Insomniac "Not Working" on the Wii U

[Shadow-Phoenix]

My question: Does anyone really want PORTS on the WiiU? Exclusives built for the system sure, but I have no interest in games that are available on other systems. I have a very powerful PC so anything that is multiplatform I will simply get for that and a year or so down the road I will probably buy a PS4 as well.

The strength of the WiiU is that it can offer experiences that you can?t get on the other consoles and a port of games made for other consoles are never going to make use of that strength beyond throwing in something gimmicky and pointless.

Yep. Zero interest in a PS4 or Next-box. Too expensive compared to my PC, more hassle then my PC, and one, from current rumors, wants to charge me to use the damn thing. I hope the Wii U wins just because of my growing disdain for microsoft and sony.

More power to the both of you on your endeavours.

Meanwhile while finishing my new desktop I'll be saving for the U in time for the summer and down the line the same for one of the other two consoles because from my point of view I don't see any hassle apart from the time and money it took to build this new desktop of mine that will no doubt present annoying problems in the future like every other PC will always do.

 

[Tanakh]

-snip-

Why would it be? Because it's design has more to do with the Xbox360 than with any other console before or after (excluding the control).

And I am not pretending anything. You talk as if being or not part of a generation had to do with some objective characteristic in the product, and say it was based on age, then how come the neo-geo is not of the fifth? Chronologically and technologically makes more sense as it's closer in both ways to the Jaguar and the 3DO than the TurboGrafx. The answer back in those times was because the first and the second generations were defined by historic events (market crashes), and the third to fifth clearly defined by CPU architectures.

Now, here comes the tricky part, microsoft introduced in the Xbox a method of console development than then refined for the Xbox 360. That method being making your console a cheapass computer optimized for gaming, and it works amazingly well because it's easy to produce, to develop and to develop for. From the Xbox360 Nintendo and Sony learnt that they should do the same.

So now generations are kind of meaningless, merly marketspeech to sell the new console, because unlike before there is no historic or technological reason to keep advancing the number; it's just a way for a PR guy to sell.

BTW, the obvious implication is that I also don't think a PS4 is "new gen", because it seems like a direct descendant of the Xbox360 with a Sony twist, same as a WiiU would be a Nintendonized Xbox360.

PS: You never gave me a descriptive definition bro.

 

[EHKOS]

So...? Insomniac is a Sony studio. Not to mention they've given up on making good games.

Insomniac is no longer a Sony studio. They went multiplatform

Was that their choice? Because between that and their recent Ratchet titles, it seems they got hit on the head.

 

[BrotherRool]

So...? Insomniac is a Sony studio. Not to mention they've given up on making good games.

Insomniac is no longer a Sony studio. They went multiplatform

Was that their choice? Because between that and their recent Ratchet titles, it seems they got hit on the head.

That's interesting I never even thought of that, I always assumed it must be because the Resistance titles did pretty okay and Ratchett was a good system mascot. I assumed they wanted to branch some wings or just make more money or something

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Well hello, every third party video game developer ever, how do you do?

There seriously isn't anything noteworthy about this. In fact I'm seriously worried that the Wii U is dead. Deader than dead, in fact. It seems it has an uphill climb. And I do love my Wii U so I'm not trying to support its death.

Though, as others have stated, doesn't Insomniac just work with Nintendo anyway?

 

[sneakypenguin]

The Wii U does seem pointless to support in a multi platform release as it does seem substantially weaker than infinity/ps4. 3o I kinda understand dropping interest from devs. Exclusives could still do well on it though. Just doesn't seem practical to port a game from 8gb ram 8 core processor and likely better gpu to something with 2gb ram(1 gb video probaly)

 

[deadish]

Well if we look at the word "generation" it's something that refers to time and not how effective something is.
And since (is it gen8??) the WiiU is 1 year earler than the next PS and Xbox, while the wii, 360 and ps3 are from around 2006, I guess the English language really decides it is in the current generation.

Fine it's a next-gen console ... with last gen's hardware.

A next gen console case with last gen's internals.

Happy?

A Ferrari with a Ford Model-T engine is still a Ferrari right?

Bro, missquote. I didn't wrote that, in fact I think it's quite dumb and oblivious towards the use of language.

Edit: Also, NO, a Ferrari with a ford model-t engine is certainly no Ferrari!

I might have quoted someone else and somehow it got mangled. Apologies.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

The Wii U does seem pointless to support in a multi platform release as it does seem substantially weaker than infinity/ps4. 3o I kinda understand dropping interest from devs. Exclusives could still do well on it though. Just doesn't seem practical to port a game from 8gb ram 8 core processor and likely better gpu to something with 2gb ram(1 gb video probaly)

Here's the thing about the PlayStation 4, though. It is pointless for most companies to even utilize even a decent portion of that hardware.

Most would go bankrupt even trying.

 

[ThePuzzldPirate]

I've come to this conclusion a while back(with words of others being fans/suits) is that this next-gen is going to have a complete uphill battle. Nintendo biggest problem has absolutely nothing do to with hardware which I find hilarious that people want to argue about it all the time. As of now, unless techniques change sometime within this up-coming gen, the Wii-U is able to render the techniques used in modern development which makes porting more than possible.

No, Nintendo biggest problem comes down to relevancy which I think they haven't had much of for quite some time. Yes, they still have huge control of how the industry shapes up but this doesn't effect most developers. It has absolutely nothing to do with hardware but rather proving to them that you can profitable on the system and this so far was Nintendo biggest mistake. This is something that Nintendo probably won't be able to fix until the other two companies release their consoles so they have something to compare against. People think that Nintendo will get left in the dust when they release but what I think will happen is companies will do their math after making some games on the competitors console and realize their profit margin will be massively bigger since the cost cover will be smaller.

For all those saying that the Wii-U is not next-gen clearly don't know how the market works. Wii-U is replacing Wii shelf space and is going to be competing for shelf space against PS4 and Infinity, that makes it next-gen. XD

And escapist, really? instead of reporting about "Insomniac Q@A", you went for the cheap hits and bashed Nintendo? And you want to be considered credible? How about reporting in why there is no PC version while your at it but I guess covering news is hard work. XD

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

a thought:

Saying that the Wii U isn't of the same generation as the PS4 and Nextbox is like saying that the 3DS isn't in the same generation as the Vita. Check. Freaking. Mate.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I want to say I'm surprised but I'm really not. A lot of game dev's play it safe on the gimmicks various console dev's bring to the table. Move, Kinect, the original Wii, 3ds, Vita, Virtual Boy (reaching way back, PowerGlove (seriously wtf was that thing for?), Rob the Robot. Sure Nintendo is the biggest offender... But are game dev's being shortsighted? 3rd party dev's have a chance to make games outside the box with some of the periph's for consoles. I don't claim to know everything that goes on behind the scenes but in today's industry the norm seems to be "go with the status quo". Thats fine for a bit, conservatism in moderation helps progress by not becoming too big too fast. (double meaning? maybe).
But in the end some console dev's shoot themselves in the foot. However Nintendo is the leader in "innovation" or as some may call it "useless gimmicks gamers will wear later in cosplay".
I'm not arguing that WiiU is great, nor is it bad. Its there and if the right dev's come along it may be awesome. But sometimes people have to take great risks for the greatest rewards, both console and 3rd party dev's alike.

 

[Terramax]

Who does that?

I certainly never have. DC, at least for me, was always appropriately compared to the PS2 and other such consoles, since those were its actual competition.

Right.

Well, many, MANY people argue that the Dreamcast is the same generation as the N64, PSX and Saturn. I've seen forums escalate into flamewars due to the debate.

 

[Trilliandi]

Just a few minor pointers to leave here for reference (I'm not up for debate at the moment):

Firstly, Nintendo's Wii not only kept up with the other two consoles despite having far weaker graphic capabilities, it
demolished them. Utterly, completely, and without any real 3rd part support.

Secondly, Nintendo still has an iron grip on the handheld market, even with the Vita and modern cell phone apps out there.

And thirdly, Insomniac hasn't been relevant or made anything most people even cared about since the days of the original PS1 and the PS2, so their unwillingness to develop for the Wii U is nothing to really stress over.

Nintendo will be perfectly fine in due time. The Escapist however, I'm a bit more concerned about. Honestly seems they're dredging up anything they can to report on, instead of something... I don't know, relevant?

 

[BloodSquirrel]

The games on the WiiU may be behind in terms of specs compared to games on the other consoles but I believe the touch-screen controller more than makes up for it. The extra-screen provides opportunities for games that would be impossible to pull off on the other consoles and this is where the WiiU can really shine. I'd even say it has more opportunities because of this. Developers need to take advantage of it and do something -forgive my language- innovative. As j-e-f-f-e-r-s has pointed out many times before, a proper console strategy game could be produced! Asymmetrical gaming with the Pro Controller, hell even NDS-style aiming with the touch-screen.

That was the theory behind the Wii and motion controls. A generation later, and not even Nintendo could manage to come up with a game which made motion controls more than a gimmick. They put out some party games, then spent the generation milking their old franchises while unambitiously mapping various discrete actions to some form of controller waggling. Skyward Sword came the closest to really making the controls work, but they were still far too attached to the Zelda formula to be the definitive example (it was also a bit late at that point).

If Nintendo wants its latest "innovation" to take off then they need to take the bull by the horns and put out a game that doesn't just blow people away, but does something with the controls that makes people say "This game couldn't have been done on the 360".

Just a few minor pointers to leave here for reference (I'm not up for debate at the moment):

Firstly, Nintendo's Wii not only kept up with the other two consoles despite having far weaker graphic capabilities, it
demolished them. Utterly, completely, and without any real 3rd part support.

I hate to break this to you, but the Wii's sales fell off BIG time during the 2nd half of the generation. MS and Sony were both on track to outpace its totals in about two more years. The Wii also suffered a much lower attach rate than either of its competitors. The Wii U's sales are already in the dumpster.

The Wii was ultimately a strategic failure. It had some short-term success that Nintendo failed to capitalize on, leaving them in an awful position for this generation.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

There's more to console development than you realize. One of the biggest obstacles to multiplatform development is the internal architecture of the CPU.

For example, the PS4 will run off a Semi-custom 8-core AMD x86-64 CPU (integrated into APU). The 360 uses a 3.2 GHz PowerPC Tri-Core Xenon. The WiiU uses a Multi-Core IBM PowerPC "Espresso".

Notice how radically different each of those are? Combine this with Nintendo licensing issues, and the unspoken obligation to work around that touch screen, on top of the unique internal structure and how out of control budgeting is these days, I can't say I'm surprised that developers are passing up having to develop for it.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Metroid Prime 3 would like to have a word with you.

It did have a word with me. I was unimpressed with what it had to say, and I politely requested for it to go back to being good, like the first Metroid Prime was. Then I went and played Gears of War again.