Nintendo is a beloved company that has fought tooth and claw against the demands of maturing gamers..until now. Seems they noticed that gamers want what they don’t have, namely games like BioShock 2.
Now, while I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a sucker for the repetitive timeless adventures of the Super Mario Bros, I think Nintendo just woke up and smelled the coffee.
The little kids who once swarmed to plumbers and oversized gorillas throwing barrels are now in their mid to late 20s, and they have disposable income. Not only do they have the funds to fuel an endless gaming habit, but they want content that has matured as they have…sadly, Mario and Luigi are not always at the top of their buying lists.
The worst part is that Nintendo seems to have just realized that they don’t need to make games like BioShock, or even every single game players buy on their console….they just need other to do the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, many third-party games require about 5-6 times the processing power then what’s available on the Wii. If Nintendo had had the foresight to include a processor that could handle even basic HD, like 720p…then the floodgates to decent ports would have opened some time ago. Instead, Nintendo is left out on many high profile releases and what ports it does get aren’t likely to be purchased by anyone with a second console.
For some backstory and an explanation on Nintendo’s position, here’s a quote from their North American boss Reggie Fils-Aime:
“For us, it is important that third parties bring their very best content to our platform…The fact of the matter is we know we create great content for younger consumers, we know we’ve got great content for more casual players, and we want fantastic content for that more active player who loves Metroid or Zelda but maybe also wants something like a BioShock 2 to play as well…And we also recognise that we don’t create that type of content ourselves. We’re not good at it and it’s not a key focus area. So we want that content on our platform, so we have to court third-party developers and encourage them to make [those games], but it also has to be financially viable for them as well.”
I guess Nintendo will be forced into releasing a Wii HD soon after all…the house of Mario loves them Graphics.
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