If it wasn’t for Nintendo I’d have not been gaming in 2007. I’d grown bored of gaming. The DS and Wii offered something different and refreshing. Nintendo had convinced me of their gaming Revolution. I’ve defended the limited graphics and the general consensus among hardcore gamers that all you do is waggle the remote. 2 years in, I’m disappointed, what could have offered a completely different gaming experience has been squandered by Nintendo and to a lesser extent the hardcore gamer. Nintendo seems happy to follow it’s handheld business model of offering hardware improvements without fully harnessing the gameplay potential of what is already available and the majority of hardcore gamers are unwilling to adapt to the gameplay opportunities already offered by the Wii.
Nintendo entered this generation with an admirable plan: no longer would they follow the trend of improved graphics and online functionality, they would lead the way with an innovative gaming interface. From it’s work in the handheld market, Nintendo has always maintained that practicality is key and not graphical power. The touch screen interface opened the handheld system to a more casual market and it is true that the motion sensing interface has done the same for the Wii.
Hardcore Lost
Nintendo has had to fight the perception that it’s consoles are for kids not because it caters to children, but because many gamers grew up playing Nintendo from when they were children. The PlayStation and xBox brands came about when we were old enough to play adult games and they carried the best of them, in our psyche they are adult consoles. Were Super Smash TV or Mortal Kombat not adult games? How about Killer Instinct on N64 or Eternal Darkness on GameCube?
The Wii isn’t lacking in hardcore games, who played Metroid Prime Corruption, No More Heroes, Medal of Honour: Heroes 2 AND Disaster: Day of Crisis? So many of my friends are simply unwilling to give a game like No More Heroes a chance because of the graphics. When I showed a trailer of MadWorld to another friend he thought it was an April fools.
The hardcore has grown up wanting and expecting better graphics that now most of us can’t appreciate a stylish look to a game (what about the backlash to Prince of Persia or Zelda Wind Waker before that.) Nintendo has simply lost the hardcore market not because they haven’t brought the games but because the hardcore cannot stomach a step back graphically.
The Nintendo advertisements with actors using over exaggerated movements only served more to alienate the hardcore market, you don’t waggle the remote, but from these ads it sure looks like it. There are a few like myself that can see beyond these flaws in perception, but it is not many. Of the few of us, most of us have a HD platform, therefore when choosing a new game, the Wii has more competition for the hardcore market. I’m grateful for SEGA’s push with hardcore games recently but it has come too late.
Casual Haven
So what of the other 48 million Wii owners on this planet? 18m have Wii Fit and 15m own Mario Kart. The mini games sell loads and shovelware turns a profit. Nintendo knows that the market share they have amassed is from the public’s willingness to embrace a gaming method that is simple to grasp, you pick the Wii remote up and you do with it as you would in “real life.”
If Nintendo released a Wii 2, how many of these 48m Wii owners would buy it? The majority of these aren’t hardcore gamers, so Carnival Games with photorealism and crowds of thousands ain’t going to entice them. The games that appeal to the general Wii audience are simple pick up and play games that will not benefit from a graphical tweak.
What other tweak can be made? Gameplay. Can this be facilitated with a full body suit or body motion sensing camera? Will the Wii audience respond to any of this? As always it comes down to the games. But the games that define the Wii and the interface are finite and non-transferable. The casual Wii audience aren’t going to chase Nintendo into the next generation so that they can play Wii Sports Online HD.
Bored Control
Nintendo have done most of what they could as a first party developer, Mario Galaxy, Kart and Brawl are all quality but they don’t use the Wii remote much and this goes to show you that Nintendo first party developers don’t know what to do with it.
Nintendo are already expanding the longevity of the Wii with the Wii Motion Plus. Despite 3rd Party developers not having fully grasped the potential of the Wii remote itself, Nintendo are out with this new hardware. Nintendo know from experience with handhelds, “if it’s not broke you don’t fix it” you just “improve it.” They are the masters at pushing improved hardware, most recently with the DSi. The likelihood is that Wii Motion Plus packaged with Wii Sports Resort will sell shed loads.
If all Wii Motion Plus offers is precise control over the same game then the people who play are likely to grow bored of gaming on Wii. I’ve already grown bored of my Wii. I’ve thought of going back to the games I’ve mentioned, but there are loads of other games I want to be playing. On Wii there is only MadWorld and that is a game that lost out to GTA: Chinatown Wars. On the horizon for Wii there is The Conduit, a game that I hope manages to reach the heights of tearing off Rundas’ armour in Metroid 3. Beyond that there is nothing else. The big N, indeed.
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Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
Where have u gone Seal of quality?
Cheers, just learning the ropes.
Today I learnt not to use excerpts on N4G
Hmm… like the other guy said, nice writing style.
But allow me to make just one assertion here:
Nintendo has always used the “lite” market as its base, and although there have been anomalies here and there (good titles, no less) to offer deeper offerings, the fact of the matter is that they never really “wanted” to grow up with the hardcore audience. They always saw it as a niche market, and the Wii was their way of doubling down on that philosophy: and it paid off handsomely.
I do not discredit their strategy. BUT, their claim that they’re “not abandoning the hardcore audience” is a blatant lie. Pure PR smokescreen. So please do not buy into it.
After what you’ve seen from Nintendo over the last couple of years… I’m sure you will find this at least a little convincing.
Cheers,
Again, nice article. And don’t stop gaming.
I bought a Wii impressed with the posibilities of playing a more interactive game with the new control style. Now I have grown board of it, nothing but tacky add on gimmiks. The only game I found interesting was No More Hero’s. The wool has been pulled from my eyes in that I am just playing a Game Cube game with some waggle no thanks I would rather play a PS3 with superior graphics and while it has gimmiky motion control at least the games have some substance. I enjoyed the article. I wanted to enjoy the Wii and still hold out some hope that maybe some time we will get a game with substance and story not another Mario Tennis or other redo of a game I have played before.
Thanks for the comments,
It’s just a shame that Nintendo made Disaster: Day of Crisis, but didn’t get behind it with a marketing push.
Nintendo don’t project the Wii as an alternative hardcore platform, this has made it almost impossible for SEGA to come in and supply hardcore games that are successful.
Good article again,
The wiimote is capable of very precise, intricate movements but to be honest a ‘waggle’ is all that’s needed to elicit the required response on screen, be it a sword swish or grenade throw. The ‘hardcore’ gamers you refer to probably never got that far with it. Who can blame them? Have the developers just been lazy or was there ever any desire to push the machine in that way? I suspect not. Marrying a sensitive, sophisticated control system with limited graphical power would’ve been a bizarre choice. So ‘waggle’ away, you’ll beat the game. I had a Wii but got fed up somewhere along the line. Most games just didn’t seem worth paying for. Nintendo were aware of this, I imagine, from day one and that’s why it has now become some kind of multimedia home education/entertainment system reminiscent of a Philips CD-i (albeit massively successful). Where next indeed? It wouldn’t surprise me if this was Nintendo’s last home console. Disappointing, but then if I want classic Nintendo action i’ve got my N64 and the Cube. Nintendo’s focus has changed but mine hasn’t. I guess that isn’t their fault and millions of new fans won’t know any better.