14 DAY TRIAL // The big Call of Duty launch of the fall, Black Ops, has been confirmed as coming to the PC, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Nintendo Wii.
The first three are the platforms of choice for first person shooters that aim for a wide audience but the presence of the Nintendo home console is somewhat of a surprise, considering that most developers see it as underpowered and have struggled to create complex graphics for it. Still, the Call of Duty: Black Ops developers think it's worth bringing their experience to the platform.
Talking to Gamerzines, Mark Lamia, who is the leader of the Treyarch studio, revealed, “We do whatever we can to make the two as similar as possible,” adding, “Whereas we're able to create the same assets that can be used on PC, PS3 and 360, we actually have to do quite a bit of work on both the technology and assets for Wii. The investment is heavy to get it working on the Wii, but we're committed to it as we were with Modern Warfare, World at War and Call of Duty 3.”
Treyarch obviously has the experience needed to make the transition to the Nintendo Wii but it's not clear whether the gamers who use the device are actually interested in first person shooters and in more violent titles in general. It's unlikely that the Wii version of Black Ops will come anywhere close to the sales numbers posted by Super Mario Galaxy 2 or Metroid: Other M.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is set to arrive on November 9 on all gaming devices, the title aiming to tell the story of the Cold War and the smaller conflicts it sparked by focusing on those deep behind enemy line experiences that governments struggle to deny and history sometimes ignores.