Wii Fit Vs. GTA IV
I know I just complained about the abundance of causal games on the Nintendo Wii, and now I run across this article where Ste Curran, creative director of Zoe Mode, the company who brought you SingStar amongst other titles, muses on the changes in the videogame industry. Naturally, he credits SingStar with getting PS2s in front of teenage girls before Nintendo courted the demographic, but allows that Nintendo focused its attention even more intently on wooing girls and moms and other non-gamers with fun, casual titles.
"Whatever they personally think of these games...I see furious kids on the Internet saying that Wii Fit isn't a proper game - but whatever they think of it, it's selling millions of copies because people want different things from games," he noted.
However, that doesn't mean that casual games are taking over the marketplace. No, there will always be a place for the Halos and GTAs of the world.
"Those games will not go away, it's a huge market - there will always be room for Grand Theft Auto. I don't have the sales for Wii Fit to hand, but it's selling tremendously well, and you couldn't find a game less similar to GTA - and they're not hurting each other's sales."
I have to say, I agree with the guy. As much as I complain about the massive influx of casual games, they are helping to broaden the scope of videogames and give them more mainstream acceptance. We just need to be careful not to oversaturate. As a gamer, I personally feel I land somewhere in the middle. I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer, but I find the glut of casual games on the Wii and DS somewhat off-putting. Still, I'm as excited for Wii Fit as I was for GTA IV, and I expect I'll be playing them pretty equally. Actually, I think I may have to make myself play Wii Fit for a certain amount of time before I allow myself to tool around Liberty City! No pain, no gain, right?
GTA And Wii Fit Can Co-Exist, Says Curran [GamesIndustry.biz]
Wootini
Posted to Video Games on 12 May 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: casual games, gta iv, hardcore games, nintendo, ste curran, wii fit, zoe mode
I think the big problem is that "casual games" comprise roughly 180% of the Wii's library. I want more Mario Galaxys and Metroid Primes on that system, and fewer shovelware ports of bad PS2 movie license games or minigame compilations (seriously, if you have Wii Sports and Wii Play, you DON'T need any more minigames. You're covered).
Honestly, unless friends come over to play brawl, my Wii sits and gathers dust while I play PC and 360 games, or watch movies on my PS3.
I'm still bothered that girls are categorized as "non-gamers", because several researches have shown that at least 40% of all the people who play videogames are female. And that holds true in my circle of friends as well.
I see more division in what type of games girls play as opposed to boys, but if someone dares to say Sims 2 is less of a game than for example Halo, I'll seriously roll my eyes at them. No, I'll really do that!