Konami claim Wii gamers aren’t as hardcore as PS3 and Xbox 360 owners
By Dave Parrack
Akira Yamaoka, chief composer for Konami, has claimed in an interview that “The Wii user isn’t a hardcore user.” At a stroke, he called all Wii owners nothing more than casual gamers and upset a massive swathe of loyal Konami fans.
GamerNode are reporting that during an interview with Wired News about the forthcoming Silent Hill V, Yamaoka was asked about the prospect of the game coming to all of the next generation consoles. Here is a transcript of how the conversation went:
WN: What is the future of the Silent Hill series?
AY: We’re making Silent Hill 5 for next-gen consoles. Are there any other platforms besides that? [laughter]
WN: There’s the Wii.
AY: Ah, the Wii. Wiiiiiiiiii… Silent Hill Wii. Can we do it? Will players like it?
WN: Yeah! There’s a lot of potential there, using the remote as a flashlight, or a knife…
AY: Yeah, there’s potential.
WN: But no plans.
AY: No plans. The Wii user isn’t a hardcore user.
Oops, that last comment seemed to just slip out of his mouth without a hint of thought about what sort of reaction it’ll foster. Wii fanatics already feel they need to defend themselves against their PS3 and Xbox 360 owning rivals.
But is the statement accurate? Well, it’s true that a large swathe of the Wii’s core consumer base is actually made up of young kids and older people. Nintendo have targeted the console at that fringe group and it has brought them great success so far against the PS3 and Xbox 360.
But there also a large number of Wii owners who just like great games, and the Wii has its fair share of them. Should they be penalised by not having a game such as Silent Hill V released on their console of choice?
Thinking about it logically, the Wii owners who do class themselves as more hardcore than casual are likely to own more than one console anyway. Yamaoka’s comments may have upset some people, but I think most Wii owners are too sensible to get riled by them, aren’t they?
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October 21st, 2007
[...] GAMER.BLORGE.com wrote a fantastic post today on “Konami claim Wii gamers aren’t as hardcore as PS3 and Xbox 360 owners”Here’s ONLY a quick extract consumer base is actually made up of young kids and older people . Nintendo have targeted the console [...]
October 21st, 2007
I never liked the silent hill franchise anyway, and I am financially bound to be a wii only gamer for the time being (plus I love poiter controls). I do not consider myself a casul gamer in any way though. I don’t think anything will come of this statement. There will be no obvious consequence. I’m aure few peoplw will scream boyctt, but it doesn’t matter what they scream, boycotts never work on any console. Konami is most likely worried about reports that third party software doesn’t sell on wii. There are two reason’s it doesn’t sell. First, most of the games third parties have put out are solid manure through and through. That much is obvious just from looking at the box. Second, third parties don’t realize that they are reaching new audiences here who don’t know what to buy (don’t know here’s anything beyond wii sports). Solution? Create a need. Show them your game in advertising. Nintendo is the only one advertising their ga,es, and what a crappy job they are doing of it too. If your game is halfway decent, make a dramatic trailer of it and throw it on a football game and during a sitcom. Start the trailer by saying only for wii, then as the main character is exploring in a highly cinematic not violent fashion put up quotes like “one of our favorite games so far” “the best game you can get for wii” “a must have…” then have stuff start exploding and the main haracter runnug away in a highly actiony manner. Made of win I tell you. Sales would skyrocket. Of course, all it takes if for dewy’s advernture or carnival games to start advertising in this way and the wii is screwed. All the wii is running on right now is word of mouth and old audiences. If nintendo did a metroid trailer like this they’d sell twice as much as they did before. Just because a game is out doesn’t mean it’s too late to advertise. That’s my piece,
Zman out.
October 21st, 2007
Legend
casul=casual
poiter=pointer
aure=sure
peoplw=people
boyctt=boycott
ga,es=games
runnug=running
Apparantly I am speakig some language other than english.
PS-if these guys wer smart, the’d pay nintendo to start putting their ommercials on the wii sports disk so that they would load to their own channels. Or if they’re really smart, they’ll send demo disks to all current wii owners, and pack some in with the new wii systems, or ship them out through gamestop, with store incentives. “trade in your demo disk for $5 off” then hand them a new one with their purchase. Brilliant? I think so. Once again.
-Zman the Wise
October 21st, 2007
WII…hard-core…gamers? Nah Wii players seem happy enough buying the endless barrage of crappy minigame comps that developers spew at ‘em
October 21st, 2007
well let me start of by sayin that i the ps3 is in 2 wars..best console and umm nex gen format( blu ray) i dont see blu ray losing bcuz this is sonys standrad for all their games and hd dvd is non existent in australia. Anyhoo umm wii gamers are more on fun unlike the ps3 or 360-(which sucks) which focus on graphics and fun and raw proccesin pwer and lal that shiznit. basically i guess the main point im tryin 2 get across is wii ppl are not in a console war..but 360 and ps3 are……..ps3 4 lyfe woot
October 21st, 2007
This is so old…
October 22nd, 2007
Sounds to me like Konami suffers from a case of the sour grapes.
Think people…. Konami’s favorite game company for the past decade, Sony, is no longer at the top of the heap. Their PS3 console is far behind the Wii in terms of sales and installed user base. And on top of that, Konami invested millions in order to be able to work on the PS3.
So guess what? Konami is obviously going to be pissed about the success of the Wii. They’re going to insult the potential costumers they could have if only they had the imagination and creativity. It’s so easy to keep selling the same manure (blood, gore infested games) using the same old gameplay mechanics. They do as EA with the Madden series and it’s so safe to produce the same old stuff for the same old crowd. So that’s why they feel they can insult casual gamers.
October 22nd, 2007
The problem is the WII game attachment rate is pretty low from what I hear.
October 22nd, 2007
The statement is 100% correct especially when taken in context. Someone that is truly a hardcore gamer will own more than just a Wii, period. No ONE system will ever have ALL the games to appease someone that is beyond a casual gamer. So a true hardcore gamer would own a Wii and something else but in the end, should have all. Someone saying financially they can only buy one system to me is not a good excuse, because being a hardcore gamer, why would you buy a Wii first… knowing that the Wii is not considered a hardcore machine, you’d know the specs and know it’s honestly not capable of what the others can do, there is no possible way to put bigger, longer, same quality games on the Wii. A hardcore gamer buys many games so if you are going to buy more than ONE game, the second game negates the $50 more to get an Xbox 360 first, not only… FIRST, if your only getting one system your not hardcore. Hardcore doesn’t mean you like to play games a lot, it means you go out of your way to play as many games as you possibly can, period. Me I’ve had a very financially tight couple of years, and I do consider myself a hardcore gamer, but, I didn’t buy any system until last month because of that… however the first I bought was the 360, yes for Halo (although it wasn’t worth it but that’s another post), now with Sony adding some value to the PS3 with bundles and price cuts I will get that before Christmas. And I will get a Wii whenever that get’s a price cut or fond a deal or something, because although Wii cost the least, it is the only system that cost more than it is worth. It cost @$175 to make a Wii but they charge us $249, it cost $700+ to make a PS3 and Sony is struggling to charge us $399, so I can’t fault Sony for that, nor Nintendo, If N wants to over charge they should, because people have NO IDEA what it’s worth but they blindly know it’s cheaper, so more power to them.
October 22nd, 2007
dude, supply and demand dictates what a system is worth.. nintendo technically should be charging $400 for their system because it would still sell.. of the 3 systems nintendo has the highest value because it has the highest demand..
i can’t say i’m a hardcore gamer because i don’t want to blow that much money on playing games, so i am really a decent casual gamer.. being 25 i don’t know if that is normal for casual, but i can easily say that owning a wii is the best choice for me.. i don’t know where people get their attachment stats because i own 5 games and am def buying 3 more by the end of the year..
overall i can agree that wii players aren’t as hard core, but if you only own a ps3 or an xbox and not a wii then you are not hardcore at all because you are missing some of the best games out there and soon to be out there especially because of the controls (Res Evil 4 and umbrella, super smash brothers, manhunt 2, mario galaxy, metroid, and i could go on)
October 22nd, 2007
LOL, it trips me out to hear developers to say this stuff about who is hardcore and who isn’t. It is like they like to keep stereotypes going.
Myself is as hardcore as they come, I have been born right at the time when videogames just start to come to the homes in the 80s. I have played it all, and out of the 360, PS3 and the Wii, I find the most potential in the Wii. Well as for Konami, if they continue to believe that Stereotype, I do hope that their funds are affected by it. Elebits unfortunately isn’t going to cut it on the Wii.
Capcom appears to be smarter because once they went on the Wii and start putting quality titles on it, you can see the evidence in their stocks.
Plus if all of these people on the Wii are only Women and elderly, why are hardcore titles such as Metroid Prime Corruption and the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy doing so well? And the developer wants to say well, on Nintendo’s system, only first party developer software sell. Well if Nintendo continues to make high quality software, and Konami stop bringing us crap like Elebits then things may change.
Man I really wish I was in the development business, because this will be my time to make a whole lot of other people look dumb and make some money at the same time. So much potential, but it is limited by the stereotypes in developers heads.
October 22nd, 2007
[...] Konami claim Wii gamers aren’t as hardcore as PS3 and Xbox 360 owners [...]
October 23rd, 2007
“…..you’d know the (Wii’s) specs and know it’s honestly not capable of what the others can do, there is no possible way to put bigger, longer, same quality games on the Wii”
^^^ And you call yourself a hardore gamer? What the hell are you talking about. “Harcore” games existed way before you got your precious next-gen consle.
Have you even played hardcore games on the PS2? There are better and longer games on that console than on the PS3 or Xbox 360 combined.
And whats more… Metroid Prime 3: Corruption offers a better and longer single player experience than Halo 3. The only thing that Halo 3 has going for it is it’s multiplayer option.
Jesus, I just wish some of these “hardcore” kids would at least play Wii games before they put down the console.
October 29th, 2007
[...] of the big guys at Konami claimed that "The Wii user isn't a hardcore user" and upset millions of fans at a stroke. The story opened up a whole surge of Hardcore Vs Casual [...]
October 29th, 2007
[...] then there was the Wii, once again proving it's popularity amongst today's casual gamers. The Nintendo deservedly won Innovation Of The Year, although I have my doubts about Nintendo being [...]
December 7th, 2007
Listen, i have been playing games since i was 5/6 i am now 15 anyway… i started with a n64 which i thought was really good. then i got a ps1 which honsetly i thought was rubbish. i then moved on to the delightful ps2 which was a really reliant console for my gaming needs. it provided all the games i like
my favorite being gta (what a game)… i then got a xbox which was faviorite console out of the lot… but then came it’s follower the splendid the amazing xbox 360 i mean what can i say the graphics are gorgous the gameplay is brilliant and the online and networking functionality was exelant unfortunatly i have had 3 xbox 360’s all which have been killed by the 3 red light illness… so at the moment i am using my ps2 which frankly
dosent do anything for me anymore. so i thought to my self i think il get a wii simply because of the unique control system and a greatly antisipated line up of games… so for the ignorent people of this site who think the nintendo wii is not for hardcore gamers simply are stupid. A hardcore gamer can own any system hi def- low def, last generation. And still be a hard core gamer
it is simply the amount of hours played on the console and money spent on games that determine a hard core gamer
February 7th, 2008
Ok I disagree with everything that is being said about how wii gamers aren’t hardcore. the only reason people think that is because of the sissy advertisements that nintendo puts out. i am positive that if nintendo and third party developers would create hardcore games and advertise them with something else then the qoute “wii would like to play tm.” then customers would see that wii offers most kinds of games for everyones enjoyment. If developers would put in a little more work to creating games for the wii then there would only be a growth in sales. Oh and by the way im leaving this comment using the wii’s awsome internet browser. 777