Codemasters CEO Doubts Wii Sustainability, Envisions 'Wii 2'

[vashivihan]

Rod Cousens, chief executive at publisher Codemasters, has been talking about Nintendo's first-party software dominance, the sustainability of the 60-year-old audience, and the possible introduction of 'Wii 2.'
Posted by James Brightman on Tuesday, January 08, 2008
In a lengthy interview to be published with the GameDaily BIZ newsletter Wednesday morning, Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens provided some interesting commentary on the current console war and Nintendo's incredible success with the Wii and DS to date.

Cousens, like other third-party publishers, lamented the fact that Nintendo always dominates software sales on its own platforms. "The global event that's been marked as a surprise for most people is the huge success that Nintendo's achieved in every territory... The challenge that third-party software publishers face in supporting that market is that it's clearly a market dominated by the first party and always has been," he said. "If you look back at the Nintendo track record over the last 20-25 years, it's a typical situation where Nintendo will take 60-70 percent of the market and third parties will compete for the remaining 40 percent. One of the challenges is: will that result in a sudden flood of software by third parties onto a platform that's currently seen as the Holy Grail, and as a consequence there's a lot of wastage?"

Later in the interview he added, "If you go back to the Nintendo model when it first started you had a five-product license and so one of the ways in which software publishers dealt with that was to go and buy a competitor so you could increase your output to 10. It was a way of managing product outflow both from a first- and third-party perspective, but it was always done on the basis that even if you bought up another five-product license you still knew the available share to you was something on the order of 40 percent and that the product flow, which was cartridge-based at the time, seemed to be managed in a way so that's how it folded out. Well, I'm not so sure that the current wave is any different, because I hear there's manufacturing shortages, and too much software... and these are all consistent characteristics."

Cousens then touched on the ideas that the 60-year-old "Brain Training" market may dry up and Nintendo may need to launch a "Wii 2" sooner than we think.

"I think this cycle has got a long way to go and it's certainly not over. Anyone writing off Sony and Microsoft do so at their peril. I could give you an argument that says there's going to be a 'Wii 2' pretty quickly because [Nintendo would need one] in order to sustain momentum over a 10-year period. And what type of software would it have then? Because right now it isn't driven by technological supremacy or power. I wonder if the idea of opening up a whole new audience to 60-year-olds looking to make sure their brain cells don't die off is a sustainable form of entertainment. Maybe they got it right because we are all an aging population in Western markets, but I somehow think as a form of entertainment that won't be the case," he concluded.

The complete interview talks about Codemasters' best year in its 22-year history and how the U.K.-based publisher is continuing to evolve as it targets the U.S. market with a greater focus.


heres the link

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/codemasters-ceo-doubts-wii-sustainability-envisions-wii-2/19021/?biz=


this guys a hater, man

 

[K LoLo]

He's acting as if all the Wii games were made like Big Brain Academy...

 

[gort]

And what games have they put out for the Wii? The sub-mediocre Heatseeker? I think they had better worry a little less about Nintendo market dominance or marketing strategy and a little more about the quality of the games themselves. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

 

[T3kNi9e]

I dont even understand wtf he was saying other than saying Wii has too many casual games.

But w/e Codemasters suck. I was always suprised when anyone would say Codemasters were good. I only see Overlord which is a decent game and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty which could possibly be their best game if it turns out good.

 

[Samus101]

I dont even understand wtf he was saying other than saying Wii has too many casual games.

But w/e Codemasters suck. I was always suprised when anyone would say Codemasters were good. I only see Overlord which is a decent game and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty which could possibly be their best game if it turns out good.

Not IMO. Go check out RF Online, and if you don't know where to find it, just click my Mii Profile and find out!

 

[in touch with the wii]

dont say i didnt tell you
look for wii 2 and the company called splashpower around 2010

 

[jimbo]

yup codemasters suck...only like rfnline it one of the best rpgs i played.... but they dont care much about it now s its free

 

[Samus101]

yup codemasters suck...only like rfnline it one of the best rpgs i played.... but they dont care much about it now s its free

Do you still play it?

 

[romj]

Rod Cousens, chief executive at publisher Codemasters, has been talking about Nintendo's first-party software dominance, the sustainability of the 60-year-old audience, and the possible introduction of 'Wii 2.'
Posted by James Brightman on Tuesday, January 08, 2008
In a lengthy interview to be published with the GameDaily BIZ newsletter Wednesday morning, Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens provided some interesting commentary on the current console war and Nintendo's incredible success with the Wii and DS to date.

Cousens, like other third-party publishers, lamented the fact that Nintendo always dominates software sales on its own platforms. "The global event that's been marked as a surprise for most people is the huge success that Nintendo's achieved in every territory... The challenge that third-party software publishers face in supporting that market is that it's clearly a market dominated by the first party and always has been," he said. "If you look back at the Nintendo track record over the last 20-25 years, it's a typical situation where Nintendo will take 60-70 percent of the market and third parties will compete for the remaining 40 percent. One of the challenges is: will that result in a sudden flood of software by third parties onto a platform that's currently seen as the Holy Grail, and as a consequence there's a lot of wastage?"

Later in the interview he added, "If you go back to the Nintendo model when it first started you had a five-product license and so one of the ways in which software publishers dealt with that was to go and buy a competitor so you could increase your output to 10. It was a way of managing product outflow both from a first- and third-party perspective, but it was always done on the basis that even if you bought up another five-product license you still knew the available share to you was something on the order of 40 percent and that the product flow, which was cartridge-based at the time, seemed to be managed in a way so that's how it folded out. Well, I'm not so sure that the current wave is any different, because I hear there's manufacturing shortages, and too much software... and these are all consistent characteristics."

Cousens then touched on the ideas that the 60-year-old "Brain Training" market may dry up and Nintendo may need to launch a "Wii 2" sooner than we think.

"I think this cycle has got a long way to go and it's certainly not over. Anyone writing off Sony and Microsoft do so at their peril. I could give you an argument that says there's going to be a 'Wii 2' pretty quickly because [Nintendo would need one] in order to sustain momentum over a 10-year period. And what type of software would it have then? Because right now it isn't driven by technological supremacy or power. I wonder if the idea of opening up a whole new audience to 60-year-olds looking to make sure their brain cells don't die off is a sustainable form of entertainment. Maybe they got it right because we are all an aging population in Western markets, but I somehow think as a form of entertainment that won't be the case," he concluded.

The complete interview talks about Codemasters' best year in its 22-year history and how the U.K.-based publisher is continuing to evolve as it targets the U.S. market with a greater focus.


heres the link

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/codemasters-ceo-doubts-wii-sustainability-envisions-wii-2/19021/?biz=


this guys a hater, man

In my opinion, he is just another one of many developers who didnt/ don't take the wii seriously. This comentary is to be expected.

And what games have they put out for the Wii? The sub-mediocre Heatseeker? I think they had better worry a little less about Nintendo market dominance or marketing strategy and a little more about the quality of the games themselves. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

I agree. Isn't it ironic that Nintendo is made out to be the "bad guy" because it actualy makes the best games on it's own system? Why don't these devlopers step up their own games to match Nintendo's quality instead of whining about how they can't compete on Nintendo platforms?

He meantions the wii's lack of processing power. The N64 was the most powerfull and the Game cube was in the middle, powerwise. What was their excuse than?

He's acting as if all the Wii games were made like Big Brain Academy...

Yes, I noticed that. The wii have much more than casual games on it and more are comming.

His interview merely reflects the overall precption of the wii as a fad and a toy, something to not take seriously as a gaming console, and this attitude is reflected in the guality of software made for it, his company included.

 

[wezeles]

Its really sad.. over and over again

First they Admit they have lost the console war to nintendo.

now all these Critis and Developers are in Denial about it because they know with the nintendo fan base nintendo is the #1 developer and not the 3rd party...

Eventually they will Accept Nintendo being the dominate console.

They will then Move On And try to make some Games that will sell on the Wii... and they cant make crap because we wont buy it... it better be pretty good to compete

I think the finnal step is Informing Others of there mistakes and apologize for them.



but thats basically how it works and how its going to happen... i may have skiped 1 or 7 steps along the way but the finnal product is the same... its life get over it your loosing Accept,Adapt,Evolve, Or Die all you can do

 

[T3kNi9e]

Actually your wrong and right.

They can make crap and it will be bought. Because the average Wii owner or buyer is a casual gamer. Infact its said that the average Wii owner doesnt know wtf Super Mario Galaxy is. So yes, they can make trash and the Wii owners will buy it, and yes they can make good games yet there's a good chance it will not sell. Wii does not sell 3rd party games well. So I think thats the main reason why developers still doubt the Wii. If its not a Nintendo game, chances are it wont sell well unless its a very known title like Resident Evil. Look at Zack and Wiki, good game but sold bad. This is going to make Capcom more reluctant to make Wii titles. Maybe thats why they wont make a cut down version of RE5? I don't know.

Its like some guy at Game Trailer said. A smart company will not spend 2 years creating a great game for the Wii if they can make a crappy mini-game fest for 3 months and get the same sales figures. You can only really blame yourselves if you buy these **** games because it makes it seem like Wii owners are nothing but a bunch of casual mini game lovers. Which in some sense is true if you notice people in these forums seem to like games like that.

So if I were a developer and I thought "Hmm, I love great games with depth, story, and gameplay. So ill make it on the Wii for those hardcore gamers like me" "No wait... It takes too long and we don't get enough of a profit from the Wii's casual community" "Lets just spend 3 months on a pack of mini-games to raise money to make a great game on the PS3 and Xbox which WILL bring us sales numbers"

You have to think like a developer that needs to eat. They need money, they can't spend 2 years on a game and get hardly any profit, its just not worth it.

 

[wezeles]

dont say i didnt tell you
look for wii 2 and the company called splashpower around 2010

that would still be a next gen system not a Wii2 unless you have a picture of this new console or something i doubt its the same thing as the wii, just updated with rechargeable batterys and HD... When they launch a new nintendo its going to have to be as revolutionary as the Wii itself not just an update...
They wouldnt waste sales of the Wii itself with a Wii2 updated version, specially because they would probably make way less money on because of cost alone...

ive been in protype for a few years and have gone through numerous launches including electronics.
they always tell you to have it ready far before the acctual launch date, they have to work out any bugs... if they told him 2010 it will most likely be the end of 2010 at the eairliest, if not into 2011...

Thats when next Gens are Due out anyways with the standard 5 year time frame, always happens
"its not some kinda inside info that your dad needs batterys ready by 2010 for there next gen" i doubt it will launch that early myself but it is possibal that next gens start comming out by 2010 with all the advances they have made this round...

we will most likely see the xbox 720 and even a PS4 at that time aswell "aslong as they arnt going to continue to be stupid and think the PS3 will keep them alive another 10 years"

 

[JAKE196]

Well we all know the Wii is not going to last 10 years. . .


but OF COURSE we all know all the Wii is good for is 'brain training.'

I'm really tired of this BS.

 

[smyth]

it's kind of funny how he said this but (i forget who but someone at) EA said essensially the opposite. He said something to the effect that they made a mistake by basically writing off the wii, and will now begin to take it seriously. Deverent people=different opinions.
Didn't codemasters only release one game(heatseaker) for wii so far? And IGN rated it at a 5.5. Yes this guy must be right, nintendo is at fault, it has nothing to do with the fact that their company put out a barely medicre game.
Also like others in this thread have stated, how is it nintendos fault that they make the best games for their console? they put the most time and money into the games for their console, so it would make sense. However that didn't stop EA from making a great game in Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. Which (i know they aren't quite comparable) arguably is a better FPS than Metroid Prime 3: Corruption(yeah i know its part FPS, part FPA, but for sake of arguement).

Thats like getting pissed at Microsoft for making (arguably) the best FPS on their platform being Halo 3.

I guess if my company sucked at what it does i'd probably find something else to blame too...


(i'm not a fan boy, i just think codemasters is a 1/2 rate publisher, not a horrible one, but 1/2 rate.)

Well we all know the Wii is not going to last 10 years. . .


but OF COURSE we all know all the Wii is good for is 'brain training.'

I'm really tired of this BS.

agreed, i'm not sure why the guy from Codemasters even mentioned that, i don't remember anyone at nintendo claiming that it would last 10 years. PS3 is the only platform i know of that has had that claim from their company and even the chance of that console lasting that long is slim(though the PS2 is still kicking, newly designed in japan and europe...:wtf: )

 

[wezeles]

Actually your wrong and right.

The biggest problem is advertsising too...

nintendo pushes its own titles like crazy.... yet how many game commercials do you see that are intended for 3rd party Nintendo titles? hardly any... they complain about game sales for 3rd party, yet how many good 3rd party games have even been made for Wii?

they make crap games because there sales suck, there sales suck mostly because they didnt advertise the game twards nintendo in the first place, but twards the other 2 systems, So now they dont see the reason to invest into a big title fo nitnendo platform

Its there own snobbery and Fanboysism thats going to hurt them...

The Few good 3rd party titles have sold well on Wii, the fact is there is so few good 3rd party games on the Wii because developers are use to Nintendo being the kiddy system... They never made a Good 3rd party game in the first place.. you cant complain about it if you dont even try... And some copy of a big title that works for another console isnt going to cut it... Design it for the Wii or dont bother...

When a Game like RE5 makes it to the wii the same time as the other 2 consoles, not months after, then they will have an argument.

The fact is because nintendo does not bid for exclusive games, and ontop they do take more profit from 3rd party sales then the other 2 systems... The 3rd party doesn't even try on nintendos system, they havent for years...
but now they kinda have to because nintendo has the contorlling market share...

if they make 10 dollars per game on 360/ps3
and only 8 dollars per game on Wii which is better?
thats something they have to decide for themself... sell games that get you more profit with less audience, or less profit with more audience?

But we will see big change in 3rd party companies, and it will be based on who takes on that question and decides whats best...