yay (Score:1)
It sounds great, but over years of regular use I have found that mine has developed lag and continues to get worse. While it's certainly lasted long enough to not really warrant a complaint, the problem is that there's no way to replace it with a new, non-laggy one, and it's become too much a part of my life to just quit using it.
Re:Yay (Score:2)
Re:Yay (Score:3, Informative)
Actually IIRC there is significant lag of ca. 0.3-0.5 secs between input reaching your sensory organs and cerebrum reaction. Your brains just pretends to itself that it has zero lag. Reference IIRC somewhere in here [mit.edu],
Re:Yay (Score:2)
Re:Yay (Score:2)
Ya.. I suppose. I don't know how posting a comment like this on Slashdot would be productive. I'd rather just go paint a picket sign and hover around Gamestop, outside I mean.. in the sunlight. I'm sick, I know.
Re:Yay (Score:1)
Re:Yay (Score:2)
So... you say something stupid, print out the replies, and take that to the bathroom? Does having your silliness pointed out work better than ex-lax?
Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally the touchscreen on my DS doesn't seem like a big deal to me anymore, but that doesn't mean I like Trauma Center or Meteos any less, and neither game would be much fun without the touchscreen. Of course, your game developer friend isn't playing all the new games in the works for the Wii, as they haven't been released yet. I'm sure that swinging the controller around on the devkit demo does get old after a while.
Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA (Score:2, Funny)
It's just not a console article without you!
Let's see, the article's about the EA's support for the Wii so you mention right off how awesome the PS3 is and finish with a superfluous dig at the 360.
You know, I should probably be annoyed at the low level of the astoturfing on display here, but somehow running across your posts always brightens my day!
Thank you Sony-Shill!
(Hey! Here's an idea! How about you register for an account and then I can find your comments
Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA (Score:1)
Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA (Score:1)
To innovate, one should see what new opportunities and game types this controller can introduce to the console gaming world.
Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds perfect. I wouldn't want it any other way. Any other way would imply that the controller was difficult to get used to. Just like the first use of an analog controller in Mario 64 seemed weird and exciting just on its own, pretty soon I got used to it and was more interested in how I could make mario run around than specifically thinking about the analog controller.
If the result of the Wii is that in the subsequent generation people consider motion-sensitive 3D-positioned controls to be both as fundamental and mundane as analog joysticks are today, then I don't think you could call it anything but a smashing success.
Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA (Score:1)
Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA (Score:2)
Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA (Score:1)
That's what makes a good controller, the fact that you no longer have to think about it. It's an interface, a tool, not the game itself.
Re:Wii and PS3 Love At EA (Score:1)