kame-sennin said:
So the point of Nintendo's disruption isn't to just beat the PS3/360, but to invalidate all traditional (dual analog, cinema quality) gaming consoles. This would include the PS2 as well as any future console designed in the same vein as the PS3/360.
The Wii's goal is to disrupt the notion of the gaming console as (a) a technological product and (b) an upmarket product for "nuanced" or "elite" or "hardcore" consumers. Both are pretty much explicitly the intended perception of both the PS3 and Xbox 360, but neither applies to the PS2 -- which is (unsurprisingly, given that it was last generation's winner) actually quite close to the Wii in many ways.
The real key point here is that, unlike with Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo doesn't inherently need to have an antagonistic relationship with third-party developers. The Wii-branded first-party software is 100% safe -- third-parties cannot successfully do anything to
hurt its sales -- so Nintendo gains no benefit from making things harder for them, and
does benefit in the form of licensing fees by making them successful.
Nintendo really should be working directly with third-parties to cement their dominance further by putting their marketing muscle behind those third-parties who "get it" -- i.e. the strategy Sony successfully disrupted
them with back in the day. But Nintendo's never actually been able to successfully apply a carrot to third-party relations, and they're so incredibly conservative that I imagine they're happier with a 100% certain ass-kicking than on risking a few million dollars to upgrade it to an 85% likely ass-kicking x2.
leroy hacker said:
But I don't think Capcom can be explained so easily. It's probably a combination of having pre-committed their teams to large projects(DMC4, RE5) and fallout from the Capcom 5 and RE exclusivity fiasco.
Right. Capcom got burned
bad by Nintendo last generation and I imagine that influences the actions of any executives who went through that whole period.
Also, Capcom is not the company it used to be.
I don't know about
that. Even with the lost personnel from Clover, Capcom still seems to be one of the leaders of broad, distinct development in the Japanese market. They seem to have all the bases covered pretty well, and they aren't reliant on any one system for their success. (They also have the biggest and best-chosen console exclusive announced for Wii in Japan with MH3.)
(And I see now that Pureauthor basically beat me to the punch on this one.)
bigmakstudios said:
Not really. There was a bit with Monster Hunter 3, I suppose, but otherwise, it very rarely, if ever happens.
It very much so does. Between being in the thick of the console war, and GAF's overall downward trend in quality of discourse, not a single exclusive announcement goes by without members of the opposite camp coming in to whine about said exclusive's placement -- it's not as common on Wii just because there aren't that many good third-party Wii exclusives yet, but "OMG this would look nice on PSP
" is a staple of every DS announcement thread; to suggest that this is any rarer than the equally prevalent and equally annoying "why not for Wii
" whining can only mean one is either blind or lying.