Nintendo and its developers were covert with Wii

by Blake Snow { Nov 1st 2006 at 6:15PM }

Business Week examines the Wii as compared to Sony's PS3 from a non-gamer perspective. Though somewhat redundant, the piece offers good insight as to how the Wiimote came to fruition (once a cell phone?), favorable analyst predictions (Wii to initially outsell the PS3), and the amount of stealth used to mask Nintendo's motion-sensing mojo:

"Development of the Wii took place behind an absolute shroud of secrecy. When Sega finally got a sneak preview in early 2005, it immediately offered Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Monkey Ball for the Wii's launch [Note: Sega strongly supported the 'Cube] ... France's Ubisoft and a half-dozen other studios excitedly signed on, too. All were required to take extreme measures to prevent leaks."

The article goes on to say that Ubisoft even built new office walls to stay mum. Well that helps explain the extreme hush-hushness of the project. And the business mag concludes that despite Wii's chances, hard-core gamers will likely prefer a 360 or PS3. "But for the industry, Nintendo's machine could be a real game changer."

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Melophonist @ Nov 1st 2006 6:22PM

Wii still wish that Nintendo kept the Wiimote a secret a little while longer so that Sony didn't look as to be copying them whether they were or wern't.

cheese @ Nov 1st 2006 6:24PM

if there are more wii's on hand to sell, how would it not sell more than ps3? duh... The question is, how much staying power does it have?

Neil @ Nov 1st 2006 6:57PM

Looks like the covert operation worked out well, now gamers everywhere can play fabulous games such as Dragon Ball Z 2, Happy Feet, Rampage: Total Destruction, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The Ant Bully, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Barnyard, Cars, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Creature from the Krusty Krab Open Season amd Ice Age 2: The Meltdown!!!!!

Dane @ Nov 1st 2006 7:02PM

"Those hard-core gamers will prefer Microsoft's Xbox Live online service, or Sony's dazzling graphics and stereo sound."

Yeah, because no other console besides the PS3 has STEREO sound! oooooh, amazing two channel output.

navim88 @ Nov 1st 2006 7:03PM

why do they think that hard core players would most likely pick up 360 or ps3?
or do they just mean graphics whores?

reguy @ Nov 1st 2006 7:06PM

@ Neil

what the hell is your problem??????

you forgot pokemon battle revolution ;)

1up_clock @ Nov 1st 2006 7:12PM

Oh, yes Neil. I guess Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, WarioWare, Brawl, Wii Sports and Red Steel were all cancelled at the last minute.

Seriously Neil, that is a horrible attempt at defacing the console. Everybody knows that a console has to have a crapton of crappy third-party games. It's like you guys aren't even trying anymore.

truth @ Nov 1st 2006 7:16PM

Wrong.... "hardcore gamers" will ALSO buy a wii.

Chris @ Nov 1st 2006 7:27PM

Using that logic the same would hold true for the psp vs ds battle. But hey, what do you know? The little industry game changer ended up winning that battle.

Joshua @ Nov 1st 2006 7:34PM

I want one so bad. I can almost taste it.

serb @ Nov 1st 2006 7:36PM

@chris
the only reason ds is doing better is because nintendo has ruled the handheld indstry already for a long time, just like the ps3 is gonna win the nex-gen console war because sony is dominating the console industry right now

ELUNO @ Nov 1st 2006 7:41PM

@serb
Yeah, and Nintendo was dominating with the NES and SNES.... So, what's your point?

Jonn @ Nov 1st 2006 7:45PM

@11: That's what people said about the N64. And lo and behold...

vakerorokero @ Nov 1st 2006 7:49PM

considering the hardcore gamers live in Japan, and they are only getting 80,000 (if everything goes ok) and americans will get 200,000 (if everything goes ok and That not considering the thousand of resellers getting one) guess Sony doesn't even have enough to sell to the hardcore...

striderhayasa @ Nov 1st 2006 7:52PM

@ serb

uh....no. Try Again
---------------------------

does anyone want to play FF XXVIII (the "Never Final" Final Fantasy), Metal Gear Solid Substance Substantial 38, and Devil May Sing: Disco Edition Vol. 45 with the SAME controller we've already been using for the last 10 years? Look at the next gen and there are far too many games that have the same gameplay but better graphics. We've talked about this over and over again. There has to be a change somewhere.

the worst thing about the next gen are the same "me-too" attitudes that developers have taken to generate product. Another Ridge Racer, Another Devil May Cry, Another Metal Gear, Another Zelda..... and

the poser fanboys that constantly go on and on about nothing. Swearing that Devil May Sing is an awesome title because it's Dante in a G-String on the PS8 in Ultra-super-colloso HD definition with the purple ray drive that hold 300 TBs of data and can launch nuclear missles from a toaster. Give me a break.

Nicholas Sulikowski @ Nov 1st 2006 7:55PM

Market domination is not a permanent thing. I'm sure you all recall when Nintendo was top dog. Then Sega came in and gave them some healthy competition, just like Xbox gave PS2. Then came the PSone, and Nintendo's reign ended. Why? Expense and arrogance primarily. Nintendo's carts could cost up to $70, and the cart format was harder to work with than the more developer friendly CD-ROM. Interestingly enough, a similar scenario is happening now. The Blu-Ray format, thought techonologically superior is scaring many devs, and overall it feels as if Sony is trying to force this upon us. Meanwhile the two rival companies are using the tried and true DVD format, and in 360's case HD-DVD, which is easier to adapt to from DVD than Blu-Ray. Nintendo was also overly confident they would prevail due to the Nintendo brand, and familiarity. Sony is similarly counting on this. What I'm saying is I'm predicting a shift in power come this next generation. Whether it be to Micrsoft or Nintendo, I don't feel Sony will ultimately dominate again.

joey @ Nov 1st 2006 8:03PM

@serb
Replace "the only" with "one"
The fact that gameboys sold well in the 90's is not affecting the thousands of grandparents / parents / children that are purchasing/recieving new DSs every month. The DS is simply more popular, with the games and features that people "apparently" want in today's market. "TODAY'S MARKET" being the key words.

Prior handheld success is only a partial reason for the DS's success, not "the only" one.

Crrash @ Nov 1st 2006 8:14PM

2 generations of chaos and a subsequent crash, 2 generations of nintendo domination, 2 generations of sony domination, now a new 2 generations cycle starts, might it be microsofts turn, nintendo again, or sony even after all the bad press?

the DS dominates not
because of the gameboys. many people who own the ds never had a handheld console and never cared about it, but the DS offers casual games yet also deep games. It has thinking games, dramas, and fun games. it has something for everyone.Can you say that about the PSP?
nope, and thats why the DS dominates sales.

mmh btw. i like to call myself a hardcore gamer... maybe because ive been in gaming since 6 years old, about when the NES was turning old. Or maybe because most of my free time im playing video games. Dont know, but i definately am a hardcore gamer and im very interested in the wii. Its basically because it has the great all classics, because its finally something new and different, and because it actually leaves some money for you to buy games once you buy the machine

As many have pointed out, the industry is going the wrong way, prices of development and the systems are sky high, microtransactions are "in", companys relying on downloadable content, forceful use of bluray, people are starting to think mor of graphics than of the content of the game itself...
i really hope for you me and the industry that nintendo gets one of the top places this gen, or well see another crash...

potato @ Nov 1st 2006 8:54PM

I love nintendo a lot but the GCube and Wii spelled the end. Nothing will top the zelda games of the past or any of the other nintendo games. Sony and M$ are giving me what I want. Thank You nintendo, but maybe next gen, maybe.

striderhayasa @ Nov 1st 2006 9:03PM

@crrash

I feel you, I starting playing when the Atari 2600 came out. I've been playing ever since. I'm getting the Wii because I can have the entire Nintendo catalog (or a large portion of it) on one console. XBLA can't match that, PS3's online service can't match that.

For anyone that wants to see how the Metal Gears, Castlevania's and the Zelda's of today got so popular, Wii is the console to see how it all started.

Also, it's the controller. If Nintendo would have gone Sony and MS's route for more power and better graphics. I might have picked up a Wii for the Zelda and Metroid. Maybe Mario and Smash Brothers. But I sure as hell wouldn't be an early adopter. The controller has me excited to play these games just to see how it works. That's why I'm supporting it. Otherwise, I wouldn't care so much.

It's the same with DS. I walked into EB today and saw some of the games coming out for DS and I'm really excited to play a lot of these titles. On PsP...I'm still playing Monster Hunter and that's it. I probably won't buy another game for the PSP until Feb, March 07...if then. the DS library has fun games that are not always what you expect. PSP is giving you exactly what you expect and it gets old fast. I do love Monster Hunter though but that's one PSP titles versus the 5 DS games I play and the additional 9 or 10 that I want that are coming out over the next few weeks.

themikey @ Nov 1st 2006 10:13PM

Sigh. Ladies and Gents, start your flamethrowers...

Okay. This is what I think, and since I am a self-proclaimed genius I shall unveil the shroud of mystery!

How good will graphics get? What happens when we hit photorealism in games? Games that are so real you literally think you're watching a movie rather than swinging a controller. What then? At the rate the graphics war is going, I would say the PS4/Next-XBox. Will accomplish. But then what? What's going to set PS5/Next-Next-Box apart from the previous gen? Nothing. It's going to be a reiteration of the old with a few new tweak thrown in.

Nintendo cannot afford to go that route so they've run off the beaten path. Will this work? We have to wait and see on November 19 if it lives up to its hype. I hope it does, because then when the Wii's successor comes (maybe 4 years?) with its HD graphics and 1080p processing. Because then the R&D will be paid for with the Wii and Nintendo can pledge full support for HD.

If the Wii is a (R)evolution, in gaming, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony will all arrive at the same place eventually.

I think that went a bit off topic...

FuzzyPickles @ Nov 1st 2006 10:30PM

And think anyone who's been a "hardcore gamer" for a long time now has to be excited about the Wii by default. I mean... come on...

Lou D @ Nov 2nd 2006 7:05AM

I'd like to call myself a "hardcore" gamer... I've been gaming since '78 on the Magnavox Odessey 2. I grew up typing in programs from a magazine on the Commodore 64...128D then onto the Amiga CD32. Owned an Atari 5200, Genesis and bought a PS2 for 1 game, Final Fantasy 7.

Yet I am not a hardcore gamer. I don't play 30 hours a week. I have a real life to live.

One thing I learned to despise more than anything especially now in my limited playing time is loading times.

I put up with it on the C64 and PS1. However, I loved going over my cousin's house and having instant 4-way WWF wrestling mathches on Golden Eye on his N64. I bought a used 'Cube in '03 just on memories of the N64 alone. I was happy to see the practically non-existant loading times on alot of titles. It is the only system I owned and I plan on getting a Wii.

For someone who has responsibilities, the Gamecube had more than enough high quality titles to keep me happy. The Wii will have multiples of that it seems...and I won't have to wait for loading screens to disappear. Oh, and I play my GC on a 50" DLP in progressive scan mode and it looks great.

Linkamus @ Nov 2nd 2006 8:43AM

They should change the "hardcore" to "casual gamers" in that report.

Hardcore gamers know what video games are about and appreciate Nintendo for their art.

Casuals care about graphics, prostitues, guns, and football. What a world.

The Intangible Fact @ Nov 2nd 2006 9:19AM

"Casuals care about graphics, prostitues, guns, and football. What a world."

Let me revise..

Casuals care about graphics, prostitues, sex, guns, and sports. What a great world.

Aden Nak @ Nov 2nd 2006 10:53AM

Too many points to direct:

Sega is likely always going to be more onboard with Nintendo because they hold a bit of a grudge towards Sony - for, amongst other things, managing to thrash them in the marketplace despite their ability to finally produce an outstanding console in the Dreamcast (after several duds, might I add). The unspoken known is that there's bad blood there.

And yes, this is the kind of article you get when someone fully outside the industry and the culture writes about gaming. They divide gamers up into two categories.

1) "Hardcore" gaming nerds who never leave their basements, play nothing but violent orgy-of-depravity style games and are obcessed with how fiery the explosions are, how gory the deaths are, and how boobtastic the girls are.

2) "Casual" gamers who don't know anything about all those guns and violence, and play nothing but The Sims and Bejeweled. Oh, and maybe some Snood.

Thus, the "Hardcore" gamers are going to buy into whatever platform offers them the most stereotypical Columbinesque antisocial deathjunkie experience, and all of the "Casual" gamers are going to buy the pretty white computer thingie with the remote control.

And part of that stereotype is likely misinformed by the Windows/Mac world, where most of the "Hardcore" computer users buy PCs (ask the average journalist what Linux is and he'll probably tell you it's a kind of fish). Most of the "Casual" computer users (which is sideways slang for computer illterate) perfer Macs. And I'm sure if I pointed out that on a superficial level, the PS3 and the 360 are the Windows to the Wii's Macintosh, I'd only be about the five billionth person to do so.

So that's the analysis you're going to get. But just remember that you need more than "ysis" to spell analysis.

crono141 @ Nov 2nd 2006 11:00AM

This topic derailed quick. I don't think there are 5 posts on topic.

I was always wondering how Nintendo kept the remote a secret for so long, since its one of the 1st things they fleshed out. UBI putting up new walls to prevent leaks is pretty x-treme.

Chris @ Nov 2nd 2006 12:22PM

Whether the Wii wins or not, the controller will change the way we play games from now on. Even if you hate the Wii, do you really think that 30 years from now we'll be playing games by wrapping our hands around a plastic box and madly pressing buttons, dials, and joystiqs? What's the point of pushing forward immersive and realistic graphics if the most fundemental aspect of out interaction is stuck in the mid 90s? All this being said, why create an advanced, immersive controller but then refuse to back it up with the power to push realistic graphics or complex physics based interactions.