Square Enix's prez calls the Wii a toy
Category: Wii, Posted: 01/16/2008 at 10:42PM CST by Demetri Kouvalis, Features Editor
Yoichi Wada, the powerful president over at castle Square Enix called the Nintendo Wii a "toy". A toy compared to the competition makes it sound like the Wii is a gimick or a fad. I had the exact same thought of the Nintendo Wii before it was released, when all we knew about it was its name and its "remote-like" controller.
I honestly told myself and others that Nintendo was taking a very big risk in changing how games were meant to be played.
Mr. Wada clarifies his statement by saying "Nintendo seems to place a great emphasis on Wii Sports and Fit rather than Zelda, a role-playing game. In my opinion, if they expose the functions in this way, they are making the Wii look like a toy."
True the Nintendo Wii is lacking in the RPG department, action-adventure, fighters, and first/third person shooters, but you can get fit on it! Never before has the competition been so cut-throat, with each console capitalizing on something true and unique to its own. But is the Nintendo Wii really pushing its innovation to the max?
There are certainly a handful of great Wii games that really use the Wiimote and nunchuck to its advantage, but almost all of those games were developed from Ninendo directly. Are third party developers still unsure about the direction the Nintendo Wii might be taking? Is it really going to end up as just a toy? I believe it is up to Nintendo to entice third party developers and show them how successful games made specifically for the Wii can be. I'm sure gamers are getting a bit tired and frustrated with the games that are ported from the 360 or PS3 with tacked on Wii controls.
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It really is coming off as a toy the way that all these minigames and Wii [Words] games are flooding the market. Nintendo needs to start setting up deals with the big names about big games.
I just think it's funny how he's calling a video game console a toy. I get that he's saying it's a toy compared to the powerhouses that are the 360 and PS3, but it's still funny.
well duh
The Wii is a toy, they're all toys, when I stop "playing" my console and start feeling it's work, then I'm moving on in my life.
The Wii needs more unique titles that don't necessarily need cutting edge graphics, but bring something else to the table. Of course, Zak and Wiki was EXACTLY what the Wii should be about, and it sold like crap, which doesn't bode well.
It'll be interesting to see if No More Heroes sells well here in the states, seeing that it pretty much fell flat in Japan.
Nintendo is in a great position, because they're still making money on the hardware side of the Wii, and still pulling in licensing fees for publishing on the console, even if those games aren't selling. Unfortunately, if only 1st party games continue to sell, and 3rd party hardcore titles continue to fail, even great ones, which Zak and Wiki is, you're going to get even less hardcore titles on the Wii and more shovelware crap like Ninjabread Man.
I like my Wii, I hope at some point sales start to ramp up on some of the more hardcore 3rd party titles for it so that we can maybe get a Zak and Wiki 2 or No More Heroes 2 on the system, even if they go multiplatform.
The Wii isn't pushing innovation at all. Wii Fit reminds me of one of that exercise game you played with the NES Power Pad (remember that? The first floor mat?), and Wii Sports is the sort of thing you see in little paddle toys in the mall. The games that aren't minigame collections could have all been done on other platforms, and in the case of games like Metroid Prime 3, suffer for being shoehorned onto the Wii.
And this isn't about "hardcore" or anything like that. This is about whether the Wii will make for a vibrant market like the 360 and PS3 or, as Wada puts is, a toy. Something that you play Wii Sports on, maybe Wii Play, then put in the closet
And yes, I love playing video games. I'm with Krakn, I don't want my games feeling like work. However, I prefer my games to provide some depth, and much of the Wii's lineup, first and third party, provide all the depth of a teaspoon.
'Toy' isn't necessarily a derogatory term. It's more an indication of its target market. So far it hasn't offered a whole lot in the way of 'deep' game experiences. That's not a bad thing (obviously it's selling really well). It's just a fact.