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Are people a Wii bit tired of Wii?

posted by nikki at 3:27 pm.

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The Calgary Herald today has a story regarding a recent interview with Mike Capps, president of Epic Games (makers of Gears of War). In it, he is fairly adamant about Epic Games never releasing games on the Wii, because it it a fad and no one even bothers to turn the console on after two months.

I have to say I disagree with the guy. To be frank, that’s true of all consoles, for most people. I know I’ve gone two months without turning on my Wii. I’ve also gone two months without turning on my PS2. Even longer for some of the older systems I own. That doesn’t mean I’m not coming back to them at some point.

I’ve been on a Wii kick lately, having just picked up Guitar Hero III, playing Brawl, and waiting for Mario Kart’s release next week… but before Brawl came out last month, I was hooked on my PS2 (which hasn’t seen much action of late, thanks to the plethora of interesting Wii titles in stores) playing some older titles I hadn’t tried before that I grabbed on clearance (Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy kicks ass, by the way).

It’s nothing to do with the console, and everything to do with the games. Every console seems to have dry spells. This is admittedly less true for the PS3 and 360, but that’s largely to do with the fact that they have massive third party support. Third party titles on the Wii are often ports seemingly released as an afterthought. Nearly all of Nintendo’s core series (Mario, Zelda, and so on) are first party.

I don’t think the Wii is a fad. It’s simply intended to appeal to a broader audience, rather than the “hardcore” gamers targeted by PS3 and 360 (and to be honest, I think any gamer who doesn’t play Wii just because it’s primarily family oriented can’t really be called a hardcore gamer, anyway). Only time will tell. It’s hard to deny that the Wii is gimicky, and obviously the motion sensing controls haven’t been fully embraced by third party developers. The Wii may have the staying power to become the future of gaming… or it may be ahead of it’s time.

Nikki Blight: is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.