Nintendo's Still Making "Core" Games, But You'll Have To Wait
If you're like me, you were sorely disappointed by Nintendo's E3 showing, or lack thereof. Don't get me wrong, I love Animal Crossing, and I'm not saying they needed to bring out big guns like a new Zelda or Star Fox, but even something small like a new Pikmin, or F-Zero, or confirmation to bring Captain Rainbow stateside (I can dream can't I?) would go a long way toward reassuring us Nintendo faithful that there's more than just Mario themed sports games and Wii Music in the pipes. Well, apparently Nintendo heard its fans' collective pleas and made a semi-announcement about its future hardcore titles in an interview with Edge magazine.
"We have never neglected our core gamers. We still have developers working on popular core gaming franchises but we need longer to complete these games, approximately two to three years. These games are not ready to launch in early 2009 but are being worked on by all development teams."
So the good news: Nintendo has new games for its core audience in the works. The bad news: those games are at least two to three years away. It's a good thing third party developers are getting better at Wii development so games like The Conduit and Samba de Amigo can still keep us occupied in the mean time.
NaviFairy
Posted to Video Games on 27 August 2008
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: core, nintendo, wii
Name: Dave
Why such reliance on Nintendo to come up with the goods? Are the other developers out there that crap that they can't come up with something great?
The wii should be home to FPS... but where are they? RPGs would be awesome with the point and click menu system... but where are they? Im sure there are many other genres that should feel right at home.
But instead the developers are just wasting their time with Carnival Games and such. Come on developers, won't you think of the children? By children I mean big grown up hairy children that swear a lot.
"The bad news: those games are at least two to three years away."
They said it takes a few years to make games for core gamers. (That's not news, it takes that long for most good games on any console.) They did NOT say they were just starting them right this minute.
"Why such reliance on Nintendo to come up with the goods? Are the other developers out there that crap that they can't come up with something great?"
There are third party developers out there that would LOVE to make core-centric games for Wii, but the problem lies in convincing a publisher to give them the budget that they need in order to actually make the game. It's a Catch 22. Without a proven track record of successful core games on Wii, publishers won't put up the money for them and without the money, developers can't make core games.
[Before anyone says "you don't need a lot of money to make a core game", ask yourself one thing: Did you buy Blast Works?]
Also, it's hard to blame publishers for making games in the "Carnival Games and such" genre when it's a fraction of the cost of traditional console games and tends to sell quicker than their core counterparts on Wii and other platforms.
Developers would love to make the all sorts of games on just about any platform, the problem lies in finding someone to give them the money to make it all happen. And when the game in question doesn't match the *perceived* library of games things just get more difficult.
Pikmin 3 was announced at E3... kind of.
Game-boi brings up a good point about publishers, but luckily that isn't always the case. Some developers have the courage to develop a game without getting initial publisher support, specifically I'm pointing at High Voltage Software and their game The Conduit. As of yet The Conduit still doesn't have a publisher signed onto it, and yet it's the most promising "core" game coming out for the Wii this year. Yes, it does take a lot of money, and a lot of courage to be the first developer to make that plunge, but I'm hoping that if The Conduit is successful it will give other publishers the confidence to give more "core" Wii games the green light.
Clever use of VGCats. I approve.