It's incredible to think that more than three years into the life of Nintendo's Wii that third parties still can't figure out what will work on the platform and what won't. But that's precisely the message that publishers are sending, and it's clear that many are frustrated, judging by the poor performance of recent core games on Wii. Sega recently said they "probably" wouldn't make any more mature games for Wii, while Capcom said its future would be on PS3 and Xbox 360, although the company's PR team quickly tried to amend those comments.
Now, however, Capcom's senior director of communications Chris Kramer has come forth to acknowledge that Capcom is indeed pulling back, making fewer Wii titles for 2010. Speaking to Gamasutra, Kramer pointed to "abysmal" sales for Zack & Wiki: Quest For Barbaros' Treasure, which barely did better than 120,000 sold in 26 months, as one example of the publisher's frustrations.
"In 2010, you won't see as many Wii games from Capcom, but the ones we release will be much larger, event-size games. I also expect to see the market dominated more and more by Nintendo releases with fewer games from the major third parties, like EA, Activision, and Ubisoft," Kramer said.
"If you're not Nintendo, it does seem harder to make money on the Wii today compared to the PS3 and the Xbox 360," Kramer added. "It's a very tough market to crack and is ever-shifting. Third-party publishers are having a hard time determining who the Wii audience is. You can no longer say it is solely casual gamers or that only E-rated games own the space."
These comments seem to echo those of EA CEO John Riccitiello who told IndustryGamers last month that the Wii is "confounding" to publishers. "I think, in general, publishers have had trouble finding sustained success and consistent understanding of what makes a success on Nintendo platforms historically because they're so oriented towards first-party content like Mario and Zelda. So I think the Wii is going to be an evolving picture [for third parties]," he said at the time.
Kramer added, "...it's a case of the third-party publishers trying to figure out how they can make a return on their investment and maintain profitability." In a nod to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, he then joked, "Maybe the secret is for all of us just to adopt a Sega model -- and just stick Mario into every game we make."
4 Comments
January 8, 2010
Maybe Nintendo should have better quality control on the platform so that Wii consumers are not inundated with sup-par games and ports. I really wonder how Nintendo views the pain of the 3rd party publishers...since NOA/NOE is still making a ton of money on their hardware and games.
January 8, 2010
I actually have an interview in the works with NOA, and one of the things I'm trying to get them to speak about is the 3rd party situation and how they can help. If I had to guess though, they'll sorta sidestep the issue and hype up some 3rd party stats to support their view that everything is fine.
January 8, 2010
I think the big problem is the lack of polish on many third party titles. Taking advantage of the Wii's controls is one big issue... too many play on the "gimmick" of shake the remote or some other random thing that just is not fun.
1. We need more games with good 3d controls like Conduit.
2. A decent rally game would be nice, a twisted metal like game on the wii with the wheel controller I think would do well.
2. Don't forget about Nostalgia... 2.5D games of old classics. I think a remake of some of those old games like Battletoads or Ninja Turtles, Contra, Metal Slug. Or how about a nice 2.5D overhead RPG? I think a large amount of the non casual gamers in the wii audience appreciate those older style games.
3. The gap in time between zelda releases... we could use another alundra or decent zelda clone.
January 10, 2010
Anonymous: 1. Yeah, probably the most complimented thing about The Conduit has been the control scheme and apparently a lot of titles have tried aping it.
2. The driving market is a weird on on Wii – almost everything has been very arcadey and kid oriented, I suppose assuming that kids are the only people who want to twist their arms around in the air for control, rather than use an analog stick. Mario Kart Wii has throughly dominated the market.
3 (2 again). There actually have been a few remakes released on WiiWare for Contra, Gradius and Castlevania, though they aren't 2.5 D. There was also a decently well received Boy and His Blob remake, along with a direct sequel to Final Fantasy IV. Mega Man 10 is also coming to Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360.
4 (actually 3). Nothing is going to help Nintendo's long development cycles – that's just the way they are. It's amusing that the Zelda-clone title you mentioned released on PlayStation, but I understand what you're staying. Trying to resemble Nintendo properties in one way or another (rather then trying to be completely different) might be a better way to achieve success.