Despite the Nintendo Wii dominating sales charts and setting records left, right and centre, it's still never really won over the games industry. Comments from Sega and Capcom have only helped to fuel the negativity surrounding the console, and it's apparently a feeling that's echoed among other developments too.
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Fredrik Liliegrin, the former CEO and co-founder of DICE, who is currently running a new company called Antic Entertainment. Amongst other things, some of which can be seen in part one of the inteview, we were able to ask him about his opinions on the Wii.
Gaming Union: Are you surprised with the negativity surrounding the Wii from various groups, even after all this time and its success? Would you develop a Wii game if you were a traditional developer?
Fredrik Liliegrin: If I got paid to develop a Wii game I would do it. I would not put an original IP on the Wii today unless I thought I had an absolute home run.
Gaming Union: Why not?
Fredrik Liliegrin: Because the 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 realize the Wii is a toy, not an entertainment focused product. 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.
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