Epic: The Wii is Backwards, a Virus

By Jorge Ba-oh 20.04.2008 163

Epic Games' president recently revealed that the company won't be making games for the system.

Mike Capps recently discussed developing for the Wii and confirmed the studio won't be bringing anything to the little white box: "no, we go forward, not back. It makes more sense for us to invest in the next-generation tech."

He likens the console to a virus, where its spreading due to the initial appeal on being different but lacking substance for long term use:

It's a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they're like, "Oh my God that's so cool, I'm gonna go buy it." So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they've showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on. Obviously there's a class of people who really love it and enjoy it and are getting into the games but I'm still waiting for that one game that makes me play it.

Epic is well known for Gears of War and the Unreal franchise.

Thanks to Megatonik.

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JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 20.04.2008#51

Yeah, not only is it like throwing away free money, but he\'s acting like any game he makes on the Wii will automatically be shit. If he\'s so disappointed with the Wii\'s games, why doesn\'t Mr High & Mighty make one himself.

So he\'s probably too scared to make a game on Wii.

AWW. ISN\'T. THAT. CUTE.

( Edited 20.04.2008 20:15 by SuperLink )

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Ikana is offline. Ikana 20.04.2008#52

Pretty stupid of them, imo. Ah well. Doesn't bother me that much. I also don't want to be dragged into the classic 'Wii Fanboy vs Knighty' argument. Smilie

Woah, SuperLink, avatar change, took me a while to recognise you. Smilie

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 20.04.2008#53

Ikana said:
Woah, SuperLink, avatar change, took me a while to recognise you. Smilie

Yeah, figured I should finally go back to an avatar that resembled my username. Smilie I don\'t think I\'ve had an avi of Young Link since I joined C3! (Also manga Link looks awesome. Smilie)

Ikana said:
I also don\'t want to be dragged into the classic \'Wii Fanboy vs Knighty\' argument. Smilie

Did you just call me a Wii fanboy? Smilie

( Edited 20.04.2008 20:22 by SuperLink )

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Ikana is offline. Ikana 20.04.2008#54

SuperLink said:

Ikana said:
I also don't want to be dragged into the classic 'Wii Fanboy vs Knighty' argument. Smilie

Did you just call me a Wii fanboy? Smilie

Wasn't referring to you particularly, but would you consider it an insult if I was? Smilie My Wii Fanboyness has been totally revived by Mario Kart and Brawl. Smilie I only touch my 360 to watch videos on it now days. Smilie

 
DaOne is offline. DaOne 20.04.2008#55

dojo said:
I agree with Mason's earlier comment - they're just throwing away free money. For him to say this:

"Obviously there’s a class of people who really love it and enjoy it"

is terribly insulting to a pocket of gamers who enjoy their time on both the Wii and 360 or PS3. Obviously he has no obligation to be nice about Wii, but you'd think he was hired by Sony...

Also, knighty, saying there's no game on Wii that can't be done on 360 is also reversible. Gears could be done on Wii with poorer graphics, just like Mario Kart could be done on 360 without...Mario characters. And Brawl could be done on PS3...without Nintendo characters. But then Mario Kart becomes "generic racer Kart" and Brawl becomes "Snake vs Sonic" and you're left with something a bit sour. Whereas Gears of War becomes "Gears of War", with poorer graphics. And...um, that's it.

Poorer graphics, controls, ai, online... need I go on?

No Longer Temporarily Banned.
 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 20.04.2008#56

Ikana said:
Wasn\'t referring to you particularly, but would you consider it an insult if I was? Smilie My Wii Fanboyness has been totally revived by Mario Kart and Brawl. Smilie I only touch my 360 to watch videos on it now days. Smilie

Well it depends how you term fanboy. Officially,
Fanboy = Wii rules, nearly everything about it rules, every other console sucks and I won\'t change my mind

So owning a 360 you\'d be a Fan. Smilie Though sometimes when I\'m in a good mood I do like to remember my fanboy days, even though in the last month I\'ve gotten both a 360 & PS2, I can still act like a fanboy if I wish, but for now I guess I\'m just a big Nintendo fan. Smilie

DaOne said:
Poorer graphics, controls, ai, online... need I go on?

Not necessarily poorer controls. The rest are surely true, but I think you kinda missed his point, that while a Wii game can be done on 360, it might not necessarily be better, only in some aspects, like Mario Kart or Brawl, and if a 360 game is done on Wii, it can be better in some ways and worse in others.

EDIT: And no, I don\'t feel like a \"This console is definitely better than this one\" discussion, because all it ever is and ever will be is a preferance.

The 360 is not better than the Wii,
the Wii is not better than the 360

( Edited 20.04.2008 20:46 by SuperLink )

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DaOne is offline. DaOne 20.04.2008#57

Well according to reviews the 360 has more good games (above 9/10) than the Wii and PS3. It has the best online service.

Best games (according to reviewers) + best online = best console?

No Longer Temporarily Banned.
 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 20.04.2008#58

While I hate to admit it, the Wii\'s online may be considered the best by the masses, i.e. the parents and the casual gamers. While they\'re clearly not hardcore gamers, they clearly have an opinion and it counts to \"which console is best\" in their eyes, so now we\'re back to preference. It really depends on what kind of gamer you are.

As for games, it isn\'t the Wii\'s fault as a console that it has such a poor collection of games. You don\'t need good graphics to have good games, the PS2 & GC proved that last gen, and if the Wii has graphics that exceed the XBOX, even by just a tiny margin, it should be capable of the amazing games that were on PS2 and GC.

Example, if Luigi\'s Mansion was not released on GC, but released on Wii instead, would that make it any less excellent? Sure the graphics would be outdated, but the game will still be very good, and while there is the potential for great games on GC, there is potential for ever greater games on Wii.

So the console is not bad, the developers are.

( Edited 20.04.2008 21:07 by SuperLink )

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Agul is offline. Agul 20.04.2008#59

lol I read this article and I can't help but think of the phrase "ignorance is bliss". Man, what a goon. You want to talk about detached from reality.

No depth, huh? No Mario Galaxy? No Metroid Prime 3? No Twilight Princess, Smash Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, Resident Evil 4, MOH: Heroes 2/Vangaurd, Force Unleashed, Super Paper Mario, Strikers Charged, Battalion Wars 2, etc., etc., etc.?

I'm getting really sick and tired of publishers and devs having this type of warped thinking. Their completely oblivious of what's truly pushing the boundaries of game interaction and brushes it off as a mere 15min. flash of fun. They base all their ideas for a next gen console solely on the premise of it having major horsepower and graphical capabilities and refuse to see it any other way. Hence, they only reference PS3 and 360 as "next gen", when really all your doing is zooming down the same highway at faster speeds into prettier locales. Fine, let them be. It's going to comeback and bite them in the ass sooner or later.

Chance favors the prepared mind.
 
E-Dracon is offline. E-Dracon 20.04.2008#60

all my friends bought it.. and have at least 10 wii games.. and they still play all of them! (and no they aren't shovelware...)

 
trgdr777 is offline. trgdr777 20.04.2008#61

I think this is just stupid. You can say you agree with their point that there aren't very many stellar games to play on the Wii right now and that their games wouldn't work well on the system, but to call it a virus is retarded. Hmmm... few people make good games for the Wii, so we won't make any either because the system obviously sucks... What kind of thought process is that? It's immature and stupid.

I will admit that I stopped playing my Wii for a good amount of time (it wasn't after 2 months though), but that was because of lazy developers and my lack of free time while in school. It had nothing to do with the quality of the machine. Now summer's finally coming up, and I plan on buying Smash Bros. and probably Mario Kart which should last me for quite a while. Plus I'm definitely looking into Lost Winds and other WiiWare games.

DaOne said:
Well according to reviews the 360 has more good games (above 9/10) than the Wii and PS3. It has the best online service.

Best games (according to reviewers) + best online = best console?


1.) Reviews are based on preference too
2.) Crappy games mean crappy developers, not a crappy system. More developers invested in making technology for the other systems, and then when they saw the Wii's overwhelming success, some decided to shell out some PS2 level junk to make some easy money.
3.) I'll take Smash Bros. local play over any game online any day. (once again it's about preference)

sorry for the long post Smilie

 
Agul is offline. Agul 20.04.2008#62

I\'ve got quite a collection of Wii games going, and so much fun to be had with them, I can\'t see why in the world anyone can say there\'s nothing on Wii to keep them playing. Unless, they really havn\'t looked into it for themselves.

I\'ve come to the conlusion that game rating from all these different sites and mags are insufficiant. They all inject their own bias, opinion, ignorance, and preference to a certain degree and are never truly objective and impartial. So be it. I like to try it for myself and see if I like and boy, let me tell you I\'m glad I do. To think of all the games I might\'ve of skipped over because I would\'ve listen to so many of these half baked reviews really upsets me. The kicker is, a good portion of the complaints that were stated about some of these games (and it\'s usually regarding controls) I\'ve never had any problems with. lol Maybe their also just really bad at playing games.

Oh, well. To each their own I guess, but I don\'t let them dictate to me which games are truly good and which ones are really fun. No game is perfect.

Now, all this being said, Wii is getting dumped with way too many games that are not maximizing it\'s ability. Graphics do matter, and Wii can put out some very nice graphics, but like anything else it takes some freak\'n effort to do it. It\'s extremely upsetting that so many of these 3rd parties are shoving half-hearted ports and low budget spin-offs on Wii instead of investing in true high quality titles.

( Edited 20.04.2008 21:34 by MechaG2 )

Chance favors the prepared mind.
 
Wiill is offline. Wiill 20.04.2008#63

It is possible that in the sight of the awesome NPD numbers in March for the Wii, Microsoft and Sony goaded Epic into making some sort of anti-Wii statement.

Just a theory, also depends on the date/context of the interview, I can't be arsed to read it.

All I can say is that I think this guy is wrong. I have enjoyed a number of experience on the Wii that were great fun. Has anyone mentioned Trauma Centre? Also PES 2008 is apparently the best footy game in ages. Lostwinds' use of the pointer also looks to be good. Yes, it could be done on PC, but the Wii remote is nicer to use I think.

Oh, and Force Unleashed looks way more fun on Wii than 360/PS3.

 
Simes is offline. Simes 20.04.2008#64

Well knighty you don't know anything at all, and telling me I don't play console FPS' at all. hmmm...let me look at my fps collection. I have battlefield 2, black, red steel, Killzone, Timesplitters 1 & 2, Resistance, Metroid. No you're right I don't play fps' on consoles. You suck balls man, you come up in here thinking you know stuff, you don't know jack shit. Not all of us want to waste money modding a pc so we can sit wide all till 3am playing some PC shooter. Wii controls aren't as accurate as the KB&M setup but they're pretty damn good. So fuck you and any opinion you have coz it don't mean shit.

 
knighty is offline. knighty 20.04.2008#65

Lol, big man. You\'re including Red Steel and Metroid? lolloolololol. For your information I don\'t play many PC games and it\'s only recently that I\'ve acquired a decent PC. If you suck that badly with dual analogue it\'s not my fault =(

So fuck you and your fucking opinion. I don\'t see what right you have to question me being here when you\'ve been here for less than half a year dick wad.

( Edited 20.04.2008 22:04 by knighty )

 
fenixazul is offline. fenixazul 20.04.2008#66

LoL

 
jb is offline. jb 20.04.2008#67

Simez and Knighty - please cut it out.

I know you're both passionate about what you know and believe in, but swearing and insulting each other should be done elsewhere. Please, you've been warned.

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer
 
Modplan Man is offline. Modplan Man 20.04.2008#68

Can everyone generally stop being a c*nt (that probably includes me btw).

DaOne: No, it doesn\'t. 360 has been out longer for a start, not to mention it\'s heavy stereotype (and general truth) of it being dominated by FPS/racing games.

It is down to personal preference. Earlier examples have already been made of a number of good Wii titles. Just because they\'re not Tom Clancy labelled doesn\'t invalidate them.

Simez, you will be raped by Knighty.

( Edited 20.04.2008 22:25 by RyanT )

 
J4K is offline. J4K 20.04.2008#69

Simez, Knighty, knock it off both of you. Telling each other to "fuck off" etc isn't appropriate behavior at all. Chill out or you'll (both) get temp banned.


--

Anyhow, in relation to the story, it just seems the guy's a bit bitter to me. I can understand the guy not wanting to developer for the Wii, but to call it a virus just seems to tell of some underlying hate or something.


Well according to reviews the 360 has more good games (above 9/10) than the Wii and PS3.

Of course the 360 has more higher rated game. Its been out longer.

It has the best online service.

It had better, its the only one that charges.

 
DaOne is offline. DaOne 20.04.2008#70

Wow! Triple mod impact for maximum damage!

No Longer Temporarily Banned.
 
Modplan Man is offline. Modplan Man 20.04.2008#71

*alarm goes off in R&R room*

"Mods, roll out!"

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 20.04.2008#72

And there was no Mod Alert either. Smilie

And since noone has gotten on your case yet; fenixazul, please don't post like that. Contribute or don't post at all.

And knighty, just thought you should know that using time as a member to prove a point is pretty low, even if Simez brought it up in the first place. It's all so relative, time on the forum doesn't and shouldn't make any difference to your standing in any discussion.

That being said, I knew the discussion that was running up until Simez' post was too good to last. I was thinking I could finally have a mature console war discussion for once *sniff*

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DaOne is offline. DaOne 20.04.2008#73

This is the kinda debate we need in the chat room!

No Longer Temporarily Banned.
 
patjuan32 is offline. patjuan32 20.04.2008#74

First Epic should not state that they believe in going forward when they released Unreal Tournament for the less capable PS2 and the Dreamcast. Both of those platforms had less ram and very slow CPUs when compared to the PC. But I guess thats all changed now.

Secondly, Mike Capps has no reason to criticize the Wii and its software lineup. The only way to really criticize the software lineup is to show developers what can be done on the Wii. If you are not willing to make a game for the Wii then "SHUT UP". All you are doing is flapping your gums.

Thirdly, Mark Rein stated in an interview either at IGN or Gamespot, I can not remember, that Ubisoft was able to get the Unreal 3 engine to run on the Wii.

Link:
www.joystiq.com/2007/11/23/unreal-engine-3-coming-to-wii-but-not-by-epic/

fourthly, there are a lot of engines being developed for the Wii to help third parties save time and money with the development of their Wii games. It's shame that these guys will not be in the crowd. Also the lack of first person shooters on the Wii would have provided Epic with a lot of cash and an exclusive audience for a while at least but I guess they did not want that.

I could go on but nothing is going to change the mind of their president. And I no longer care about this issue. Next topic please.

 
Simes is offline. Simes 20.04.2008#75

Done JB, RyanT you don't know know me enough to know who would get verbally raped and I don't want to go their either, I said I respect the guy and he throws it in my face by thinking he's better coz he been here longer. Which means jack in real terms. Yeah you have people who you know here, I like most people here but I know at the end of the day they'll take your side and so will the mods. That's the only way knighty could truly beat me in some argument "community spirit".

 

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