The Flame War Advance blog has gone and collected some key statements made by industry peeps (many of which we’ve run before), adding fuel to the debate as to how powerful (or not) the Wii is, and whether it’s capable of enough.
Regardless of whether or not it can handle some games, the fact is that a lot of games look like crap, not only on the Wii, but on the 360 and PS3 as well. Or, if they don’t look like crap, they sure don’t push the envelope. Are developers getting lazy? Or is the law of diminishing returns kicking in? Sure you could probably make a game look amazing, but are the several hundred manhours working on game and character design added onto each programmer’s salary worth the tiny extra sales it may add to the game?
Probably not. As graphics and level design receive newer, efficient means of production, they’ll naturally get better without having to spend extra money and time to do so. Until then, developers can focus on important gameplay elements, and other “lazy” developers should have no excuse.
