[quote name='rjung']Actually, I expect the opposite -- Civ had a problem because the Wii version was a last-minute "OMG Nintendo is on fire greenlight a Wii version ASAP!" rush job that came in after the XBox 360 and PS3 versions were already deep into development.
But now that the Wii is a bona fide success, anyone trying to start a new project today with intent of developing it for the Wii will design it with Wii-portability in mind, and thus avoid the problem that Civilization had.
--R.J.[/quote]
The point I was trying to make was that this, though different because of the timeframe, is simply indicative of where the Wii is headed.
Sure, I want to think it's going to be all green hills and bright pastures from here on out, but that's just not realistic. The article said that Civ was going to go to the Wii because it was hot, and then they realized how much time and effort it would take. My point was how long is it going to take before publishers and developers HAVE to pick a direction? Last gen was easy, everything was pretty similar, so it didn't take nearly as much to port something. The Wii, however, once PS2 development dries up will demand basically an entirely different team to do. So, as was the case with Civ, do you really put the time and effort behind it, or simply go with the 360/PS3?
A good example of this is Ghostbusters. We've got a photorealistic 360/PS3 version, and a cartoonish PS2/Wii version. Two entirely seperate teams working on two entirely seperate games for the same licence. The question there is... if there wasn't still a large PS2 base, would the cartoon version even be happening? Or, on the other hand, if that same PS2 base DIDN'T exist and we still got a Wii version, would it have been radically different since it wouldn't be hampered by the PS2?
Like some above posters said, I'd like to believe that when PS2 development stops, we'll get good games from dedicated developers for the Wii. What about the bargain basement devs, though? They'll still be there, though, since it will ALWAYS be cheaper and more profitable to shovel crap out for the Wii.
We're still going to get crap, the only difference is that maybe, just maybe, we'll finally get games developed specifically for the Wii, and not just bastardized versions of something else (I'm looking at you, Soul Calibur Legends).
So, in essence, I'm not sure that what you're saying about beginning to develop NOW with the Wii in mind will have much bearing for multi-platform games, unless publishers want to shell out extra money for work on a completely different game. That's the point... you'll never be able to port the work you're doing for a 360/PS3 game to the Wii (vice versa) without severe changes, so even without the PS2 it's basically going to require an entirely different version. The Wii will still get some great games specifically designed for it (like No More Heroes), but I think with this gen the entire concept of 'multi-platform' will generally simply refer only to 360/PS3.
in' weak.
