End of the Wii

Nintendo has an unfortunately spotty history when it comes to their games consoles. While they did extremely well with the original NES and Super Nintendo, ever since then they have a habit of releasing consoles with just a single, fatal flaw.

For example, the N64, while being a good console suffered from their decision to stick with the outdated cartridge format, while Sony released the Playstation with the superior and more versatile CD-ROM format.

Then, the Gamecube failed simply because gamers didn’t like the color or design of the console itself (Which was a huge shame. Games like Resident Evil 4 show that the Gamecube is just as graphically capable as its competition, the Playstation 2).

For me, the Gamecube will always be an excellent console that tanked simply because Nintendo decided to put great hardware in a lavender cube. Next to the sleek PS2 or the pure late 90’s ‘edgy’ design of the Xbox (apparently ‘X’ is a ‘cool’ letter), the poor Gamecube didn’t stand a chance.

Then, Nintendo released the Wii, which stupid name aside, was an absolute master-stroke, although it may turn out to be both a short-lived and short-sighted one.

In short, the ‘next-gen’ competition was a two horse race between the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

It could be assumed that Xbox owners were going to buy an Xbox 360 and the PS2 owners were going to buy a PS3. With the next-gen race being all about horsepower, the price points were inevitably going to be high. Who was going to take a risk on an outsider when they had the choice of two consoles with proven track records? When consoles were a hundred bucks a pop it wouldn’t be a problem, but at a price point of $500 or higher…not many people would be willing to take the risk.

If they tried to compete with Microsoft and Sony, chances are there were going to lose no matter how good their hardware was. Plus, there’s also the factor that the ‘Nintendo Generation’ has grown up, and Nintendo are notorious for favoring E-Rated games.

Basically, the majority of gamers are starting to prefer violent, gritty protagonists such as Sam Fisher, Solid Snake and Master Chief. With most people only being able to afford one console, very few gamers would be willing to give up their GTA’s and Splinter Cells for Mario. The most powerful gamer demographic now consists of mostly males aged 23 and up…and Nintendo’s games tend to be aimed at younger kids.

So, rather than go the way of Sega, Nintendo had an outstanding idea. They simply chose not to compete.

Rather than go for the fasted and best hardware, they took what is essentially upgraded Gamecube hardware and bundled it with a brand new peripheral…the Wii-mote.

Sure, it’s not as pretty as the PS3 and Xbox 360, but it offered gamers and whole new experience and as a side effect, they appealed to a whole new demographic that would normally not be interested in buying a game console.

Essentially, many non-gamers are intimidated or get easily frustrated with traditional controls. To the uninitiated, 10 buttons, two thumb sticks and a D-pad can be incredibly confusing and off-putting. Handing someone a remote that looks remarkably like a regular TV remote and showing them that to play tennis you swing the remote like a tennis racket, to play golf, you swing it like a golf club. It’s easy and intuitive and anyone can ‘get it’ in a very short time. They removed the ‘barrier to entry’.

Of course, it also appeals to the seasoned gamers through sheer novelty value.

So, rather than choose to compete in an already crowded market, Nintendo simply offered a whole new experience on proven, relatively inexpensive hardware. In short, Nintendo are offering something that you can’t get anywhere else for a significantly cheaper price than their competitors. Plus, their hardware is readily available, meaning they don’t have the supply and manufacturing problems of their competitors.

While many parents would balk at spending nearly a thousand dollars on a gaming console for their kids, especially with all the media furor about video game violence, they can buy a Wii for half the price, know their kids won’t see anything more violent that a cartoon plumber attempting to resuce a princess… and better yet, it gets the kids up off the couch and moving around.

But, the big question is this:

What happens when the novelty wears off? What happens when swinging the Wii-mote gets old?

Then we come to the Wii’s biggest problem. 3^rd party releases.

The problem is simple. When a developer releases a new game, it’s incredibly, incredibly rare for them to make a whole different game for each console. They develop for one, and the others receive a port of it.

In simplest terms, a developer will create a game for the 360, then tweak it to run on the PS3.

Have you spotted the problem yet?

The Wii simply doesn’t have the processing power to handle games that are designed to make the best out of the 360 or PS3’s software. Unfortunately, the Wii was released in the current console cycle, but it’s technically a ‘last-gen’ machine. You’d have a lot of difficult getting a PS3 game ported to the PS2, let alone the Wii.

We can already see the results of this. Spider-man 3 looked plain awful on the Wii. The textures looked terrible or would even be absent at long distances and architecture would simply disappear. Why? Because Spiderman 3 was written for the PS3, and the Wii simply can’t handle it.

Plus, these games are written with a traditional controller in mind, meaning it will be unlikely that they will take advantage of the Wii-mote and unfortunately, if you play a Wii game with normal controls, you might as well be playing the Gamecube.

The Wii’s only hope is that third party developers will start to create games exclusively for the Wii. However, if you put yourself in the developers’ shoes, you can see what a risky decision that would be. If you release a game for the 360 or PS3, you know that game is going to look great on both systems and you can exploit both markets. If you release a game optimized for the Wii, you’re excluding two third of your potential market. Basically, if you have a 360, you’re not going to want to play games that look like something from your old console.

Luckily for Nintendo, the Wii has been successful enough that releasing a Wii exclusive isn’t the business equivalent of throwing money down the drain.

Only time will tell if the Wii has the legs to survive until the next console cycle, but hopefully we’ll soon see some decent game releases other than 360 and PS3 ports.