A year on

[Dogg Thang]

Okay fair enough, but it seems what we have here is a perception problem. If this is ill-informed (and I'm not disagreeing), then the problem still remains. Nintendo in their press and advertising have totally embraced the Brain Training/Nintendogs etc. So even if there is much more on offer, the perception is that that is who the Wii caters to.

And this goes back to the initial post - why are developers not jumping all over the Wii? Well it seems to me that it's only recently with things like MP3 and Mario Galaxy that the perception, right or not, will just begin to change. If I was a developer, regardless of user base, if the games I knew we could develop well weren't suited to those who I perceived to be the target market of a particular machine, I wouldn't develop for it.

So while I'm not saying you're wrong, Nintendo have embraced that perception and that will make developers nervous unless you're making a Brain Training type game.

Though, as I said, I think that will change.

[nem]

What you excepted? It is NTSC-UK's darling of the generation.

I think that speaks volumes.

[charlesr]

Some of the Nintendo adverts reinforce the perception that it's a family toy, with riduculously overacted models, dressed in brand new clean cut clothes, smiling till their lips bleed. I've not see many though. At least you get lots of gameplay footage, so you know exactly what you are getting (unlike the bizarre This Is Living ads now showing). Looking around on youtube there are also plenty of very serious looking ads too which I've not seen on TV. Overall, I'd say the Nintendo ads are trying to cater for all audiences.

[peeveen]

Because it is ill-informed, stupid and insulting.

To be honest, I've heard similarly ill-informed stuff coming from the other side of the fence too ... in this office, a guy (who hardly ever plays games) said to me "let's face it, Wii Sports is just the greatest videogame ever made" ... and to someone like myself, who has been playing videogames since the early 80's, it's like a red rag to a bull. I could literally feel my blood boiling as his one remark dismissed years and years of my favourite pastime. It was like someone who has only ever heard Robbie Williams declaring him to be the greatest musician that has ever lived, or someone who had only ever seen "Dude Where's My Car?" saying that it should have won the Palme D'Or.

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, I can only comment on the ones I see here but, for both the Wii and DS, I've only seen the smiley white ads mostly saying either "it's for girls" or "you can play it with girls". If other territories are getting different ads, fine, but it seems to be hitting that hard over here. Even Mario Galaxy ads seemed to want to make more of the fact that you can have fun with your girlfriend or boyfriend while playing it.

Thing is though - it's totally worked for them so why the hell not? It has helped create more variety in the market. There's no reason why they wouldn't embrace that image.

[dataDave]

Prime 3 has really surprised me in terms of things going on, Plants that rustle when you wlk through them and shoot them. Wildlife in the skies like birds and such. Very well thourght out textures, and generally coherent worlds and enviroments. Even when samus is in the cockpit of her drop ship theres gadgets to play with and poke at (literally thanks to the wiimote), its all quite lovley and certainly more involving than anything else ive played this year.

I don't mean just this stuff though (interactive plants/flying wildlife are pretty much everywhere now), near every wall is a layered polygonal mosaic of shifting parts, organic matter, gears, lasers, all covered with a coloured glass that may or may not be a glorious 3D ruined shatter. It's as if the devs have submitted to the fact that they can't push textures to the quality of those found on other consoles and instead spent more time and care on producing something actually worth stopping still to look at for 2/3 minutes (true art). This has been the case since 2002 (Prime1) and I'm sick of trying to get the point across.

Art direction > Console power

So far though, most dev. companies can't even be arsed thinking up good games for the Wii, let alone working around graphical restraints in order to produce an arguably finer end-product.

FFS the thing needs a true, exclusive end-all FPS game to make people on here realise. It's not next gen if it's not an FPS.

[dataDave]

The big problem for devs is you develop a (unique) game for the Wii, then it isn't going anywhere else, quite obviously. It doesn't require Carol Vorderman to suss out that a game only available on one console will never sell as well as a game available for three, and let's face it, about 99% of multi-platform games are wank to begin with, let alone being 'cut back' to fit on the Wii.

[Brats]

Dominated is exactly right word when over 75 percent of all titles released for the system are FPS, driving or sports games.

For someone who gets in a right tiz when someone else writes something generalising your beloved Nintendo in a bad way, you don't half write some old guff about other systems. From your own words:

it is ill-informed, stupid and insulting.

Quite.

[elkatas]

For someone who gets in a right tiz when someone else writes something generalising your beloved Nintendo in a bad way, you don't half write some old guff about other systems.

It is no matter of laugh, because I actually counted amount of these titles with Gamerankings. It is not generalization, it is goddamn hard fact.

[Ajay1986]

It is no matter of laugh, because I actually counted amount of these titles with Gamerankings. It is not generalization, it is goddamn hard fact.

Hmmmmmm well thats just weird if you dont mind me saying.

[elkatas]

Hmmmmmm well thats just weird if you dont mind me saying.

Yeah, it is weird, but I was really, really bored back then. Furthermore, I must confess that I used definition "sports" pretty leniently*, and ignored XBLA titles.

* I think that Skate, for example, is sports title. After all, skating is real sports these days.

[Brats]

It is no matter of laugh, because I actually counted amount of these titles with Gamerankings. It is not generalization, it is goddamn hard fact.

That is sad .

But what's even sadder is that even after that effort, you're wrong! Looking quickly at Gamefaqs (which lists all games) it's clear that there aren't 75% of game in just those genres. I can only assume you have thought some games were FPS when in fact they aren't.

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here by looking at the P listing for the 360 on Gamefaqs, which seems pretty bad for my argument as it includes both PGRs, PDZ, Prey, Peter Jackson's King Kong and Pro Evo. Uh-oh.

But then it also includes Pac-Man Championship Edition, Phantasy Star Universe, Pinball FX, POTC, Prince of Persia, Project Sylpheed and Puzzle Quest. And that's leaving out ant retro titles like Paperboy.

And that's looking at a bad letter. If you look at A, the only released game I can see that falls into your category at all All-Pro Football out of a dozen or more games.

75% is nonsense .

[elkatas]

75% is nonsense .

Shrugs, perhaps I counted wrong, but the point is that Xbox 360 isn't haven for all genres like you want to claim. Furthermore, read post 131. BTW, you are first person after three years to get on my ignore list. That is a ****ing achievement.

[Brats]

If I was a betting man I'd take you up on the SMG 360 bet. I think the 360 audience has pretty much shown (general audience and not the more hardcore gamers like ourselves) that games considered less adult or more for kids are not what they are looking for.

Well, the only decent kids game that has not confused the hell out of people (i.e. Viva Pinata) is Lego Star Wars 2 and that sold pretty well.

I think the 360 has yet to be really tested in this regard. Banjo Kazooie will be that test (provided it's good).

I think the PS3 deserves to feature here. For me it will still be the machine that offers a different type of game than the 360 but still compete with it technically a year or two from now. Whichever way you look at it it will have a much stronger Japanese influence than the 360.

I would have agreed with you a year ago, but now I surprised at the PS3's Japanese line up. There are some big Japanese sequels like MGS, GT5 and Final Fantasy coming its way, but aside from those I can't see any type of game on the PS3's line up that isn't coming out or covered by the 360. I keep hearing that the PS3 will have a more diverse line up than the 360, but where is it? It's been a year now, yet the Japanese developers seem very quiet.

[Soi]

Serious question: what is wrong with sports games and FPS games?

Anyway, the term "FPS" is becoming so encompassing to be meaningless. I mean, consider the following list of 360 games:

Oblivion, Bioshock, Portal, HL2, Halo 3, COD4, R6:Vegas

They all are in the first person and all involve shooting. But to label lump them together as a single genre is not that useful. I vote for more useful genre naming conventions. Who's with me?

Similarly, "sports" is not a proper game genre. What does Skate have in common with PES? Or VT3 with Brian Lara's Cricket?