“I think Wii have a problem here”-Says Gamefunk May 4, 2008
The Nintendo Wii remains the hottest selling console on the market, having shipped over 24 million units since its launch in November 2006. That’s nearly double the PS3 and 5 million more than the Xbox 360, though the Xbox has been on the market for twice as long.
But behind the success of the Wii lies a dirty secret, says GameFunk: That very few quality games are being made for the console. In fact, if you look at the aggregate reviews, most of the games suck. Sure, Wii has some standout titles (Super Mario Galaxy is a classic, one of my favorite games in recent years), but most of the great games have come from Nintendo itself, not from third-party developers.
GameFunk’s chart is telling: According to GameRankings‘ reviews (which are drawn from major reviewing outlets), 26% of titles for the Xbox 360 were ranked as good (8 out of 10 or higher), and 33% of titles for the PS3 were ranked as good. On the Wii, just 11% got a good rating, measuring just 20 games total, four of which were ports of ancient PS2 or GameCube games.
The numbers hold up just as well at Metacritic. Visit the Wii page and you’ll see a sea of yellow (mediocre) and red (bad) games in the “upcoming and recent releases” section on the left side of the page. As I write this there are only eight titles in the green (75 out of 100 points) or above. The 360 has 18 “good” picks to choose from.
What’s going on here? For some reason, the creators of quick-buck shovelware titles have focused on the Wii. GameFunk notes that the “for all ages” marketing is what primarily predisposes developers to target the Wii, but I think there’s somewhat less to it than that: The Wii is simply becoming a victim of its own success. The Wii is a phenomenon that now dominates the market. Why develop for the PS3 when you instantly attract twice the audience with a Wii game? The fact that Wii games take a fraction of the resources to develop (since they require only basic graphics work and gameplay is often simplistic) seals the deal.
Will Nintendo start to crack down on junk games and start enforcing quality control? Right now, Nintendo is relishing its position at the top of the charts, a place it hasn’t been in decades. It’s easy to say that responsibility lies with Nintendo to police the games on its console, but, really, if people are willing to buy a Hannah Montana game, how can Nintendo legitimately say no?
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Titles for 360 and PS3 seem to be graded almost entirely off of their graphical appeal… also, I’m not sure about 360’s library of games but I know that PS3’s pale’s greatly in comparison to the Wii’s when it comes to quantity… obviously, the bell curve for quantity and quality will never line up perfectly. When there are 250+ games for PS3, I’m sure they’ll be at less than 11% rated “good”
It’s the same old explanation, and nothing to do with the Wii or Nintendo. Developers had to make a choice as it’s difficult for a studio to make both PS3/360 games and Wii games due to the differing dev techniques. Most of them made the decision before the Wii’s release. Now that the Wii has become so successful, they’ve realised they’ve bet on the wrong horse so rush games to market. This usually means slapping some Wii controls on a PS2 game, hence the poor reviews - releasing a 4 year old game with some motion control glued on isn’t going to impress anyone.
The situation isn’t as bad as it seems - many of the top rated PS3 games are just updates to existing franchises for instance. They get higher scores because they’ve just had to polish the graphics and gameplay on an existing title, whereas the Wii requires a total redesign to make a good game.
The Wii games are also improving a lot - so far this year we’ve had Brawl, Mario Kart, GH3, Okami, Wii Fit, No More Heroes, Zack & Wiki, Pro Evo 2008 - all of which are in the top 20 Wii scores on Metacritic. This will not be a problem any more by the end of the year as developers catch up to their mistake of ignoring the Wii in the first place…
Meh, If I didn’t want first-party games, I’d have bought a PS3.
One thing to keep is mind is who the reviewers are writing reviews for. Casual games are really for a whole different audience. Carnival Games is mediocre, but it sold like crazy and people enjoy it.
Which isn’t to say there isn’t some disproportionate crap shovelware (because there certainly is), but I don’t think the Wii library is as bad as those numbers indicated when factoring in casual gamers.
@ PaulT - I agree, pretty much, with everything you’ve said. If I was a crappy game developer, I’d make games for the best selling system too! But, like you said, it’s not so bad. In the middle of all the bad games out there, there are some REALLY good ones!
oh, and BTW, contrary to GameFunk, this is not a “dirty little secret.” I’m sure everyone knows there have been some crappy games coming out for Wii.
I have to admit, Im a hardcore super smash bros brawl fan and thats the only game that makes me want a Wii(Which I should be getting soon). But other than that Id rather stick on my PC and play games there. And people who have consoles would probably wanna play most of their games on the 360 and PS3. Sure their games have nice graphics but thats also a plus to the fact that some of the games are actually good.
One big thing that Nintendo is missing is the fact that they don’t have games that suit to the American market as much as the PS3 and 360 do. Thats games like GTA4, Gear of War, and Halo 3. They don’t have any shooters that are on the level of that commercially. Sure they have Metriod Prime, but thats more of a secret amongst Nintendo Fanboys.
Now that the Wii has been out for awhile and that most of its major titles have been released, I have no clue what games people will actually want in the future. But if you asked me what games people would want for other platforms, Id easily be able to tell you.
But hey, Nintendo hasn’t been good with games since the N64 IMO. And it turns out back in the N64 they had more mature games, Goldeneye ring a Bell? Expand your effing Horizon back to what it used to be.
The Wii hasn’t been out as long as either of those systems… especially the 360.
i believe that wii has not any problem and for sure it will take the fist place!!
According to this article:
1. There are about 220 games on the Wii, in total.
2. Nintendo hasn’t been in first place in sales for games for atleast twenty years(it clearly states “decades”).
Both of those statements are 100% incorrect. There are well over 220 games on the Wii, and Nintendo was definitely in first in video game sales in 1988.
This article talks about how most of the games for Wii are unsatisfactory. That is true, but the Wii also has the most standout great games(games that hardcore gamers will actually buy). I DO NOT mean alright, average, so-so games. I mean the triple-A titles that stand out above the rest.
I can do a little count:
Xbox 360: Halo, Bioshock(not exclusive), GTA 4(not exclusive), Call of Duty 4(not exclusive), Gears of War, Mass Effect(not exclusive). That adds up to six titles, and two of which are exclusive
Wii: Zelda, Metroid, Resident Evil(not exclusive), Okami(not exclusive), Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, Zack and Wiki, Super Paper Mario. That adds up to nine, seven of which are exclusives.
There’s yet another thing to notice, all the wanted titles for Wii are in many different genres. The ones for Xbox 360 are ALL SHOOTERS(ME and GTA are exceptions).
My point is, if a hardcore gamer wants games, the Wii is still the definitive system to get.