Last week, the Hot Topic was about Wii's 3rd party support. The poll results were split evenly between it being good and bad, but really, it's a lot more complicated than that. Our forum users lay it out; head on down the page to check out what they have to say, and maybe you'll want to throw in your two cents in the forum, too. Or maybe you'd rather hear about this week's hot topic!

This week: Is the ESRB effective? In your experience, are the content ratings on games an accurate, useful guide? Or are they wrong sometimes? Do you think people even look at them? Vote in the poll and post some words words words about it, and you can win a prize!

What we're giving away this week:

Every week, a random, non-terrible poster will recieve a neato prize! This week, it's...

A Mario Kart RC racer! It's remote controlled and totally sweet!

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Now, I present to you a not-quite-random selection of posts from our brainiac forum members as they respond to last week's question about the Wii's 3rd party support! Incidentally, I drew Ian Sane's name out of a hat as the winner of the Decepticon figure, and by hat I mean random number generator.

thatguy posted:

Yes, absolutely. Nintendo has gone out of it's way to regain trust of third parties, and it's taking years upon years for them to get out of stereotypes they have that never truly existed. Wasn't it just a few months ago that Take2 said they were surprised Nintendo would let them publish Manhunt 2 on the Wii?

And don't get me started on Konami or Sega. Essentially, I feel like 3rd party publishers are complete idiots most of the time.

mantidor posted:

I see that for Nintendo third party support is good, better than GC, far better than N64, but as a consumer it just plainly sucks, we see a bunch of mediocre titles and spinoffs without a single one of those so-called "AAA" games in sight. Devs will always use the excuse that they can't compete with Nintendo in their own platforms when that is total BS, otherwise the NES/SNES era would have never happened.

The saddest part is Nintendo barely address this, maybe that quote from Miyamoto and thats it, of course demanding quality remind us all of the Yamauchi times which third parties didn't particularly like. I just hope they can find a balance.

Dirk Temporo posted:

Yes, very much yes. It may just be carry-over from the Gamecube, but the answer is still yes. Square-Enix is still giving us Crystal Chronicles instead of FFXIII, and Dragon Quest Swords instead of Dragon Quest [insert number]. Namco is still giving us Soul Calibur Legends instead of Soul Calibur 4.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Third parties continuously shaft Nintendo by putting a crappy side-game from a popular series on the system, act surprised when it sells terribly, and gets awful reviews, and then say "Oh, we won't put the main game on the system, because [insert crappy side game] didn't sell well."

Adrock posted:

I don't think it's fair to say that Wii is getting shafted by 3rd parties yet.

Nintendo is still kind of earning back its support from... well, almost everyone. Gamers, publishers, and the media are all suddenly paying attention to Nintendo, who is steadily rebuilding its reputation. Wii came out and started blowing doors off hinges. I don't think anyone really expected any of this. Publishers are scrambling to get content on Wii. Right now, there are a lot of ports and half-assed efforts. If Wii is going to truly excel, it needs more than great Nintendo titles. So, Nintendo wants 3rd parties for content just as 3rd parties wants to profit from Wii. There's a lot of potential here that could go to waste if Nintendo and 3rd parties shaft each other. Nintendo fans like to point fingers squarely on 3rd parties for poor support, but Nintendo were dicks for a really long time. Really, both sides are to blame.

I've read that development cycles typically last 18-24 months so next year is probably a better indication to see whether Wii gets more and better support. Already Nintendo is seeing better support considering what's on the horizon and hopefully it'll continue getting better.

Smash_Brother posted:

Developers go where the money is. The GC was largely considered death for 3rd party games because it was owned primarily by a Nintendo fanbase who didn't much care for most 3rd party titles.

Step into a 3rd party dev's shoes pre-E3 2K6: Nintendo is rolling out another console. Your games sold poorly on their last home console, plus this one has some bizarre VR control scheme which sounds like something out of the "Lawnmower Man". The most sound business practice would be to keep making games for the still-selling PS2 so that's what they did.

Flash forward to Xmas 2K6: Wii is huge. Crap, shift some resources...but how many? Will OUR games sell on this console? Let's test the water, maybe with Elebits or RE4 port, and port some PS2 games: the graphics suck, but they're quick, fast and gives us somewhat of an idea of what will sell on the console.

Do I blame them? From a fan perspective, yeah, but from a BUSINESS perspective? Hell no. They played it safe and waited until the cards were on the table. The Wii still has plenty of lifespan and plenty of sales coming to it. Companies getting in now will still have ample opportunity to profit from its success, but before the Wii was established as a success, it could have been considered an act of foolishness to support it over other consoles.

oohhboy posted:

I believe for most part, the third parties were simply caught flatfooted. Nintendo was also partly at fault for not shipping enough dev kits early in the game. That created two problems. Badly made games like Far Cry (According to Kairon, just ugly), or devs simply had nothing to work with even if they were given the order. Sure you could use GC kits, but how many 3rd parties during the GC period even had GC kits and enough of them to make a game.

The DS was risk. Why else would Nintendo go through the trouble of creating the entire "third pillar" plan? PSP was a genuine threat back then unlike any other handheld out there. "Third pillar" was a defensive line Nintendo could fall back on in the event the DS got squished.

The Wii was a real risk. Nobody had came back from a 3rd generation down. Sega died with the release of DC, though some would argue that the Saturn was already the end. Wii was the all or nothing, but that doesn't mean you don't go out without a plan. Under pretty much complete secrecy, they when about creating the console equivalent of an AK-47, the Wii. Cheap, easy to make, even easier to use and maintain. Who needs hi-tech nukes like a PS3/360 when you can have near limitless of guns doing the same damage at a fraction of the price and can be used without fear MAD type retaliation.

You give far too much credit to the degree of intelligence found in any corporation Adrock. Execs do dumb and stupid things all the time, the best do more profitable things than unprofitable ones. Sega and it's inability to crank out a game of quality on a system that cares. Ken and PS3. Yamauchi and his over reliance on the N64 dream team. MS continued and unabated hemorrhaging of money in their so far futile attempts to buy the gaming industry.

tiamat9000 posted:

Well support is much better than before. Oh heck yeah it's much better. You're getting third-party exclusives as well and not all are cheap ass cash-ins. I think you know, most third-parties were really not expecting this to happen, the Wii getting so massive and big. They knew it would be successful...sort of. That's why the early followers like EA and...yeah...are able to get some "quality" titles out before everyone else.

Do I think the Wii is being shafted by third parties?? No, not really. I'm quite happy with what they're doing so far...well EA anyway. They really came through. Mention them to Sony and Microsoft and you get disgusted looks but mention them to a Wii owner and you'll see a few smiles. It's kind of weird really.

And you know, there's going to be some developers that think the Wii is a novelty. It's just a fad to them and it's too weak. Some developers feel that creativity lies in the realism of their worlds and you know, fair enough.

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