Post by .Bunk. on Mar 21, 2007 13:20:18 GMT -5
Posted March 13, 2007 2:16:56 PM
P2P: GoNintendo.com's Kevin Cassidy Challenges Nintendo Fans' Rejection of Third Party Games
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As we announced last week, P2P is the forum for industry observers--journalists, bloggers, analysts, academics, politicians and even regular gamers--to speak their minds on topics of our choosing. We were in the midst of an email exchange with Kevin Cassidy (founder of the news, reviews and opinion site GoNintendo.com) regarding a Level Up post about how Sony's hit games with alternative controllers paved the way for the Wii's success, when Cassidy wrote: "Right now people are too busy bitching about Konami's 'kiddy' games. I swear, Nintendo fans are never happy." After some back and forth discussion of his statement, we realized that Cassidy's thoughts had the makings of an insightful rant, so we asked him to answer the following question "Are Nintendo fans too hard on third-party games?" Here's his response:
For many years, Nintendo had a rough time securing truly robust third party support. But back during the 8-bit and 16-bit wars, things were quite different: Sega and Nintendo were the big players, and their respective systems were cartridge-based. As time moved on, things changed drastically on all fronts, from storage, to competitors, and even subject matter. Nintendo decided to stay with the more expensive cartridges for their Nintendo 64 platform, while newcomer Sony went with much cheaper CD-based media. That change, combined with the scary prospect of competing against Nintendo's first party powerhouse franchises, produced the perfect recipe for third party disaster, resulting in ever-decreasing third party support until very recently.
Enter the Wii, Nintendo's new platform full of fresh ideas: Two motion-based controllers, a Virtual Console system which lets you download classic titles from a number of platforms, and Nintendo's pledge to actively pursue third party development. The first few months for the Wii have been outstanding. Consumers seem to understand and enjoy what Nintendo is striving to do, and third parties see the Wii as a viable platform for their work. Nintendo is doing what they said they would all along, getting the third party support that fans wanted. The only problem is that these same fans don't seem to want what third parties have to offer.
Konami, Ubisoft, THQ, EA, and many other big name third party developers have announced that they have a number of games in the works for the Wii. You have ports of last generation games, original IPs exclusive to the Wii, huge titles from EA's lineup, and more. Yet from what I have seen, Wii owners are complaining about almost everything the Wii has heading its way. Take for example Dewy's Adventure, a recently announced puzzle/platformer game that makes use of everything unique to the Wii's control scheme. An alarming number of fans have branded the game as "kiddie" and not worth a second look. This not-worth-my-time message board buzz seems to be afflicting an alarming number of titles coming to the Wii. Prince of Persia: Rival Swords; The Godfather: Blackhand Edition; Scarface; Mortal Kombat: Armageddon--fans lambaste them all because they appeared on last-generation platforms. Nintendo die hards want third party support, but they don't want the original titles, enhanced ports, or "kiddy" games that they accuse third parties of dumping on the Wii.
Well, what do Wii owners want then?
From what I can see, Wii owners want more "mature" titles. I put this term in quotes because I simply don't believe that the gameplay examples fans are citing qualify as mature. The general outcry seems to be for titles that offer up violence in one way or another. So while many Wii owners do not want ports, they do want original IPs that are grittier than the traditional Nintendo fare. This desire is definitely a byproduct of the popularity of franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Halo and their many imitators. Those games are both wonderful examples of pulling people into game worlds, but they don't have to be the end all, be all of software support.
Going back to the unjustly maligned Dewy's Adventure, what Nintendo fans deride as "kiddie" is more fairly described as whimsical. Still, they write on message boards that the game doesn't appeal to them at all because it lacks "mature" themes, yet many of the people leaving these comments aren't even old enough to purchase Mature-rated games. All the while, Nintendo's own family friendly titles somehow seem to be exempt from these "kiddie" accusations, most likely owing to the company's well-established heritage.
So when it comes to third party games, Nintendo fans are almost impossible to please. They seem to want everything and nothing at the same time. They want massive third party support, but when they get it they turn their backs. They have no problem with the rated-E for Everyone titles when Nintendo makes them, but the same designation is unacceptable when coming from third parties.
Over the past several weeks we have seen a huge amount of external support for the Wii in all categories, and I can't think of one title in particular that fans are really excited about. Is this the product of a mentality that says games aren't fun unless they are violent? Or are Nintendo fans being too picky for their own good? If their current opinion of these games carries over to the final sales tally, it looks like Nintendo will once again lose the third party support they have been working so hard to regain. Here I thought things were finally going the Big N's way, and now, because of the fickle tastes of my fellow Wii-philes, I am left worrying that Mario and friends will once again be left to carry the console end of Nintendo on their shoulders, all by their lonesome.
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P2P: GoNintendo.com's Kevin Cassidy Challenges Nintendo Fans' Rejection of Third Party Games
EnlargeEnlarge
As we announced last week, P2P is the forum for industry observers--journalists, bloggers, analysts, academics, politicians and even regular gamers--to speak their minds on topics of our choosing. We were in the midst of an email exchange with Kevin Cassidy (founder of the news, reviews and opinion site GoNintendo.com) regarding a Level Up post about how Sony's hit games with alternative controllers paved the way for the Wii's success, when Cassidy wrote: "Right now people are too busy bitching about Konami's 'kiddy' games. I swear, Nintendo fans are never happy." After some back and forth discussion of his statement, we realized that Cassidy's thoughts had the makings of an insightful rant, so we asked him to answer the following question "Are Nintendo fans too hard on third-party games?" Here's his response:
For many years, Nintendo had a rough time securing truly robust third party support. But back during the 8-bit and 16-bit wars, things were quite different: Sega and Nintendo were the big players, and their respective systems were cartridge-based. As time moved on, things changed drastically on all fronts, from storage, to competitors, and even subject matter. Nintendo decided to stay with the more expensive cartridges for their Nintendo 64 platform, while newcomer Sony went with much cheaper CD-based media. That change, combined with the scary prospect of competing against Nintendo's first party powerhouse franchises, produced the perfect recipe for third party disaster, resulting in ever-decreasing third party support until very recently.
Enter the Wii, Nintendo's new platform full of fresh ideas: Two motion-based controllers, a Virtual Console system which lets you download classic titles from a number of platforms, and Nintendo's pledge to actively pursue third party development. The first few months for the Wii have been outstanding. Consumers seem to understand and enjoy what Nintendo is striving to do, and third parties see the Wii as a viable platform for their work. Nintendo is doing what they said they would all along, getting the third party support that fans wanted. The only problem is that these same fans don't seem to want what third parties have to offer.
Konami, Ubisoft, THQ, EA, and many other big name third party developers have announced that they have a number of games in the works for the Wii. You have ports of last generation games, original IPs exclusive to the Wii, huge titles from EA's lineup, and more. Yet from what I have seen, Wii owners are complaining about almost everything the Wii has heading its way. Take for example Dewy's Adventure, a recently announced puzzle/platformer game that makes use of everything unique to the Wii's control scheme. An alarming number of fans have branded the game as "kiddie" and not worth a second look. This not-worth-my-time message board buzz seems to be afflicting an alarming number of titles coming to the Wii. Prince of Persia: Rival Swords; The Godfather: Blackhand Edition; Scarface; Mortal Kombat: Armageddon--fans lambaste them all because they appeared on last-generation platforms. Nintendo die hards want third party support, but they don't want the original titles, enhanced ports, or "kiddy" games that they accuse third parties of dumping on the Wii.
Well, what do Wii owners want then?
From what I can see, Wii owners want more "mature" titles. I put this term in quotes because I simply don't believe that the gameplay examples fans are citing qualify as mature. The general outcry seems to be for titles that offer up violence in one way or another. So while many Wii owners do not want ports, they do want original IPs that are grittier than the traditional Nintendo fare. This desire is definitely a byproduct of the popularity of franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Halo and their many imitators. Those games are both wonderful examples of pulling people into game worlds, but they don't have to be the end all, be all of software support.
Going back to the unjustly maligned Dewy's Adventure, what Nintendo fans deride as "kiddie" is more fairly described as whimsical. Still, they write on message boards that the game doesn't appeal to them at all because it lacks "mature" themes, yet many of the people leaving these comments aren't even old enough to purchase Mature-rated games. All the while, Nintendo's own family friendly titles somehow seem to be exempt from these "kiddie" accusations, most likely owing to the company's well-established heritage.
So when it comes to third party games, Nintendo fans are almost impossible to please. They seem to want everything and nothing at the same time. They want massive third party support, but when they get it they turn their backs. They have no problem with the rated-E for Everyone titles when Nintendo makes them, but the same designation is unacceptable when coming from third parties.
Over the past several weeks we have seen a huge amount of external support for the Wii in all categories, and I can't think of one title in particular that fans are really excited about. Is this the product of a mentality that says games aren't fun unless they are violent? Or are Nintendo fans being too picky for their own good? If their current opinion of these games carries over to the final sales tally, it looks like Nintendo will once again lose the third party support they have been working so hard to regain. Here I thought things were finally going the Big N's way, and now, because of the fickle tastes of my fellow Wii-philes, I am left worrying that Mario and friends will once again be left to carry the console end of Nintendo on their shoulders, all by their lonesome.
*
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