14 DAY TRIAL // The Nintendo Wii is a hugely successful console, as it is currently dominating its rivals, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which makes it a desirable platform for developers. But third-party games haven't really been very successful on the Wii, as highlighted by id Software.
However, companies are indeed trying, at least according to Electronic Arts' Sports label president, Peter Moore, who has talked with GamesIndustry about the Nintendo Wii and how developers need to start creating simple games for it, stating that success on the console isn't a secret that Nintendo holds for itself.
“I think the emphasis is on the third parties to crack the code on the Wii, and there are some games that have done well from third parties, and figure out what we need to do when we're playing on the Wii to make that game successful,” Moore says. “Nintendo clearly has it figured out – they're the platform holders, so you'd think they would. But at the same time, it's not rocket science, and we in the publishing community have got to go and figure that out. But you can't blame Nintendo because third party publishers have yet, in real mass, to find success on the platform. They get the same dev kits as everybody else, and it's our job to figure it out.”
Moore is quite right, but you still can't ignore the fact that if your game doesn't have Mario, Zelda or Pokemon on it, it won't stand a chance against Nintendo's big franchises on the Wii, due to the casual nature of a lot of gamers who use it as their primary console and who don't get a lot of their gaming-related information from specialized sources.
Hopefully though, we will get to see more companies become successful on the Wii and bring higher-quality titles for it in the future.