14 DAY TRIAL // The first time I saw the Wii in action, I thought to myself: "there have got to be some serious limitations to that console's control system". Of course (not showing off or anything) I didn't know anything about the machine and I especially didn't know anything about how that Wii Remote worked. As it turns out, it's true. I found a piece up on Only a Gamer debating a similar issue. The Wii changes games "a bit", you have to admit. It makes them simpler, as the console itself is simple too. Thus developers and publishers are bound to create "simple" for the machine. After all, it sells like crazy, so what could they do...?
It's a vicious circle, so there's really no need to comment on this aspect as everyone can see where the story is going, but here's what Only a Game reckons (it kind of feels good to know I'm not alone on the Wii's simplicity thing):
"Because now that a channel to the wider audience has been opened, publishers are starting to realise that they need to invest in more Wii products, and fewer games of the kind we used to play. And this is the Curse of the Wii - that it is taking the money away from new games that the gamer hobbyists might want and enjoy. [...]
The Hardcore gamers, or gamer hobbyists, are justifiably concerned that Nintendo is screwing them, and Nintendo is not blind to this concern. Although, as Corvus and others discuss, Nintendo has already paid its fans in full by making the great games that they have already made. It is not that the Hardcore gamers will not get more of the games they want - they are still the people handing over the bulk of the money at the most regular intervals - it is just that the disparity in development spending will now begin to rectify itself, choking experimentation in games with gamer hobbyist appeal."
But you can't blame developers and publishers either. Who are we to tell them what to do with their money? Sure they have demand in mind too, but at the end of the day, they have to have some kind of profit. There are lots of cases where a developer fully commits to a great title, spending a lot of money in trying to shape it up for expensive systems such as the PS3 for example, and what happens if the game doesn't sell (leaving aside that the PS3 itself might sell badly too)?
The Wii sounds like a pretty "safe bet", don't you think?