Streaming Video Service Coming To the Wii 103
Gamasutra reports that Nintendo is partnering with a company called Dentsu to "distribute original streaming video programming via the Wii, with a 2009 launch confirmed in Japan, and an eye towards a later Western launch." According to a press statement, some of the videos will be free, and some will cost money. This will help to answer concerns that the Wii was lagging behind the other major consoles in video content.
The beeb's been doing it for months... (Score:3, Informative)
BBC iPlayer - on the Wii! [bbc.co.uk]
Wait, what? (Score:1)
Can't you already do this with the Opera browser for the Wii?
I know I can get on Youtube/Veoh/etc and watch stuff.
How can a pay service compete with that?
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It could compete in lots of ways. You can't think of any? It could compete on content, format, quality, convenience...
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It could try, but most people will take the free option above paying for anything.
Re:Wait, what? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think a service like Hulu could compete quite successfully. "Pay" services(Hulu is actually ad-supported) usually have better quality video than free services, and earlier access to content.
You can always torrent high-quality vids, but I don't see that feature making it into the official firmware. Free ad-supported 480p streams is the next best thing.
And besides, many people don't mind paying a bit for the convenience these services bring, especially if they have good steaming quality.
I imagine if they had something like Hulu available on the Wii, then it'd be really popular. It certainly beats youtube when it comes to quality and availability of copyrighted content.
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You're forgetting that it's that same legal team that got the content into the server room in the first place.
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Well, hard to speculate without you saying what your location is :).
I've worked with digital content distribution in a variety of markets.
But Hulu absolutely needs to do georestriction, since all content licensing contracts with the studios are for specific regions (USA for Hulu, of course). And don't blame this on the studios themselves; the movies are financed by partners in different region pre-paying for exclusive rights. So in many cases the USA-based studios don't have any right to distribute that con
What's the hardware even capable of? (Score:2)
Anyone know what the Wii hardware is capable of for a video experience. As a SD device, it could do 480p60 or 576p50 at best. But the processor is basically a semi souped-up 800 MHz G3, right? My old 800 MHz G4 couldn't play back 480p30 High Profile H.264 and the AltiVec SIMD that the Wii lacks is a big help for that.
Perhaps the ATI video card inherited some DXVA features?
There's some DVD playback, so we know MPEG-2 works, and I could imagine VC-1 or MPEG-4 part 2 (divx/xvid) working for 480p24. But unless
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h.264 is a pig of a format, on playback at least. Dirac scales better, xvid plays better. What the heck is up with the h.264 hype?
I don't think the Wii will have a problem if this is properly coded, and it might even be done in assembly code to push it even further. I'm sure you could also use the GPU for this sort of thing, don't think OpenCL would be hard even on a GPU like that.
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What the heck is up with the h.264 hype?
Higher quality at lower bitrate? Is there something about that which is difficult to understand?
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The cost is incredible, though. Yes, it's awesome, I love it. It's a pig though, when compared to other formats.
I guess it's an inherit tradeoff, that when space and bitrate drop, to keep the same quality you need to up intensity.
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Yep. H.264 met its goals well. It's just that high performance software playback wasn't one of them :). Baseline profile isn't too bad, but Main and HIgh allow the CABAC entropy coding mode, which isn't amenable to either parallel or GPU processing (unless the video was encoded as independent slices).
I'm biased, but I like VC-1's mix of performance and quality. It's about half the complexity of H.264 (and hence about twice that of MPEG-2), but is within 15% of the bandwidth efficiency of H.264 even at very
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Mostly, but I don't know about everyone else, but when I watch any video of a decent length (usually more then 10 minutes), I get "memory buffer full" (or something like that) errors.
I want to know how they plan on caching the videos when with a few (one to three) Wiiware / VC games and a average amount of savefiles practically fills up the Wiis memory. I don't even want to think about what would happen if you are a VC junkie or play Rock Band / Guitar Hero with DLC. Caching to the ram gives less than 88MB
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You can play Guitar Hero DLC from an SD card, but yeah, I agree with you that this doesn't really sound like something that fits in with the Wii universe. Unlike the HD consoles, both of which set out to be media centers. When the Wii launched they were explicit that they did not want it to be one, which is why it doesn't play DVD movies even though it has a DVD drive.
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which is why it doesn't play DVD movies even though it has a DVD drive.
Which is nice in a way, to be honest; the Wii's DVD drive goes at a steady pace and so should have a longer life time (not to mention the flash storage).
It really makes me rage though that VC titles won't run off SD cards. I know they're worried about AverageDick loading his piratebay ROMs on an SD card into his Wii, but geez you'd think at this point they could figure out some form of minor-to-moderate encryption/checksum system to only allow Wii-bought games to run and let everyone go home happy...
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Their interface hardware is slowass (Score:1)
Not to mention they choose some half assed slow hardware, cheap as chips, dodgy serial connection that is slower than a 1996 Win95 box with USB1 on a P75.
They should have called the shots and made em all USB2 in 2008, even tho that would leave millions of older Wiis slow versions.
How to watch video on the Wii (Score:1, Informative)
I tested a bunch of streaming/converting solutions that all involved watching low-quality videos through the Opera browser. They were all slow, pixelated and frequently ran out of memory.
I then installed the Homebrew Channel on the Wii (using the Twilight Hack, no hardware modification). It was dead simple to install, and now I watch all my divx and xvid videos through mplayer (wii version). It works great, although from what I've read the processor chokes on HD content (most video torrents I get are 720
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I don't know, but it's a non-sequitur. The Wii doesn't have to be better than the 360, because the only people for whom that is a relevant question are the small number of people who own and frequently use both systems.
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"What makes the wii better suited for distribution of video over the Xbox 360 especially since the 360 has netflix already in its camp?"
The Wii is technically not in any way more suited for video distribution, its just much more common than the 360.
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"Examples or stfu"
Mind you im talking about ordinary people here, not geeks like me who almost gets an orgasm by bootstrapping Gentoo. Try if you have the ability to put yourself in the shoes of a normal parent whos just gotten an hour over to watch a flick. Someone with a life, maybe even kids and that do not have hours upon hours to spend on tinkering, reading and researching something. Anything that demands his or hers attention/time is a problem from their viewpoint.
A Wii rarely demands you to install o
Re:Sweet (Score:4, Insightful)
The main adventage simply is that a Wii is connected to your TV, a PC most of the time isn't.
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True. On the other hand, you can now stream Netflix movies on your Tivo. I'm not sure why anyone would prefer a Wii over a Tivo...
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My computer monitor is significantly better than my TV anyway!
SDTVs; PC and TV in separate rooms (Score:4, Interesting)
Using a PC just plain sucks and rarely works without major hickups
What kind of shit PC are you using anyway?
One without a composite video output. People like to sit in a recliner or sofa to watch long-form video, and this needs a large monitor. I was at Walmart* last night, and the large monitors that Walmart sells for under $300 have only composite video input because they're CRT SDTVs. You would need a $50 device called a scan converter [sewelldirect.com] to translate the 480p, 600p, or 768p RGB output of a computer into the 480i composite signal that an SDTV expects.
Or one in the other room. Almost any TV over $300 is an HDTV with a suitable VGA input. But even people with an HDTV often don't have a PC in the same room as the TV.
Or one that's in use. The operating systems used on most home PCs aren't capable of mapping the remote control and one video card and sound card to one user session (the TV) and the keyboard, mouse, and a second video card and sound card to another session (someone else in the house who is surfing the web or working on a spreadsheet).
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My Pc uses HDMI out and Component out. I get ZERO hiccups watching Videos on my PC to my TV and it's happily playing 1080p content.
Granted I use a dedicated Media Center PC that I recently eridaced Mediaportal and Windows off of for XBMC live CD install and will never look back.
It's better than absolutely any other solution out there. Everything else sucks big time compared to it.
I'll never ever buy another one of the half arsed "media players" like the crap that Roku, dlink, linksys and the others have m
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My Pc uses HDMI out and Component out.
How far does the cable reach? And a lot of TVs currently used for gaming and video are standard-definition; what would you recommend using to connect HDMI or component out to those?
Granted I use a dedicated Media Center PC
But a lot of people who use game consoles do not own such a dedicated PC. If I were selling products or services for HTPCs, how would I go about convincing potential customers to buy an HTPC in order to get enough customers to turn a profit?
Besides, PC's are dirt cheap today. I built my mediacenter Pc for $400.00
But a lot of people who game on consoles aren't interested in spending an extra $400 just
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How far does the cable reach? And a lot of TVs currently used for gaming and video are standard-definition; what would you recommend using to connect HDMI or component out to those?
Uh, if you are building a media center PC, it's usually next to your TV. The cable is no different than from your DVD player. Use RCA, SVideo, or Composite if you don't want HDMI.
But a lot of people who use game consoles do not own such a dedicated PC. If I were selling products or services for HTPCs, how would I go about convincing potential customers to buy an HTPC in order to get enough customers to turn a profit?
The parent didn't say anything about using an HTPC in place of a game console. However, I do think the game consoles should play media the same as a PC. XBMC really is the shit.
Also, why would you sell products or services for home theater PCs? Dude, this is the age of everything online for free. (Although you could build the DRM
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Uh, if you are building a media center PC
Most people do not build their own computers; they instead buy a Dell, an HP, or a Mac. A lot don't want a separate $400 PC; they want a cheaper set-top box, which is why they buy a Wii instead of a PC. So how do I convince customers to want to 1. learn how to build a PC and 2. splurge for a second PC?
Use RCA, SVideo, or Composite if you don't want HDMI.
Most low-end PCs that I saw at Best Buy and Office Depot don't have "RCA, SVideo, or Composite"; they need a $50 scan converter to produce composite video.
Also, why would you sell products or services for home theater PCs? Dude, this is the age of everything online for free.
If I put everything online for free, how do I feed my
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Its a waste to use a HTPC for SD, but if you must it can be done. Tho I have spend far less than 400 on my htpc, the cheapest MB + E1200 CPU + 2gig ram and old 120 HD, with a great 9600nvidia card runs damn well, on par to PS3 or better quality in HD.
If you exclude the spare/old PC case + old HD/dvd-rw. The PC cost far less than a Wii.
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I'm sorry, I couldn't parse that. What the fuck did you do?
XVMC seeking sucks compared to xbox1 (Score:1)
I loved xbox1's xbmc seeking using the front pads, now in windows.... its more difficult, you have no equivelant that i have seen.
What they need at least is a logarithmic button advance, im not going to wait ages at 22x speed to go forward 1hr. Also I liked how the xbox's version remembered the locations.
Granted I have to 'tweeak' the damn settings, or read a damn FM to see how its done, but the defaults have to be better.
Now just add a Digital TV plugin to it and all other crap can be deleted.
Advertising (Score:2, Insightful)
Dentsu is Japan's largest advertising company, with a 55% share of the ad market. If they are teaming with them, the 'some of the content is free' and 'original programming' in the quote should be taken as 'ad sponsored' or 'ads'.
What about the quality? (Score:2, Insightful)
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Quality of the video output on Wii really sucks
It's called Standard Definition, which is well beyond good enough for most people and is what most people have.
Re:What about the quality? (Score:4, Insightful)
Second, in Japan HDTV is more common than anywhere else (tens of millions subscribers), and free ISDB translations started in 2003. Once you are used to HDTV, it's hard to go back to SDTV.
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My Wii is connected to a 64" Hitachi plasma display, looks just fine to me if not as clear as HD. I use it to play SNES games all the time.
Re:What about the quality? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'd diagnose your problem as being to stat oriented to have fun.
This is a common problem among gamers who do not actually care if an old NES game is fun becuase of the graphics.
Your pleasure is not found in the actual gaming, but in the looking at the game.
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Wrong, the PS2 is quite capable of doing 480p, 720p or 1080i over component.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Progressive_Scan_PS2_Games/ [wikipedia.org]
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Is it even worth going up to component for the Wii? I mean, the cable is only like 3$-4$, but will the progressive scan mode help out or just smooth things out that I didn't see in the first place?
(720p TV here)
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The output of the Wii is far worse when it comes to games (no anti-aliasing, no motion blur) then it would be with video, yet people still buy the thing like crazy. So I doubt that it would matter much. Anyway, I think the bigger problem would be storage, Wii's 512MB are tiny, you would have to stream everything and you couldn't even buffer a larger part of the movie temporary.
Re:What about the quality? (Score:4, Informative)
You do realize in United States 1080i has ben the norm for years too. And just recently TVs are now 1080p 55 Pixels height (about the size of an Icon) isn't that much of an advancement. It is more on what the broadcast standards are in the area. Most people can't tell the difference between 480i and 720p and 1080i and 1080p for you to tell the difference between 1080i and 1125i you would be watching the pixels more then the movie, and have a really good eye for detail.
The Wii is no XBox or PS3 but it does have enough juice to do the job. The 480i which is the same as most DVD players output. Which gives a rather clear picture. It is no Blueray but it is clean and clear and you can see what is happening without it looking like you are watching life threw a screen. The Wii just needs to decode video in real time, that is the heavy processing. But it is just 2d stuff. Most legal streaming media is at 480 or less even if you have a box that can handle HDTV the size of the data is still to big to get on the internet or most connections.
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1125i and 1080i are the same thing. OP is just using different terminology. Much like 480i is actually 525i but has some extra lines that aren't used, 1125i is the actual, full range of scan lines in HDTV of which 1080 are actively used.
It's just a difference in terminology. In fact, if you look in the manuals for TVs that talk about 1125i, they'll usually say something like "Supported resolutions: 1125i (1080i)." I've only ever heard of the term being used in Japan. Apparently one of the old analog HD
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Most of the shows I have been watching are at 1080i... If you are thinking about broadcast TV over the air then you are using a dead technology.
Why don't wii's play dvds? (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean really this seems like the most obvious feature the wii should have had by default. They are targeting the families that can't afford bigger systems, and they apparently wanted a smaller system that didnt take a ton of space.
so by eliminating the family dvd player, they accomplish both...
so why didn't they?
firmware update (Score:5, Interesting)
MPlayer on Wii Homebrew plays DVDs just fine.
Even if your Wii is updated? I thought Wii Menu 3.4 disabled the DVDX channel that homebrew programs use to access DVD-Video discs, and I thought new Wii consoles shipped with 3.4. Besides, Wii Game Discs produced next year will likely ship with 3.4 on them.
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Re:Why don't wii's play dvds? (Score:4, Insightful)
They are targeting the families that can't afford bigger systems
Not as their main focus. There's a huge segment of their market that doesn't want a 360 or PS3. The focus of the Wii is different, and it covers demographics that aren't touched or satisfied at all by the other systems.
I could afford all three if I gamed enough to feel like spending the money. The Wii got me to buy my first console in over a decade. It's been worth the money.
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If the Wii was your first console in a decade, then it is likely to be your last as well. The Wii proved that people do not need HD graphics, Blu-Rays worth of cutscenes, or mult-disc slogfests like you see on the PS3 and 360. Instead, they want simple games, with direct manipulation controls. The Wii provided all this, complete with a way to indulge your nostalgia by downloading older titles.
The problem? Nintendo flattened peoples expectations for a console. The massive technological leap from the PS2 to the PS3 was, from a sales standpoint, unneeded. But where does that leave Nintendo? There is no customer base who wants a Wii 2...
The difficulty of PS3s selling against PS2s has demonstrated the point about better graphics not being very valuable better than the Wii did.
But, I think you entirely misunderstand what the Wii does provide. It (along with the DS, and Guitar Hero) presents the first fresh gaming experience since the NES/Sega Master System days. It didn't prove that there is no demand for HD graphics; rather that there is more demand for innovative game play.
Nintendo has no future as soon as they stop innovating (almost ha
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Why no DVD player? Licensing the code to be able to play DVD's means the price goes up. Problems with the code in the DVD player to handle odd DVD's, cost goes up. Support calls because guys with scratched DVDs complain the Wii can't play them. Support calls because a new copy protection scheme is incompatible with the Wii. RMA's as a result of the same issue. RMA's because the Wii's general use goes up significantly as a DVD player and wears out quicker. The expectations of a $250 unit are somewhat
Sad (Score:2, Insightful)
Nevermind that the Wii has some online gameplay (keep in mind that most of the online gameplay games available to PS3 and Xbox360 are war/sports games), that it has had free internet browsing almost from the beginning, with a good enough zoom to get almost full screen video on youtube with great streaming; it's not -HD-, so it clearly sucks.
I laugh at this. I really do. I didn't buy a game system to -cough-
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I disagree. I haven't been able to find a way to enjoy ANY holiday with my family, because all they do is sit around and talk about what happened 30 years ago. Playing Wii Fit gives them something to laugh at: each other. It's fun, it gets them all working together. No 50 year old wants to watch you beat Gears of War, trust me. They might be fascinated by the graphics for 20-30 minutes, but they won't watch for long, and they can't grasp it as quickly if you let them try.
And I'
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts? (Score:2)
While there's certainly no lack of FPS games on Xbox 360, there's also plenty of accessible family-friendly titles. We've been having great fun over the holidays with the new Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. The platforming aspects don't appeal to all of the older set, but everyone really gets into the vehicle design aspect of it. Particularly the middle-aged and up men who grew up working on cars.
Rock Band/RB2 is also a big hit, and the singing position is great for those intimidated by controllers.
Xbox.com
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I own and like my Wii, but I do agree that the library sucks. The problem is not with Nintendo's offerings, as you seem to cite. The problem is that there is a real dearth of good third party games. Yes there is a lack of "'M for mature' war games" but there is also a lack of creative and fun games. It seems almost a meme on slashdot, but the fact is most games are just poorly-made overpriced "waggleware". I'm not saying that there are no good games. I am just saying good games are very few and far between
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I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you just never played the two real Fallout games. Otherwise I might have to take exception to the final item in that list.
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Recently I've seen comments similar to yours stating that Fallout 3 is Oblivion with guns and not a "real" Fallout game. So I decided to try the original game, that I've never played, being a console gamer. So installed Fallout to my dosbox directory on my PS3's YDL install. It's slow, but playable. Anyway the vault exit scene reminded me quite a bit of Oblivion and there I was, in the wilderness, with an overarching quest (like Oblivion) but the freedom to go and do what I wanted (like Oblivion). I hap
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Are you one of those gamers who wanted Fallout 3 to be turn based, isometric and 2D....in 2008? Times have changed, games have changed. Fallout 3 may be real time (though VATS makes combat feel more turn based to a certain extent), it may be 3D, it may use the Oblivion engine, and it may not have been developed by Black Isle, but it's still a Fallout game and claiming otherwise is just being curmudgeonly.
May I remind you that one of the reasons Black Isle doesn't exist anymore is that they made games for
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No, I wanted it turn based, isometric, 2D and released in 1999. Why would I insist on a nine year delay?
Uh huh. And is it also just being curmudgeonly to make a distinction between the original Star Trek series and randomly chosen results from a Google search for Star Trek Slash [google.ca]? Or to
Re:Sad (Score:4, Informative)
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You have a point regarding the abstraction of motion to buttons, but the AC pointing out the inferior game library has merit.
If you look at the shelf of Wii games, most of them are minigame compilations that take only a few quick months to produce and develop.
The original excuse was that, since the minigame compilations are so quick to produce, naturally there will be more of them in the early months following Wii launch. Well, the years have passed and the shovelware still flows -- the decent releases have
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Hype and novelty? After more than 2 years on the market, there is no "hype and novelty" anymore. Wii is now a well-established gaming platform.
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AC above is clearly an idiot. The abstraction is a neccessary evil, not a feature.
Depends, many people enjoy doing crazy jumps and moves and fighting monsters and stuff (yes, that includes Mario games), which they couldn't perform when they would be wearing a a mo-cap suit and have perfect 1:1 mapping. Abstraction helps you do stuff you couldn't do in reality, complete lack of abstractions just puts you back into reality, which is not where most people want to be when they think about games.
Motion-sensing controls and peripherals (like the Wii Fit board) give the user more intuitive interaction with the game
And yet I have never seen such huge obtrusive tutorial texts as in Wii games on any other console.
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Really? I haven't seen it being any different from other consoles. Perhaps with the exception that there are even more casual gamers around, so it's a good thing to make sure they get it.
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Depends, many people enjoy doing crazy jumps and moves and fighting monsters and stuff (yes, that includes Mario games), which they couldn't perform when they would be wearing a a mo-cap suit and have perfect 1:1 mapping. Abstraction helps you do stuff you couldn't do in reality, complete lack of abstractions just puts you back into reality, which is not where most people want to be when they think about games.
To some extent, I think that's my point, too. But wouldn't you agree that there are many cases where pointing at the screen or moving the controller in space is a more effective abstraction? The controlled level of physicality in Wii games is different and very enjoyable for non-gamers.
And yet I have never seen such huge obtrusive tutorial texts as in Wii games on any other console. Those games sure have to explain a hell of a lot of stuff for their "intuitive interaction".
As a recovering 133t gamer, I sure don't need those, but if they help my wife, nieces, and kids catch up, then that's fine. It's not all about me anymore.
Really? How come third party developers largely ignore the Wii and focus on Xbox360 and PS3 instead?
That's a pretty [wikipedia.org] subjective [wikipedia.org] point [wikipedia.org].
Bottom line - the Wii is definitely made for a different class of gamer. Hardcore gamers are generally not going to understand the point of it.
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But wouldn't you agree that there are many cases where pointing at the screen or moving the controller in space is a more effective abstraction?
Not really, there have been very few Wii games that actually show that it is better. Wii Sport makes great use of the Wiimote, but lots of other stuff just use it for pointless waggle minigames or don't use it much at all and falls back to a standard control schemes (Galaxy, SmashBros). In addition to that you also have the problem that the Wiimote just isn't good enough for many games, its motion sensing is very limited (Nintendo is trying to fix that with MotionPlus next year) and it also lacks a second a
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That's a good one? Saw it on the store shelves cheap and was thinking about buying it to give as a gift, but didn't know the quality of it.
I sometimes say that the Wii, is the "full console" equivalent to those 10 Atari games in a joystick devices, for many owners essentially only being Wii Play/Sports/Fit machines
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Really? How come third party developers largely ignore the Wii and focus on Xbox360 and PS3 instead?
As posted below, each system has plenty of games today, but perhaps you are referring more to the fact that the Wii often doesn't get the same games the PS3 and XBox 360 get. I'm sure in most cases it's a simple matter of economics.
1) Most people have a PS3 or an XBox 360 (or neither). If I write a game for PS3, the port to XBox nets me mostly new gamers.
2) Less so with Wii, as many people have a 360 and a Wii for instance. If I write a 360 game and port to Wii, those who already have the 360 original wo
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I simply laugh in the face of the ps3 and Xbox360 fanbois.
They claim this and that...
I point out it's no problem to buy a xbox360 or Ps3 on xmas eve, yet a Wii and Wiifit have been sold out everywhere for over a month and will continue to be sold out till mid january.
The Wii outsells the other two combined without effort... It's crusing them hard and it makes the fanbois panic.
My parents and inlaws like to play the Wii. That in it's self makes it a success that the Ps3 and Xbox360 will never EVER get near
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The Internet Channel was free for a limited time. I think the first year or so that it was out. There is indeed a fee for it now.
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On the other hand, it's 500 points, or five dollars. Unless something is slipping my mind (and no, DLC extra features don't count), that's cheaper than (or, for NES games, the same price as) everything else offered in the shop channel.
It may not be free, but it's definitely affordable.