Wii's 3rd-Party Line-up - When Are The Big Titles Coming?

Corey

Listen closely…

That slight rustling sound you can hear are The Winds of Change. They are on your internets… smacking you upside the head.

'Nu-E3' is coming. And while it's not the huge event that it used to be, it's still holds a fair degree of significance in the games industry; for this year especially, given the formative nature of all these new machines out. Once July 11th hits, three days of gaming expo importance will give you an indication of what you'll be playing in the next year or so.

However, what it will also do is give you some idea of the direction the industry will be heading in. And I imagine a few people will be surprised at what they see.

A handful of major publisher/developers had a couple 'revelations' -and I use that term with a strong hint of irony- this week which will have some bearing on Wii's future. The first came from Sega, which stated in U.K. magazine, 360Gamer (taken from Nikkei News), that it was going to shift its development focus away from Sony's platforms to Wii and DS. While PlayStation3 software will still be in the offering, Sega's stance now is that it will only develop titles for the format if it 'knows they will be hits'. Which is a fairly bizarre and circular argument given there's no guarantees in a title's success and great marketing can make even bad software sell, but that's the games industry for you. Namco Bandai and Capcom have also come out with similar statements of support for Wii and a change in their development focus. Slow on the uptake, but take in mind press releases are often written well after the fact.

Meanwhile, SquareEnix delivered the rather painful yet utterly unsurprising confirmation that there won't be a PS3 title from its banks to hit retail until April 2008 at the very earliest. Those waiting on Final Fantasy XIII to give the machine a much needed boost in Japan will unfortunately have to look towards another juggernaut to scratch that itch. With such a large title over a year away and Xbox 360 continuing to sink in the land of the rising sun, Nintendo's prospects for Wii just took a massive boost; that's even before the launch of new Dragon's Quest and Final Fantasy titles on the format (side quests or no, they'll sell through the roof).

There's still a question mark over third-party output for Wii in terms of big games, something you'll see answered a bit more come E3 and Tokyo Game Show this September, but it's been said before and it's worth saying again: third-parties were, like a majority of the gaming world, caught out with Wii's success. Some gamers have a false image of the industry running off an immediate cycle of development; a magical place where software is pushed out after mere months of conception. But most examples you see from Wii's launch to around late 2007 are a result of what developers thought would be merely to keep Nintendo quiet and earn a quick buck: half-hearted efforts even companies like Ubisoft admits to, despite blowing its support trumpet as early as mid-2006. Very few backed Nintendo to come out the gates as strong as it did. No wonder we've been getting ports and remakes, and some -not all, as doubters will have you believe- third-party sales are a little stunted. It's what those same companies are working on RIGHT NOW which is going to tell whether we'll see the best out of Wii and motion controlled games. Because what is in development now will be what we'll all be playing in 12 months time and beyond.

And that's going to be partly reflected in E3 next month, with TGS being all the more telling. Between the two events, a deluge of games are likely to be shown or at least announced as third-parties start backing what is clearly a strong competitor. I think it's revealing that in the peak of tennis season, with both the International Women's Open and Queen's Club Championships just ending, and Wimbledon being serving up on our TVs right now, that no third-party is pushing a Wii tennis game at this moment. The games industry tends to shy away from the annual event given its regularity and relative shortness, but come on now – Wii Tennis shows what can be done on a more basic scale, so even something similar could have been pushed out to capture audiences tired of the pack-in game. The genre doesn’t have a typically protracted development period, either. Not seeing one full tennis sim on Wii this summer (or indeed the last few months) tells you all you need to know about what was on the minds of many developers pre-launch; obviously not Wii. Yet a single game could have cleaned up the summer charts if someone had the guts and foresight to go for it. Instead they'll just have to watch Nintendo claim some of that nigh-captive audience with Wii Sports, no doubt earning another boost in hardware sales.

Third-parties are kicking themselves to the point where statements like the one Sega has just made are going to be more frequent. Hell, they already have been. Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Take Two and others have all come out in support of the machine in the past couple months, sheepishly admitting their foibles and error of judgment. SquareEnix already knew such a thing was on the cards having reaped the benefits of its DS (and Game Boy Advance) labours, which has seen massive profits for the company and somewhat puts to shame claims of third-parties not selling well on Nintendo systems.

It won't stop some of the same old excuses to be rolled out, though. Of course the competition is higher when you're competing with the likes of Mario and Zelda. This has always been the case. Yet the company's Draconian methods back in the days of the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 are mostly gone, and while a profitable third-party game on a Nintendo home machine may not be as chart happy as it would be on another format, it still carries clout – something evident in the often ignored facts that Ubisoft has two million seller titles on Wii, Atlus has its best selling game on the format, Majesco has record profits too via Nintendo's little wonder, and most third-party titles not only sell better on the system than on PS3, but also have larger gains (helped by lower development costs). All without a comparatively major effort coming from a third-party, as of yet.

Once these companies start noticeably pushing their resources and efforts into Wii development, then they should see results as long as what they provide is worth our money. The strong sales opening of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition may go some way to showing publishers that a wide variety of game genres can sell, even as a remake/port, as long as the Wii remote implementation is good and the price is equally as accommodating for what's on offer.

I'm not saying we'll suddenly see Metal Gear 4 and a conversion of Final Fantasy XIII hitting Wii. Designated titles for the format are likely to be a mixture of those similar to what we've already seen, albeit less rushed or archaic, and the inevitable flush of exclusive titles will emerge to utilise of the motion controller. New franchises that may one day go on to be established names, as pressure increases to innovate and take advantage of a new and rapidly growing userbase willing to try new things.

And don’t worry – that doesn’t just mean more mini/non/wah-wah-there's-nothing-for-hardcore-users-games, either. Considering Wii's strategy is aping that of the DS, expect a similarly wide range of software to reflect the change in third-party thinking. But hey, guess what; because hardcore games are typically bigger than their more casual oriented brethren, they also take longer to create. And seeing as Wii is still selling like crazy, there's no real need to rush things. In fact, some companies may even want to wait a little longer to benefit from the increased audience, lessening the chances of their titles ending up as outright (and possibly unjust) duds.

In the meantime, you'll just have to be satisfied with 'oh-so-predictable' first and second-party fare like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros: Brawl, and whatever else appears. I know… painful, isn’t it?

mushroomedmario

as a person favouring nintendo this gen, i liked this article

thans corey

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the mario that's roomed with mush
my wii is not connected to the internet, so i can't play brawl online for a bit....please do not spam inbox with friend code requests

smashfan

hope some great third party games are revealed

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I WANT SONIC IN BRAWL AND HIS FRIENDS! i also want WOLF LINK AND MIDNA AS A PAIR, ZANT. yep i like zelda games, waluigi is good as well, crash bandicoot and spyro and rayman would fit into the game with ease

f1982

There are a few things im desperate for:

1: Decent racing game- the likes of Gran Turismo/Forza
2: Sports Games- football, tennis
3: F1 game
4: Metrod Prime to be on a par with Halo- with online multiplayer.

kevbomac05

same here they need some new games

Warrior

nice, detailed article, enjoyed it. And your right, in almost every aspect. i cant wait to see the look on the PS£/microsft fanboys faces when we overtake them in sales!

(i know we already pased PS3 ages ago, that was more for the xbox)

Sovieto

we?
so nintendo IS your fathers company?

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Everything in this signature except for this text was made by Wiired, he is my creator and almighty.

JT.

^Hehe. Just my thoughts. Loved the article. Gave me some hope that Wii will actually start coming out with real games, instead of all teh minigames and poor ports (the "stuck-on" controls).

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"Life's a game", and I lost the manual...

Warrior

I meant we as in, we the fans of nintendo. its not hard to see that. Or were you looking for a fight?

ciper

And we suffer waiting for them to tool up development. In the meantime we get crap


Be specific - American football or Soccer

SensesFail

i bet "american football" cuz we already are getting mario strikers charged and i think FIFA is on the way or already out? not sure.

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Gamertag/PSN ID=SensesFailxWiix if you add me send me a message via console or wiichat

Trulen 

Snap.
I didn't have too much hope from third party people for the wii...
But now I have a little bit more.

Man, E3 is going to rock.

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There are only two things that are infinite: Human stupidity and the universe. I'm not sure about the latter.

- Albert Einstein.

gingerkid

E3 isnt going to be the circus it usually is. its now only opened to press and no consumers are aloud in so its just going to be press conferences and some showing off of games, very low key. it should be fairly calm and not the circus it usually is.

Wii-Bhoy

nice article corey it was sweet

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Thanks To Dan.Skater For The Awesome Sig!

Revan

Why does the Wii get such crappy third party support? The Xbox 360 gets Mass Effect from Bioware and the PS3 gets Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots from Konami.

gingerkid

i think the wii has some good exclusives it has amazing 1st party games, all of them are great! also third party is coming there just developing games. sega is supporting also square enix is making games for end of 07 and beginning of 08.

matguy87

Good article! O and Yo F1982, Madden 2008 is coming out for the Wii some time in August with online play

Rolex

Hi Corey,

On the pulse, as always, seeing as E3 is starting to build all over! I have even read that there may be some hardware news from one of the big 3...do do doooo (*sarcastic piano*)

I do have a question for you though regarding this.. (or anyone of course)...

Now I am currently addicted to DS (scheese never saw that coming, I am a 36yr old currently trying desperately to get my Animal Crossing mortgage paid off before I reach 40, dude - because I don't wanna be tied down, you know the employment prospects there are pretty slim and Tom is a tyrant to work for - I'm gonna break away from DA MAN - yeah I'm gonna escape this rat race and move to the backcountry and do that snowboard season I always dreamed of....[oh lordy]!!) *ahem*... and as I buy more and more games for it and taking the touchscreen functionality now as second nature - and with the Wii coming good, you can see the inspiration for Wii in the DS product model.

Do you think that Nintendo are competing against or in harmony with themselves in the hardware stakes?

Can you see any clash in interests between the two products from Nintendo?

I know these are fairly rhetorical questions - the answer's no, being as they are aimed at 2 different markets...or are they (do do doooo)*scratches girlfriends chin, looks thoughtful [me, not the gf's chin]*

Is this what Nintendo had in mind when developing the Wii - I presume it was dev'd alongside the DS at some point. To create a userbase which are in tune with the unconventional controls and 'pre-train' gamers for the Wii's larger scale control system?

I realise there are some obvious questions here with rhetorical answers. It's not the answers which are king here it's the point of views...

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---Smithy...
"This IS the difference over the other systems....graphics can make you believe you're there to some extent but motion gesture can make you believe you're doing it!"

cbrotherson

Nook owns your soul. YOUR SOUL. Should you ever pay him off, expect him to come and invade your dreams and take property of your mind. He's EVIL incarnate.

Heh, yeah, you answered your own question in part – although as I noted way back in another feature/column, while they are aimed at two different markets, they're very much a tag-team operation, working in tandem for each other. There's cross over appeal from both, and it's important to note while DS is a very attractive machine for families, you still need more than one to play multiplayer titles, while you can get away with one Wii and one remote for some games, and even with single-player games it's still has audience overlap because it's obviously easier to watch a TV than a little touchscreen.

Both products have their own marketing and advertising budgets and appear to share certain slots (such as C4's show sponsoring), so there's a definitely a sense of hand-in-hand tactics being used.

Hmm, probably not so much at the start. When DS was in development, Nintendo was still at early stages of control selection for its next console. And when DS was finally announced, Nintendo didn’t have 100% confidence of its market viability, stating it would be a "third pillar" next to GBA. Of course, when DS broke records, GBA became the third pillar of sorts and now Nintendo has a nice problem in terms of where it goes next with its new handheld – the DS brand is so strong that it would be insane not to progress it, but the Game Boy brand is also very powerful, if comparatively dated.

It seems Nintendo was very much hopeful that DS took off as it did, which meant less of a risk to go down the route it did with Wii, but was still aware that Wii wasn’t a sure-fire success (thus minimising costs and overheads for its production and keeping architecture closer to GameCube than anything more expensive). DS tested waters for the company, but really acted as a hint that gamers are ready for something new. At the same time, Nintendo marketed its DS to the new audience most games companies have been trying to get (and still trying) since about 2003/2004 – the female casual gamer. The sheer amount of graphs and charts I saw over that period of time telling me that the medium could only expand via hitting that market… man, they're ingrained inside my eyelids I think it's a symbiosis of that, really – Wii and DS appeal to that neglected demographic while also using something new to appeal to them in the first place. There's a chicken/egg loop where marketing/control method is concerned, but ultimately it all ends up the same place.