Wii third-parties nonplussed by surprise MotionPlus reveal

We'll level with you: the game industry confuses us. For example: you'd think with games like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Clone Wars, not to mention the recently announced Sonic and the Black Knight, coming to the Wii that Nintendo would have been eager to get the MotionPlus into dev's hands as quickly as possible. Not so, as Game Informer learned when they asked several third-party developers about the peripheral.

Turns out the site uncovered a "general feeling ... of annoyance and betrayal" after Nintendo shared the existence of the device with third parties at the exact same time they shared it with us. Game Informer estimates it would take some six to nine months to incorporate MotionPlus functionality into games and that it's probably too late for games "deep in development." With Wii Sports Resort not due until Spring 2009, that might be just enough time to build some support into upcoming titles. So, let's recap: at Nintendo's E3 showing, the company managed to not only piss off every "core" gamer in existence but a good number of its third-party developers as well. Impressive?

[Via NWF]

Reader Comments (157)

I think what's getting under people's skin isn't that we aren't getting AAA titles on the Wii. And of course we have some in Zelda and Mario Galaxy and there will be more on the way.. I think some of us cynical elitist gamers don't LIKE sharing our hobby with Grandmas and Soccer Moms.

Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty much dissapointed with the promise of the Wii myself. I own all of three games on the system. Everything else is either old, my 360, or PC.. But I think there's enough room in the market for everyone at this point. If you're not happy with the glut of shovelware on the Wii it's very simple, get an Xbox 360, they've got -pleanty- of core games.

But Nintendo isn't going to reverse track on the casual thing beacause it's working for them. And as much as we want to see the sky fall, it's not going to fall. Developers just aren't going to spend millions developing a AAA original IP title, when they can make just as much on "Wii flip pancakes!" and "Wii walk to the store!"

The 'core' gamers, are going to be quickly shuffled to the wayside, at least on this and any future Nintendo platforms.

And it's not like it's the first culprit to come out with a lot of shitty crap games. PS1 and PS2 were just as guilding. Atari 2600 anyone? Even the original NES had tons of crap games. Hell, all media ever! Movies? More often than not it's crap. TV? Crap. Books? Crap. Crap sells. So as a business, sell a bunch of cheap crap, and dazzel us every month or so with something that isn't. Too much crap though, and a system fails because nobody wants to spend $50.00 on Zelda when they can get "Game Party" for $19.99 (10.99 on sale.) I work at an unspecified retail outlet.. We get calls every morning looking for Wii Fit. We can't keep Game Part or Canival Games in stock.

Zelda: Twilight Princess? Okami? Mario Galaxy? Gathering dust. Literally. I had to dust them last week. Super Smash Brothers hasn't sold a copy in a month.

That's sad.