A lot of devs have said (going by vocal comments) they like Wii and want to make Wii games. I think the concern though is what sort of games? Are they think complex epics, or 'back-to-basics' gameplay?
Agreed. If developers follow the overall early lead of Nintendo and only release party games and tech demos to show off the controls, the Wii will die an early death (Zelda and Excite Truck notwithstanding). However, from the games that we've seen it appears that developers are trying to visit a diverse culture of games on the Wii. But it certainly needs more.
Historically has there ever been a console that's much below the tech curve of it's competitors? With each gen, technology advances and the devs see opportunities to create better experiences, no longer held back in the same way as the old tech. And those opportunities existed with every console in the next generation as they all took the tech forwards a similar amount.
NES vs Master System and Turbografx-16
SNES and Genesis vs Neo Geo
Wii vs PS3 and Xbox 360
Those are the only ones I can think of in the modern era of gaming, i.e. post 1984.
The response to Wii is going to have to be different. They won't be able to say 'now we can create those huge army gameplay mechanics in this realistic rendering model like we've always wanted to do.' They'll have to say 'graphics wise we'll still be producing rather gamey looking graphics and they won't be so epic, but we have a different controller'. Thus the controller is the source of inspiration, not the system power. The way I see it, devs don't look at Wii and think 'I can create this amazing emotional experience that pulls the player in' even though they were doing that last gen to a lesser degree; that's the response you get from looking at lots more system power. Instead they see Wii as something new, no longer constrained by the control limits of last gen. The controller itself doesn't suggest super-epic titles. Thus when devs say their wanting to create Wii titles, are they thinking FFXIV and Super-Dooper-Racer and Soccer? Are the devs thinking of those titles looking to Wii and it's controller, or the other platforms and their more power? Are devs looking at Wii and seeing a chance to create something simpler and fun? It's like Jaffe and his download titles. Working for years on epic games (or any creative endeavour) is a lot of work, and the chance to be creative but on a smaller scale is bound to be appealing. It could be analgous to showing a professional film scorer a fancy synth box that creates amazing soundscapes. They'll probably say 'I want to use that device' and create some original stuff, but they'll still return to scoring a full orchestral piece because that's where the epic sound comes from, in 'tried and tested' fashion.
I agree with this on some levels and disagree on others. I don't think that graphics determine the epic scale of a game, but I do agree with the notion that developers interested in pushing the graphical envelope this generation may not target those kinds of games at the Wii.
For example, if Take Two's GTAIV is built on the paradigm of significantly upgraded graphics, then no, that game will not come to the Wii. However, if they go the route that Scarface and Godfather went, i.e. significantly upgraded control experience (with the opportunity to significantly upgrade the graphics over the Xbox/GC/PS2 gen as well if they desire), then GTAIV on Wii can be accomplished.
The question becomes, what is more satisfying for the developers and the end users. Graphics that are completely impossible on a prior generation system, or controls and interface that are completely impossible on a prior generation system.
The reason why my opinion of gaming has tempered through the years is because I've been through the "much greater graphics and sound!" iterations of each generation. It's fantastic to see the progression of games from Panzer Dragoon to Lair, for example. But at its core, the user interface remains the same. The way in which I feel about the game from a control aspect remains the same.
The Wii allows developers and users to break out of that "ho hum" cycle and think about games differently. Now eventually, even the new controls will grow tired and used up. See the reaction to the analog control scheme with the N64, and where we are today, for example. It will be up to the console makers to continue to innovate to ensure an improved end user experience that simply does not iterate on prior generations.
Now don't get me wrong. I don't want Wii-level graphics in Wii 2. It's a balance of improved graphics and improved control that makes a console successful. I think Nintendo took a gamble in saying that rather than increasing the processing power of our next console over the Gamecube by a factor of 10, ala PS3 and Xbox 360, we'll increase the processing power by a factor of 2-3 and change the control paradigm.
Whether that is enough for consumers and developers over the course of the system's life is something that we simply do not have the answer for right now. However, I do believe that the early stages of this race show an opportunity to explore this question effectively.
Agree or disagree with Nintendo's decisions on the Wii, everyone has to admit that we're the richer for having that avenue opened. I have to admit that if this generation of games were simply prettier versions of last-gen games, I honestly don't know whether I would be all that interested. The Wii has certainly piqued my interest, and even got me looking at the 360 and PS3 whereas before I probably would not have been. Granted they need to drop those prices into the $200-$300 range for me to buy one, but the point is that I'm definitely intrigued by what's going on in the console market, and the true choices we have this generation.
We definitely have more choices in terms of different game experiences than we've had in a very long time, and I think the gaming market is the better for it, not the worse as the article's author and others in this thread have stated.
