Wii-volution

Aw rumors. I hate them. Everything about rumors makes me want to puke. Aw yes, rumors...

Yet it seems that this is what the site thrives on, and this is what I am thriving on. Trying to dust off the bits and pieces off the rumor dirt to find the fossilized bone of truth.

Rumor has it that thrid-party wii games were planning to come out at $60. Seeing as 360 games and (most likely) PS3 games debut at $60, Wii games coming out at $60 and making that extra little would be great business for companies. But, now the 360's games have dropped their game prices -- even releasing games at $40. This is a brilliant move by Microsoft to dick over the expensive PS3 which will most likely also have expensive games...but what does this mean for the Wii?

Thrid-party Wii  is going to drop price on the game of prices to $40 in order to keep competition. Not only this but...



http://www.codenamerevolution.com/

The development kit that Nintendo sends out is cheap! After this summer, if I didn't plan to throw my money to books for college...I might've been able to buy a development kit at that price! It appears that due to the PS3's poor display at E3 (which is said to depict the future of gaming), many thrid-party developers are jumping to the Wii.

It appears as if those that were not interested in Nintendo's Wii due to a lack of variety in games, I mean afterall...every other game is Mario or Donkey Kong whatever with a Zelda or Metroid thrown in there every other year...may look towards the Wii because of picking up thrid-party interest, even before the Wii even came out!

So when the Wii comes out, it seems the only questions are is...will it live up to the hype? Will it reclaim the throne of video games? And will it ruin Sony? And disgrace Microsoft? I hope the worse for Microsoft...I hate those scum bags...

lol this is so true. 8O

I really hope the prices will stay down especially for third party games. I dont see why they cant do it with the dev kits costing under 2000!

Nintendo has to keep the development kit costs low if they want to try at all to get developers to make games for the Wii. Despite the fact that the kit is very low compared to others, don't expect this to mean that the prices for games will be lower. It will cost more money and take more time to develop a Wii game just because of the controller. It's something never seen before so it will take developers awhile to learn how to work with it. By the time you figure that in with the cost of the low dev kit it'll probably be about the same as making a game on PS3 or 360. So I expect to see games from Nintendo still around $50 but other companies might raise it up to $60.

I don't think the Wii-mote will make it any harder to program and create games for the Wii met, there are some truly brilliant people out there some of which I've worked with that would laugh at the complexity of the controller. What I do think is it's going to stress the creative minds of developers in ways that were never tried before and that will take time... a-lot of time. All the tools are there for the developers, it just comes down to that thing call creativity that we lost with the last generation of consoles.

i believe even if they spend more time and money for controller development, the dev kit  should allow the devs to spend more time on that then worrying about details and graphics

also having a $50 price tag will encourage software sales compared to $60
example - If maddens at $60 and Blitz is at $50, the hardcore NFL fan wont mind, but most will be attacted to the $50 football game

$50 is always better than $60, I expect Nintendo to put their games out at $50 because they have been working with the controller for some time, but I can imagine some developers and publishers, especially smaller ones, almost having to make it $60 if they want to make a large profit.

I really think the prices are on the fence right now, who knows what third parties will have to sell at. I just hope its low :-)

What will be interesting is if individuals pick these up and are able to make some homebrew.  I wonder what it takes to get a Dev-kit made game to run on a non-dev-kit Wii?

Just thinking of the possibilities....weird stuff comes to mind.  I love Indie games though.

just some random ideas....

Homebrew ported Wii-controlled Doom :)  How slick would that be?  Or how about a game like tremulous (look it up - it's awesome) which is a freeware GPL game being put on the Wii?  Exciting stuff.  

 8O

There will probably be a lot of those type of games you are talking about JoNoH on the VC. They've already talked about that possibility that people could put them on there for download.

The price discussion brought some memories to my mind: Do you remember Nintendo not allowing 3rd parties to create games for NES if they were not good?

What about Nintendo setting a limit to the prices? Plus, if Ninty sells games for $40 then 3rd parties would probably not go much much higher...

I'm not able to come online as much as I use to, so I'm going to be jumping in and out of people's replies to other posts...hope I don't confuse anyone.

MetroidHunter first posts discuss that even though the development kit is low, doesn't mean games will be also. I hear ya...I wasn't trying to say that the kit would help lower cost of games. But I do believe if 360 games come out at $50, then Nintendo will definetly come out at $50 at the most. I understand what you are saying about paying wages due to the hours that will be put into a game because of the unique Wii-mote and developing a game geared towards its abilities, howeverI don't think this will jack or down prices of games. Game prices are game prices, they come out at $50 because that is what is expected of a game to come out as. It doesn't matter if it was made as a flash game which turned video gamelike Alien Zominoid (Zominoid? Not sure if thats correct...the game on Newgrounds.com) or if it was a big budget production like Halo...it will come out at $50. I'm basing my argument on capatalism and competition, if it is expected that a new game will cost $50, then a good/crappy, long time in production/short time game will come out at that because that is what is expected. *unless something special comes with the game

I just don't want games to be mnore than $50...I know Nintendo is concerned on keeping the cost of the console down. I hope they are also concerned about the cost of games because $60 a game just doesn't seem justifiable.

Yeah, I definitely don't want games cracking the $50 barrier either. I can't imagine Nintendo putting a limit on the prices of games, that would only turn 3rd parties away, which is the last thing the Wii needs.

Have any 360 games been at $60 yet?


Puff the game you were thinking of is Alien Hominid.

That's the American equivalent to ?32(roughly) for me, which isn't too bad I suppose. As long as it is nowhere near ?40...

I have a feeling someone over seas in going to win the contest and i'll have to deal with conversions and customs hehe

Don't worry, I'll try and win it for you so all you have to do is send it to Kentucky.  :wink:

It appears that the majority of the forum members on this site live in the US, so I'm sure you have nothing to worry about.

I know that Elder Scrolls IV was at least $60 when it came out. My annoying M$ fanboy friend went out and got it right away. I must say, it's a nice game and all... but I absolutely hate M$.

And maybe things are just special in Oklahoma, but I got my copy of Alien Hominid when it came out for about $30, new.

I'm sure that if the big N's aiming to expand its clientel by appealing to non-traditional gamers with the DS and Wii that it will try to keep  lower-than-competitive-systems priced games on the systems.

Yeah, I can see big hit games like that and Halo 3 coming out at $60. Nintendo could easily put Mario, Zelda, and Smash Bros. at $60 and people would still gobble them up, but hopefully they won't. Like you said if they really want to branch out to non-gamers they will keep the prices at $50 and lower.

heh id gobble Mario, Zelda, and Smash Bros up even at that price too :-)

As for the homebrew stuff, I doubt it would quite work out that way. $1,732 is within the typical indie-budget, but Nintendo is careful with it's licenses. To my knowledge, you'd either need to be an established company or have a really good tracklist.

As for game prices, I saw an article on Eurogamer where Iwata was talking about Wii Game prices. He said that would like it for the games prices to be based on things like quality and content within it, so that they're more appropriate on a per game basis. He also said that he didn't want the games to have price-drops 6 months into their lifespan, like most do now. It instills a "wait-and-buy-when-it's-cheap" logic in the gamer's head.

Perhaps with backing by a big site, like Newgrounds, homebrewers could be on the way to producing games like Alien Hominid for the VC. I mean, sure Nintendo's picky, but homebrewers are some of the most innovative people out there... and the big N has a big chubby for innovation.

Nice guest's post! (Why don't you register?)

Anyway, I remember Nintendo talking about bringing new people to video gaming.. And they cannot achieve it with big prices, surely not!

actually Alien Hominid was produced for the GC, it techincally wouldn't quailify for the VC although that does suggest that they could get a Wii Dev kit :D

I don't expect a ton of homebrew games, because like what's been said above, Nintendo likes to have quality games. But I still think there will be a good number, whether or not it gets larger will depend upon the support people give them through the VC.

Bubydudy, I hadn't registered because I like to browse a forum some before I register. At the time I hadn't. Anyways, I'm registered now. :)

It's not neccessarily that Nintendo likes high quality games. This shows by the number of utterly pathetic games released on the GC, and particulary the GBA, that were released by 3rd parties. I'm not saying the GC had all bad games, as the majority were showstoppers, but the ones that were bad really blew, such as Barbie games or other shameful titles.

The reason why there won't be any true homebrew games is that Nintendo will not sell a Dev Kit to a single person, or to an untrustable group. Even if an indie-team did manage to get one, they've still got to take the measures to get the game manufactured, since the Wii doesn't use standard CD's or DVD's.

However, they may look into turning some indie games into Virtual Console downloads, as the Live Marketplace has.

wait, then waht kind of discs does the wii use?

if even a lil VC support is given for lower games at a much cheaper price thatd be nice, kinda like RPG Maker you could buy for the ps2, you could share your games over VC :D

12 cm optical disks, that are proprietary to the Wii. They're the same size as DVD's, but they use a different technology. At least, that's what I assume, as they haven't called them 12 cm DVD's yet. Looking at that though, perhaps it wouldn't be that hard to homebrew them. I thought that DVD's were larger than the Wii discs, but just found it they're same size. If it's the same size, that would at least break one barrier in the name of homebrew (Cube discs were made small to prevent piracy and homebrews, if I remember correctly).

You're right though. Considering that I'm fairly active in hobby game development, I would love to see Nintendo allow indie teams to purchase dev kits and publish their games over the Virtual Console. I don't know whether or not that will actually happen, but it would definitely be awesome if they did let that happen.

actually you can buy the discs used on the cube, open your cd drive, see that smaller tray set in the cd tray? thats for the smaller cds so they dont go flying around

Im hoping wii sports only costs $30-$40 as its not even close to the capiablities of the wii, its mroe of a family/non gamer game that shows the innovation fo teh wii

Yeah, I've noticed the small cd space. The problem is, the cd's that's for are usually in the 100 mb space. Way to small for a game, at least for 3d games. Not to mention, with the cube's custom discs, I doubt there's a drive that could read/write to them, without being a manufacturer of them.

Yeah, wii sports shouldn't cost much. I'm going to guess that 20+ hour games will be in the $50 range and short/family games will be in the $20-$30 range. We'll just have to wait and see though.

I like the positivity of good, cheap games. Screw what Iwata said about waiting for a game to get cheaper...

The whole idea on keeping it low in order to screw over competition and keep it family/non-gamer friendly as well. I like. I hope Nintendo is thinking the same or the Wii can burn with the PS3.

I like the positivity of good, cheap games. Screw what Iwata said about waiting for a game to get cheaper...

The whole idea on keeping it low in order to screw over competition and keep it family/non-gamer friendly as well. I like. I hope Nintendo is thinking the same or the Wii can burn with the PS3.

lol, what he was talking about is he wants to make good games that people will always buy, theyll maintain their value. unlike games taht shoot down $20-$30 soon after launch.

Yeah, I've heard that Wii Sports will come out at a budget price. But that's what I heard before they announced there would be more games than what was shown at E3, so now I don't know. But games like Wii Sports that are simple like that could probably come out around $40 and still make money.

Who knows, maybe Wii Sports will get the same pricing treatment that Rockstar's Table Tennis had(if you know what I mean)? Nintendo would definetely sell more copies that way.

Yeah, but now that they've come out and said that their will be more games included like Wii Motorcross or Wii Orchestra and others I doubt they'll price it lower than other titles. I would still hope so though, because it should be low because it will be a great multiplayer game and one that easily shows off how the controller works.

Was reading a different site...

http://www.wiiloaded.com/portal.php

Scroll halfway done and there is an article on the games. Supposedly EA is looking to have their games for the Wii come out at 60 smackers.....um....yeah.....

Screw EA.

Think about it, fifty bucks for a game is a little expensive, but $60? Why do they need to rape us?

Well we all know EA is all about making enough money to control the world so I would expect them to have their games at $60. Thankfully there aren't too many games of EA's that I buy or plan on buying.

All 360 games have came out at $60...

the old ones just recently dropped to $30. But many of the games are still $60.

I didn't know they had dropped the prices on them. But we can't hope for that with Nintendo seeing how Iwata blasted that idea.

But there are thousands of other people who do like ea games. I personally only like their sports games.

Yeah, I only buy Madden and FIFA, but there are a lot of people who do, but if they like them enough they'll pay the money.

well, from EA, i dont plan on buying any sports game... i got a lot of them for GC.. maybe only a soccer game...but i like other games such as the james bond ones... which are from EA..unfortunately  :(

I want to throw EA into a figure four lock and bust their knee caps wide open.

Think about it...fifty bucks...thats pretty much for a game. How many fifty dollar games do you buy and then play for more than a week or two? Many of the games that do come out, you play, beat it, and its over.

Especially EA games....they are games that you buy, play, and sell back or let them sit around and collect dust. Fifty is already expensive, but sixty is nuts. And if games go to $60, and stay there (like Iwata wants, that dickhead)...then perhaps the Wii, 360, or PS3 are not for me. I want a game....but I don't need my pockets to be leeched.

There will still be $50 games and you could always just buy used games. They are normally always just half the price, so that could be a solution. Personally I just like to get the game brand new. I think mainly for the glorious smell inside a new game case. You know what I'm talking about.

I buy about half of my games used, but I really hate the stickers that are slapped all over thecases... from certain unnamed places...

Yeah, I buy some use, and I too hate those stickers. Especially seeing how you can never get the glue off.

Yes. I know what you are talking about. And I think it would be great to have that smell on the DS Dos. Muah hahahahahaha!?!@?!@?>@3e3l2jhrnui4gf

Haha...I just read that post...



I rarely buy used games, just because I'm cautious about how others treat their games. I'm amazed that people will let their $50+ game laying around, exposed....not in a CD case...and let it get all scratched up. However, I do buy them...but I'd rather buy games that have become ancient and nobody wants (except for me) since they are about $6. I still think games should come out at $30....at tops $40....heck, Viewtiful Joe was a great game and it was $30.

Well you can get new games for a little over $30.

For the DS and GBA.  :wink:

And yeah VJ was a great game that did come out at a budget price. But I'm sure Capcom was thinking of how much more they could have made had they put it at $50.

If Capcom was thinking that, then screw Capcom too.

And I think $30 for the GBA and DS are nuts...and thats the reason why I don't want to get a DS, is because of the price of the games. They should be $20-$25.....its N64 graphics in a portable, and i know thats impressive for a portable....but still, these are graphics/power used before. Producers should know what they're doing then.  $20-$25....its only a game, not life.

Yeah, I completely agree. But as long as people are willing to pay the price they'll continue to have that price. It's just the way business is.

its just become tradition for the prices and people see it as normal, xbox and ps3 will break the norm trying to make more $ to make up for their more expensive consoles and bigger losses, nintendos losses are smaller with a better system so they could prolyl do less then $50 for every 1st party game if they wanted

Sorry to bring up old posts but the price has appears to have been confirmed.



http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=18701

Well this is great news. It will really add up the savings once I start buying lots of Wii games.

they are cmfirmed ? at what price?

They are comfirmed at $49.99. Isn't that outragous. 8O

Actually I still think $50 is too much for a game. I'd like to see more budget titles at $30 and $40.

Puffdaddy was saying he thinks 30 dollars is too much for DS games, but in Britain they cost £30 to £25 but you can sometimes get them preowned or offline so it ain't that bad.

$50 has been the standard for game prices for bascally ever.

around here its $35 for ds games, another standard in nintendos handheld market. every/almost every game launched at $34.99.

however they are overpriced in europe as i see $50usd games selling for 50euro/gbp which is about the same as $50usd+the shipping for the game from the US

Yeah, but in the handheld market there is usually a lot more fluctuation. About 40% of the time they come out at $30 and 60% at $35, most of the time anyway. And then there are some great budget ones like Brain Age. Maybe the low prices is why I like handheld gaming so much.

theyve almost  always been fifty dollars if theyre new.  or really good . if you see a new game ot for 40 or so check the inter nt for reviews

I know Viewtiful Joe came out at $40 and it was a great game IMO. But your right many of the budget titles are budget for a reason.

I'm fine with the price  of Wii games as long as they don't go over £25-£30 and I get them pre-owned or in offers, but I'd make an exception if it came with a really controller or something.

And as you're talking about Viewtiful Joe, I saw Viewtiful Joe 2 in Game for £2 the other day, but I already have (Hate it when that happens :evil:)

but still saying $50 is 'outrageous' is stupid as its been $50, and nintendo is the only company NOT RAISING PRICES.

Yeah, I have to agree with Spawn, it's just because recently as the generation reached it's end games fell to a much lower price. When ps2 and n64 first came out games could go up to £50 in some shops.

I was overexaggerating a bit, but I still think it's a little high.

Many people have been stating reasons for ps3 costs like, if playstation 1 were released today, it would cost about the same becuase of inflation.

games that cost $50 during n64 and psx would cost over $60 todays cash


i know your entitled to your opion, but as this is the internet, i will continue to hate it like a 10 year old counter strike nub.

something that has techically gone down overall value (inflation) while everything else has gone up seems like 'outrageous' would describe other products or how cheap it is, not how expensive when its the cheapest product of its kinda.

sry for the double post but this is what i ment

you have your own opion on prices, i know that, congrats
but its FACT that the prices are techically not high/outrageous. in overall value becuase of inflation, the cost of video games as gone down. however the xbox360 are about the smae value $60now comapred to $50 in n64 times. with ps3 games 60-80rumors the only console you can techically call outrageous or high priced is the ps3.

you may feel the price is high but wii has the cheapest games of all 3 and the only 1 not raising prices. $10,000,000 car isnt expensive if its the cheapest 1 on the market, its a high price but its not considered expensive in its position.  expense is based on competitors, rarity of gems/metals, cost of cars, food, everything.

sry for the long arrgument but im board and really have nothing else to do. need sleep....... ill prolly read this tomorrow and think its stupid, but until then i just proved a point, cant remember what though....

I understand. It's just a personal opinion, it may or may not be really high based on inflation and everything, but I still just think it's too high.

preach on brother :D  :!: