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There are more than 50 million Wii systems worldwide. The social nature of the platform means the number of eyeballs in front of those 50 million Wiis on a daily basis is actually much bigger. Logically, the audience for a wide range of games and interactive experiences should be rather big, but based on the evidence so far, either that's not true -- or publishers have been hedging the wrong bets. No one has conclusively proved the case for (or against) the viability of mature games on Wii, but 2009 was a litmus test on a number of fronts, including the DS. The results aren't encouraging.
Even though games like Wii Sports kicked off the latest Nintendo phenomenon, once the industry realized the Wii was more than a fad, publishers started looking for ways to take advantage of this huge audience, many of them new to games, some of them hardcore gamers who simply picked up the latest piece of Nintendo hardware in search of the new Mario and Zelda. And though the Wii is often viewed as a machine for the folks to gather around and play together at parties and family gatherings, when the kids go to bed, couldn't there be another use for it?
Cue MadWorld. Cue House of the Dead: Overkill. Cue Dead Space: Extraction, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Manhunt 2...
That's just a sampling of the 36 Mature-rated video games aimed at the Wii audience, according to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board database. Some, such as Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, haven't even been released yet. Compare that to 168 Mature-rated games listed for Xbox 360, or 126 mature-rated games for PlayStation 3, and it's clear where the majority of the industry's grown-up releases end up. But publishers remain intent to trying to make it work on Wii.
Earlier this year, a substantial amount of pre-release hype and critical acclaim followed the most hopeful attempt: Platinum Games and Sega's hyper-violent action game MadWorld. Japanese developer Platinum Games was founded by former Capcom designers Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya. The theory went like this: with that kind of gaming pedigree, hardcore gamers would flock to MadWorld, and its over-the-top violence and Sin City-esque art style would attract Wii owners looking for something different. That theory didn't hold, and MadWorld failed to make a splash.
Even Sega doesn't know exactly what went wrong.
"It’s difficult because it was a critically acclaimed title; it was extreme but good," said Sega of America president Mike Hayes in an interview with Wired. "The thing that we’re saying is, Sega would be extremely arrogant to have a title that didn’t do as well as we thought on a platform and then say, 'Those kinds of games don’t sell on that platform.' I think if you take our slew of more mature games -- House of the Dead Overkill did really well in Europe, and for some reason even though it’s a big (intellectual property) it did less well in North America. So that’s kind of like a win and a miss that’s kind of come out neutral. MadWorld sales were very disappointing, but was that to do with the platform? Was it that people didn’t like the art style? Or that people didn’t like the way the game played through? It could be many things, which we’re obviously researching."
Despite that lack of response, Sega says more mature-aimed Wii games are coming from them. Based on MadWorld and The House of the Dead: Overkill, it's not clear why, unless it's simply too late to move development to another platform. There is a pattern to several of the mature-themed games on Wii: on-rail, light-gun spin-offs of existing franchises. Dead Space, House of the Dead and Resident Evil all went down this route. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles bucked trends and was both a critical and commercial success. Resident Evil, however, was already an established franchise on Nintendo platforms -- Dead Space and House of the Dead were not.
The power and pitfalls of branding has long proven an issue for Wii releases, even Nintendo's first-party efforts. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was a massive hit for the Wii, while the nostalgia-laden Punch-Out!! barely made a blip.
Publishers have faced similar difficulties on the DS, as well. Nintendo touted Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars as a massive exclusive for the DS at E3 2008. Just before Chinatown Wars was released, industry analysts were expecting Rockstar Games' portable effort to sell upwards of 500,000 copies in its first month. NPD Group numbers told a different story: only 89,000 copies. And unlike other evergreen DS games -- most of them from Nintendo -- Chinatown Wars never returned to the charts.
"I think strategically, [Chinatown Wars] is a very important game because it helps send the message that great M-rated content can come to the platform and will find a home," said Steve Singer, VP of licensing and manager of third-party relations for Nintendo of America, in an interview with MTV Multiplayer after the sales numbers for Chinatown Wars were released.
Rockstar's decision to quickly port Chinatown Wars to PSP and iPhone suggests otherwise.
"Are we supposed to be disappointed with sales numbers of publishers who've tried, or sad that this is all they can come up with?"
It's possible the industry's looking at it the wrong way. What is mature? One of Dictionary.com's relevant results for the word mature is "intended for or restricted to adults, esp. by reason of explicit sexual content or the inclusion of violence or obscene language: mature movies." In that sense, publishers have been hitting the mark. Resident Evil, Dead Space, MadWorld -- these are all games with violence and/or obscene language. But what if Wii owners are really just adults who wanted to be treated as such? Interactive experiences aimed at adults aren't required to incorporate dismembering limbs and tossing grenades. They can (and it's certainly a facet of games that isn't going away), but perhaps the adult experiences offered up so far by video game publishers for Wii has toed the party line and, as a result, been passed by with a cynical eye. The sales numbers help support that theory, as traditionally violent games continue to sell just fine on other platforms. Maybe the Wii audience has altogether different expectations.
There's no clear answer. Certainly, the games industry doesn't have one yet. But the usual formulas aren't working. It still stands to reason mature -- perhaps a better word is "adult" -- games can work on the Wii, but so far, no one's managed to make anything more compelling than Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort. Are we supposed to be disappointed with the sales numbers of publishers who've tried for more, or sad that this is all they can come up with?
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philipus
I'm a "mature" wii owner, and I resonate with some of the last parts of the article:
"But what if Wii owners are really just adults who wanted to be treated as such? Interactive experiences aimed at adults aren't required to incorporate dismembering limbs and tossing grenades."
To me, "blowing stuff up", is not "mature". It's adolescent. If Nintendo want to get me to buy more games for myself, write something that appeals to sane, mature 40-50 year olds.
A game revolving around "blowing stuff up", does not fit into that category.
njdx
Design a game a non-gamer would want to play and only a non-gamer will want to play it.
I have a Wii, and there are 2 problems:
1) I can't keep the kids out of the room long enough to play mature games.
2) Game designers seem to be mesmerized by the novelty controller. If the Wii came with traditional wired controllers like the Gamecube, designers would probably produce games the old-fashioned way and focus on the game itself: think of concept, theme, plot and characters; think about gameplay and depth; the control system would emerge naturally out of that process.
Instead they look at the wiimote and think "what can we do with this?"
Wave it around a little: "Hey, how about a baseball game?" "A yo-yo simulator?" "Fly-swatting?"
They end up with a whole bunch of idiotic mini-game ideas which individually would not justify even a $20 price tag, and which you'd only want to play if you were under twelve or loaded (or maybe both), and then they realize that's good enough for a party game.
chrisrea
I really don't see a problem with the market the way it is. Simply because that's the way it's been since at least the N64/PS1 days, if not longer, and aside from whiny Nintendo fanboys that refuse to buy another system, most people don't have a problem with it. It's pretty clear Nintendo isn't seriously interested in tackling that market if they were, we'd have seen more mature games long ago.
It would be nice to see some fresh, intelligent (not necessarily "mature") adventure games on the Wii aside from Zelda, but I'm perfectly content having all my mature games on the 360.
ltrainb
you can't blame the system at all. it's more powerful than the systems from last generation and as i recall, there were some pretty good games then. you can only blame the developers for making bad games. as for not getting the good ones, i just don't trust them anymore. if you punch someone in the face every time you call them, eventually they will stop coming over. rail shooters? really? sounds like someone didn't feel like working hard on a game to me. and the artist they get to work with these games are just plain bad! there is no reason i should put a gamecube game in my wii and see better graphics! if they make better games that don't get the tag "looks good for a wii game" and the gameplay isn't broken, then maybe i will start buying games again.
now as for what Nintendo did this generation, i kinda like the move they made. they have made the most money out of anyone (it's still a business) which means they don't have to sink all time and money into tryin to recover financially (Sony) and can put more cash into R&D (research and development) for the future. i'm willing to bet Nintendo does somethin different next generation since they have always been an "outside the box" company.
Morphballer
What? No comments?
Jarhead23
The wii and mature games,in my opinion, will never go well together. The best games on the wii are the ones with the classic names ie mario zelda etc and those games are great its just most gamers wont longitivity lolz. This is why games with great online sell the best....Halo,cod,killzone etc. These games can be played for a very long time and all of these games are on the ps3/xbox.Most gamers can fly through a campaign and the online of course. I can go on and on regarding the reasons mature games dont work on the wii. Most mature games are single players and most wiis are purchased for kids or family fun. No matter how good the mature game is they havea limited audience on the wii. Now add on the fact that the best wii game,super mario galaxy argugably lolz, is almost 3 years old then of course mature gamers are looking elsewere.
spooty89
I don't know what to think about games on the Wii anymore. On one hand, I love some of the hardcore stuff from third-party developers (Mad World deserved so much better) and most of Nintendo's first-party efforts... let's ignore the spinoffs for a moment (Link's Crossbow Training... ugh). On the other hand, there has been a mass overload of bad shovelware games from third-party developers and an abnormally high number of forgetful Nintendo games.
I think one of the main problems with M rated games on the Wii may be that, after two years of being ignored, the hardcore gamers probably traded their Wii's in to GameStop so they could finally get a PS3 or 360. There have always been plenty of hardcore games on those consoles so, if my guess is right, they just got sick of the casual crap and got a system that fit their needs.
There's nothing wrong with these M rated games; the audience just isn't there on the system (and that's a real shame). I've always been a big Nintendo fan (SNES, N64, GC, Wii) but, for this generation of consoles, it's hard to recommend a Wii to any hardcore gamers. There have been a few really great titles and some other decent efforts but, other than that, there's nothing here.
JohnnyShoulders
The problem with M-rated titles are the games themselves Nintendo of America marketing department and games not being released stateside. 1.) On rail shooters are out-dated. If Dead Space Extraction was an FPS with multiplayer online, that game would do decent, or a third person survival game. You can dumb down the franchise with a cheesy on-rails shooter. 2.) Nintendo of America has pushed that Wii as a family friendly console. With promos like that, who is gonna know mature titles exist. You have Madworld in two games in front of it is Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. Sony and Microsoft atleast says to the public, "Hey, we got Uncharted, Hey we got Halo". 3.) Not releasing games like Fatal Frame 4 or Fragile oversees hurts Nintendo alot. The Wii is really good at designing games with an anime feel to them in Japan.
Also, Nintendo does not have staple RPG franchises. Imagine a mature RPG exclusive to the Wii, and Nintendo would push that hell out of it.
Overall, the majority of the blame is Nintendo of America's marketing of the Wii and developers making games that are dumbed down and easy for the masses. A game like Demon's Souls popping up on the Wii catalog would be amazing. However, Nintendo would lose there minds if a project would even be presented in the board room. Iwata sucks to, because he is the main main guy that can control all this unholy mess.
spaceinvad3rs
i think M games on the Wii is great.
Beath
2010 is the year of the Hardcore wii
Monster Hunter 3
Gladiator A.D
The Grinder
Dragon Quest x
Pokemon RPG?
Zelda
theLocust1313
Fantastic article. Two years ago when it was difficult to find a Wii in any retail store, I saw one at a Best Buy and nearly purchased it. I stared at the library of titles for the platform for about a half hour thinking about this very same conundrum (although my thought process was less articulate). Aside from the renown shortcomings of the system, I asked myself: would I be able to purchase a game on the Wii that would present mature subject matter in a mature manner? Presented with the same question again today, would I be able to buy a game with gritty social commentary, moral ambiguity, and satire like Grand Theft Auto 4? Would I find a game brave enough to tackle historical and religious subtexts like Assassin's Creed?
Wii has been around long enough that their reputation for predominantly releasing G and PG titles suitable for a wide audience is now a track record. Unless Wii Fit is considered a scathing review of American diet and culture, it is unlikely that 1st or 3rd party publishers will tangent in any significant manner from the strength of Wii's niche for the remainder of this generation of consoles.
chris0824
i think that the wii should have a some more mature games or not i mean they could use some more violent games but there are too many kids who own the wii and we have all seen what kind of "awesome" graphics the wii has if they came out with a really fun mature game i would buy it but if they came out wih a rally cool teen game i would buy it but some kids cant buy mature games so they should make teen games for them. in the end they should have both kinds of games just more fun teen games. i sold all of the games for my wii and haven and wont touch it until red steel 2 comes out or the next new zelda. i have only played my playstation 3 and 360 for 6 months now and the last wii game i played was the conduit.
if questions on more of what i think dont hesitate to send me a message on any of these game systems
xbox 360 gamertag: chris0824
playstation account: senatorjld
pembo
Almost all gamers see the Wii as kids machine. In fact, it just wouldn't cool to mention you have a Wii. If you do admit to the fact, you cover yourself by a "its gathering dust' comment. With regards to Madworld, I never finished it. There's only so much shake the control you can take. Shake, thrust, repeat. Couple that with the controls doing something other than what your asking, and it's goodnight vienna. I like the Wii, I really do. But, having a family my spare time is limited and any I do have is spent on the PS3. The Wii is, well, "gathering dust".
tHeMarriedGuy
Thank* you.
tHeMarriedGuy
First of all, anyone who thinks you actually have to stand up and move around to play the Wii games is doing it wrong. With the exception of games like Wii Sports/Resort, Wii Fit and Wario Ware, the games don't require any of that. I sit on my butt for all of the games I have apart from Wii Sports and Wario Ware--games which are only played with other people anyhow.
Now as far as the Wii's future with M-rated games, I don't think it fits in the same way with those types of games as the PS3 and 360 do, but that does not mean that it can't handle them. What it really comes down to is that developers have to try to MAKE more M-rated games, instead of the kiddy-crap that most 3rd party developers are coming up with. However, I think something else needs to be said: games don't have to have an M-rating in order to be good. In fact, I would argue that T-rated and even MANY of the E-rated games are better than the M-rated ones. So there's no blood and gore. So there's no swearing. So there's no killing prostitutes. When did games become about violence and graphical quality and not actual gameplay/story?
Personally I think what the Wii has going for it is a lot stronger than what many people give it credit for--and it's probably because they think that all of the games require them to stand up/wave their arms/jump around to play (which is RARELY true). The Wii has, of course, some of those games. But it also has a great deal of quality titles (especially the game franchise continuations like Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Mario Kart, Smash Bros., etc.) which are both enjoyable and in many cases, CHALLENGING. Of course, that's only the tip of the iceberg. One of the Wii's greatest strengths is the Virtual Console, which gives players the chance to re-play (or even experience for the first time) classic titles from past systems (NES, SNES, Genesis, TurboGrafx16, N64, NeoGeo, etc.). In addition there is of course the backwards compatibility with GC games (which, even though there weren't a ton of good titles, there were good titles!).
Just because the so-called "hardcore" crowd have big sticks up their butts and refuse to try playing the solid games both made for the Wii and now available for it from systems past does not mean that the Wii is not a good console. In fact, I would argue that a true "hardcore" gamer is one who grew up on/played a variety of games--not someone who started playing HALO 2 a few years ago and thinks they deserve such a title.
That's my soapbox. Thanks you.
loupinconnu
The thing is that the Wii needs to stop coming out with the crappy over the top gore games and realise what a truly mature game is. If your audience is adults with kids then they will not be interested in games that go over the top with the ADD kids stuff, they want more. Storytelling and Adult Themes go much further for the adult gamers than gore and guts. So please devs for these games, get a brain and figure it out.
H2o388
I hope what happened to the Wii won't pass to the better systems.
EKG
Stop talking and looking down at Wii owners with your "Mature" Games, and maybe we will pay attention. We don't want watered down Light Gun and On Rails versions of games when the other console get the real deal. It is not like the Wii couldn't handle a Resident Evil 5 or a Dead Space. We had Resident Evil 4 on the PS2, and the Wii is more powerful that the PS2, so why do we keep getting these Lazy rehashes instead of the real thing??? Don't tell me because the Wii can't handle it. Sure, we will take a hit in Graphics, but that's it.
Anyway, I could care less. I have a 360 and a PS3 and I stopped caring about these so called "Hardcore" Wii games after the first year of the Wii.
samiam0605
Very good article. I for one at least hope more mature games are developed for the Wii. By mature, I don't mean violent but games that involve a little more depth than Wii Play sports Resort 2000. I like having those games. They bring an experience that I don't get from other games, but I don't want just that from my Wii. Its wrong that I have to wait more than 6 months sometimes for a game that provides me with great mature single player experience such as: Mario Galaxy; Metroid; Zelda; Madworld; and No More Heroes. Sharing my gaming fun with rest of the family is great, but I just want some alone time with my Wii Nintendo.
P.S I've pretty much have abandon my Wii to my family for months now until No More Heroes 2 comes out.
DiablusX
There may be a market but not for the majority of Wii owners. This comes from the way the Wii was marketed. A family friendly system that even your grandma can use. You do not sell a system like that try to attach a Wii fit bundle to it and then sell a mature game. The Wii has established a niche for itself and for now that is as a family system. Nintendo will very unlikely change this anytime soon because of their only way of selling the system. The only major problem will occur in a few years when the kids that are playing that Wii family friendly game age and want something else. The PS3 and 360 will be there to cover them for the majority of all ages but the Wii can and will not due to the idea that the Wii is a family friendly ma/pa/grandma game system and if you want a mature game get a different system.
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