EA, again: No Rock Band Wii planned
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 10:59pm by Jack
Even the mighty Rome fell, eventually. So too will EA, I think, although not in quite as catastophic a fashion as the great decendents of Romulus and Reemus.
But eventually, nonetheless.
First, we had the now gospel belief that EA was and is still entirely willing to pump out unoriginal slop. Not all the time, I realize, but regardless the biggest interactive software entertainment company in the world is content with giving customers sports games on a yearly basis whose “new feature” is pretty much just a change in cover art and the date, when perhaps it should be shifting resources to more, shall we say bluntly, original IP (which a portion of the gaming population still buys, I realize). There’s other crap as well, and this is of course all just my solitary opinion and all, but I think it goes without saying that EA has officially picked a side in the great software/console wars of our time, and that side is not the side of innovation or the desires of the core gamer. Like any business, EA has picked the seemingly safe side of profit, as is its right. I say seemingly because of the company’s reaffirmed decision to forgo a Wii version of Rock Band. It is a monumental mistake of monetary proportions that I believe cost EA millions of imaginary dollars (there’s no Rock Band Wii, remember, so we’re talking hypothetical Monopoly money). That said, it’s a decision that makes perfect sense if you’re a company, like EA, that loves the status quo, expects it to continue, and expects profits to continue so long as everything stays nice and quiet.
However, there could be some very real dollar amounts being lost fairly soon. Infendo regular reader elmer wrote in this evening with just the slightest bit of rage in his voice, but unlike me he went past mere fanboy attacks and instead offered up a business case as to why EA could very well be on a great precipice: its shareholders. If you’re of the opinion that Nintendo is onto something big with its DS/Wii strategy, then EA is making a huge mistake, but an understandable one — when something truly disruptive comes along, it is often the large, established and most comfortable companies that cry foul the loudest, only to be buried by the insatiable march of progress later on. Smart shareholders are probably seeing that now in the aftermath of what was one of the greatest years in video game sales thanks to Nintendo, and might have a call or two scheduled with their advisers soon.
Wake up, EA.
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Yes, it seems only EA has been able to stir up my vitriol to furious swears recently. Sensibly making money isn’t just good, for a board of directors it’s a damn legal requirement!
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Grrrrr… I was sorta counting on it. Not that Rock Band is a must-have game, but I don’t wanna buy another system, and I really wanted to get it if I ever scraped up the cash… oh well, I’ll just buy a couple other games with the money.
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:46 pm
That’s ok. Rock Band is too expensive, anyways. Im fine with GH3 and 4 and Ouendan.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:38 am
Well Ea said not at this time. Harmonix, the people that are actually making the game said “absolutely”. While it’s understandable to be annoyed that they aren’t more decisive, I think you’re being more than a little sensationalist about this.
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:15 am
It’ll come. EA is big and slow but they aren’t blind. They see the GHIII sales on Wii and they are near the top. They have a PS2 version, so making a Wii version should be as easy as……….Okami/Bully/REWii/every other last gen port. Right?
Hey, I’ll settle for a PS2 port, just make it $150 instead of $170-$180.
Also, in the next 6 months or less would be nice.
A game like Rock Band has to come to the number 1 console, especially given the overwhelming success of the Wii version of GHIII.
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:26 am
As infuriating as this reaffirmation is, I can’t help but feel that the decision was made with the gaming community in mind.
The model Rock Band is using is one that is heavily focused on downloadable content. The company is dedicated to releasing new songs on a consistent basis, and intends to do so at a regular clip for the foreseeable future. I want to be enraged by this news, I really wholeheartedly do; I just can’t shake the feeling that Nintendo’s lack of a storage solution is more the culprit here.
I own Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii, and have also had GH2 for Xbox 360, without once feeling the need to download more songs (they’re usually rubbish anyways). However, since Rock Band really does focus more on the downloadable content, I have to think that until Nintendo gets this storage debacle sorted out, we could lose dozens of games made of the same cloth as Rock Band (wouldn’t LittleBigPlanet seem at home on Wii?). And I really can’t bring myself to blame EA for making the final call to not bring the game to Wii.
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:11 am
?
This sounds like no change to the wii-yes-but-not-yet story I heard before. Still think they’re wasting time and missing some revenue here, but that they’ll cave.
Oh- for fun, watch a Zero Punctuation and then go read any semi-lengthy article, like this one. I swear everything became high-speed british.
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:43 am
I’m pretty sure–eventually–that Rock Band will be released on Wii. Right now I think both EA and Harmonix are reluctant to release it because of DLC issues, in that Nintendo hasn’t really revealed anything about their DLC strategy. They’re playing it safe, sure. But only because they don’t want to disappoint people with a PS2 style Rock Band port, where an entire mode is missing and there’s no DLC at all. Or they’re just assholes, you know, whichever way you want to slant it.
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:58 am
That picture makes me think of a violin hero esque game.
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:30 am
This has nothing to do with DLC. They happily made the game for PS2 with no DLC option and would have done with Wii had they had better foresight. This has everything to do with predicting Wii success and understanding the Wii demographic. If they had known the Wii would do as well as it has and that games like GHIII would do well on the system they would have planned for the Wii version. They didn’t, they were wrong and now they have to re-evaluate. Thats why games like Force Unleashed are now coming to the Wii. The system is getting hard to ignore.
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:45 am
All the downloadable content comments make no sense thanks to EA’s willingness to make a shit PS2 port. We surely do know by now that EA of all people (I didn’t even have to bolden it, it boldens itself) doesn’t mind in the slightest about disappointing Nintendo fans with PS2 ports, rushed games and missing modes. They don’t mind treating PS2 fans to a cut down version - why would they treat Wii fans any better. Ergo, there’s some other reason afoot here. Like them being bastards.
The fact is to all the “it’ll come” arguments, for every other Wii/PS2-port-game we’ve gotten each has;
a) come on time
b) been announced as existing
The lack of a) or b) in this case means that Rock Band Wii is actually a genuine step backwards in terms of developer support compared to say 6 months ago. WE AREN”T EVEN GETTING SHIT PORTS ANYMORE. This happened with Call of Duty as well. Somehow we did get a shit port of the shit COD3 (which despite everything actually sold pretty well), but didn’t get a shit port of the much better COD4.
If you want a real conspiracy theory, I’m seriously on the boarder of being convinced that at some point the major 3rd parties, perhaps in conjunction with Sony and Microsoft, got together in a secret cabal and decided to bury Nintendo via a lack of any non-token support. It’s failed, obviously, but the consequence if true and uncovered could mean Nintendo suing EVERYONE in the industry for anti-competitive behavior. To which I’d laugh for hours. HOURS
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:52 am
Damn you used cisco.
Also, EA have a real talent at ignoring us. It’s hard, but I’m sure they’ll persevere. As will every other Western Dev. Just look at how their strength of will allows them to continue ignoring the DS.
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 am
@elmer
haha!
Seriously though, I think you need to consider this truism, “never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity”.
I think EA is just stupid, not malicious.
With regard to the CoD3 and CoD4 comments you made, the reason is that treyarch (who made CoD3) was ready for a Wii version while Infinity Ward (who made CoD4) had pretty much moved on from last gen development hardware. Thats why we got CoD3 but not CoD4 on Wii. Its not a “reversal of support”.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 am
Hey, if I was high up in Activision and I saw how well the Wii was doing and what it CAN do for FPS’s, I’d say;
“What in Tarnation? I don’t care which team we get ta do it but we better geta version of our hot property on that hot system - at least we can rush a version on the PS2 if we gotta make up the numbers, gosh darn it. Inifinity Ward can art it up their ass, I want my money while the money’s good. It was good enough for us last year, it’s good enough for us this year too. Dagnammit”
Joking aside, the problem is that next year the lesser Treyarch will have moved on to ‘next-gen’ hardware as well, as will have every major in house studio, leaving only the crap and the few to develop for ‘last gen’ hardware. We’re actually getting handed down from 2nd and 3rd tier teams willing to work on PS2 games last year to 3rd, 4th and 5th tier teams this year. This constitutes a reduction in support (or at least a reduction in investment and effective support) compared to last year.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:21 am
I wonder if it has anything to do with the game using a mic and Reggie’s recent comments about voice chat just needing the right peripheral.
Personally, I think Nintendo has a lucrative contract just waiting for someone to develop the killer wireless mic for this system. We’ll probably see it later this year at some game conference.
No, the one for Boogie and High School Musical doesn’t count.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:44 am
@elmer,
You may be right, that new situations and policies are creating an effective reversal of support. My point was just that, Activision wasn’t likely in a position to say something along the lines of, “Well, we did CoD3 on the Wii, but we’re no longer interested so we’ll take a pass on CoD4 on Wii”. The end result may be the same for this game, but not necessarily for every game. In fact, I think that publishers like EA may be a bellwether with their recent purchase of a studio just for Wii games. My hope is that such studios live up to the promise of the hardware and show other publishers that it can be lucrative. This could serve the Wii AND PS2 quite well, and the longer people hold on to their PS2s, the more slow will be the adoption rate of the PS3, which will only help the cycle in our favor because if the PS3 blows up and the 360 and PS3 have a combined install base significantly larger than the Wii, publishers will likely see it as a single entity for multiplat titles.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
What is the combined ps3 and xbox install compared to Wii?
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Unfortunately, without DLC, Rock Band will be a mere shadow of it´s 360 and PS3 counterparts, and if it is that way…not sure if want.
I really hope Nintendo comes up with a solution for this issue.
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
@ yegman
360 + PS3 worldwide = about 25 million to Nintendo’s 19.5
In the West 360 + PS3 = about 23 million to about 13
Either way, ignoring over 33% of the ‘next-gen’ market. Also GHIII Wii far outsold GHIII PS3
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
@ used cisco
“My hope is that such studios live up to the promise of the hardware and show other publishers that it can be lucrative.”
This is exactly my hope as well. I think over this point, you’re an optimist while I’m a pessimist. What I believe will happen is more of these new internal Wii specific studios will turn up. The members will be green, there will be no funding, and at Christmas crunch times they’ll be given back seats in internal resources to the blockbusters of the season. Still they’ll be forced by their overlords to hit arbitrary milestones and launch dates while their MGS4 counterparts are allowed every ‘artistic’ indulgence. Outsiders will look at their releases which will vary between minigame clones, the odd under tested experimental game, and Pony games targeted at 6 year old girls (apparently the extent of the Bigwigs’ imagination when it comes to ‘extended’ markets) and see their imagined poor sales as indicative of the impossibility of 3rd party sales on a Nintendo console. I say imagined because despite their shoddy workmanship delivered in unfair conditions, many will actually sell well (ala carnival games and whatnot), but these sales will go fully under appreciated by the higher ups, contemporary developers and the industry press. Funnily enough all the non-fanboy participants in the industry will be plenty pleased with them (the regular press, analysts, non-specialist retailers and actually customers). All this will make the lead studios congratulate themselves on evading ‘that last gen platform’ while bleeding dry the profits their peasant counterparts earned. There will be less and less prospect of us getting ports of the ‘BIG’ games no matter how much sense they make. I’ve actually heard of developers saying “If I have to make Wii games then I’m done with the industry” WTF??!! There’s no fighting this level of industry wide hoity-toityness. Let me quote my joystiq post on Bionic Commando:
“This is a game where the principle mechanic is that the protagonist POINTS his HAND at things in front of him and grabs them. This is also a NOSTALGIA driven game with a ‘fanbase’ (if it still exists) composed of ex-NES gamers.
Does anyone else see a problem with Capcom ignoring the only console that lets you POINT your HAND at things in front of you and grab them on the screen, AND download NOSTALGIC NES games?
No, I must be wrong. This is obviously a better fit for a PS3 with its, err, ex-PS2 fanbase? And motion control thingy pad?… OBVIOUSLY.”
Who did this make sense to? Apparently the american and swedish western guys heading up this japanese team making it.
And again I say it doesn’t matter how successful Nintendo is, look at DS and you’ll see Western 3rd parties HATE money, logic, Nintendo and us. Do not kid yourself. These new ‘dedicated’ studios are exactly what Miyamoto meant by ‘3rd and 4th tier teams.
Sorry for the endless rants. My blood is boiling.
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
@ elmer
While I enjoyed your posts, you also got my blood boiling as well. The way Nintendo is treated in the game industry is embarrassing, and even worse than that incredibly stupid. I have been a gamer for over 25 years and while I enjoys all types of games and many different systems and I have and probably always will be a Nintendo fan. The only “next gen” system I own is the Wii and I’ve only owned Nintendo portables, and my reason for being such an ardent fan is simple, fun and innovation. Since the glory days of the NES the most fun I’ve has playing games or perhaps doing anything else, has come from playing Nintendo.
Yet, despite Nintendo’s legacy, their rich library of games, and leading the game industry for the past 20 - 25 years, they get little to no respect from 3rd party developers and publishers. This attitude that the Wii is a “last gen” system I hear from developers is unacceptable and their refusal to work on new, non-port games on the console is ignorant, sloppy, lazy, and flat out makes me sick. I tolerated ports for the past year and I tried to be understanding, since everyone was so shocked by Nintendo’s success and got caught flat footed on the biggest phenomenon in gaming history. I personally, was certain of Nintendo’s return to dominance the moment I saw the new controller, but apparently I was alone in my foresight. Now the time for excuses is over and some real, original, developed exclusively for the Wii games should start coming out… yet I look to the horizon and see nothing but more ports and loads of crap floating our way. I am confident that Nintendo and the 1st party flagship will not disappoint us and will deliver quality as they have since their beginning and have only gained strength in their development skills, making games that I can enjoy with family members and friends that would never play games before. Nintendo’s vision is lost on 3rd parties and it’s a damned shame.
I sometimes share in some of the frustrations and complaints of the 3rd parties, that mass storage is critical that the hardware is underpowered, and the online service needs an overhaul, but the fact remains that the Wii is a very capable system and is the most popular console in the world. It has the potential to be much greater with good software and astounding games are possible (Super Mario Galaxy should stand as a testament to that). I hate to be a pessimist, but if some of these companies don’t wake up soon they are going to miss out and gamers will be deprived or forced into buying an overpriced media hub.
January 3rd, 2008 at 8:43 pm
@elmer,
I get what you’re saying. And I certainly can’t say you’re completely wrong. I would only add that if what you say comes to pass, there will be a ton of competition in the 3 genres you mention on Wii (minigame clones, the odd under tested experimental game, and Pony games targeted at 6 year old girls). That being the case, it only takes a few developers to step outside that box in an effort to differentiate themselves to make some outstanding and original games. Certainly, I’m optimistic, but I believe in the market and when too many people go one direction, you’re bound to have some independent thinkers going in another and those are the games I have enjoyed and will continue to seek out.
In the end, for many of the reasons you mention (particularly the disdain much of the industry has for the console) I think the Wii may be fated to be a bit of a disappointment to the traditional gamer but even so I think some of the best, most creative and original games will be on it, and it alone. I personally feel like we’re already seeing it. And even though I think you’re right in a lot of respects, I think the continued surge of the install base can only mean more and better in the future, even if its not up to our lofty expectations.