Majesco: Nintendo “enthusiastically supports” online features in Wii games
Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 4:58am by Derek
In an interview Thursday with MTV Multiplayer, Majesco’s Kevin Ray had nothing short of praise for Nintendo and the company’s oft-criticized online implementation philosophies.
“If you see the tools coming out from Nintendo today, they are providing a lot of support for developers to integrate the Internet into their games,” said Ray. “It’s really up to the publishers now to adopt these features into their games; the tools are there and the support from Nintendo is there as well.”
While promoting Majesco’s upcoming Wii title BlastWorks: Build, Trade & Destroy, Ray contrasted the game’s robust online component, fueled by an ambitious user-generated content system, against the pervasive perception that Wii is not capable of a competent online gaming experience.
“There’s no technical reason why games for the Wii aren’t more connected,” said Ray. “The Wii is a very connected device and Nintendo not only provides library support for communications, but was very supportive with positive feedback and marketing input.”
Maybe Harmonix just missed the memo. Majesco’s BlastWorks: Build, Trade & Destroy is set for a May 6 release in North America.
Thanks to Infendo reader Pete for the tip.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:10 am
I saw that Crystal Chronicles for the Japanese WiiWare has an in game store for downloadable content.
Harmonix is full of it with their lazy port. They should lower the price of Rock Gimp to a fair amount.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:57 am
this is just saying that wiiware is going to be fantastic. yeah they just wanted to keep the rock band price the same while making that excuse.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:37 am
“There’s no technical reason why games for the Wii aren’t more connected,” have they heard about friend codes? It’s a sacrifice Nintendo made to try to keep their console open to everyone so I guess it’s not something that’s all bad but pretending that it’s not an issue is bit excessive.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Myst, read the interview. Blast Works doesn’t use friend codes at all.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Yeah, um, Myst, no offense, but read the article. It’s pretty good.
It dismantles all sorts of what now appear to be misconceptions about the Wii. It also makes Harmonix look pretty foolish. Rock Band Wii went from a maybe to a maybe not, in my book.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Heh, I forgot my real name was on that email account. But yeah, this article makes all the devs saying the Wii isn’t capable of decent online features look silly.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
huh? is it my imagination or is there no voice chat in kart?
i wonder how nintendo missed out on their own great development tools.
and yes, voice chat IS that important to my online gaming; no voice chat = broken online gaming to me. mhoftw
April 25th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
And is it my imagination or is the random online for SSBB still spotty at best, not to mention how vanilla it is.
So yes, I too and wondering how Nintendo themselves missed this.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
each developer will choose how best to impliment their online.
if you will notice, every single nintendo released online game has had a different type of implimentation, for Wii and DS, some better than others.
its not that nintendo missed anything, its that each of their development studios is seperate from the other, there is no underlying rule they must all follow to be homogenious.
and the fact is, voice chat isnt a priority for the japanese at all, developers or otherwise, and nintendo develops with the ideas they grw up with. they are japanese and will develop with japanese sensabilties.
majesco is western so will have a different focus for online, and its up to all western developers to push Wii online.
EA did it pretty well. aside from needing an EA account, which if i remember correct, is good across all games, so its not so bad, they dont use friend codes, so its already been proven before that this can be done. majesco is just proving how far developers can go if they want, and how lazy they are being about it.