Wii Developer: Hardcore Games Need to Sell or 'It's Back to Mini-Games'

Rainbow Studios designer Jordan Itkowitz hopes those lamenting the lack of hardcore-focused Wii games "vote with their dollars" when Deadly Creatures is released in February, otherwise "it's back to mini-games" for the developer.

"[Deadly Creatures] is kind of an experiment though, because everybody--from fans to the press to gamers--have been saying they want more core stuff on the Wii, and they're tired of the mini-game compilations," Itkowitz explained to MTV Multiplayer.

He said that getting the scorpion and spider-starring Wii game approved by publisher THQ was easy because "we pitched it on the Wii--that was the magic word."

Itkowitz noted that the "historical shakiness of third-party success on Nintendo's platforms" and Nintendo's lack of first-party core Wii games have caused many publishers to focus more on the system's ever-growing casual audience.

"There haven't been that many core games that have broken out [on Wii]. Then again, there haven't been that many core games, period," he said. "In fact, there haven't even been that many core first-party games from Nintendo either...it seems Nintendo's real focus is on creating the new genre and cross-demographic experience."