CEO and Lead Designer believe that ports, and publishers who had "written off" the Wii, are to blame for the lackluster performance of "hardcore" games on Nintendo's console. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=17498 MTV wasted no time in challenging High Voltage Software CEO Kerry Ganofsky and Lead Designer Rob Nicholls to prove why they should expect good things from their upcoming Wii first-person shooter The Conduit.
"This is a gamer's game, and we make no excuses for it," answered Ganofsky, "With incredible graphics, a captivating story, and completely customizable controls we are providing a complete package of gaming entertainment."
However, games dubbed "hardcore" aren't prolific on the Wii, and their performance in the marketplace is the target of constant discussion. Ganofsky stated his belief that many game makers were "scared" with the initial Wii launch, stating that "it was hard to convince anyone that there even was a core market, let alone one that would support original games." Nicholls shared his opinion that the Wii had been "written off." When the Wii took off with new gamers, Nicholls thinks that game makers responded by latching onto the new field with "a number of inexpensive casual games that made them money."
This puts High Voltage Software in position to capitalize on what Nicholls believes is a market hungry for their hardcore game. He said that according to "the tremendous online response [they've] had to 'The Conduit,' a hardcore market exists." Nicholls also responded to concerns about the less-than-stellar sales numbers of some other titles, claiming that "these games haven't sold well because they were ports of games designed for other platforms and thus didn’t quite fit on the Wii."
In order to deliver the goods, Ganofsky said that the team "played every FPS released on the platform," and that after that they "played several of the best FPS games from the other platforms including the PC." For example, after failing to get the controls just right in Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, the team realized that they "had to have a fully customizable control scheme." Nicholls added that "one of the biggest lessons was to not abuse the motion controls," and explained that "sometimes a button press is the best solution, rather than a gimmicky gesture."
High Voltage Studio's The Conduit is expected to release sometime this spring and will be published by Sega.