Sega boss: Wii games will be more ‘original’ than other consoles
In a recent talk with MCV, Sega’s North American president, Simon Jeffrey, gave a (very) broad prediction of things to come with the current generation of games.
Simon suggests that due to the Wii’s cheaper development costs and innovative control system, that the console will be more likely to encourage developers to manufacture original content.
“There is no doubt that we will see more risks, and therefore more creativity on both the Wii and the DS in the next couple of years. Just look at what EA is already doing on the Wii – EA doesn’t usually do that kind of game. “
“We will probably see a fair bit of standardisation for a while from third party publishers in the games that they develop for 360 and PS3, as the huge development costs are ‘rationalised’.”
While many Wii fans won’t find this too shocking as we already knew that the Wii could help to offer developers the chance to be more creative with their titles, some of you (who aren’t so keen on the Wii) may be a little shocked to hear this coming from the boss of one of the largest developers in the world.
If you are wondering, the comments made came shortly after Sega won an award at the Leipzig convention in Germany for Mario and Sonic at the Olympics.
But not to worry, as Simon isn’t as insane as some of you may be thinking. He does go on to give the Xbox 360 and PS3 some praise as well:
“Sega also sees the same trend emerging on Xbox Live Arcade and on PlayStation Network,” he said.“We hope that we will see little creative sparks of genius popping up around the industry as game designers can afford to be wildly creative once again.“The industry will be looking to Sony and Microsoft to bring as much new IP as possible.”
So what do you guys think? Will the Wii be the console to turn for developers hoping to create cheap, original software? Or is this all just jibba jabba?
[Source: MCV]
POSTED IN: G, Interviews, Microsoft Xbox 360, News, Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3
14 opinions for Sega boss: Wii games will be more ‘original’ than other consoles
ShadiWulf
Aug 31, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I don’t like how he keeps mentioning EA
george
Aug 31, 2007 at 3:37 pm
why wouldn’t he mention there competition?
plus EA is doing games THEY normally wouldn’t do, because there making Nintendo clone games just 30 times shittier.
Nathan
Aug 31, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Haha, seriously. If Sega’s going to make their own version of Boogie then NO THANKS.
ShadiWulf
Aug 31, 2007 at 3:44 pm
He is calling EA’s games on the Wii creative, he better not do that to SEGA’s games.
Raidens Huge Laser
Aug 31, 2007 at 7:57 pm
All he’s saying is 360 and ps3 games cost FAR to much money to develop for and that the Wii, DS, XBLA, and PSN are cost effective.
Totally true.
Nuckles87
Aug 31, 2007 at 10:47 pm
And he’s right.
If developers get over putting shovelware on the Wii, it will be the console of choice for people looking to make new, more creative kinds of games
George
Sep 1, 2007 at 2:19 am
‘Just look at what EA is already doing on the Wii – EA doesn’t usually do that kind of game’
When did he say EA was creative, he just said cause of the low cost production of Wii, that companies are trying new things.
Boogie would be EA’s version of Space Channel 5 (failed version)
V1L3
Sep 1, 2007 at 5:11 am
PSN and Live Arcade have FAR more potential than the Wii.
Sure, development costs are low on both fronts, but the same game would cost, like, AU$10-$20 on the PSN or Live Arcade, and AU$80-$100 on the Wii.
Better for developers, maybe. Better for consumers? Not a chance.
Saphion
Sep 1, 2007 at 9:47 am
By ‘original’ he actually means ‘awesome’. It’s a secret SEGA code.
Perhaps.
Angelo
Sep 1, 2007 at 4:15 pm
I’m not particularly keen on the Wii just yet myself, but the potential is definitely there, given the variety of factors already mentioned thus far: development costs, sales, unique control scheme, etc.
For me, the problem at this point is that there really isn’t much to wet my pants over on the system right now, aside from a rather small number of titles. It took me a year to pick up an Xbox 360 and it will probably take me a year to pick up one of these as well.
It appears to me that the people buying these things for the most part are people who aren’t normally gamers to begin with. Hell, my mom, who hounded me for most of my K12 school days for “playing too much Sega”, is interested in one–that’s just great marketing: you just don’t get that with the competition.
If more software outside of Nintendo’s first party offerings actually moves (breaking “the Nintendo curse” of the past two generations), the system would very much be on its way to becoming this generation’s PlayStation 2, I believe.
Graham
Sep 2, 2007 at 8:26 am
“If more software outside of Nintendo’s first party offerings actually moves (breaking “the Nintendo curse” of the past two generations), the system would very much be on its way to becoming this generation’s PlayStation 2, I believe.”
You’d be surprised, that quite a few 3rd party titles have sold in the millions, it’s not just Nintendo software that’s selling on the system.
Emmett The Crab
Sep 2, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I have a Wii, XBOX360 and my Saturn.
I think Wii titles are only good when they are exclusives, whether Nintendo-developed or not. When you port some other game and force it into the Wii controls, it’s not the same. When I was choosing which version of Marvel:Ultimate Alliance. the 360 version was the obvious choice (room for future expansion, achievements and online Multiplayer). Ports could also decide not to make you wave your arms around, and go with a more traditional control scheme, and not be gimmicky.
And Although Alien Syndrome was not all that it could be, I really enjoyed the control of the game. That made it fun to me, although I did want it to end earlier than it did.
Emmett The Crab
Sep 2, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Also, if this guy really is a Sega Boss, he should be relatively easy to defeat in his first form, but his second form may take up the whole screen or more, and will die by exploding one pixel at a time.
Aki-at
Sep 3, 2007 at 5:53 am
“You’d be surprised, that quite a few 3rd party titles have sold in the millions, it’s not just Nintendo software that’s selling on the system”
If by a few you mean Rayman and Red Steel, yes they did, but they’ve only done a million, as opposed to millions. Third party games are yet to get a strong foothold in the million sellers just yet, but I do see them getting into it by March time, most notable will probably be SEGA, who, with Ghost Squad, NiGHTS and Mario & Sonic, will possibly dethrone Ubisoft as the top third party developer.
Also note, the Gamecube had a few million third party titles, SEGA became the top third party on that console too, 9.49 million units sold on the system with Sonic Adventure 2 Battle being the top third party game with 2.44 million units sold.
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