[Armand1880]

Wow...This article makes my heart flutter.

Wii really is the only console I'll plan to buy. With a rumored cost of only $200 - $250, I am all over that one. Have you guys even seen the controller.

[Marek]

Heh. I'm writing an article for AG on the same topic. Where is this article you are referring to? I think you forgot to include the URL.

[Karmillo]

Originally Posted by Armand1880

Wow...This article makes my heart flutter.

Wii really is the only console I'll plan to buy. With a rumored cost of only $200 - $250, I am all over that one. Have you guys even seen the controller.

Yeah its something like this isnt it?

[samIamsad]

""How the Wii will save games..."

Fixed.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Marek

Heh. I'm writing an article for AG on the same topic. Where is this article you are referring to? I think you forgot to include the URL.

It was dugg to the digg frontpage a few hours ago, here is the link.

[Litrick]

I have one major issue with Wii... the lack of HD support. So many people have widscreen LCD and plasma TVs now days, and i think for nintendo to ignore that market is very stupid.

[bysmitty]

My 40lb 19" mono TV from 1992 begs to differ. Actually, I think the opposite. I applaud Nintendo for not forgetting that very few people have $3k TVs in their living room. Now if only computer game developers would starting applying that same logic to their profession.

...bysmitty

[Litrick]

Originally Posted by bysmitty

My 40lb 19" mono TV from 1992 begs to differ. Actually, I think the opposite. I applaud Nintendo for not forgetting that very few people have $3k TVs in their living room. Now if only computer game developers would starting applying that same logic to their profession.

...bysmitty

I dont get what you mean. Just because a console has support for HD doesnt mean it cant output to an older CRT, it just means it gives you the option of HD aswell. And since HDTV sales have absolutely boomed in the past 2 years (and will continute to do so), i think it is poor logic to decide not to support them, and therefore limit the lifetime of the console. I wont be buying one for this reason, and know many others who feel the same.

[CaptainDread]

Originally Posted by Litrick

I dont get what you mean. Just because a console has support for HD doesnt mean it cant output to an older CRT, it just means it gives you the option of HD aswell. And since HDTV sales have absolutely boomed in the past 2 years (and will continute to do so), i think it is poor logic to decide not to support them, and therefore limit the lifetime of the console. I wont be buying one for this reason, and know many others who feel the same.

The reason for the exclusion of HD support is simple: adding the feature would drive the price up.

With the console set at between $200 and $250, it's the only one that I'm going to get on release. I personally don't want to pay over $300 for a video game console.

For Nintendo's 6th console, they'll include HD support, as the cost will be cheap enough to keep the console affordable.

With the majority of people not having an HD TV (myself included), this is a smart idea for Nintendo. I don't want to pay extra for the console just because they decided to add an expensive component that I won't be using this generation.

[Litrick]

Originally Posted by CaptainDread

The reason for the exclusion of HD support is simple: adding the feature would drive the price up.

With the console set at between $200 and $250, it's the only one that I'm going to get on release. I personally don't want to pay over $300 for a video game console.

For Nintendo's 6th console, they'll include HD support, as the cost will be cheap enough to keep the console affordable.

With the majority of people not having an HD TV (myself included), this is a smart idea for Nintendo. I don't want to pay extra for the console just because they decided to add an expensive component that I won't be using this generation.

Fair enough. i agree, most people are in this situation. However it is changing very rapidly as HDTVs become more and more affordable. Analysts predicts the PS3 to last up to ten years, this may be a little optimstic, however you can state with some certainty that a console which does not support the largest growing TV format will defineatly not have a particuarly long life. So im guessing Nintendo factor this in, and only want a short life cycle from their product, hence the low pricing. Most people are probably more willing to fork out $250 every two years rather than double the amount no matter the perceived life time of the product. So, they know who they are targetting for their market, and it looks like they are doing a good job and will most likely be successful. But, at the end of the day.. No HD, and while other factors may be appealing, this is enough to put me off

[CaptainDread]

Originally Posted by Litrick

Fair enough. i agree, most people are in this situation. However it is changing very rapidly as HDTVs become more and more affordable. Analysts predicts the PS3 to last up to ten years, this may be a little optimstic, however you can state with some certainty that a console which does not support the largest growing TV format will defineatly not have a particuarly long life. So im guessing Nintendo factor this in, and only want a short life cycle from their product, hence the low pricing. Most people are probably more willing to fork out $250 every two years rather than double the amount no matter the perceived life time of the product. So, they know who they are targetting for their market, and it looks like they are doing a good job and will most likely be successful. But, at the end of the day.. No HD, and while other factors may be appealing, this is enough to put me off

The Wii is coming out this fall, so it should continue to be actively supported until about 2012 when the new generation starts. Games may trickle out after that, but 6 years is about the average for consoles to be actively supported.

Industry insiders predict that the shift from the majority of consumers owning regular TV sets to the majority of consumers owning HD TV sets will happen in 2010. At this point, this generation of consoles will be reaching their end.

Besides, it is possible to use electronics made for older television standards on high definition television sets. So, nothing is preventing you from using the Wii on your HDTV.

[Squinky]

That article is too AGS-centric.

[Litrick]

Originally Posted by CaptainDread

The Wii is coming out this fall, so it should continue to be actively supported until about 2012 when the new generation starts. Games may trickle out after that, but 6 years is about the average for consoles to be actively supported.

Industry insiders predict that the shift from the majority of consumers owning regular TV sets to the majority of consumers owning HD TV sets will happen in 2010. At this point, this generation of consoles will be reaching their end.

Besides, it is possible to use electronics made for older television standards on high definition television sets. So, nothing is preventing you from using the Wii on your HDTV.

I dont see the Wii lasting till 2012, especially once you consider the giant leaps being made at the moment with quad core CPUs/GPUs and directx 10 release on the horizon, considering the Wii is no way near the power of even the xbox360, by 2012 the Wii will look like a space invaders machine does now comparitively.
As far as the HDTVs go, given the nature of gaming, and its continual push to be on the cutting edge, the consoles which support HD are probably a huge factor in the rising sales of HD televisions. So while the market share of HDTVs may as predicted only eclispe CRT usage as a whole in 2010, the percentage amoung gamers who are interested in the cutting edge (which is a huge portion) will probably account for the large portion leading up till, and after when CRTs are surpassed.

And yes, you could play Wii at 480p, on a HDTV, but it wouldnt look very nice, and if you have already spent $6000 (NZ price for a good LCD) on a TV, whats $400
(on top of the Wii price) more to get something which supports it?

[Melanie68]

It's an interesting article:

Adventure games like King's Quest and Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle might be almost extinct in the commercial gaming business, but they are still loved by many. Ballooning development costs, demand for high action games, and sluggish sales have lead to the demise of one of gaming's most creative genres. Adventure games just aren't made very often anymore.

But I disagree with that statement.

[MoriartyL]

It's possible that Wii will be a haven for adventures, considering that Nintendo has actually released an adventure or two for DS. On the other hand, they don't make adventures themselves, so they might not feel strongly about them. Now, if the VC got a lot of adventures, most of them would be coming from third parties. These third-parties would want to announce their intentions as soon as possible, because if they don't adventure fans won't buy a Wii and they won't have anyone to sell to. But I haven't heard any announcements of third-party adventures for Wii. Then again, they could just be waiting for more details of the VC. Anyway, it wouldn't be enough to just have adventures on Wii- they'd need to be exclusive adventures, or else the Wii versions would flop (not having the adventure fanbase PCs have), and so much for adventures on Wii. But why would a third-party publisher prefer to release a game exclusively on Wii then to release it for PC? Only if Nintendo pushes them for it, and that brings us back to the original question: Does Nintendo care about adventures? It's too soon to know what they're planning.

[Marek]

Wow I guess Capcom should be glad that all the people who bought games like Return to Mysterious Island and Delaware St. John Volume 3: The Seacliff Tragedy also bought a DS with Phoenix Wright, or that game would have failed totally! We all know everyone here has a DS with Phoenix Wright. Right? Riiight?

What I mean is ... if none of the PC adventure gamers buy a Wii, that doesn't mean there's a huge potential market for Wii adventure games. I expect most adventure fans to be late adoptors of these platforms (or non-adoptors), but it doesn't matter.

By the way, that article only scratches the surface of what Wii could do for adventure games. I feel motivated to finish my take on it.

[AdrianWerner]

Personaly I doubt Wii will do what the article suggest . For couple reasons:

-VC downloads will be small, so most modern adventure games won't fit into download limit. Sure..AGS ones might, but then again... I don't really see console audience paying for AGS-quality of games

-competition. Even XBLA doesn't actualy set the world on fire with sales and on Wii devs won't just have to compete with themselves, but also with hundreds, potentialy thousands of games that nintendo gamers love.

-typicaly console games have been action-heavy so I would expect more action-adventures than adventure games from wii

-Nintendo audience tends to be much younger, which might make complex puzzles hard to implement

-prices. It's not PC, with Wii there will be more mouths to feed. Devs will have to pay Nintendo and maybe also some third-party(like on XBLA, where MS doesn't buy games directly from devs)

and most of all:
-audience. Most adventure audience is on PC. DS might have more japanese-centric adventure audience, but this article is about PCish Adventure games. Simply put I doubt adventure game on Wii could do any better than on PC.

now... I see chances for new kinds of adventure games on Wii. Just like Phoenix Wright was quite diffrent from typical adventure title. THat's what I'm hoping for. I doubt Wii will take over or even boost PC-like adventure titles, it won't move them forward, personaly though I'm hoping it will provide alternative paths sideways.

[Junkface]

The article seems mostly bullshit to me, containing as it does the meaningless statement that "Adventure games are not particularly expensive to develop" and seemingly equating "adventure" with 2D and point and click. I expect the line about Escape From Monkey Island being an example of a quality adventure on a console will raise some eyebrows. Still, I do share the writer's hopes for the Revolution to be a sanctuary for adventures and indie games in general, but expect this will result more from the decision not to focus on HD or particularly advanced graphics hardware than the ability to replicate a point and click interface.

As a sidenote, HD isn't something I'm really going to miss, considering the environment and distance from the TV when I play console games coupled with the whole HD generation thing in general being sort of overblown anyway, what with the Xbox 360 only having 720p as the minimum standard anyhow (correct me if my information on that's wrong.)

[Litrick]

Originally Posted by Junkface

The article seems mostly bullshit to me, containing as it does the meaningless statement that "Adventure games are not particularly expensive to develop" and seemingly equating "adventure" with 2D and point and click. I expect the line about Escape From Monkey Island being an example of a quality adventure on a console will raise some eyebrows. Still, I do share the writer's hopes for the Revolution to be a sanctuary for adventures and indie games in general, but expect this will result more from the decision not to focus on HD or particularly advanced graphics hardware than the ability to replicate a point and click interface.

As a sidenote, HD isn't something I'm really going to miss, considering the environment and distance from the TV when I play console games coupled with the whole HD generation thing in general being sort of overblown anyway, what with the Xbox 360 only having 720p as the minimum standard anyhow (correct me if my information on that's wrong.)

720p is enough to make the world of difference. the resolution it uses is 1280 by 720, on a nice LCD screen, it looks immaculate, even with minimal anti aliasing. if you see an xbox running on a low def CRT and a HD LCD in 720p side by side, you would not think "the whole Hd thing is overblown".

xbox 360 does support 1080i also, but it is debatable whether 1080i is better than 720p or not.

[Marek]

AdrianWerner, while I'm sure you mean well, at least half the things you wrote are based on old assumptions of what Nintendo is or isn't, what "console gamers" want or don't want and how the industry currently functions in general.

Have you played console games recently? Or followed the news about Wii?