So, many of us have been sitting around twiddling our wiimotes and nunchucks for the better part of the last year wondering when the hell Nintendo was going to come out with all of these neat games that they had in the demo videos that they were putting up for the Wii when it launched.
Well, now we know that the lion’s share of these well-anticipated games were nothing more than vaporware, prototypes, and unstable-nowhere-near-ready versions at the time of Wii’s release. This leads me to the moral question: did Nintendo lie, blunt-faced, through their teeth, to their fans, and the people who’ve made the Wii the great success that it has become?
Well, to that I would say both yes and no.
Yes, Nintendo lied
Now, Nintendo will probably argue that they didn’t give an official release date for these games so there was no misinformation being spread by them. To that I say “come oooooon!” That’s a load of hooey and you know it Iwata! Those videos that were well-circulated online and offline showing games like Mario Universe, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and the most-anticipated Smash Bros: Brawl were most certainly put out there to make people think about playing those games in particular, and since there was no official release date, many assumed–and Nintendo did nothing to dissuade this–that these would be released after Wii’s launch or shortly thereafter. Many Nintendo fans–myself included–were very disappointed to have to wait almost a year for many of these titles, and longer for some.
No, Nintendo didn’t lie
Well, I did say that Smash Bros: Brawl was the most-anticipated, but I meant it was the most-anticipated of the post-launch titles. Ledgend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was most definitely a release title, and it was by far the best Zelda title I’ve ever played. Also, Nintendo has more than delivered on the Virtual Console. I’ve been playing a lot of classic games from my boyhood such as Kirby’s Adventure and Super Mario Bros.. The online connectivity and Nintendo DS connectivity has not been anywhere near satisfactory thus far, and I think the recent Pokemon game and Strikers game are the only two that have online capabilities thus far.
All-in-all, I really think that this has prooven the power of vaporware in the market today. I think that early adopters feel a little burned by Nintendo this time around though. In my opinion, all early adopters should get even longer extended warranties or some other gimme (maybe a t-shirt or something) from Nintendo to say “thanks for dealing with our crap this past year.” Because let’s face it, many of the Wii games that have come out so far in 2007 are crap… pure crap. I did not buy my Wii so that I could play Pirates of the Caribean or Shrek 3 on it. I bought my Wii to play Smash Bros: Brawl and Mario Universe and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
Please consider that idea Iwata. How about thanking the people that make you richer than stink, even after you were not completely forthcoming with us.
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kungfooguru responded on 10 Aug 2007 at 15:43 #
Using the term vaporware is… well… bullshit and a misuse of the word.
Most all consoles take about a year before shit really gets going, right?
Would you rather not have a Wii this whole time and have them wait, do extensive beta testing of Internet play(which they wouldn’t find all the problems anyway), finish all the games that you want to play and then release?!? I sure as hell am glad I have my Wii already. If you only wanted those games you could have waited till they came out to buy your Wii. Of course they showed the games people want to play, that doesn’t make them evil or make the games vaporware.
Are you just trying to piss of Wii owners like you pissed of Ron Paul supports?
manchicken responded on 10 Aug 2007 at 16:20 #
Sure, I’m glad the Wii came out, but Nintendo really could have done more to set expectations on the games that they used to make all of want one of these great systems in the first place. I know I’m not the only one who is disappointed that Nintendo is making us wait this long for titles that they started advertising at launch time.
At the time that Nintendo advertised Smash Bros.: Brawl, it was vaporware. They didn’t have any playable version of it. Everything you saw in those advertisements were videos that were used only for marketing purposes. How is that not vaporware?
I dig my Wii as well, but Nintendo has not had a very good supply of fun games coming out on this system since January.
kungfooguru responded on 10 Aug 2007 at 16:26 #
Ok, all prototypes and demos mean the software is vaporware…
All companies do this. I’m not saying that everyone doing it means that makes something ok. I’m saying that I don’t see how people have not understood thats how it works yet… A console comes out, you get some decent games to play for the first year and then all the great stuff comes. I think its similar for most all releases, much like the Neuros OSD I bought. Next time a console comes out just wait a year to get it if you aren’t used to how these things work.
I guess the main difference is I just never felt misled. Maybe if I had paid more attention to the Nintendo media I would have, but I know that all these things are hype machines and to just lay low and let it flow.
manchicken responded on 10 Aug 2007 at 17:06 #
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that vaporware is wrong. I’m just saying that folks could be a little more transparent in their release dates. That’s all. I’m used to how these things work, but for Xbox 360, the release dates are much better communicated in the marketing materials. Nintendo is the worst when it comes to communicating release dates. We don’t even have an official release date for Smash Bros. yet… and we’ve been waiting for almost a year now.
I don’t feel greatly misled, I just feel like Nintendo could do better here. These are similar mistakes they made with the GameCube… particularly the long periods of time without any good new games. I just want to encourage Nintendo to do better.
And Nintendo could have done a hell of a lot better with the Nintendo WiFi Connection stuff. Several excellent games (e.g. Madden 2007) could have been so much cooler with online play, but Nintendo was being stingy with the interfaces.