Bethesda Softworks
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Bethesda Softworks is an American publisher responsible for franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, and more. Previously a part of Zenimax Media, Bethesda was purchased by Microsoft in September 2020.
Bethesda Working on "Big" Wii Title
"We are going to make an announcement on a really big Wii game this year, we've got a couple of other things in the pipeline, and it's a format we're really looking at with the right approach" revealed Sean Brennan, managing director for Bethesda in Europe, in an exclusive interview published today.
"I've got consoles at home but I wouldn't sit and play an 18-rated game with my family on the Wii" he said. "Is there space in the Wii market for that? I think there is, but again, it's all about finding out how big that is. Is it 5 per cent? If it's five per cent of the market and you can own that space it's worth doing because you can achieve volume. If you can't own it at five per cent, it's not worth doing, quite frankly" he added.
"Looking at the opportunities in the Nintendo space is interesting for us because it's more driven by getting the right product for the demographic and also the right quality. We're not going to do a hamster simulator, it's not us. We're not going to produce games for girls or pet-sim products. There's nothing to distinguish them from one another" he said.
"We have huge respect for the Nintendo platforms, and from a marketing perspective globally they've been phenomenal. It would be churlish to ignore that space" he admitted.
I guess since there isnt a lot of material on the Wii geare specifically to wards an older market, my guess it would be snapped up by whatever niche market for the novelty. For me though I am not going to get just because it was mature themed. Eg: I ended up pretty disappointed by Mad World unfortunately so the games gotta look good too.
Now they don't specifically say they're doing a mature title, but all this talk about capturing 5% of the Wii's install base with a mature game making it worth it does hint at that. Keeping in mind some time ago Bethesda announced a Medieval Games title, I'm cautiously optimistic about what this interview refers to. Besides, that game's already announced, and is from Bethesda's sister company Vir2L Studios, so it can't be what they're talking about here, right? RIGHT? I guess we have to wait for E3 to find out for sure... Cross those fingers of yours people.
Not that I consider Bethesda games Megaton type stuff anyway, but it would be cool to see what they can do with the Wii. They better have hired some good artists and animators since their last few games though. Even on PC with their insane polycounts, texture resolutions, post processing capabilities, and whatever else, I find their titles VERY lacking in the aesthetics department. For gameplay, I kinda liked Oblivion but it felt rushed, and Fallout 3 did a few things better and a few things much worse, so, I don’t know if I’m excited about another Bethesda game yet. Perhaps the Wii’s limitations will force them to be more creative with what they do, who knows…
Gee you sure are negative about this Keyhunter, the reason why does escape me though.
Anyway i'm curious what Bethesda will come up with, they have done nothing but devellop free roaming games for the last 10 years so i wonder if this will be in the same vein or not. Are they actually develloping or just pulishing this?
E3 sure is getting more and more interesting.
Now that you mention it Endogene, I have no clue. We just know what the article says, so simply that they'll be announcing a big game... I just don't think they refer to Medieval Games because a) it's already announced and b) it reeks of the exact things they claim they wouldn't do, like jumping on bandwagons and what not. I also wouldn't call it big compared to Bethesda's past games. So, we have to wait for E3 I guess.
YES!!! Elder Scrolls with a waggle, BRILLIANT! Now I can swing my arms until they fall off in another 100+ ... [more]
Huhu, waggle insultz, that's so creative, lulz. Where does it even say Elder Scrolls? How about an old school Fallout with real time cursor based controls? Or even just first person I guess... Anyway, I doubt it's either. We'll have to wait and see. I just hope they aren't talking about Medieval Games. That's not describable as "big" and it reeks of everything they say they wouldn't do.
Sorry I'm not American so I can't watch your little video... I'm sure it's an amazingly awesome thread derail though, thanks. And yes, pointer controls are great, Shattered Memories is far from the first title that uses them, and yes, I do prefer them in first person.
Maybe this game is this.
I don't think Bethesda is that great of a developer so I can't see myself getting too excited about this announcement at this point. Still, I had some fun with Fallout 3 and if they could do something similar on the Wii I would be all for it. Maybe the technical limitations of the Wii will help the developers create a tighter more focused game with far fewer bugs. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
Lets hope it pays off for them. It's sad to see the sales of some of the more interesting software on that system. Even stuff that I thought was a no-brainer like Boom Blox has had trouble.
Well it did eventually sell 930,000 copies according to wikipedia, but out the gate it only sold 60,000 in its first month. The near 1 mill is solid but certainly EA was hoping for more with the title when you look at the figures for stuff like Mario Kart, Wii Sports, etc. and I know I have heard Ricotello say the same. The decision to make a sequel is based on the fact that EA thinks the next game could sell better.
No, EA wasn't expecting more, and a million seller is great for a game that was probably quite a bit more low budget than something like GTAIV... Multi million sellers are the exceptions, not the rules. Do people forget a game had to sell something like 600000 units to be added to the "Greatest Hits" line on the PlayStation 2? That was considered a massive success, you know. Other niche games that satisfy particular audiences are profitable with far less than that, and it was common for companies to consider 100000 sales a success.
I don't know why people think anything that doesn't top the charts is suddenly a failure. It's ridiculous. Not to mention the Wii has not yet had a third party title as hyped as something like GTAIV, so I don't see what's there to compare sales with. The only highly hyped and highly regarded games on it are Nintendo titles, and those do sell damn good. The first example would be regional for Japan, with Monster Hunter 3. Let's see how that does this August. For Western developers, if Bethesda's game is really "big" as they state here, it will be the first example we have to compare to the other platforms' highly successful titles, as long as it actually delivers.
Did I say anything was a failure? I simply said it could and was expected to do better. It doesn't give everyone incentive to create certain types of games when they don't sell that well. I pointed out Boom Blox because to me it was a game that I saw as perfect for the platform and personally expected to do better. You can also point to other games like Mad World and No More Heroes. I just hope it's not a trend because it will harm the quality of games brought to the Wii.
No, if a game hasn't "sold that well" then it's a failure. Implying it's not worth developing for that kind of sales implies it's a failure. And you state it for the wrong game. Boom Blox sold damn well. No, EA didn't expect more. How many times do I have to say it? EA actually said it met expectations when everyone was calling it a flop in the initial months. Analysts were going crazy saying they expected sales of 250000, and EA was all like, we never expected that, the title has met sales expectations. Then it surpassed the expectations of even the analysts and has now reached close to one million. And you insist it's not sold "that well" now? Are you more qualified to judge that than EA? Analyst wannabes and the media overblow nonexistent issues even when the companies are more than satisfied enough to develop sequels, I don't understand this...
No More Heroes is Suda's most succesful title yet, hence the sequel. MadWorld is an extremely niche title (and the jury's still out on it since, as with the Boom Blox and De Blob examples, titles appear to flop at first but end up selling GREAT). Godhand didn't fare much better from the same studio on the PS2 did it? Okami is by them also. The Wii is hardly the issue in this example, huh? No More Heroes is also very niche. And what I wrote in the second paragraph of my last comment, there's no reason to repeat.
Examples of good games that "don't sell that well" are abudant on all systems. Okami on the PlayStation 2? Tales of Vesperia on the 360? Valkryria Chronicles on the PS3? Psychonauts on just about any system of its era? The same for Beyond Good & Evil? Similar for Viewtiful Joe (also from the MadWorld developers)? Those tend to be great but once again not highly hyped like something like GTAIV. That's the type of game the Wii has been getting, so that's the type of sales it's been getting, though generally better with some exceptions. Their nature also makes them less than mainstream. Such is life. Signling out the Wii as some kind of flop ground when no developer except Nintendo has really tried to exploit its user base for a potential multi million seller is misguided to say the least. Not that I mind this situation, I'm enjoying the more niche games like De Blob and Little King's Story (whenever I buy that) very much. I'm just saying.
Rofl, Jim Sterling soooooo hates this. Show your true colors oh so objective non-fanboy writers, now's the time xD~
This sort of knee jerk reaction was worth it all, even if it does end up being Medieval Games (though I still doubt it, they emphasise "mature" on the interview so much, but that game's already promoted as "family" fun). But even in that case, thanks Bethesda, hahahah.
I would buy an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game for the wii if they built it from the ground up and tried to take advantage of the waggle controls, while compensating for the console's limitations in creative ways. EDIT: But that will never happen, because it will get a $5 budget or become extremely unprofitable.
Nice edit but, eh, if Tales of Vesperia was worth making for the 360, earning something like 200000 total sales (yet even more JRPGs are coming to it, and people find that natural?), then an RPG on the Wii is more than worth trying as it has potential for much better profit than that, if it actually has a decent budget both for development and marketing (with much lower costs than on HD systems), unlike the usual third party title.
There are great third party Wii games, but they aren't high budget mainstream titles (call them niche, like No More Heroes or De Blob) thus don't get much marketing and hype (that's the important bit) and so generate modest sales. Not as modest as people claim though, and they're for the most part profitable and often earn the right to sequels, despite people who aren't part of the industry (or a couple of butthurt shovelware developers) constantly claiming bullshit about how Wii third party games of type X or Y don't sell. Refer to my comment on the top of the page.
Why do you think companies like Square and Namco have The Crystal Bearers (in development since 2006) and Dragon Quest X in the pipeline, while Vesperia gets a PS3 port to get some more sales, and the next Tales sequel is coming to the Wii? You think companies of that caliber somehow missed the memo on Wii sales? They got it, but they can analyse it without fanboy glasses on and see it's to their best interest to provide quality titles for the system. If low budget, low hype titles like De Blob and Boom Blox earn a million sales, and if Dawn of the New World, a spin off of a GameCube Tales game, with similar production values to that, almost no hype, and very mixed reviews, is 100k above Vesperia sales, then how can such simple facts not make developers want to finally exploit a bigger part of the market that's clearly waiting?
Now, we don't even know what Bethesda's developing so keep that cynicism in check. It could be something shitty, but Bethesda has the chance to earn a great fanbase on a system Western developers have mostly shunned for unknown reasons (but have recently started waking up). If it's as "big" as they imply, both development and marketing wise, then it will be the first third party title that can be compared (sales wise) to the high caliber titles on the other systems. For now, comparing random modest budget Wii game X (as good ratings as it may get on the average website) to the sales of GTAIV or Halo 3 is simply absurd, and usually shows the opposite of what people making the comparisons believe.
My 2 Eurocents.
Bethesda are a publisher as well as a dev. They have quite a few games under their belt that have little or no RPG elements.
Although the fact that they have to point out it's maturity makes me think it's less likely to be Planescape: Torment mature and more likely to be Gears of War 'mature'.
" @Claude said:I just need to get off my lazy butt... and off this site. I'm out and to the store I go. Film at 11." @Meowayne said:Yes. What's keeping you from picking it up? "" Could be worse. My Dawn of Discovery thread was deleted. "I was thinking of picking up Dawn of Discovery today. Have you played it? "
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