Is the Wii good or bad for the industry/hobby?

[RaiderJ]

Nintendo will definitely have too push for more games like Metroid that have some real depth. They've done pretty well so far with access to Gamecube and virtual console games. I think people often overlook those.

The Wii still needs some time for better games to arrive. It's been less than a year, and I bet everyone, including developers, have been caught off guard. The PS2 took awhile to get its legs. Many of the best games released for the PS2 didn't arrive until a couple years into its life.

 

[0roo0roo]

i think serious gamers are more consistent customers. i bet lots of the "non gamer" wii owners use the thing as a paper weight after the novelty wears off. ipods appealed to nontechies as well, but you can do useful things while using an ipod, using a wii is a waste of time.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: MemoryInAGarden
I don't understand how the Wii can be good for the industry at all. IMO, the Wii is mostly novelty aimed at those who have never touched a system before. It's interesting to look at and play for a little bit, but for a game you really "get into," it fails miserably.

This is EXACTLY why the Wii is a huge boost to the gaming industry. Same goes for the DS to some extent. These two consoles bring in a huge number of "homes" that otherwise wouldn't own a console. "Homes" is the operative word here. Not "gamers". Simply getting the console into the house is the biggest challenge faced by a console builder.

You will always have gamers out there that own every console known to man, just to say that they have played it. But it's the homes of the casual gamers that you seem to loathe that are the holy grail of untapped profits.

The Wii aims directly at them. It's opened the door to a new market that otherwise wouldn't have considered a "hardcore" game console.

 

[Thraxen]

My problem with the Wii is that most of the games are garbage. Yet it churns out astounding sales numbers. And, yeah, I'm sure I'll hear in response that that is true for any popular system in the past, and to an extent that is true. The situation just seems worse with the Wii. There are so few good games. IMO, it's not any better off from a software standpoint than the Cube, yet the sales are worlds apart. It's hard to call that good other than it's putting more money into the industry. But money for what? More crap?

Of course, the other systems really aren't offering better alternatives. The 360 is clearly the best from a software standpoint, but then you have the RRoD issue that has plagued it from the start (though hopefully ending now). The PS3 is in about the same boat in terms of quality software in terms of exclusives, but when you take into account 3rd party games, if you don't already own a 360 the PS3 itself has much better software than the Wii... but its achilles heel is its price.

I own all three of the systems and the Wii gets far, far less play than the other two. I didn't touch the Wii for months until MP3 launched. I feel like I'm just waiting for the next Nintendo big IP and nothing else... just like I did with the N64 and Cube.

[edit] Forgot to add... I don't think it's going to bring down the industry or anything, I just don't understand its sales. IMO, it's sort of become the McDonalds of the gaming industry... far from the best, but popular with the masses.

 

[vi edit]

The Wii isn't aiming itself at Halo players. It isn't aiming for the Final Fantasy players.

It's aiming at the women that do Sudoku puzzles on the couch. It's at the families that pull out the board games. It's at the old people want some kind of connection with their grandkids that they can actually participate in.

These people aren't really interested in gaming for hours on end. They don't want or need flashy graphics. They just want something that they can pick up and mess around with for an hour a few times a week and not have to read a manual or get to checkpoints for the game to be fun.

It's sales are a big scream to the industry that there is an untapped market out there that has interest in games, they just want fun and easy. The fact that it was anywhere from $100-$350 less than the competitors didn't hurt either.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
My problem with the Wii is that most of the games are garbage. Yet it churns out astounding sales numbers. And, yeah, I'm sure I'll hear in response that that is true for any popular system in the past, and to an extent that is true. The situation just seems worse with the Wii. There are so few good games. IMO, it's not any better off from a software standpoint than the Cube, yet the sales are worlds apart. It's hard to call that good other than it's putting more money into the industry. But money for what? More crap?

At least the bad games aren't selling. Hopefully companies will quit dicking around and make some GOOD games for the Wii instead of piling third-rate trash on it. I'm still holding out hope that the phenomenal system sales will result in QUALITY third party titles.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: mugs
At least the bad games aren't selling. Hopefully companies will quit dicking around and make some GOOD games for the Wii instead of piling third-rate trash on it. I'm still holding out hope that the phenomenal system sales will result in QUALITY third party titles.

Well, MP8 has been on the charts for a while and it was pretty universally panned by reviewers. Wii Play was also bashed pretty good too and it has topped the charts as well... but it also includes a remote so who can say what its sales would be like it without the Wiimote. Of course, I'm not claiming that the other systems don't have crap on the charts too. Movie tie-in games are commonly on the charts for all systems. It just seem like we now have more of the bad games on the charts with the Wii around.

 

[MemoryInAGarden]

Originally posted by: RandomFool
It may not have the hardcore games but eventually it'll get some although I doubt it'll even become a hardcore gamers delight. I would love to see MS and Sony try to follow the Wii ideals a little more. I got bored with PC gaming because almost every big game that was coming out was more about the "OMG look at the graphics" than it actually being a well designed game.

The hardcore games you're talking about tend to be in one genre, the FPS. I'll be the first to admit that the rehash of shooters of the last few years is getting old. You have HL2, Doom 3, Stalker, FEAR, Far Cry, the Halo seris, Gears of War, Bioshock, and Crysis, and that's just what I remember of the AAA shooter titles. With the exception of a few of those titles, I can't think of any of them which truly stand out except for their graphics. Some are cross-platform, some aren't, but they are all "PC-ish" shooters.

The Xbox 360 and eventually the PS3 have and will push other genres than the FPS. While Wii is definitely popular, many of its games are as casual as Bejeweled with a fun control scheme, and aren't going to push the industry forward with technology. Some elements of the Wii may survive, like the controllers, but its "innards" will likely be forgotten, while PS3 and Xbox will have a greater technological legacy.

 

[RandomFool]

Originally posted by: MemoryInAGarden

Originally posted by: RandomFool
It may not have the hardcore games but eventually it'll get some although I doubt it'll even become a hardcore gamers delight. I would love to see MS and Sony try to follow the Wii ideals a little more. I got bored with PC gaming because almost every big game that was coming out was more about the "OMG look at the graphics" than it actually being a well designed game.

The hardcore games you're talking about tend to be in one genre, the FPS. I'll be the first to admit that the rehash of shooters of the last few years is getting old. You have HL2, Doom 3, Stalker, FEAR, Far Cry, the Halo seris, Gears of War, Bioshock, and Crysis, and that's just what I remember of the AAA shooter titles. With the exception of a few of those titles, I can't think of any of them which truly stand out except for their graphics. Some are cross-platform, some aren't, but they are all "PC-ish" shooters.

The Xbox 360 and eventually the PS3 have and will push other genres than the FPS. While Wii is definitely popular, many of its games are as casual as Bejeweled with a fun control scheme, and aren't going to push the industry forward with technology. Some elements of the Wii may survive, like the controllers, but its "innards" will likely be forgotten, while PS3 and Xbox will have a greater technological legacy.

I think in the end the addition of motion to controllers will be remembered much better than the innards of the 360/PS3. Upgraded graphics are common these days. Stuff that that make us say wow today will be standard by this time next year. The Wii has the potential to change how every people play games while 360/PS3 for the most part allow games to be prettier. I think the extent of the 360's and more so the PS3 is going to be "yeah they were pretty complicated and looked awesome for their time." The one exception is blu-ray which if it takes off then the PS3 will be remembered for that.