Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
fight skeletons in a dungeon by swinging your sword, get a real workout
through a boxing match, etc. At least, that was the promise of the new
hardware.
In practice, the Wii's new controller was lackluster; everyone had ex-
pected it to feel a little better than it actually did. It was slow to respond,
sort of a pain to set up, somewhat inaccurate, and a bit finicky Further-
more, the idea of one-to-one motion control just seemed to never hap-
pen. Even the latest
Zelda
game,
Skyward Sword
,
which does use the
swing motion and direction for your swing, doesn't allow for one-to-one
motion.
There are many inherent problems with motion controls but actually
there's a deeper issue: the input devices weren't the problem to begin
with. These are game consoles we're talking about here. When it comes
down to it, what people really want—whether they realize it or not—is
good games. Of course, as I mentioned, neither Nintendo nor any of
the other players had the intellectual tools available to know what this
means. Without a philosophy of game design, game makers are forced to
shoot in the dark.
Nevertheless, the Nintendo Wii was and continues to be extremely
successful as of the time of this writing. I partially attribute this to the
fact that while Nintendo may have been a bit misled in its quest for a
new input device, it was absolutely correct in minimizing costs, thereby
providing the system at a much lower price point than its competitors.
Still, the larger problem has not been solved, and it seems that the future
will be much less forgiving than the present.
Smartphones
Why, exactly, is the future going to be less forgiving for these powerhouse
hardware manufacturers? One of the biggest threats is probably in your
pocket while you're reading this. Early cellular telephones were primi-
tive and manufacturers and service providers didn't offer much support
when it came to games. The idea of playing games on a cell phone in the
early 2000s was pure novelty, and very few games tried to be more than
Arkanoid
or
Tetris
clones.
The idea of smartphones—that is, cellular phones that allow the user
to run programs and other operations as a desktop computer can—was
not new at all in 2007. There had already been several companies mak-
ing such devices as the Blackberry and the Palm. However, these devic-
es were very specifically designed as business machines. Further, there
wasn't much room for companies to make a lot of money, as people were
more timid about making purchases online.
