Wii Warm Up: Is Sega right?

They are specializing, which is good. Grabbing at an untapped section of the Wii market. Certainly SEGA isn't opposed to casual titles, since their biggest game so far this gen is one (Mario & Sonic), but they figure if they can stand alone in the category of core 3rd-party Wii development, that's good for them, and if they do a good job, good for us

Hardcore games are good, but they need to keep giving us more Monkey Balls. Sick. It's been two years now, what's taking them so long??

Well let me ask a question for an answer. Who's gonna buy $60 games two years from for the Wii? Me or the casual mommy who still hasn't reached her weight goal in Wii Fit?

I only got into gaming the last few years, and DS and Wii were the catalysts. I do like the casual titles a lot - but my husband doesn't. He wants core games, and it seems silly that currently we'd have to get a new (power-hungrier) console to satisfy him. I trialled him on Res Evil 4, but he hates rail-shooters, so that was a flop. I'm happy enough with Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy and GHWT, but it'd be nice to see more diversity on the console too.

When I had a gamecube (hardcore), I played games. With my Wii (casual), it sits there acting like a brick, even though it isn't a brick. I say bring on the hardcore games.

There is plenty of room for more hardcore games on the Wii. They will sell and casual games will sell. What is more interesting, I think is the "bridge" or broad appeal game.

Rock band, Guitar Hero III and World Tour all sold best on Wii, even though they don't really capitalize on what is the Wii's biggest strength- the Wii remote.

The game that appeals to the hardcore and the casual like those music games and uses the Wii remote well would be a boon for the Wii.

Of the games Sega is publishing this year, the Conduit is the closest, I would guess. Think about it. I know a lot of people that aren't really gamers that have played Halo, even though the controls have a big learning curve. Switch out the dual analog sticks for IR, and a popular formula got more accessible.

Hardcore gamers had to endure through the casual games onslaught, we need good games to survive. Besides, there is the chance that some casual might level up as gamers if hardcore titles are avaible.

Besides, in the long run, hardcore gamers are what make this industry survive, casual only buy a few games, the ones that are more known, hardcore gamers are the ones who buy those obscure games or original IP's (as long as they're good of course), the industry wouldn't move froward if it wasn't because of the core crowd.

What I don't want is the confusion of "mature" with "hardcore", there are games that aren't mature, and are pretty hardcore, because of the hard difficulty, tight controls, story, art design and music score, stuff that casuals don't care because they want easy and simple stuff.

Not that mature games are bad, but usually when they say mature it's because they're all about realistic violence,alcohol, s** and drugs, I think mature should be all about the story, a story that talks about more deep stuff that you need some experience in life to understand.

Then are games like madworld, that takes violence to another level, but it doesn't take itself seriously, it's all about over the top violence that it's only fun. I want to see what they have for the hardcore, because that violence alone, if fun, doesn't make a hardcore title. Violence alone without sense or anything else would make gta (anyone who says gta has a good story, difficulty or controls is a liar), I don't know why everyone says gta is hardcore, it's all casual.

ill be honest... i don't need a ton of hardcore/ not shovelware games to be released to be satisfied. And with the amount announnced/expected/and unannounced I'm sure we will be getting more than enough games to keep 80% of people content. give me a good title every month or 2 and i'm fine.

god knows if we do get an overabundant amount everyone wouldn't have time and money to buy them all, which in turn would probabaly make people resort to buying the 30 and 40$ titles anyway.

i'm pretty sure from here on out we can expect an equal amount and more of quality games for the wii in 2010 thru 2012.

let us not forget that some of the casual game developers will eventually try their hand at something other than casual games when they have enough money and can take more risks by branching out.

so in a way the casual department of games is refilling the production budget most companies are losing with crappy titles and the economy.

ex. midway making 5 casual iphone games.... granted it is too late for them to make the millions back they need, it will help them to regain some ground.

For Nintendo, at least, I think the intention was to pull in as many new and casual players as possible, to keep them attached with products like Wii Music and Wii Fit and then to offer Wii games that encouraged these casual players to travel upstream to less casual, even core games.

Not all will, of course. But many of us probably didn't start out playing core games either, at least not by today's standards. I've seen "core" and "hardcore" defined in different ways, most frequently as a nebulous gauge of time spent in a gaming session and gaming frequency. If the Wii's new gamers are increasing their play time with casual titles, then they are developing into 'core' casual gamers.

And I think games like MySims, Animal Crossing, and Sega's Lets Tap have the capacity to be bridge games: casual players probably won't go for FPS and tactical games, but soft strategy and rhythm games are perhaps more appealing and approachable. But moving casual gamers upstream is not a known science or strategy, but I think Nintendo is having some success at it.

While long-playing gamers including myself are impatient and frustrated with the lack of more challenging, deep Wii games, I think what the Wii is doing overall is actually healthy for gaming, and I think this year is going to be good for those deeper games.

The important point is that there should not be a simple dichotomy of casual and hardcore/upstream games. We need those missing links and hybrids, as well as both ends of the spectrum.

The hardcore market isn't being fed that well and that market is getting pretty irritated.

What one would normally do with a starving market is...obviously...Feed it.

That's what Sega is doing, it's a good idea, but the market might be all messed up because of the amount of crappy games.

Here's hoping though. I think they're right.

Nope, still feel like there's just GOOD GAMES and BAD GAMES. Can you imagine if NES gamers got wrapped up in trying to define whether games like Mega Man and Mario were HARdC0RE or not? Just fucking play fun games whatever format and asthetic they come in.

I don't care what people consider it so long as it's quality or presents something different. NMH, Boom Blox, SMG, and Okami have all been new and great.

I've never been a fan of Sega (Sonic the Hedgehog), but I love what they're doing now. They're really saving us Wii owners who are praying for core titles.

So sega, wanna make me feel satisfied?
Bring back SHENMUE.

Yes, I'm going to say it.
The Wii sucks!
I have one!
The Wii is awesome for sport sim games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, even some of the Mario Party mini games were cool. Of course the Virtual Console is amazing as well but that's not bringing anything new to the table.
The Wii could be much more then it is IF there were some good games on it that are not made by Nintendo!
1st part is not enough and spinoffs of big games doesn't cut it.
This is why the Wii has the lowest game attach rate out of all 3 consoles but yet sold the most hardware! People are happy with the odd game for it but many get another system for their hardcore needs and media playback plus the "new" gamers aren't traditional gamers that buy a few games a year.
The Wii has the potential but the 3rd party games have to start contributing to the "good" games list on the Wii.
So does the Wii suck...well...not really but in all fairness, the Game Cube didn't suck if you look at the Nintendo game library for it! Ya Game Cube had Capcom VS SNK 2, MGS:TS, RE4 and Ikaruga but that's all that stood out for me that wasn't by Nintendo.
My biggest beef is Tatsunoko VS Capcom on the Wii is only in Japan! Yes I know why but its still not cool because that would be the 1 new awsome non-Nintendo game for it!
Ok, i'll shut up now and go play some classics on VC - that I could get for free on the PC.

And I was ridiculed for bringing up the casual/hardcore discussion not a month ago. Sounds like I'm not the only one who's paying attention. I think SEGA is on the right track... but I fear it's too late.

A friend of mine recently proclaimed that he had 'packed up' his wii, which basically consisted of sticking it in a closet. Now, it would probably take 5 minutes, tops, to set it back up and have it immediately on hand. However, that's an additional hurdle that the wii must overcome. The game that causes him to re-institute his wii into the living room rotation will have to be *that* much better, will have to hold *that much more* promise and intrigue.

What I am saying is, the longer Nintendo waits, the harder it is going to be. More of us are going to shelve our consoles in favor of something that actually caters to what we want, a system that has more to offer than crappy fitness program and a series of shoddy mini-games. Good luck SEGA, and Nintendo. You're going to need it.

Cousin Larry, of course they're right, don't be ridiculous.

If they really want to appeal to hardcore gamers, give us Skies of Arcadia 2 and Shenmue 3. A real Sonic Adventure 3 and a new Jet Set Radio wouldn't be bad, either.

What honestly made me so mad was Microsoft's keynote at last year's E3, where they proclaimed that Xbox was 'for the family' now. I personally hate the new Xbox experience and the Avatars, and they seem to be seeing success in the technique that they bashed, if I remember correctly (no flaming please, lets all be mature here).

So honestly, keep making both. Make both casual and hardcore, but I think that the reason for the increase in Mature games is because certain developers understand that there's only, what, 8 of them out right now? And that's not even exclusively for the system. I think we can all agree that developers want that number higher because the only things that convince consumers that games aren't kiddy are blood and violence.

So I think once people recognize what can be done because of Suda 51, Sega+Platinum Games, and High Voltage, we'll most likely see many more games with a lot of effort put into them.

How many more games would you buy if they were 40% cheaper?

I don't think exclusive focus is the right way to go on either side of the divide. That being said, there is obviously a huge amount of Wii owners who would like a more 'hardcore' experience and if Sega can deliver to them, then they've hit the jackpot.

The truly hardcore players will guarantee Sega at least 350,000 or so in sales for MadWorld and The Conduit, since that's what games like Okami, Zack & Wiki and No More Heroes were able to pull off with nothing but hardcore word of mouth.
Any sales past that, though, is up to Sega to reach out and tell that audience that these games are here. I'm pretty confident that Sega will do that, since they have a pretty good sense for game promotion generally.

That said, they also shouldn't fall into the trap of listening to what the internet says it wants...which is what High Voltage did with The Conduit. It's an echo chamber, so things tend to get blown out of proportion. So I have a feeling that Sega has a tough ride ahead of them with The conduit in particular, since aside from Metroid and Goldeneye, FPS's have never been very popular on Nintendo consoles. But who knows? Maybe the Nintendo console gets 1 popular FPS every generation and The Conduit will be it.

As others have stated, the Wii needs to find a good balance between casual and core games. This is how the PS2 found its success on both sides of the market.

There are 2 main reasons i see for core games on wii so far doing poorly (in terms of sales at least). First is that they've had little to no marketing push behind them. Did you ever see an ad on tv/internet for games like De Blob, Zack & Wiki, Umbrella Chronicles, NMH? I didn't!

Second is that the core games so far are mostly ports (either well done or just lazy) or just poor games, not well made for the wii's benefits. Core gamers won't buy rubbish games!

If Sega really wants to push the sales of Madworld, Overkill and Conduit it should invest in some decent marketing campaigns on TV and websites! Hopefully the devs are taking care of the 'good game' bit!

its all about the core baby!

2 words: HELL YEAH!

Casual games are nice.. if you have hardcore games in between. It's like frosting on a cake. It's nice but if you have too much it just makes you sick to your stomach.