The world of social gaming has, for a long time, been sneered at with disdain by the majority of hardcore gamers and the more serious realms of the gaming industry. The multitude of formulaic, simplistic games that have appeared on Facebook since the medium presented itself have done little to improve the niche industry’s reputation, yet there is one man determined to change that status: he is Henrique Olifiers, the found of social game developer Bossa Studios. Having worked for both Jagex and PlayStation, Olifiers is a self-confessed lover of game, yet he confesses that unfortunately “99 per cent of social games, quite bluntly, suck”. It was the stagnant state of social gaming on Facebook, as described above, which led Olifiers to found his own company in order to change the face of the industry and force the world to take social gaming much more seriously.
Unless more developers take the path of Bossa Studioes, Olifiers sees the future of social gaming as doomed to fail. He predicts that if this blatant cloning of popular designs continues, social gaming will experience a similar fate to that of the second generation of home consoles, a time at which the market was so saturated with near-identical games that the industry simply couldn’t survive, leading to the “Atari Eighties crash”. The only way to change the course of social gaming, then, is to improve on the types of games being produced. Olifiers feelsthat Bossa are the ones to start this revolution, with titles such as their first game, Monster Mind, which reject the stagnant frameworks of many Facebook multiplayers, with their gift-giving and begging for resources from friends.
Olifiers is taking his role at Bossa increasingly seriously, and things have been shaken up even further due to the recent addition of Yoshifusa Hayama, producer of Sony’s highly-anticipated The Last Guardian for the PS3, to their team. Olifiers is quick to insist that Hayama has not sold-out to a nook of the industry which offers quicker, easier financial reward; he simply shares many of the Bossa founder’s views regarding the need for innovation and the pushing of boundaries in all areas of the gaming universe.
If there’s one thing that those familiar with the video game industry know, it’s that things move quickly. Publishers and developers are constantly competing to produce what they hope will be the next big thing. Nintendo know this, and they have managed to maintain a decent level of success thus far. Their DS and Wii consoles ushered in new eras in both handheld and home gaming, and since it was released in 2006 the Wii alone has sold upwards of 89 million units. With sales finally starting to decline, however, along with the relatively poor performance of their latest handheld, the 3DS, Nintendo must now look to the future. The 3DS may not have done as well as was hopped, but it was nevertheless a bold step forward in the future of gaming technology, and the Wii U marks another – although perhaps in a slightly different direction.
The Wii U is still a way off yet, estimated for release sometime in winter 2012, with an earlier Japanese release probably over the summer. Much has yet to be revealed: the key selling point so far has been the Wii U’s unique controller, which completely revolutionises the concept of a gaming remote. More like a tablet than any console controller to date, the U controller is a large and cumbersome piece of equipment. However, within that chunk of plastic players will have use of not one but two touch screens. Like Sony’s upcoming handheld, the PS Vita, the Wii U controller has a visual touch screen on the front and an additional rear touch pad for added control when gaming. On either side of the main screen is a joystick, as well as standard controls such as arrow keys, shoulder buttons etc. Measuring a whopping 6.2 inches, the primary touch screen will combine with the rear screen and additional buttons to create an entirely new input method, shaking up the interactive gaming experience.
So how exactly will this innovative new controller contribute to gameplay? Building on the link between consoles that Nintendo first attempted (rather unsuccessfully) with the Game Cube and Game Boy Advance, the Wii U controller will directly impact the way you play on your main TV screen. You can play on both at the same time, using the controller to display certain aspects of gameplay from different views or perspectives. You can also switch from the main console to play just on the controller – although this does not make the controller an independent handheld, as it must remain tethered to the console in order to function. The best news is that the Wii U will be entirely back compatible, not only with regards to original Wii games but also all earlier Wii accessories and input devices. Up to for Wii Remotes can be combined with the Wii U controller for an exciting multiplayer mode.
The Wii U is quite unlike anything we've seen in the gaming world so far.
Now, all this may be difficult to process at first, but it’s worth bearing in mind that when the Wii was first released in 2006 many people laughed outright at the thought that it could change the world of gaming as we know it, and look where we’ve ended up on that front. The motion sensor of the Wii was so popular that both Sony and Microsoft felt obliged to release their own versions, respectively the PlayStation Move and the Xbox Kinect. Ubisoft in particular, who have supported Nintendo for some time, are wholly backing the Wii U, as are some surprising big name publishers, offering franchises and multi-format releases that the original Wii missed. Third parties have pledged titles such as Assassin’s Creed, Batman, and Ghost Recon, and when added to Nintendo’s own hard-hitters like Smash Bros. and Zelda, the Wii U looks set to not only build on the success of the Wii but also take it into new territory previously occupied by the Xbox 360 and PS3.
Publishers and developers, although reluctant to adapt major multi-format games for the Wii’s motion controls, were content to make exclusive titles for the console because they had a guarantee that 100% of players had access to the remote. Kinect and Move, on the other hand, were optional extras and therefore less successful. This wasn’t an issue when the consoles were directed at different audiences; the Wii catering primarily to families whilst the Xbox and PlayStations went for older, dedicated gamers. However, the Wii U raises that bar with a powerful quad-core processor (similar to that which powers the Xbox 360) and HD graphics that are rumoured to exceed the limits of all predecessors, making it more of an all-round machine. With additional features including a camera on the controller allowing direct video calling,a web browser in which the controller screen can zoom in and focus on specific features, and of course the ability to share media between controller and TV, Nintendo are taking things to the next level with their second generation Wii.
So what do you think of Nintendo’s plans? Check out the video below to see the full Wii U trailer as debuted at E3 earlier this year.
The Nintendo 3DS has been making waves ever since it was unveiled at E3 in 2010. Improving on the basic model set by its predecessors, the DS and the DSi, the 3DS is the first handheld console to utilise 3D technology without the use of 3D glasses or other additional accessories. In the first two days following its European launch on March 25th earlier this year, the 3DS sold a whopping 113,000 units in the UK, beating the sales figures for previous Nintendo launches of the original DS in 2005 and the Wii in 2006. This makes the 3DS the fastest selling Nintendo console ever in the UK – in spite of its initial cost of £187 (original Amazon selling price), plenty of Nintendo fans were willing, if not eager, to part with their cash to get their hands on the revolutionary new games system. That may seem to have been too hasty on their part, considering that the price of the 3DS has now been slashed to a mere £115 – 61% of the original selling price.
However, there are additional benefits of having bought the console on first release, at its original price. The Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program was designed to reward those consumers who purchased the hand-held during its first few months of availability – if you owned a 3DS and performed a system update or visited the Nintendo eShop before the deadline of August 11th, you will have automatically registered for the program which gives you access to 20 free downloadable games. The first 10, already available for download, are NES Virtual Console games including Super Mario Bros and Zelda II – The Adventure of Link. The remaining 10 are GBA Virtual Console games, 5 of which have been announced, including Yoshi’s Island and Mario Kart. These will be released for download before the end of 2011.
The original Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo Entertainment System has be re-released for download on the 3DS.
Access to these retro Nintendo classics alleviates one of the major problems that the 3DS has faced – at its launch, none of the most popular Nintendo favourites were available for play. The games that coincided with the release of the console were mainly uninteresting, missing out all the heavy hitters of Nintendo’s catalogue such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda. This meant that even hard core Nintendo fans were somewhat apprehensive, and although this didn’t affect initial sales it may explain why Nintendo have felt the need to decrease the console’s selling price so drastically so soon after release.
In an attempt to keep things fresh, Nintendo have now released a new edition of the 3DS to add to the original two colours, Cosmos Black and Aqua Blue. The newest variant is Metallic Red, which was released recently to coincide with the launch of the Star Fox 64 3D game. This reimagining of the Nintendo 64 classic may help to expand the 3DS’s appeal to the die-hard Nintendo fan, whilst giving all consumers more variety in their choice of console. Misty Pink and Ice White 3DS’s have also been announced.
The Metallic Red 3DS was released in Japan under the name Flare Red, and in North America and Australia as Flame Red.
