So no one picked this up yesterday:

EA's Riccitello: Nintendo isn't trying to dominate Wii

Despite Nintendo's overwhelming success, questions often linger over whether the proliferation of Wii has benefited third parties nearly as much as it should, as publishers appear challenged to make regular hits on the platform.

Like many publishers who felt the sting of an overcrowded holiday 2008 on the next-gen platforms, Electronic Arts has made an increased focus on Wii a core component of its product strategy for 2009. EA's efforts have already begun to bear fruit, with the 600,000-unit launch of EA Sports Active on Wii.

"That's our best launch so far on the Wii," EA CEO John Riccitiello tells Gamasutra. "It's the first time a third party has been number one on the Wii platform two weeks in a row."

It's clear why this is an important success: "The number one platform is expanding the market, and growing," says Riccitiello. "Having a lead position there seems like an obvious thing for us to do."

Keys To Wii Success

So how did EA break through? "I think we realized what it takes to be successful on the platform," Riccitiello says. "No ports and pushes -- do things that optimize against the controller system inherent in the wand and nunchuk."

For example, the company hopes it will make similar strides with its upcoming Harry Potter title's wand-based mechanic, which lends itself to the Wii remote, and EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 and Grand Slam Tennis will be among the first games to leverage the new Wii Motion Plus peripheral for its swing mechanics that Riccitiello says "are better on a platform like the Wii than alternatives." EA Sports Active has been successful in part because it's "clearly enabled by the technology."

New marketing initiatives also help build a presence on Wii, Riccitiello asserts, and in the coming year EA plans on "speaking differently to this consumer." Small changes -- like advertising that focuses on showing the consumer interacting with the product and not just footage of the game itself -- are important to attracting the Wii's more casual audience, says Riccitiello.

So in Riccitiello's opinion, Nintendo's not failing to support third parties on Wii. "If [Nintendo] was an independent third party, it would be a rival to EA as the number one packaged goods game company -- on their own platform, it concentrates."

"We've been, in years past, able to do a 20 percent share on Nintendo platforms, comparable to our share on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360," he says. "We had a 13 percent share last year with a product lineup that I thought was... good, in certain cases. Now, our product lineup in [fiscal] Q1 is better than our entire 2008 product lineup, for Wii specifically. That lineup, well-supported, will be really successful."

"For what it's worth, Nintendo isn't trying to dominate the platform -- they're trying to have their platform dominate the world. It's a different objective."

On The Way To A Turnaround

Now that the company's focusing more on its Wii strategy, Riccitiello expects EA to continue narrowing its losses and improving the company's outlook as the publisher has done since it announced aggressive cost-cutting earlier this year.

"We needed to address quality, Wii, and direct-to-consumer business models," says Riccitiello. "I think we've addressed all three now in a really good way. Our cost structure was too high... but it needed to be done in a certain order. If I'd left quality unaddressed and Nintendo unaddressed, I don't think I'd have a situation where any cost structure would have worked."

"When we hit the wall last year, in a weird sort of way I think it was an opportunity to right the cost structure all at once," he adds.

Rockstar has revealed that Max Payne 3 sees our hero bald, bearded and addicted to painkillers in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

That's according to a brief write-up of the latest Game Informer cover feature on Deeko (thanks vg247).

The developer had previously said Max was retired but still "embroiled in a world of corruption, turmoil and intense violence".

Said intense violence will employ a tweaked version of the original games' famed Bullet Time system, along with cover-based combat, apparently.

What's more, it will take place in an elaborate, RAGE engine-powered recreation of the Brazilian city with procedural animation, destructible environments and the usual day-and-night cycle.

There will also be online multiplayer, according to the report.

We haven't been able to locate scans of the preview yet, although there are some blurry photographs of the feature showing Max wearing khakis and a dirty Die Hard-style white vest.

He's got a bearded, firmly set and grumpy jaw and looks a bit like a cross between Bear from Get Shorty and Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell: Conviction. It's hard to make out much else from a distance, but there does appear to be - as there so often is - a girl in peril.

If true, the painkillers thing seems like a nice touch - having been Max's never-ending source of health top-ups in previous games.

We should have more on Max Payne 3 soon. It's in development at Rockstar Vancouver and due out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this winter.

Bald Max wearing khakis and a dirty Die Hard-style white vest. In Brazil.

This sounds like Splinter Cell 4

I had high hopes for Prototype (I think your Prototype vs Infamous thing is a bit silly, and I've consistently stated that while they had a lot of similarities, each game should be considered on its own) but I agree with Activision that Prototype is low quality garbage. Its too bad that they didn't give it maybe another six months of polish. Then maybe they could have had a game worth playing.

But Activision is a terrible publisher, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they aren't giving games the development time need to make them worth playing."

--Such a douchebag --AND-- he is consistently allowed to insult other users, call them "sloths" and bash games without playing them AT ALL... One of the great mysteries of the internet...

phantom_leo said:

gamingeek said:

Is it because you are good/bad at real life tennis? Because with a control scheme this accurate, you would have that real world problem.

It's --N-O-T-- as accurate as Nintendo / Website editors would lead you to believe. The racket doesn't do exactly as you do... it is not true 1:1 motion. It's closer than Wii Sports Tennis, but it's not there yet.

Tiger Woods is A LOT closer. Pointing at the Frisbee in Disc Golf, picking it up and tilting your Wii-Remote, so the frisbee accurately and realistically (in TRUE 1:1 motion) tilts on-screen, almost has an eerie effect when you see it!

Shame it's a frisbee and not a grenade or something. Doesn't the frisbee thing show that its accuracy will depend on how its used by developers?

phantom_leo said:

Carnage Heart Said: "Ultimate Destruction was a long time ago. The genre has improved since then. Too bad Ultimate Destruction's designers (which was admittedly a kickbutt game in its day) haven't. *Shrugs* Of course, some people are more forgiving of sloth than I am, but for a sequel, especially one on a later gen of hardware, I expect actual game design improvements, not just more stuff onscreen and sharper textures.

I had high hopes for Prototype (I think your Prototype vs Infamous thing is a bit silly, and I've consistently stated that while they had a lot of similarities, each game should be considered on its own) but I agree with Activision that Prototype is low quality garbage. Its too bad that they didn't give it maybe another six months of polish. Then maybe they could have had a game worth playing.

But Activision is a terrible publisher, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they aren't giving games the development time need to make them worth playing."

--Such a douchebag --AND-- he is consistently allowed to insult other users, call them "sloths" and bash games without playing them AT ALL... One of the great mysteries of the internet...

I cannot believe I'm about to defend Carnage. But he was talking about the sloth of the developers and badmouthing Activision and the devs. Not forumers.

SteelAttack said:

gamingeek said:

I cannot believe I'm about to defend Carnage. But he was talking about the sloth of the developers and badmouthing Activision and the devs. Not forumers.

I came here to post this. Bolded part is cracking me up.

But yeah, he was adressing the game itself as "dev sloth". He's guilty of underhandedly trolling people, but he regularly knows how to behave himself.

Trolling like his is so fine its almost an artform. Apart from when he gets illogical. I think he's drunk when he posts those ones.

SteelAttack said:

Videogames are about fun, so if one can enjoy eating garbage, dive in!

No!

He did not say that