Why does everyone keep saying 'where's the market for this' about GTA on the Wii? The Wii has sold 11 million consoles by now, making it the most installed system. Most people have it as a primary or secondary system, meaning the most hardcore gamers have (or had and sold) one. There are fewer PS3s or Xbox 360s sold, but no one questioned who would purchase THAT. The same applies here. GTA gave a bump to sales of both consoles, as well. I find it funny that folks who don't question GTA on the DS, do so about it being on the Wii. You do realize that THERE ARE MORE 'M' RATED TITLES ON THE WII THAN ON THE DS, RIGHT? The DS has four, count 'em...FOUR, 'M' rated titles. The Wii currently has NINETEEN...and two of those are MILLION SELLERS (RE4 and RE:UC).

And Reggie Fils-Aime KNOWS that it must be an original, exclusive title, NOT a port. An exclusive title will not only sell consoles, but help legitimize the Wii for core gamers. It will send a clear signal to consumers and to other developers.

WizarDru

@Wolfers: I wonder how many here besides me and you truly understand what this pic is implying:)

Barf#1

@SteveeVader: Uhh...what? RE4:Wii has some of the best controls of the RE series. I played through RE4 on the Gamecube, and found the controls for the Wii version to be much, MUCH better. Shooting in particular is much more accurate. The game got high review marks, and most reviews specifically mentioned the controls being a reason that the game was so well received.

[www.gamerankings.com]

WizarDru

I've owned GTA games before and never played them. The animation in GTA3 and Vice City sucked. Thats what kept me away I guess. My interest level in GTA4 is very high due to the buzz around it, but I'm level headed enough to know that they'll never be able to port that game down to the Wii. If anything, they'd give GTA the Bully treatment and re-release the PS2 games on Wii. Not my cup of tea exactly, but there are certainly some who might like it.

Ptolemy

Didn't they announce a GTA for NDS?

Tesla7zap

Enter GTA 2D 'It's been a long time.'

proust

How about they just include Tommy Vercetti and Niko Bellic in their next carnival game on the Wii.

Everyone would be happy!

Serdur

@savemeaquaman: god I thought the resievil 4 port was vile it was crap. The controls were fing attrocious and the main reason why I did not play it further.
The Wii has terrible controls and I totally regret buying that fing console.

SteveeVader

I think that people that want GTA didn't buy a Wii.

Tyrannical

They'll probably be Gen-III re-makes with waggle capabilities. Sixaxis on IV was horseshit apart from reloading (which gets pretty addictive after a while.)

Speaking of Nintendo GTAs, I do not have high hopes for Chinatown Wars after GTA Advance...

@Jtn: Now that's funny. (:

Frank

Im in.

Shiryu

@tehvoid:

don't hold your breath on the wii fixing those problems.

rodrigo47

well, as things go, that will probably some GTA:SA or/+ GTA:VC port.
I would give it a try 'cause SA had some problem loading environment on my ps2 last time I tried.

tehvoid

and by the way, the only way nintendo's "powerhouse" console could have all those things going on in gta 4 on 1 screen at 1 time is if they use stick figures.

rodrigo47

not only will the graphics suck 20x more, the AI would be drastically dumbed down as well.

people fail to acknowledge that it's not just graphics in which ps3 and 360 outpower the wii over. the whole hardware (360 and ps3) is capable of way more than just graphics. physics and ai are another big advantage of the 2 powerhouse consoles from ms and sony.

rodrigo47

They should just get GTAIII and scribble out the title, replacing it with GTAIV

MikoKeZ

I think there is enough of an audience for this type of game on the Wii. RE4 sold well and Umbrella Chronicles is right behind it in sales (.8M RE in North America, .6 UC in North America) and I think Umbrella Chronicles did well despite the opposition to the game being on-rails. Now the other games mentioned, Scarface, Godfather, and Bully were all mature games, they were all solid ports that reviewed fairly well, but they were also old games and the age alone is enough to have kept gamers who would normally buy the mature games not rebuy them for the Wii.

I guess the Conduit will be the ultimate test. Its a mature title built for the ground up from the Wii by a developer that looks like they actually give a damn about producing a quality title for the console.

Just something @kingmanic While I don't agree entirely with Nintendo's current approach to the market, I think its a little unfair to say that we got them through the "lean" years. To be fair, its because of the "core" gamers that Nintendo faced those lean years in the first place. The core gamers fled from the N64 and the Gamecube because its games and characters were too bright and shiney (the way they had always been) and Sony and Microsoft had all the blood and bullets they craved. I hope no one takes offense to this, but its the truth as far as I can see. The core gamers abandonded Nintendo for the most part and now they're angry that Nintendo isn't catering to them. Nintendo isn't catering to the core gamers because when they did, they dropped to a distant third place.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see quality mature titles on the Wii more than anything, but I'm also not going to blame the company for not supporting something that has proved to be unprofitable for them.

DarkLinkinfinite

To me it sounds more like he's saying, "GTA4 for the Wii?? Um, have you seen this other Wii game we have out? Yeah, it's awesome or something. Um, we're working on making Wii games. Yeah."

So, I'd say no. No GTA4 on the Wii. Maybe a spin-off but not the actual game.

Maverick128

@kingmanic:

First almost 7 million people bought Smash and Mario Kart.

Second, the best selling third party games are GHIII by Activision and Mario and Sonic by Sega.

Third, this is nothing like the Atari Crash, where Atari killed the competition by bankrupting itself. The current market is much more sustainable because of the number of players with mature company structures.

Fourth, you still haven't explained why your tastes are
better than other peoples.

Fifth, Nintendo has released more high scoring "core" games for Wii in the first 18 months than they did the first 2 years on Gamecube or Nintendo 64.

Sixth, developers are seeing a good portion of there revenue coming in from Wii and a lot of their expenses going out on other consoles. How would profitability of a platform bring a crash?

How is a Balance Board, an optional Gun, and an optional wheel any worse than a dance pad, a required light-gun, or an overpriced optional wheel.

Not to mention VC(pure profit) and WiiWare are so well implemented and easy to use that sales are way passed XBLA.

stevenjazz787

I would also like to add: WII-GTA would actually be funnier if it were censored. Imagine every time a character swore it was beeped.

_MARVKO_

A. I enjoyed the waggle violence in Godfather, Scarface and NMH.

B. If there is anything GTA does well, its violence.

If this happens, I'm there, day one.

Wiimotionplus + RPG = happy customer

_MARVKO_

@savemeaquaman: It did-- but less than a million in the States. So one very large success, but that's also a very hard to peg title. It wasn't exactly any sort of unknown quantity-- to be honest, it's possibly the most hyped of the last generation-- and while I'm not about to dismiss it, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, which was a new title in the series, didn't perform nearly as well as RE4 in the States, although it did fairly well in Europe. So I'm unsure what conclusions to draw from that game, exactly.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

@Plan303e:
Yes, I just sold GTA Wii to myself.

Plan303e

With 1:1 with WiiMotionPlus, we'll have Jack Thompson further deriding Rockstar and Nintendo for "close quarter combat simulation" that enables proficient training in the use of "knives, daggers, swords, and other violent weapons," making the Wii the "perfect murder simulator."

Plan303e

Is that screen from the as-yet-unannounced MS-DOS version? Hah!

meatee

LOL at the picture. Just came to say that.

mikeevd

@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: Didn't RE4 for the Wii sell really well? Unless we're not counting that as an adult game. I could be wrong but I thought RE4 for the Wii was one of the few third party games to sell over 1 million.

So, despite that being only one game, it is a step in the right direction showing that the Wii can sell Mature games. Or maybe just the Wii can sell Resident Evil games. Which ever.

savemeaquaman

@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: I can't imagine why Wii owners wouldn't have bought Manhunt 2.

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

Just put all the PS2 GTAs on Wii with shinyer graphics / better framerates / and IR aiming ( classic controller support as well ) and I would be happy :) Scarface is a good example how GTA could be really nice on Wii.

spacecoffin2

The picture is epic

Murderdolls

@bigman88zz: I guess, my friend, but so far nothing at all suggests that people would buy an adult game for the Wii. And while Manhunt 2 could be construed as a port, for the reasons I cited earlier, it was available day and date with the PS2 version. And the Wii versions of Bully and The Godfather didn't sell well, either. So while you might be right, that placing a big bet is the only way to know for sure, I'd still venture it's a fool's bet. Cheers!

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

I think it might be somewhat hard to play GTA4 on the Wii but I also think that it'd be fun as well as a nice change for the Wii. It'd definitely be an improvement to some of the other, usual, Nintendo games.

Psychotic

Forgot to mention, if they can make a GTA for DS, they most certainly can for Wii. Unquestionably.

Stitched

"No Nintendo is bullshit because gamers kept them solvent in the lean times but gamers are no longer their core audience. The direction they wish to take the industry will leave me with few games to play."

So you are accusing of Nintendo of being a smart, adaptable, and successful in their business enterprises?

"So fuck Nintendo for enabling a market where Carnival Games is the best selling third party game, fuck nintendo for licensing reams of shovelware, fuck nintendo for pushing all this useless plastic junk (all the controller holders)"

As opposed to all the plastic in Rockband, Guitar Hero, Buzz...

I'm no Harvard Business MBA but if the market demands it, the market gets it. Otherwise why do it? I don't know too many companies that produce products only to get marginal returns; especially when they can take another direction and be extremely profitable. Nintendo has taken the road less traveled and, undeniably, is so far ahead of Sony and Microsoft it's laughable. Sorry that the platform doesn't do a thing for you.

BTW - I don't own a console but I read the NDP's and am in development for consoles.

Stitched

GTA on Wii will be a set of mini-games

Zorba

@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: i seriously doubt a port of stories would sell well, since ps2s are cheaper than the wii and one could easily buy it for that or the psp. the whole testing the waters idea wont work because people can smell a port a mile away, and people dont take kindly to low budget cash ins. if someone doesnt take the risk, then there will be nothing but port after port after port or games will little developmental effort, leaving people wondering why the game didnt sell that well. theres a reason why people say that third party wii games suck.

bigman88zz

I can see it now.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Phone Games

Play all your favorite phone games from Grand Theft Auto IV, now on the Wii!

Includes:
-Bowling
-Pool
-Darts
-Restaurants
-And More!

Nirolak

@stevenjazz787: No Nintendo is bullshit because gamers kept them solvent in the lean times but gamers are no longer their core audience. The direction they wish to take the industry will leave me with few games to play.

So fuck Nintendo for enabling a market where Carnival Games is the best selling third party game, fuck nintendo for licensing reams of shovelware, fuck nintendo for pushing all this useless plastic junk (all the controller holders), fuck nintendo for possibly initiating a second video game crash (the last one occurred when Atari was licensing shovel ware and pushing out a lot of upgrades and plastic junk).

kingmanic

@Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc: Torgen-- I agree, it's not a great solution, but one could argue that the alternative isn't any better. I guess they could wait until Capcom's Dead Rising Chop Til You Drop doesn't break 500,000 in sales on the Wii and then just scrap the idea, but Take Two wouldn't risk a lot by trying a Stories game on the Wii. It's got to be smarter than jumping in whole-hog-- like in the cartoons when the fat guy jumps from a great height into a top hat filled with water.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

Yeah I'm not sure how big of a market there is for GTA on the Wii. I think most of the target gamers would already be getting their fix from the 360 or PS3 version. I'd give it a try though for sure. GTA on xbox or ps2 isn't a bad looking game at all so I don't thing graphics will be a huge issue.

Pornosaur

@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: Of course if they port a game that's years old, and it doesn't sell because it's years old, what does that prove?

Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc

The GC controller doesn't even have enough buttons for a GTA game...

DimensionWarped

If there was a GTA for the Wii, i'd reather be something of the San Andreas like games. I'd really hate a port of 4.

then again, i'd buy it, i'm a fan of the series, but i didn't came to like 4, to me its 3 with more polygons

KristenBal

I could see GTA on the Wii working as long as we have the option to use the Gamecube controller instead of the Wii controller.

Amazon_Chris

@bigman88zz: And that's the audience that bought two ports of last-gen titles (Manhunt 2 was lead-developed on the PS2) that didn't have to be redesigned to fit the hardware profile-- just like what I cited with the likelihood of them porting over a Stories installation of GTVA for the Wii as a test bed... and one game that sold just over 300,000 units in the United States, and bombed completely in Japan to the tune of roughly 10,000 units sold in its first month of release?

Yes, I'd say Rockstar would be certifiably insane to jump headfirst into this. As I said, maybe port a Stories game first-- it's a low-cost, low-risk decision-- and if the audience is there, consider porting IV. But that's about it.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

@kingmanic:

Yeah, screw people who like games that you don't. Your tastes are more relevant than other peoples.

Hell yeah, fuck Nintendo for the behavior of third parties and consumers.

Damn straight, Wii is a bull shit fad, that is why PS3 and 360 are totally kicking it's ass in teh HD graphics.

Everyone knows that only kiddies and soccer moms play Wii. The 7 million copies of Smash Bros. was a total fluke, the Soccer Moms bought it by accident because they thought they were buying "Smash Hits - Work out in your Khakis"

/sarcasm

stevenjazz787

Ya know if the style was done right a pixelated look like the picture wouldnt be too bad...

SaanZ

Based on the comments of both Reggie and Take Two, I think it's safe to say they are planning to make a new GTA game, not a port. They also seem to want to use the MotionPlus accessory for it...

All I can really say is that its kind of interesting. You could change from Third person over the shoulder controls to driving controls as easily as just turning the Wii remote.

At the same time, the Carnival Games comment elicits a lot of hate out of me. Sounds like they are saying they know the Wii because they know cheap shit. This is just some marketing douche though, not anyone worth listening to.

DimensionWarped

...the best selling third -party games on the Wii in Carnival Games from 2K Play...

Thats exactly why the wii is bullshit.

Fuck Nintendo.

kingmanic

It would be impossible, at least to have it near the quality of the PS3 & 360 version.

argh

@wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!: im guessing the audience is supposed to be the same audience that bought manhunt 2, no more heroes, or re4.

bigman88zz

@ZetaCrossfire: are you talking about the gta series in general or gta 4? i could see gta 4 being watered down, but the rest were made on older hardware anyway, so cutting stuff out would be pointless.

bigman88zz

@mrdietsoda:
I agree. It'd be silly of T2 to think people would really RE-BUY GTA4 on the Wii, especially considering the only real draw of 4 was the graphics. The gameplay sure as hell wasn't the main pull factor.

Archaotic

I like the pic. lol

blacksamurai87

If Nintendo wanted games like Dead Rising and GTA IV on their console, they should have made it more powerful. As much as I wish PS3 had more games to play, of the big three this generation, I admire them for making a business plan, and sticking to it through the bad times. Nintendo keeps trying to reinvent their console, and Microsoft apparently wants to have twenty different consoles with whatever interface they feel like using at the time.

What happened to the times when gaming was about the games? This double edged sword of gaming becoming mainstream has really pushed me out of my favorite pastime. I liked games better when they were the red headed step child of the entertainment industry.

LostinCreationLLC

I don't see a port of GTAIV but more likely an entirely different GTA game altogether.

mrdietsoda

I can't really imagine them porting this. What is the audience for this on the Wii? And this isn't going to be any kind of fast and easy port. You'd have to scale back, like, well-- everything. And for the cost of doing that, could you possibly make a profit? I'd bet that if Rockstar and Take Two want to jump into the GTA-on-Wii thing, they'll port one of the Stories titles first, as the Wii ports that kind of stuff fairly well, and there's already a PS2 version up and running. Then, if that sells gangbusters, pull the more expensive port of GTA IV. But to simply visualise an 'adult' Wii audience that sales figures don't really suggest is there, necessarily-- although that's not to say that audience isn't there, it just means no such audience has appeared as of yet-- that's just a bad business plan. I'd say if anything, this sounds like Nintendo leaning on Take-Two because a GTA on Wii would sure shore up one of Nintendo's perceived "glaring weaknesses".

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

@drunkentyger: I laughed out loud... then I realized you might not be joking. Then I realized that maybe I'm nerdier than I thought for being elitist enough to judge you for not knowing.

*sob*

Bashcraft... hold me?

Touy

@Slatz_Grobnik: I'd like one from the ground up as well, given I have a PS3 and could get GTA4 there if I needed it.

You know what would be great? Locking Suda in a room with Rockstar and a dev kit for Wii. I'd just like to see what kind of game comes from that.

mjn328

I think they should do one. It doesn't have to be amazing. Maybe they could even do something like liberty city stories where they release a wii version then clean graphics and add a few things and release it for ps360 a little later. I just know there are poor peeps out there who only have a wii that would get into some GTA.

donquijote23

The Wii barely has next-gen graphics so no GTA IV but I could see GTA:San Adreas or Vice City on Wii

gamecrazychris

If they did a GTA for Wii, I would imagine it would be built from the ground up for the platform. GTA4 seems pretty much impossible to do on the Wii.

MorbidLilim

@drunkentyger: Their owner...

Anyway, considering the track record of Wii ports, I have a feeling that they'll just port the two PSP games and give them a nice coat of jaggies with tacked-on Wiimote controls.

Funnydale

...because the world isn't complete until you can beat up hookers on the Wii...

Seriously, it's perfect. The Wiimote allows to really differentiate between the various modes of play. But I think Gutter_Trash has a pretty good point. What's the market here?

I suspect, somewhere in the back of my skull, that such might be the point. I wouldn't be surprised if the N wanted some sense of redefinition, and pretty well nothing could do that save GTA.

Slatz_Grobnik

"Carnival Games from 2K Play, so we know the Wii pretty well."

Lol thats like saying "I can repeat a few Japanese phrases to communicate, so I know the language pretty well"

Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.

Can't wait to hear all the parents flip-out at GTA come to their beloved reality-filter that is the Wii.

mva5580

DONT DO IT ROCKSTAR!

who the hell is take-two?

drunkentyger

good picture lol. i wonder if they would do PS2 era graphics on a GTA wii. or just do the best they can on making it look like GTA4

NewYork214

I seriously doubt that the GTA fan-base is split between PS3/360 and the Wii.

A regular gamer who intended to play GTA4 would have already owned or eventually bought a PS3/360 for it sooner or later.

The presumption that GTA Wii would grab the attention of these GTA fans is a little bit of a stretch IMO, especially after blazing through GTA4

Gutter_Trash

If they do what they did with Bully and just port GTA 3/Vice City/San Andreas, then it'll be fine. If they make something from the ground up, it'll be Super Fine. In anycase, my Wii needs more Mclovin' in the wake of my awesome new PC time.

Pezdispenser

@Nedus:
Well, you're in luck. I'm pretty sure down-porting GTA4 to the Wii would be about as solid as porting Metal Gear Solid 4 to the Game Boy Advance, so if T2 was going to make a GTA for Wii, it'd probably be an entirely new title.

Archaotic

I'd say its certainly coming but you probably won't hear anything about it this year. It would be silly for them, consider the PS3 and Xbox 360 version is still selling well.

Walker

You got a prostitute! Drive into a dark corner, pull the handbrake, then waggle the Wiimote violently up and down for maximum health gain!

Jtn

You know what would be cool (maybe)? Vice city for the Wii.

Ahsayuni

No thanks. I'm getting ab it tired of all these Wii ports, just because it has waggle. Some games are better off without waggle, I think.

Nedus

Hahaha, great pic Luke.

Wolfers

can you hear me now... how about now? Moves remote in other direction to find cell signal.

Boboh

Something along the lines of No More Hero's with guns, whores and drink driving =)

does this leave the faint chance... that the robot chicken sketch of "grand theft mario"... could one day come true?!

jwpunk

Well, it would be kinda like Wii Sports, since there's already pool, bowling and darts.

Oggy

great, a water down version of a beloved classic.... IT WILL SUCK

ZetaCrossfire

"We know the Wii pretty well"? Carnival was a piece of shit! Not saying that a GTA wouldnt work well for it, far from it. I would LOVE to simulate strangling a prostitute with my wiimote in the near future.

ApertureScienceIntern

Hmm...I might be willing to give GTA on Wii a spin, but only if they manage to deliver the depth of content from San Andreas instead of the empty-but-pretty city found in GTA4.

...oh, and as little waggle as possible would be nice too.

Archaotic

How much do you wanna bet that it's just ports from the PS2 if it ever does happen. HOORAY for effort on the Wii!


@kingmanic:
Wow, you actually believe all that stupid shit you just typed, huh?
I've been telling kids like you why you're so incredibly, foolishly wrong to believe something as absurd as "NINTENDO HATES THEIR BASE!" but guys like you don't listen. Hell, odds are you're one of the folks who loathed Nintendo and the Wii BEFORE their E3 conference.

Monsieur Fap★Fap!

That picture is funny because it's so true.

I couldn't imagine playing GTA on my Wii. So many jaggies! For this reason, I own it for the PS3.

fquick

There is absolutely no reason for Rockstar not to get GTA on the Wii. If it worked on the PS2, it'll work on the Wii. I think devoting the development resources to getting GTA on Wii would payoff big time for Rockstar.

MSUSteve

maybe the rape simulator will be in the wii build!!

ejpal

@Zorba:
Take a step back: GTA is actually a set of minigames anyway.

I don't think you can look to games like Conduit as a test of the Wii adult market. Like No More Heroes, I think it will be largely unsuccessful because:

a. It is not a well known franchise like GTA or Resident Evil (these help sales on any system)
b. It's not made by a huge company, or a huge company isn't getting behind it, so the little to no advertising we shall not see will hurt sales.
c. A lot gamers who call themselves "hardcore" are so tribal they will prefer spending their time coming to Kotaku and bash the Wii's percevied audience to get their comments starred up by the peanut gallery. They did not buy a Wii so will denigrate it.

How do most of these star comments get that rating for peddling out the same tired bullshit about the Wii audience all the time? Sometimes I look forward to seeing grown men cry when Microsoft start releasing Bill Gates Beach Sports - but then I remember, I like balanced competition and pan-platform releases that give consumers choice and don't lock us into mindless brand loyalty which would get thrown back in our faces anyway.

Chadders

I'm going to bet a testicle that the next "main" GTA game will be a Wii exclusive.

It's a goldmine waiting to happen. You'd have to be mad to think that GTA is actually primarily selling to the hardcore high-tech loving forum dwelling crowd.

stuminus3

Coming soon, Grand Theft Auto: Carnival Games! Featuring such classics as Whack a Mole, Cop Shooting Gallery and Drunk Tank!

rbernard80

I can't imagine them making a poor GTA on the Wii for the sake of cashing in. They have such a solid license that is relatively untainted across all platforms, putting out a crap title on the Wii doesn't make any sense.

Now if they build a Wii GTA from the ground up and give it a fair shake (no pun intended) with a two year development time, and we could have the hardcore Wii owner's killer app.

kseezy

I AM the target audience for this.

I didn't buy Godfather because it was a last-gen port
I didn't buy Scarface because it was a last-gen port
I didn't buy Bully because it was a last-gen port

I bought NHM because it was made for the Wii
I'll buy The Conduit because it's made for the Wii
I'll buy MadWord because it's made for the Wii

I WILL BUY GTA if it is made for the Wii and I'm sure there are many others out there just like me.

nastysquared

@Gutter_Trash: Yes, but consider that there's a whole different audience on the Wii and that GTA is bigger than you think.

People who aren't gamers knows of certain games and GTA is one of those games. One comes out for the Wii, there's controversy (like always) and people go out and buy it to see what all the fuss is about. That = money.

Add the fact that if they build one from the ground up, make it sparkle, add the right waggle and you got yourself a shining example of money printing itself.

JGab

i enjoyed playing The Godfather Black Hand edition on Wii and i would totally support a GTA on Wii.

teh_joe

you actually got to shake the controller after getting a hooker in your car

waza

I cannot wait when the GTA Wii game comes out and ends up selling a shitload of copies and read all the excuses the harcore gamerz will come up with.

valhum

I would buy it if it's made from the ground up for the Wii.
Also, your picture is in poor taste, Mr. Plunkett.

PeterPanDude

Hey... more core games for hardcore games = win for Nintendo.

I think Nintendo has been so busy with other projects that they're trying to lure developers to create core games for the Wii.

Para

@stevenjazz787: @Monsieur Fap★Fap!: @DarkLinkinfinite: @Stitched:

This is a purely democratic/economic stance. I was one of those who bought mario kart/smash brothers. I was a little disappointed din them as they were pretty shallow compared even to the iteration before.

The Wii represents a regression in the level of complexity of games. Few have used the wii mote well, most use it in place of button mashing.

The games I desire aren't superior but they are different then the majority of the wii library. The thing is I'm trying to persuade the "hardcore" to stop putting money into the wii so we can stop move back in the direction where I enjoy gaming. I enjoy games like persona 3, FF:Tactics, GOW (either one), MGS4, Disgaea, Etrian Odessey, warcraft 3 etc... Games with some complexity. When the best selling third party title for the wii is Carnival games it means that is what is succeeding; that is the direction they will move it. Cheaply made, shallow, uninteresting shovelware. It provides an economic incentive to cheap out and make shitty games.

The hardcore do have a significant role. We direct a part of the casual market in what to buy. If we collectively directed the people elsewhere then it will send a message. I don't want gaming to regress back to clones of old button mashers with waggled tacked on. I don't want minigames to dominate the market. I don't want Nintendo to be reworded for pushing much more useless plastic then anyone else. Truly if you did a numeric audit on the number of bits of plastic junk that Nintendo licenses it out numbers all the useless junk the PS2 has in it's lifetime. That's significant.

Whats it means is it appears for third parties that a minimal investment into a mini game package returns better then an investment in a more polished package. We cannot let this condition persist and we must be an economic force to alter this.

kingmanic

They... they're talking about like... GTA2... right?

Mister Adequate

Bully was awesome on the Wii. The way the motion controls worked--with right and left punches mapped to the right- and left-hand controls--was inspired. The Wii is more than capable of better graphics than we saw in San Andreas; of course we won't get GTA4 graphics but hopefully there will be more emphasis on the RP elements like in San Andreas. GTA on the Wii would actually get me to buy GTA for a console; I've always waited for the PC ports because shooting is so much better with a mouse.

alaren

@Archaotic: I thought San Andreas had the entertainment value of crumbling paper compared to GTA4.

Cole

I roflmfao'ed at that picture! That is classic!

Lachoy

I certainly WOULD not buy it..

Woylez

@Plunkett: Where does all your Wii hate come from? I really want to know why you bash the Wii whenever you can.

schmixx

theres a difference between core gamers ad hardcore gamers that nintendo will soon figure out. Core gamers do NOT buy too many games. They are casual players and tend to stick to a party game for a very long time. I have many core gamer friends...they play ssbb and guitar hero WHEN they play. Thats it! This is why nintendo has such a strong hardware base but not a very significant software sales report. The wii is much like a vcr today, you use it once in a blue moon and rarely buy anything for it!

last_dread

Its exactly what the Wii needs. A core gamer third party developed title for the Wii.

zgreenwell

When can we realistically expect GTA Wii to come out? Rockstar just recently finished GTA IV and is now working on the exclusive DLC which is due out sometime in December, I believe.

Let's say Rockstar starts working on a GTA Wii in Spring 2009 at the earliest, we wont' see the finished product until at least 2 years later - Spring 2011.

That's a long wait. I've already gotten and beaten GTA IV for my PS3 so I see no reason to wait for a Wii version.

Man, if Wii-only owners want a GTA game, they'll be waiting a long time.

mlubczyn

I bet a Wii GTA could be as big as San Andreas... and guess what GTA game I was playing like a religion before GTA IV?

Enigma_20XX

@last_dread: I think you mean casual vs traditional/hardcore/core. My sister is a casual gamer. She plays rock band, Mario party, and wii sports. That is it. She didn't buy either of them and probably won't get herself any more games.

Myself my brother and my GF's brother are core/traditional gamers. We have massive and eclectic collections and multiple systems.

My GF is in between. She'll buy the occasional game and while she enjoys Nintendogs (for 2 weeks), cooking mama, elite beat agents and mario party she also enjoys pixel junk monsters, super puzzle fighter, diablo 2, and puzzle quest.

kingmanic

@kingmanic: Great, but other people love it. And who are we to tell them they have to play that? Every console has a lot of shitty games on it. The PS2 was the biggest selling console last gen, and I imagine the shit games to good game ration was huge, but the library was so big it didn't matter. If someone wants to play Carnival Games/Cruisin'/Ninjabread man that's their perogative. And you or I have no right to tell them they're wrong, they might be poor games, but clearly people are enjoying them. And many of the games you listed are excellent, but quite simply the majority would not play them. The casual market is a valid market, and people have to stop being such snobs about it, there's far more of them than the 'hardcore' (eurgh, what a horrible term).

TearsandScreams

What i'd really love to see on a GTA for Wii, would be online gameplay (they should host a server, not use the FC's, i'd pay for that) where you can use you Mii. How awesome would that be. I don't think tranforming a Wii to a GTA character type much of a hassle

KristenBal

carnival games and GTA in the same topic, it wont be a good thing :(

GTA mini games version comming?

eilegz

@TearsandScreams: The number of developers/studio resources is finite though expanding. So the more casual games that get pumped out the less traditional games get pumped out. I'm not being a snob, I'm being practical. I'm fighting the PR fight to keep my type of game common. The more often one of the traditional gamers notify the casual market that Carnival games is shit the less likely they are to pick it up and the better for us all. You may not mind if some guy spends $60 on Ninjabread man or Carnival games but on the studio balance sheet it notifies them that these low cost shovelware games are a better investment vs the ratio of return. Each successful shovelware game means a greater likelihood of future shovelware. Just as the regular annual iteration of sports games are made and grow in number due to everyone buy a copy every year, shovelware will grow in number a people pick them up. We have to stop the momentum. Slap some sense into the people buying the shovelware and point them to higher quality alternatives (Puzzle Quest instead of anubis II; Zelda vs legend of kage; Okami vs Legend of the Dragon)

NPD did publish findings that economically the "traditional/hardcore/core" audience is worth the same revenue as the entirety of the casual market. This may shift as the casual market grows.

kingmanic

The game on Wii would be as good as a PSP to GBA port.

gencid

It'd be cool if they changed up the formula, instead of an over-the-shoulder GTA. 2D!

Micronumerous

@schmixx: I've been thinking about the same every time i read anything posted by him regarding the Wii but then i think, maybe he is just trying to be funny or something.

valhum

I would buy Vice City for the Wii, no questions asked.

Evil Tortie's Mom

by the way, i wouldn't be surprised if gta iv for wii will be nothing but a scripted cutscene. the only time you get to control anything in the game is when nikko goes home and eats.

i can see it now. gta iv: cooking thug. you get to chop and stir your dishes. and you get to eat it by pretending that the wii remot and nunchuck are a spoon and a fork.

and it'll be back to the 2d days of gta iv and nintendo fans will start crying in tears of joy and tell all the 360 and ps3 gamers "ha in your face guys! our game's graphics is artistic and artistic graphics > realistic graphics. booyea!"

rodrigo47

@KristenBal:
about the mii usage... good idea kiddo (or girly).

rodrigo47

i'm getting a PS3 to play GTA4 pretty soon. i would love a GTA on the Wii, the Wii's controls would be intresting in the franchise. if they do plan to do it, it better not be a GTA4 port because that would look like CRAP. mabye an oringal San Andreas story, or mabye a new city to explore. Dallas,Hoston,Chicago,Boston, just not a GTA4 port.

psgamer92

@kingmanic: the problem is that you think that everyone has or should have the same taste in games that you do. The fact of the matter is that the palate of the afficionado is never as, for the lack of a better term, refined as those of the mainstream. Look at absolutely anything and you'll see what I mean.

Name your favorite restaurant and there's most certainly a gourmet that would tell you its terrible. Name your favorite movie and a critic will tell you its terrible. Your favorite car. Same thing. Your favorite song. Your favorite book. Your favorite clothes. Your favorite beer. Your favorite painting. I can go on and on.

The fact is that most people are not as interested nor as involved or as aware of the video game industry as you are and most won't care to. They'll like Carnival games despite you thinking, or even knowing, that it's terrible the same way people like going to McDonalds despite a gourmet thinking, or even knowing, that its horrible, just like people loved Pirates of the Caribbean 3, despite critics thinking, or even knowing that its crap.

You can go ahead and disagree with me about any of those examples and you have every right to, but I'll bet that there are people that will disagree with your opinion about Carnival Games and they have just as much a right to it than you do.

Don't get me wrong, I love many of the complex games you mentioned, but that's because we are afficionados of the art. The casual gamer may love Carnival Games the same way a casual movie-goer loved Pirates, or a casual eater liking McDonalds.

DarkLinkinfinite

This would never work, the only people who buy Wii's are little kids, and I dont believe they are allowed to play M-rated games. Also, way to much downscaling of the game would be done to make this possible. Therefore GTA4 + Wii = WILL NOT HAPPEN

Even if it does, I wouldnt ever consider buying it... probably because all the missions would be replaced with mini-games.

karlo345