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VIRTUALISATION A Wii problem: how Nintendo is destroying gaming
VIRTUALISATION A Wii problem: how Nintendo is destroying gaming | A Wii problem: how Nintendo is destroying gaming |
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| by David Swan | |
| Tuesday, 11 August 2009 | |
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Big shifts in gaming culture can be traced to the rise of the Wii, and its invasion of homes across the globe. Where gaming used to be niche and nerdy, it's now familiar and family oriented. This is both depressing and encouraging, as gaming is being opened to a whole new audience, but is at the same time being watered down and simplified for this new audience, which includes 40 year old soccer mums and 8 year old girls, who would've traditionally been ignored in the general gaming demographic. Now, it's anyone's game. Comparing the Metacritic scores of the the top 10 selling games for the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 proves enlightening, and is at the essence of my argument. The Wii's top 10 selling games have a Metacritic average of 77.8, compared to 87 for the PS3 and 88.9 for the Xbox 360. That's a gap of 10 points between the Wii and its competitors, indicating the games that the Wii owners are buying are of lower critical merit. Similarly, according to Gamasutra, the Wii has the lowest tie ratio of any of the current generation consoles. The tie ratio is the number of software units sold for a system divided by the total number of systems sold, giving us the average number of units of software per console owner. This means in simple terms that for every Wii sold, owners buy less games than owners of other consoles. Coupling this data with the Metacritic scores means that the new type of game player, the typical 'Wii owner', can be described as a casual gamer who doesn't buy many games, and the games that they do buy include, in essence, worse games. This problem, an influx of junk, is compounded by hardware that doesn't really stack up. What happens when second rate becomes the norm? There are some fantastic innovative and fresh experiences to be found on the Wii, don't get me wrong, but the system itself is lacking in key areas, despite the innovation in its controls. The people buying the system aren't traditional gamers and therefore don't have the knowledge or desire to criticize it or buy a different system. They're content, and I'm of the firm opinion that the Wii's graphics and online service leave much to be desired, especially for a console that's far outselling its competitors. If a product is a market leader then it should be outstanding, not subpar. What are the other factors behind this disturbing trend, however? And how is Nintendo contributing? Read on to find out. CONTINUED Page 2 |
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