Mike Bantick
Friday, 25 April 2008 14:56
Opinion and Analysis
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Recently tech group High Voltage has announced the Quantum 3 engine, promising to bring hi-tech wizardry to the look of games produced for the Nintendo Wii. In their words, bringing them in line with competitors Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. But why bother?
Bump mapping, advanced dynamic lighting effects, water transparencies and more are slated for games destined for the Nintendo Wii. If High Voltage get their Quantum 3 engine (and associated first person shooter The Conduit) up and running, the Wii could be injected by a fresh batch of new look games.
Again this is also dependent on High Voltage licensing the technology to other game developers.
But will there be a market for it? It may be easy for me to argue against, having access to all the current generation platforms and PC gaming, but I have always said, unlike times past, that
all three current console offering fit into their own demographic niche.
In the U.S in particular the Wii is still selling out, eighteen months after launch. Of the current 1.8 million Wii’s produced each month, 40 percent make their way to U.S shelves to spend perhaps an hour sitting upon before heading to the cash register aisle.
Nintendo are looking to boosting the manufacturing output to 2.4 million this northern summer because of the continued sell out.. “We are passionately upset about the lack of product relative to demand” said U.S Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime recently.
The financials are looking good in the wake of 18.61 million Wii’s shipped world wide in the past year.
And with a healthy attach rate of 6.07 games per Wii console it all looks rosy for the big ‘N’
But so-called ‘hard-core’ gamers have more often than not poo-pooed the Wii experience, describing it as a toy or a fad awaiting the burst. Even some developers such as Epic (creators of Gears of War and the Unreal 3 engine that powers many other high tech titles) have stated no interest in making content for the Wii.
And fair enough. Those that crunch the numbers have always said that the sheer processing power of the Wii does not come close to their market rivals. Yet it sells at a rate that I wish I could sell anything at.
