Why does the Wii sleep alone at night?

This isn't a hard question to answer for most but all fanboy flame wars aside, why was the Wii such a hot seller if roughly 75% of the software being released was [below] passable to the game community? Why have sales continued to surpass the other two leading game hardware companies such as Microsoft and Sony. It seems to be a combination of things that are going on behind the Marketing over at the house that Nintendo Built. It's no hidden fact that the Wii could barely be duct-taped together fast enough( Sorry I set it up for that) to get out of the factory and into your home, living room or bathroom (that would be tricky to play...) but still as soon as they came into the store they were eaten up like a fat man at a Chinese Buffet. So let's be serious now, The Wii is a fresh new take on gaming and had its fun in the first year with games like Red Steal and the Wii-version of Zelda TLP but these games weren't perfect control wise and left the player more excited for the potential the next wave of games would bring but instead of doing just that the game well dried up and suddenly the Wii was still hard to find but the software was spilling out of the flood gates full of Herpes and Aids which forced many players to abandon their Wii's for risk of getting a shovelware STD. So this is where we are now at the Nintendo "river" or pipeline (whatever works for you) and its a quickly flowing stream of games (water...) but in that flowing river of games lurk the Leechware* waiting to suck you dry of your now very hard to earn money forcing you to put old Wii out to green pastures and turn toward the other systems but some of us (myself included) have hope that Nintendo can still clean up the mess other companies have left at it's house after what started as a fun party and get ready to start playing with the big boys and releasing Fresh water software that pushes the system and the control mechanic to a level that makes Wii fun again..sadly until then I will play No more Heroes and Mario Kart and hope....just hope....

April 17, 2009

*Download Content* The selling of incomplete and broken games!?

Now more then ever "DLC" or Downloadable Content as it were, has taken the gaming market by storm (mainly on X-box 360) and is showing no sign of slowing down. It has gotten to the point now that companies are including this content as a long term plan to draw out the life or replay value of their games so that they are being played longer after their release. But what if this isn't just a plan to stretch out the life of a game but more a fall back for when a game releases with bugs and glitches due to short production schedules? So if a game gets a poor review...they will say "wait!", there's more! and if you pay the additional 800 ms points (=10 USD) you can have what we meant to give you but were in a hurry to complete! thus making a USD 59.99 game into a USD 69.99 game plus local tax from when you first bought it. But this trend shows little sign of stopping from both sides the game companies love it and they have the users now looking forward to the next quick update and additional level to play that's about 3 dollars an hour if you think that's your moneys worth... Sound off your opinion in the comments section! Happy DLC day!




*UPDATE- Another major point is the pricing of this content and what happens when you are left with an overage. For example I will preform simple math to illustrate my point. Lets say you have purchased the new fallout 3 (which this games quality is not in question 10/10) and it's either one of the two standard price tags 59.99 or 79.99 (limited edition lunchbox) and lets add local Vermont sales tax to this purchase. So, you have 59.99, which already is a false asking price and add 7% sales tax, with 6% of it being state tax and 1% Burlington tax and this game at it's cheapest comes in at $64.19. The point system is different in retail and on the Microsoft Market place. Retail a point card comes in two flavors 1600 points and 4000 points (19.99 and 49.99 respectively) and on the site is ranges from 1000 points up to 7500 or something, I'm starting to skip steps to hurry my point sorry, and Fallout 3's DLC is 800 ms points. Well either way you have to get the points from either a retail chain or the site both will cost you more then the needed 800 points which leaves you with an overage and with nothing but pictures and themes to try your luck at spending the rest of your points on, which is a sad way to keep your points at bay or generally wasted or leave you with a 80 point gamer pic!! while you now have 70 ms points left thus returning you to buy more point cards should you want another Fallout 3 DLC and this would put you around over 80 dollars total for a game that was already costing you more then half a hundred from the start...I am not upset I just really wish I was apart of that financial pie!

March 5, 2009