14 DAY TRIAL // The Wii proved that a new gaming gadget can take on the Xbox and PlayStation console families, and while it sold great and has several outstanding titles, Nintendo's main console doesn't quite fit in the crowd. A “Wii game” is something that almost implies a less than serious nature for the game, and most of us expect nothing but childish titles released for the platform.
So, while in the beginning, developers were fighting over who gets to work on a Wii game, now they've slowly started to drift away from it, the general attitude being more about who's still willing to do it, not who actually wants to.
A main reason would be that Nintendo themselves are the main developers for Wii games, so they've pretty much educated their audience into a certain type of games, and others just don't fit the pattern of expectations. One major developer that has worked rather close with the Wii in the past may be thinking of altering its business policy, as Capcom's director general for France expresses his disappointment in the Wii.
“The customer of [the Wii] has turned into something [of a] much broader audience. It is a disappointment,” said Antoine Seux talking to Gamekult. “One feels that there is a problem very clear on this style of game on the Wii, where gamers have obviously moved on. Resident Evil 4 on Wii worked well, but [it was released] when the market had nothing!” He went on adding that if RE4 sold 140,000 at release, while Darkside Chronicles barely managed to scratch the surface of that, with 16,000 copies.
While he thinks the Wii is "still an important part of sales," he finds working for the console “difficult” and believes it to be "very much a family [console] with low attachment rates.” This is the year of the emergence of so-called 'new console generation',” Seux explained. "So for us, Capcom, the future is the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360."