E3 06: THQ: Wii dev costs fraction of PS3's, 360's

This means that there should be plenty of games!

Games for the wii are gunna be much less to buy than 360s and ps3s

workisan most people who gamed didn't use there consoles on the next gen tvs at the time. Nintendo on their second iternation of their consoles always scrapped one of the outputs because they kept finding out that most people didn't have those particular tvs. Why do you think the gamecube later on it's production scrapped componet cable? Because most people didn't use the cables because they didn't own tvs taking them in or their gaming tv didn't use componet. N64 scrapped s-video after a few years of production because most people didn't use s-video tv sets for gaming. Having those things in just drove up production costs. SNES scrapped AV output as well. Nintendo has had several consoles worth of expierence telling them wait a generation before putting in the latest way to output to tv. Heck HDtv has been around since 1965. It could have come out to 40% of TV sets produced in America in 1980. No console company has yet figured out any way to really produce visuals in HD. It just consumes resources when SDTV graphics haven't been tapped out. Nintendo is going HDTV on their next console when the tech will make it more affordable to do so. Most of the PS3 and 360 resources are wasted on bottlenecks, and HDTV graphics. No one has really found out how to program for two cores. The PS3 seven cores not really. Only five of them will be used for gaming. Of course no one has yet wrote a game using two cores that works better then the same game writting for one core. Sony and Microsoft are just hyping with the Megahertz myth, the RAM myth, the HD myth, the multiple core myth.

I'm glad to hear confirmation of the lower development costs that we've all suspected for a while now. But I have no intention of playing Spongebob games or other titles based on cartoons aimed at kids. It's not that I think I'm too cool to play games like that; I'm not one of these idiots who thinks a game has to have gobs of blood, sex and gore to be fun. But I have no interest in stuff like Spongebob, Cars, etc. I really hope the Wii's third party support has more to offer than kids' titles. I know there are going to be plenty of games for people like me, but I hope they aren't all first-party titles. We need more stuff like Red Steel and Sadness.

meimnobody you make some good points but I think you are under estimating the market penetration of HD sets in this country particulary in the larger metropolitan areas. Take a trip to any Best Buy/Circuit City/big box electronic retailer and the majority of sets available and for sale are HD ready sets. As the prices on these sets continue to drop more and more peeps will go ahead and make the switch to HD for at least one of their TVs. Heck right now they are not really that expensive unless you're going for a brand new 1080p set or some ungodly huge Plasma. JMO.

WHoa...

I agree that it's very stupid for them to make only kid games and to assume so much...

Chubbms the Wiimote is not a lightgun. The Wiimote works with Projection tvs. It uses a frigging sensor bar. The reason Nintendo didn't go with HD in this generation is because SD hasn't been maximed to it's fullest. HD uses twice as much RAM to do the same textures in SD. You are spending twice as much resources to render something in HD that 99% of people cannot tell the difference from on a standard tv. When these supposed HD improvements are pointed out to this 99% majority the 99% majority just shrugs their shoulders and states what's the big deal about HD it's nothing different. People when they walk into game stores two different plasma HD tvs can be playing a gamecube game and a 360 game in HD cannot tell the difference between them. They think the gamecube game is the one with the better graphics 9 times out of 10. People are really impressed by seeing someone's sweat when the same person looks like a life corspe on HD? Sorry real gamers aren't impressed by that but the mere fact so much money is being spent on such a waste. Most HDTVs in five years won't be used for gameplaying. Most HDTV owners admit they have their 360 hoocked up to a standard tv. They admit they won't be hooking up their PS3 to a HDTV either. Amazing that HD adds ten million to a game cost when 99% of people won't be able to tell the difference. A wii game would only cost a dev 1 million dollars. A PS3 game would cost 5 million dollars. The PS3 game won't have any better graphics, AI, load times etc then the Wii version. Who would developers rather develop for in that instance?

Wii are the next economic game platform of the century! Costs vs. Quality is actually one of the biggest debate between developers. With a cost less than $300, it will attract a lot of small time and even largely well-known developers looking to keep costs minimal and yet generate huge amount of profits at the same time. This might be especially true for EA since they already are well known for incredibly crappy yet addicting games. This time they may be able to salvage the costs of developing more crappy games if they import to Wii.

Amazing how 'old' news can inspire a debate so fierce. I don't understand why people get so angry over this. I've been with Nintendo all my gaming life, I've had all the systems (still play my old NES and SNES), and I will eventually buy a Wii as well (not at launch....I broke that trend with the GC). The debate about Nintendo and 'kiddy' (yes we all know it is not a word. So are alot of other slang words we use everyday) games is not that big of a deal. I'm 33 and I still like to occasionally play Mario, Kirby, and Animal Crossing. Do I care if they are labeled 'kiddy'. No. Nintendo is never going to have a game library filled with as many M rated games as Sony and MS and you know what......They don't care. That's not who Nintendo is. That might hurt some of you for some odd reason but it's just how it is. Nintendo will always keep an eye out for 'family entertainment' and they will continue to make a profit doing so. And they will have some M-rated games along the way. If you like the games on a particular console buy it for that reason and quit worrying about the adolescent fanboy attitude shown here. Just enjoy a console for what it offers and if it doesn't give you enjoy 'mature' content....then save up and buy another that does. Get the best of both worlds. No need to fuss about it. VIVA all three (4 actually).....the 360, the Wii, the PS3, and of course the PC!

Of course, he's talking about the costs of making a GOOD PS3 or 360 games. They could just make a crappy PS3 game for one third of the cost. He's comparing games of similar quality for each respective system, that's why it's a big deal.

It's great if low development costs can get Nintendo back in the game...

If they say its simple then they're making simple games. Really great and complex titles likle Red Steel (Kant wait!!) are both complex and costy.

Of course it's cheaper to develop for the Wii, the games aren't really going to be any more advanced than what we saw on the Cube. In some cases, cheaper does not mean better.

Nintendo will do well if it can encourage developers to invest in their console. The risks will be lower.

Nintendo is the only company that can consistently run in the black. Sony and MS lose money with their consoles and launches at a far greater rate. Nintendo knows that GC support fell off the face of the earth. Of course they are going to make it very easy and much cheaper to develop for the Wii. The price-point is set at $300 or below. There have been statements against $60 games. This is all part of Nintendo's strategy: make gaming affordable, open up to a new audience, AND get more 3rd party support by keeping dev. costs down. I see no big surprises here. (Plus they don't have to develop for HD-TV: that's gotta take a huge chunk out of development and testing, not to even mention the research aspect of the product).

hmm... THQ assuming all nintendo fans want to play spongebob is pretty dumb!!! Nothing wrong with kids games its just that rated T-MA games would be nice. Im not saying it takes gore, blood, sex, and violence to make good games im just saying games outside of the nicktoons department would be nice. I think the fact that Nintendo wii costs less to develope on would make for more innovative games from 3rd party companies. Seriously im all for eye candy and everything but you can only make so many games innovative before they get boring on other systems. I'm not a fanboy since i own all systems and intend on purchasing all next gen consoles within a year. But as of right now no games interest me in the 360 department or else i would have bought one by now. Ya rant about good games on 360 but like i've said many times b4 look at my profile, i own these 1337 360 games for my PC already and it looks and plays even better on my comp. Only game im waiting for is HALO3 for 360 but even still im hoping that it will at least become a little more innovative than the last 2. Yay xbox live is great but ive been playing online shooters since quake so its not a great innovation, especially since consoles tend to have less players online in a match. Aside from Killzone and MGS4 looking like eye candy i really dont see any innovation in these games as well, i mean im a huge fan and will buy all these games and systems but the only systems company that always makes me wonder what they will come out with next is nintendo. I mean i look at my ds and am like wow MP: Hunters is cool using the touch screen to aim and it gives playing FPS a whole new feel, too bad i cant say the same with My PC or consoles. Well after looking at the red steel screenshots its like damn aiming my gun and moving around by just flicking my controller is awesome. Just imagine the possibilities with the Wii, i mean almost all game will have to be exclusive. This means quality over quantity, exclusive games aside from looking great always come out more polished in gameplay. Heres one last thing for people who dont know why Nintendo didnt go HD, the controller itself is the problem, try using a lightgun on any systems you have now and majority if not all HDTV's are imcompatible. So nintendo aside from being smart and sticking with people who dont have HDTV nor telling people to get the full potential of certain games is to have an HDTV was a smart move in my opinion. Cheap, compatible and innovative. What more could you want out of system.

well its not gonna hav any good games for it...

Once again, nintendo's Wii seems to be drawing the crowd.

I think with Wii you're gonna see a very big diversity of game costs. I'm expecting a few $40 games to come out of this system.

This can only be seen as good news. Here's to hoping the Wii is a success.

I might have to get one of these. they need heavy third party support. I can't go through another nintendon with just one Zelda one Smash Bros One Mario A weird Luigi's Mansion. Give me Something Fresh like new Super Mario Bros. For the DS.

For Nintendo its probably a good move. They are taking a different approach with a unique controller and less powerful hardware, yet still powerful enough to make nice looking games. THQ, well they are not a top of the line publisher by any means, but they give an idea of what other devlopers may be thinking as well.

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

Why am I not suprised.

should make for a very affordable console and games for people looking to buy a wii!

allyourbasebelongtous yehey Wii the name suck bad....how about wee or iiw or nitendo G hahahaha Revolution was a good name but to common in a way... still its a machine

The Wii Controller made people think Spongebob is going to be a good game :O and this is only 100% confirming what we already new.....but it's still good to hear.

So even though THQ thinks that Spongebob is a good game, there probably isnt going to be much talk about more nick toons games, only because they are going to notice that the toon games are not selling well and then they will go somewhere else to make good games, not to another console, but to probably a different type of game development.

This was the most expected news since we found out that halo 3 was coming to the xbox 360.

AWESOME!!!

Wii are sorry for Nintendo even with Mario, zelda, Meteroid and Donkey kong all games seem will be for kids so no wii for me

nintendo people will be very happy for a great price on that console.

uber old news, i knew this back in september...

hoho it is goin to get ugly~~ wiiiii......

This is funny. Why not make PC games? They are cheaper than them all. Mpeg3s

seriously I don't understand why so many people think the wii is going to suck and be for kids...EA has said they won't be just porting games the games will be unique to the system and some of you other people out there need to lay off the hating nintendo man. Now you're just going to say that I'm a nintendo fanboy so it doesn't matter what I think...but the facts are that nintendo 64 was better than the playstation and the gamecube was worse than the PS2 and Xbox. That's the beauty of this system is the differentiation from the 360 and PS3. It may not be as powerful, but it may be more fun...it's just plain stupidity on the part of all of the people that still believe it has no chance.

The PSP is selling worse than the DS because Sony hasn't figured out that we would rather play PS2 games at home than on the road, not because the DS is so wonderful. And I'm so tired of the Nintendo fanboys turning on their blinders all the time. There has been no demonstration of this controller in an actual game environment. We have no idea how sensitive the controller movements will be, how often the controller will have to be recalibrated, etc. There are way too many question marks surrounding this system for any but the blindest Nintendo fanboy to embrace the system. And, for all we hear about Red Steel, everyone knows that the majority of the gaming industry will share THQ's sentiment, that the Wii is a children's toy. Sorry, but Nintendo itself is to blame. They have, for the last 20 years, created an environment that is hostile to the cultivation of a mature fanbase beyond the core demographic that has been with them since the NES. I expect Red Steel to be the exception, not the rule. As for how horribly expensive the HD experience is going to be... We all have PC monitors, or at least most of us. 360 owners need only buy the HD VGA cable. All the HD, without a $3000 television.

Well, I'm a poor man. I don't want to pay hundreds more for better graphics. It's a good time to get a PS2, better than waiting 2 years for a PS3 price drop. I got a used one for $99. I know which games are good, and they're cheap now too.

Well....it'll cost less *shrugs* Nintendos heading towards that poor man, giving the poor man a taste of the next gen consoles. I'm actually planning to buy a PS3 for Kingdom Hearts (I was gonna buy a PS2 just for that game but decided "hell, I'll save this up and play it on a PS3, instead of wasting it on a last gen system and then going out to buy a next gen). you know what, I'll wait a year or two and wait for it to kinda pan out, buy a system when prizes lower and I see how every system is doing after a year or two.

Saying cheaper dev costs means crappy games is like saying "they poured tons of money on developing a PS3 game, it must be good!" Not neccessarily. Nintendo does make family oriented games (mostly), and they are making huge profits for their strategy. I thought a game's quality was judged by its gameplay, not the amount of blood and violence. I guess the cool "badass" people see it differentlly now.

Cheap devkits, means that even normal people can buy them... Even a student could afford it. He could split the cost with a friend of two and have access to the devkit to a next gen console. That's quite amazing in my opinion. Have you guys played Gish, or Wik and the Fable of Souls? Those games really capture the art of games in my opinion. It's all about game desing, not about graphics or M rated titles. I am definetly going to save for a devkit.

We already knew about Wii development cost will be cheaper then other consoles. This will bring more games to Nintendo's New system & even more Developers.

cheaper development costs is a good thing. Not only does it attract 3rd parties, but it can make for better games as well. In this generation it's less about hardware and more about developers, if developers are given a greater budget they can create better games and take risks on new franchises. With higher dev. costs they have to stick with what they know to work because each game is a monumental investment.

It's funny how fanboys interpret this as awesome news, while haters laugh at this news saying it means Wii will be lame, and Nintendo will "stay 3rd". Well, last time I checked, the DS is cheaper than the PSP, it has less power but thanks to its [Nintendo] difference, it's selling more, doing better and is the logical choice for anyone who wants to play games. So anyone neutral would agree that presently speaking, this is the way to go for success.

Ericvon71 says "Viva Gamecube 1.5 LMAO" If thats the case Ericvon71 then you might as well say that the 360 is the xbox 1.5 because it also has a green light on it. Just becasue the Wii( ALSO HATE THAT NAME) uses a reasonably similar dev kit doesn't make it an upgraded gamecube. God I hate sony and microsoft fanboys. Dont get me wrong, i like the 360 (in fact I have one) but i absolutley hate people who stick up for their favourite console and blam others without using their BRAIN first. I think the cheapness of dev kits is a good thing though. Cheaper dev costs=more developers=more ideas= more that likely alot of good third party games.

elythemonkey - you said this, "You know Sony does make some kids game but they also made God of War. When has Nintendo, not sillicon knights, nor Rare, but Nintendo themselves developed a M rated game. The answers is NEVER!!! that is Nintendo is a kiddy company, when they themselve do make a M rated game then they join in the ranks of Sony and Microsoft." Ok, first off, I will give you one thing. God of War is a kick-butt game. Other than that, are you saying that you only play M-rated games? Do you miss out on most of the great games that come out for the Xbox and PS2 because they are not rated M? What about the Kingdom Hearts and Dragon Quest games. What about Shadow of the Colossus? What about Guitar Hero? What about King Kong? What about Tony Hawk or Madden games? What about all the great games Nintendo makes like the Metroid series and any Zelda game or almost any Mario game? How did you get so jaded that you won't play anything that doesn't have an M rating? Do you only watch R-Rated movies as well? Do you only read smut like Hustler? What kind of sick freak are you? You must hate sports because there are no sports game rated M. Wow, you are weird! How could you possibly have any friends? I'd be scared to meet you because your mind is tainted with only filth and and sex and violence. I truly pity you. Oh, and sorry if I misjudged you prematurely. I would hate to do to you what most Nintendo haters do when they say that Nintendo only makes kiddy games when Nintendo's best games are fun for all ages, not just adults. It's just that your comment made me figure this is the way you are in real life. I hope it's not true. Anyway, why would you want to limit your audience to mature gamers when you can make a game like Metroid or Zelda which all gamers could enjoy, as long as they aren't jaded freaks like you who are starving for violence and blood.

*Angel returns to the scene after a long absence* OOOH! Can't wait for E3! Can't wait for E3! Can't wait for E3! Anyway......15 years of image building by Nintendo won't go away easily, especially with 2 new opponents (New as in building an image in the gaming scene). Nintendo is synonymous with quality family entertainment, sure they would like to have a more cooler image (they tried with the GC), but the perceived image by this generation and the generation before won't change. The only way to get rid of the 'kiddy image' is: Start a nuclear war and everyone dies or Nintendo only creates games with blood and violence in it. (Even this wouldn't work methinks) The other guys have it easy, they were able to start with a clean slate AND they were able to start in the era where gaming is more accepted. And that is why it's easy to be either a Sony fan or a Xbox fan. But back to the topic at hand....Cheaper development, innovative controller and hopefully more thirdparty support. Sounds great! Hate is easy, love is hard. Play more and have fun! ^-^

We need more innovative games for the Wii... not just cartoons we are already familiar with.

Funny. I hope it will not be a "crap" console