Analysts Question Wii’s Staying Power
By Shawn on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 9:04 AM PST In Nintendo, Nintendo
Los Angeles Times sights that many feel the availability and the console’s appeal to the casual gaming audience could limit the Wii’s staying power. Some analysts propose that when compared to The PlayStation3 and Xbox360, the Wii could look out of date in the future in the face of the more powerful consoles’ processing power.
“The Wii in a couple of years is going to look like old technology with low resolution [and] slow performance. People may not be accepting of that,” commented Van Baker, technology analyst at Gartner Inc.
Nintendo maintains the Wii can retain it’s lead due to it’s appeal to wider demographics and the ease of developing games for the console.
“Before, it was the teenage boy playing by himself. Now, the whole family is playing.”said George Harrison, Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing.
Personally I might have argued that the graphics would not really matter but after playing Spiderman 3 on the system I’m not so sure anymore. The Wii seems best suited to cartoony graphics and bright colors, like the Gamecube before it. When looking at cross platform titles its hard to not feel a little let down by the resolution of the system – especially in cases where the Wiimote gameplay mechanic fails so badly (Like Spiderman 3).
“The Wii seems best suited to cartoony graphics and bright colors, like the Gamecube before it.”
Um…the Gamecube was a lot more powerful than the PS2. Play Resident Evil 4 for 15 seconds on both systems and that’s proof of that.
The only reason there were so many games with bright cartoony graphics on the Gamecube is because they were Nintendo-owned licenses dating back to the NES and Nintendo franchise games would look pretty silly with dark, sinister graphics. Remember Bomberman Zero?
Although it is pretty funny to imagine Mario reinvented as a Cog from Gears of War. IT’S-A ME, MARCUS.
Well the PS3 is flat down the best system according to hardware, but how are you supposed to sell a $600 system with no good games? Not to mention the coding difficulties and the increased cost just because of the blu-ray disks. Spiderman3 looks like garbage no matter what system you play it on, based on that game all systems need an upgrade.
I believe that the 360 has a fair chance to cap this generations console race. It has some great titles already, and with games such as Halo3 console sales can only increase.
Microsoft seems to be doing a better job at what the original Xbox did well. Mature games, especially on the FPS front, and a powerful system for hardcore gamers that play those mature games. The Wii seems to be taking the place of the PS2 in the previous bracket. More family friendly games as well as games for a younger audience. The games are fun especially with the wii-mote taking all those different forms, so I agree with Nintendo on that aspect.
“The Wii seems best suited to cartoony graphics and bright colors, like the Gamecube before it.”
Yeah, like all the cartoony Resident Evil that the GameCube had,Resident Evil 0,1 and 4, or the bright colored Rogue Leader, Metrid Prime kinda sucks too…
But you know what? I still have to understand what is wrong with Wind Waker, Baten Kaitos, Twilight Princess, Smash Bros and so on.
Hey people,I have news for you, this is the G A M E industry, wanna see pixel perfect looking images? Go to the cinema, Lucasfilm excels at that.
The intention with the Wii was never to compete on terms of graphics on power, it was to compete on fun. It damages the competition when compared to this. Simply-as.
Bill: You’ll get little argument from me about the power of the Cube. I agree. Maybe it was a factor of the Nintendo franchises being so light and fluffy overall..
Sergi: Now let me state that I did not say the GameCube “sucked” but that it , in my opinion, always looked its best with bright colorful games. RE 4 and the other games you mentioned do stand out.
I don’t want to come off like a Cube hater – I’m not – I love my GameCubes (All 3 of them) I just was stating an opinion. Sorry it set off a nerve with you. There are some great adult centered games – Eternal Darkness being my favorite Cube game of all times – but when I saw Spiderman 3 on the other two consoles and the version we got for the Wii I was underwhelmed to be sure.
You mention how you feel the Wii is best suited to bright colours and cartoony games, which to me can be interpreted as you being fanboyish. A console can not simple be defined by one first party publisher, but rather by the whole selection of games available. If we look at the Wii we have numerous violenet titles that are going to become available including Resident evil 4, Umbrella Chronicles, Project H.A.M.M.E.R, ORB, Thorn, SUDA 51’s No More Heroes,Manhunt 2, Untitled Rockstar project, Soul Calibur Legends and many more.
You try to give the impression that you are not a fanboy, but it becomes obvious after you pick small problems from a larger solution. The Wii is bound to become the biggest selling console ever, its initial user-base and its continuing demand has already moulded this generation.
Like the last generation the weakest console in terms of graphical and processing power will come out on top (aka PS2 and Wii). Except, in this generation Wii is capable of displaying the same graphical detail as shown on a PS3 and xbox 360, albeit with slightly less characters or size of map textures.
Wii can be compared to Guilermo del torros Pans Labyrinth, which i will leave open to interpretation.
Ryan…Did you really just say that the Wii is capable of displaying the same graphical detail as a PS3 and a 360? Do you ACTUALLY believe that? That’s rediculous and you know it is. Even this early in the game, the PS3 and the 360 graphics are killing the Wii’s and it’s only going to get worse as time goes on. Now. I LOVE nintendo, and I bought a Wii, and a Gamecube, and have been buying Nintendo since the NES, and I love them to death. But on graphics there is no comparison. The Wii’s graphics will look a bit better than the GCN’s but just like the internet on the GCN failed, the graphics will fail for the Wii compared to the other two systems.
Ryan: You can toss words like Fanboy at me all you like. If you think that label fits me then so be it. I am a fan of Nintendo and its products. Though I believe many of the previous posters consider me less so than you might.
Maybe the factor of why those games look so crisp to me is merely a matter of design and attention.. I’m not sure. I would however argue that the product being put in the market by some of the developers does not demonstrate the graphical similarities of the newer consoles to the Wii.. It looks outclassed – at least with Spiderman 3 – which is how I couched my statement.
The Wii is poised to take this generation. The wii has more mature games on the horizon along with the games people love to play. XBox 360 is making the same mistake the Xbox made. Catering to hardcore gamers. This is the main reason they never broke the 30 mil mark. Last estimate had hardcore gamers as about 5 to 15% of the market. Like most they buy a game and play it for months on end. PS2 gathered the casual gamer that played all games and purchased on impulse. The games made for the PS2 went from hardcore to kiddy. This time the PS2 is waging the dog. Following in the footsteps of redundant games made for the 360 which immulate games from the computer. PS2 had the worst graphics of the last generation but sold the most. The Wii will follow suit. 10 million to produce a game that can be crossed over to the PS2 as opposed to 100 million per game that may or may not sell. Wii is a no brainer.