Fils-Aime criticizes third-party Wii efforts
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 1:54pm by Derek
Some people just don’t get the Wii. According to Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo’s third-party partners aren’t getting it either.
In an interview with Forbes published yesterday, the intimidating Nintendo of America president had harsh words for third-party companies struggling to find a viable consumer market on Wii.
According to Fils-Aime, their games just need to be better.
Fils-Aime says … third-party publishers still don’t understand the Wii audience. Tweaking the gameplay mechanics is only part of the equation. This audience, he believes, is just as interested in games that do well on other systems — but, to date, publishers have been reticent to bring those to Wii.
“I will be able to say our licensees ‘get it’ when their very best content is on our platform,” he says.
“And with very few exceptions today, that’s not the case.”
Other top Nintendo executives have made similar statements since the Wii launched two years ago, citing lackluster software and poor development efforts as the causes of third-party Wii struggles.
In an infamous Apr. 2007 interview with Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal, Nintendo development guru Shigeru Miyamoto called for third-party developers to assign their “number-one teams” to Wii software.
“If there’s only one piece of advice that I could give to the managers of third-party companies, it would be that a lot of times it seems that when they’re putting games out on Nintendo hardware, those games are being developed by their third-string team or their fourth-string team.
“When Nintendo puts out a title that is designed to support and sell its hardware, that title is always developed by one of our number-one teams. And so I think that when it comes to the question of trying to compete with our software, I would really like to see the parties try to do that with their number-one teams rather than with third- or fourth-string teams.”
For the full interview, in which Reggie also discusses Nintendo’s plans for community on Wii and supply for the holidays, check Forbes.
According to VGChartz, 29 Wii games to date have sold one million or more copies worldwide. Fourteen were published by third-parties.
SEGA’s Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games leads all third-party Wii software with 5.78 million copies sold worldwide. RedOctane’s Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock, Global Star’s Carnival Games, SEGA’s Sonic and the Secret Rings and Capcom’s Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition round out the top-five best-selling third-party Wii games to date.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Fils-Aime is the man!
Still kicking ass and taking names!!
November 19th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
So of the five top-selling third-party Wii games, only 1 is something that could be classified as a “casual” game?
Where the hell did this meme come from?
November 19th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
@ jeff
are you referring to olympics, carnival, guitar hero, or rings?
heh heh
November 19th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
good man good man.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Obviously Carnival Games Deepthought.
November 19th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
In other words, stop half assing ports and make a solid game. Reggie is right.
November 19th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
i see olympics as overtly casual too, while hero and rings can really go either way- like they’re ‘gateway’ games or something. i think re4 is the real anomaly, in a large part because the other games don’t have enough browns and grays to be taken seriously by core gamers.
builds to my point: after all the ‘wii will reward good games with moneycashhoes so it makes good economic sense to go wii and never go back’ talk i’ve heard for a long time, and yet reggie is still dissatisfied with 3rd party efforts, makes me want to discuss what’s missing in the original analysis. but not now. not this day.
…this day i’m supposed to be memo writing.
November 19th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
and therein lies the crux of the matter. reggie and miyamoto couldn’t be more right. what really gets me going is how 3rd parties, when they finally decide to support the wii, do it with their B teams. then they are so surprised that it doesn’t sell. then they say the reason their games don’t sell because wii is for casuals, atleast that is their excuse. look inside, 3rd parties……its your effort, or lack of it being the reason your games don’t sell, not anything else. nintendo may have an expanded audience, but it doesn’t mean they are stupid. people know a good game when they play one. that is why nintendo’s games sell. its all about quality and effort. stop playing stupid, and placing the blame everywhere except yourselves. hopefully high voltage will show these chumps up, and show them how its done. wii is where the money is going to be made, not the 360, or ps3. keep the prejudice up, and someone else will make all that money that you just forfeited.
November 19th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
jeff, i don’t understand what your point is. reggie’s point is the overall quality of 3rd party games is very low. not whether its for ‘casual’ or ‘hardcore’. a good game is a good game, and a bad one is a bad one. who cares if someone says a game is casual or not. if its good, who cares?
November 19th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Whoa. He suddenly cares about quality. Hooray.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
F-Zero Wii will sell over 10000000000000000000 millions, you heard me Nintendo? F-Zero Wii….please, I am begging you.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
“jeff, i don’t understand what your point is.”
Well it’s not that “casual” games can’t be good. It’s just a lot of third parties just put crap on the Wii and say “casual” like it excuses it.
I don’t think Olympics is Casual. I’m not up to date on the new definitions, but if any game with Mario AND Sonic in it isn’t considered a “core” game, then hardcore games must be a terribly narrow definition.
Good games will sell on the Wii, as long as they put their full ass into it and not half-ass it and then strangle the game in its crib by not marketing it and generally acting ashamed that the even have Wii titles to begin with. (Like UBISoft or Take 2) Nintendo games sell the most because they put their full asses into making every title, even ones that don’t turn out as popular as they’d like, and are proud of everything they make. IT’s not hard.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Just wait for all the stupid third party studio responses to this on blogs in the coming days. We will see things like “Well if it had been HD we could make a good game on it.” “If it wasn’t for children we could make a good game on it.”
You know it’s going to happen.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:47 am
@Brian Sadly, you are probably right about 3rd party response. Or they will just give us more of the same, Imagine ****, Kids Backyard ***, Carnival ****, and maybe through in some more crappy music game full of **** while they are it.
I know full well there are good 3rd party games coming, but it’s the minority, that’s for sure.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Everyone is looking at you, Bethesda.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Hmmmm. EA and Ubisoft not in top 5? Probably close.
November 20th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Haven’t we had this conversation? Like a year ago? Seems time keeps going yet we keep getting back to the same spot and having the same discussion. I’m to the point where I expect nothing from 3rd parties because they constantly deliver nothing.
And while I agree with Reggie, I’d say the same thing to Nintendo right now. After mega-hyping and releasing Wii Music, Nintendo doens’t have much room to talk about at the moment.
November 20th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
simply put he’s right. if 3rd parties put in a better effort and less crappy portishness i guarentee you we will buy. if you support it they will come…
November 21st, 2008 at 2:40 am
“And while I agree with Reggie, I’d say the same thing to Nintendo right now. After mega-hyping and releasing Wii Music, Nintendo doens’t have much room to talk about at the moment.”
Wrong. No matter what your feelings of the game are, Wii Music was a full-assed effort by their top people. And it certainly is not the ONLY game they’ve made on the Wii. It certainly took more to make that than The Price is Right or Dead Rising: Port Nobody Wants.
The reason we keep having this discussion is becuase the Wii isn’t going anywhere but UP. And if third parties continue to shit on it, they will find a Giganntic, savvy, market-leading fanbase who only trusts Nintendo because they are the only ones who make the best games constantly and do not throw large labels on them.
IT’s happened before. Ask the DS.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:28 am
Reggie needs to take a long look in the mirror before making comments like that. You sir, are releasing Animal Crossing and Wii Music for the holidays. Enough said.
November 25th, 2008 at 12:03 am
“Reggie needs to take a long look in the mirror before making comments like that. You sir, are releasing Animal Crossing and Wii Music for the holidays. Enough said.”
This is a fallacy. Nintendo has released a shitload of games that are high-quality, and high-selling. Third parties have been screwing around doing mostly nothing. Quit being willfully myopic and stupid.
November 25th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Anyone who thinks that Nintendo is releasing good titles for the holidays is stupid. Im sick to death of these kiddie titles being rehashed. Animal Crossing is a flat out joke. Smash Bros was a disappointment due to its broken online modes.
Nintendo may be moving systems, but in the long run if we dont get some major 3rd party support, Ill be buying a 360 for Fallout 3 and Fable 2.