PlayOn
05-05-2008, 01:57 AM
www.yahoo.com
The Nintendo Wii remains the hottest selling game console on the market, having shipped over 24 million units since it's launch of November 2006. That's nearly double the PS3 and 5 million more than the Xbox 360, tho the Xbox has been on the market twice as long.
But behind the success of Wii lies a dirty little secret, says Gamefacts: very few quality games have been made for the console. In fact, if you look at the aggregate reviews, most of the games suck. Sure Wii has some stand-out titles, but most of the great games have come from Nintendo itself, not from the third party developers.
GameFunk's chart is telling: according to Generating 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 PS3 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. There are only eight lights in 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 the quick-buck shovelware titles have focused on the Wii. Gamefacts notes that the "for all ages" marketing is what primarily predisposes to target the Wii, but I think there's somewhat less to it than that: the Wii is simply being a victim in it's 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 facts that Wii games take a fraction of the resources to develop (since they require only basic 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 it position at the top of the charts, a place it hasn't been in over a decade. 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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Article written by: Christopher Null: The Working Guy
www.yahoo.com (to view links)
The Nintendo Wii remains the hottest selling game console on the market, having shipped over 24 million units since it's launch of November 2006. That's nearly double the PS3 and 5 million more than the Xbox 360, tho the Xbox has been on the market twice as long.
But behind the success of Wii lies a dirty little secret, says Gamefacts: very few quality games have been made for the console. In fact, if you look at the aggregate reviews, most of the games suck. Sure Wii has some stand-out titles, but most of the great games have come from Nintendo itself, not from the third party developers.
GameFunk's chart is telling: according to Generating 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 PS3 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. There are only eight lights in 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 the quick-buck shovelware titles have focused on the Wii. Gamefacts notes that the "for all ages" marketing is what primarily predisposes to target the Wii, but I think there's somewhat less to it than that: the Wii is simply being a victim in it's 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 facts that Wii games take a fraction of the resources to develop (since they require only basic 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 it position at the top of the charts, a place it hasn't been in over a decade. 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?
***
Article written by: Christopher Null: The Working Guy
www.yahoo.com (to view links)