Ex-DICE boss and hardcore game designer Fredrik Liliegrin has labelled the Nintendo Wii a "virus" and says that it is "not a video games machine".
Liliegrin is CEO of Antic Entertainment, a developer that claims to produce 'casual games for the hardcore'.
The ex-DICE boss told GamingUnion: "Wii, to me, I would describe it as a virus, that doesn't stick. Everyone comes home, it's a toy, people have got to realise the Wii is a toy, not an entertainment-focused product.
Anti-Wii rant
"People come home, someone, they play Wii for a bit, feel it's really cool, blah blah blah, they go out and buy one. Ask people how often they play the Wii, that are not the core game consumer that buys one because they have an Xbox 360 and a Wii or a PlayStation 3 and a Wii.
"The people that only own the Wii, ask that consumer how often they use their machine. They just don't use it, it was cool, but they're not gamers, so they put it away.
"Other than the Wii Fit phenomenon that helped a lot of people get a nice cutie voice telling that they're fat and need to go work out, they need to find other alternatives. Nintendo is smart in that way in that they realize this is not a video game machine, this is not a games game machine."
Via CVG
Your comments (6) Click to add a new comment
healeydave
March 2nd 2010
6. Well, I'm so glad Russell summed it up perfectly, it saved me typing a similar rebute.
Its a sad fact that idiots like Fredrik Liliegrin and the so-called hard-core gamers wait 12 months for something like Call of Duty to come out, queue up overnight to buy it, spend the next 24 hours locked up in a bedroom blasting **** out of people, finish the game and get 10 minutes of accomplishment in their lives. They then have 364 days to wait for the next version (that looks surprisingly similar to the last), so to fill the empty void in their life during this time they rant rubbish blogs and articles like this to bash the Nintendo Wii. How pathetic?
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zio_excel
March 1st 2010
5. Russ_Tomato is brilliantly spot on. I own a Wii and a PS3 and I am excited about Gran Turismo 5 this year but no where near as excited about Mario Galaxy 2 an the new Legend of Zelda both will be better than predecessors which were innovative, challenging and in my eyes simply brilliant. Nintendo have always made their own in-house games the best around, a trend with every one of their consoles. Yes you have games touted to the 'casual' gamer but you also have those touted to hardcore gamers Mario galaxy and Zelda Twighlight princess among them. Just because Nintendo dont wish to wade into the HD/processor/hard drive/graphics war does not mean they dont make games for hardcore gamers.
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hiawa23
March 1st 2010
4. I own the PS3 360, & I only bought the Wii for my daughter. I don't like it at all, as it doesn't appeal to me, but she loves it. I think that was Nintendo's goal with it, to be a fun family machine. I don't think they designed it for the hardcore gamer like myself the prefers HD, online play, action, shooters, sports aggressive games. The whole motion control thing I don't like. Is it a virus I say no, it is a console, but it's clear what type of gamer it's geared for. Most people I know buy it cause it's cool at first then play a few times & then put it to rest.
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oldhand
March 1st 2010
3. Must be suffering from sales envy.
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hambutty
March 1st 2010
2. russ_tomato I couldn't put it better mnyself. Absolutely spot on!
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russ_tomato
February 28th 2010
1. What you're missing out here is people who have followed Nintendo since the SNES; people who are Nintendo fans. It's not just a case of regular people going out and buying these 'toys', playing them and then putting them away to gather dust.
You have missed out an entire demographic of actual fans of Nintendo, who own a Wii - not because it's a Wii, not because they can get Wii Fit, Wii Sports Resort, or any of the "Wii" brand games - but because they LOVE Nintendo. There are a ton of games that this myopic article has missed out, not to mention the three or four generations of people who have grown up with a SNES, N64, Gameboy, Gamecube, DS, Wii - whatever.
It's a case of snobbery, it's a case of narrow-minded gamers for whom a game must be slapped with an 18 certificate for it be valid, or which must have graphics so realistic that they might as well be watching a film.
I entirely disagree.
Nintendo make, fund and publish more 'game games' than the hacks who churn out dumb first-person-shooters every year, each one seeming more original than the last, yet just presenting the slobbering masses with yet more gore and thumb-ache. Nintendo innovate, and if they have made a 'toy', then you have to also admit that they have made one the most innovative console to date. But because it's main focus is family-orientated gaming, it is unfairly branded a 'toy' and for some unknown reason, a 'virus'. Boasting more sales than any other game console and higher ownership as a result, it's seen as overhyped. Fair point.
However, I find it equally, if not more ridiculous, that 'hardcore' videogames are advertised alongside films in cinema trailers. This is presumptuous. They offer a cinematic experience. Great. Then in the same way that the Wii is a 'toy', a 'virus', all other hardcore games are the same old things - saving the world, fighting aliens, being stealthy, being violent - but in new packaging.
It is worse to pull wool over people's eyes by presenting them with a beautiful looking pie with a distinctly average, too-often-tasted filling. What great graphics Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, brilliantly done, beautiful stuff. Hang on a second. The same FPS sheisser with the tiniest of tweaks.
And then the same people who tout Nintendo-licensed as childish and boring are those who rush out to be the first to buy the latest instalment in a long line of generic titles. Boring, in my opinion. And then they rave about them, spend all their time on them, geekishly wasting their days completing all unnecessary tasks to earn a meaningless medal for their PS3 profile. Childish. Pot, kettle, black.
The Wii sniffles on with its virus. But hardcore games plod on, unaware of their debilitating disease.
Russell Thomas
www.creativeboom.co.uk/london
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