Piracy Has 'Collapsed' Wii and DS, Says Namco

I made an account here just to say this, but I am sick and tired of seeing people state that the most popular console at any time always has the most shovelware without also noting the counterpoint: that historically consoles become the most popular of their gen - and STAY there - precisely because they also have the highest concentration of fantastic games as well. The reason the Wii sucks is not because it has all the shovelware but because it lacks the balance of good games that have always been the mainstay of the best systems.

For example

SNES - LOTS of shovelware! Also Megaman X series, Castlevania 4, F-Zero, Pilotwings, Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Contra 3, Mario All-Stars, Mario Kart, Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past (STILL one of the best games ever made!), Star Fox, Super Metroid

PS1 - Just as much crap was put out on this system as well. Also Final Fantasy 7-9, Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenogears, Vagrant Story (Square was REALLY strong this generation!), Crash Bandicoot series, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Marvel Vs Capcom, Resident Evil series, Metal Gear Solid, Armored Core, Twisted Metal 1 & 2, Destruction Derby

I mean, those were off the top of my head. I'm sure I'm missing lots of games that were instant classics when they came out. What the hell does the Wii have in terms of quantity of good games compared to those 2 systems? Yeah, the most popular console ALWAYS has the most shovelware. They STAY the most popular of their gen by also having more fantastic games than the others.

It should be telling when my girlfriend and I were at the store, looking at the Wii/DS lineup, and she said "man, there isn't even any games I'd 'want' to pirate."

They're that bad.

Make good games for the people that have money to buy them, and maybe people wouldn't pirate as much. But then again, Nintendo stopped caring about quality after the Super Nintendo. And I've been an avid Big N fan since the beginning...

For people who say games cost too much - supposing the game is of average or greater quality(aka - it provides entertainment) - what do you think game devs should be charging? I'm just curious. I'm not a game dev, and don't game as much much as I used to(but picking up FEAR on the cheap from Steam recently is proving valuable!), so I'm not in touch. Lots of quality games out there too, so I think it's more a matter of being selective rather than, "I have to play EVERY game out there" which I think is part of the problem, no? Just wondering...

Maybe if they made games that were good people would buy them. STOP BLAMING PIRACY ON YOUR CRAPPY GAMES NOT SELLING!

Piracy on the WII? How about too many shovel ware games, too much crap that saturated that market so fast that good games got overlooked because people were TIRED of publishers throwing the worst games on there hoping they'd make a buck.

STOP blaming piracy for everything.

"They have 100 games for no money."
Yeah I bet those toddlers would have bought 100 DS games if they wouldn't have had an R4.

I'm still dying to see some real studies on the effect of piracy on actual game sales. This looks like a great grad student thesis for an econ major. I have yet to see much more than a few singular statistics followed by finger pointing--a very vague cause and effect relationship.

Not saying piracy isn't bad or doesn't cost sales, but a lot of what you read these days seems to have very flimsy support. Lots of blame being thrown around... If I were working a job at a publisher and my games sold like crap, I'd also try finger pointing, and it seems like the flavor these days is "piracy" and everyone just gobbles it up as a proven fact without a second thought. Maybe in that position I'd run that line as well to save my own hide.

I see they're taking the Epic Games line. Here is the translation: "We made 1 too many games people didn't want to buy, so now we're going to blame our own failure on piracy."

I'm not saying the piracy isn't a real problem.. because I do believe it is. But at least in the case of the Wii... I think it would have A LOT more to do with the slew of "very bad titles" than the piracy.

But, but, but...I thought that piracy only affected PC gaming!!

Maybe $30-$50 for a likely mediocre game just doesn't appeal to people like it did when the DS and Wii were brand new.

That'd probably cover both of the issues he mentioned.

this is what happens when you abandon your core audience.

Shovelware Has 'Collapsed' Wii and DS, Says Namco
FTFY

I like how they added "and a slew of bad games" as an after thought, but that the main point was piracy was killing it.

You will be reading this about the Xbox 360 soon.

Games are overpriced, this is why people pirate them.

This is the same mentality that is killing the record companies. Blame piracy but don't look at any ways that you can better serve your paying customers....

hmmm...thought this was why the games makers were abandoning the PC platform...cuz they could mek all the money on consoles thanks 2 no piracy...

Plz make better games Nintendo..etc etc... and ppl stop pirating things we all hurt...

Correct. I ain't buying DS games for 30-40 euros, while a full-blown PC game costs 10 more.

The iPhone, iPod Touch, and Apple Appstore must be killing the DS audience. The DS is for the casual gamer (as are all Nintendo systems), but it can only really do games well.

The iPod is slimmer, does more, is easier to use, and is just an all-around cooler device to own.

I forget my point here -- oh yeah, and iPod games only cost a few bucks. The Appstore has set a new competitive trend with developer competition. It's F'n incredible how cheap some of these games are, and how much time and money go into them!

And, of course, out of the 200,000 apps, only like 500 of them are worth owning. But that's still a much better ratio than the DS or Wii.

How could I have missed that panda game? Glad you posted that pic as I have been looking high and low for a portable way to watch poorly drawn and animated pandas do not much of shit on an amazingly barren landscape.

I'm glad he did at least acknowledge that the overall shittiness of the games is definitely a factor.

Let's see which lesson his company chooses to learn from this.

Very bad titles like Namco Museum DS?

Piracy is nothing but a good thing to me, if the market wasn't being flooded with utter turds (like the first assassin's cred) I'd agree with this guy, but if it weren't for other people pirating certain games, I would have never discovered games like burnout, metal wolf chaos, and others.

Indie devs are the worst in this regard, however, it's like a 2:1 shit ratio there.

The DS comment is so true. Even the Modern Family kid had an illegal cartridge with an SD card in it.

With Qualification:
...to buy a DS or Wii game made by a 3rd party is to buy a game that isn't very good. I hear Ninty does quite well with their in house games.

And pirates are going to be pirates. Leave a door unlocked and they'll find it. You aren't selling to pirates anyway so cross them off your list. You are selling to everyone else. Make better games and fewer people will feel the need for "free samples" to ensure they aren't wasting their hard earned money.

I liked that last bit. At least, until you threw Klonoa in with all that other bullshit. I don't know much about that particular port, but the original is one of my favorite platformers ever.

"...market for Nintendo's Wii and DS has "collapsed" due to widespread piracy and a slew of "very bad" titles."

"Among Namco's releases for the DS and Wii, one finds such titles as Pac-Pix (DS), National Geographic Panda (DS), Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked (Wii), Muscle March (Wii), Klonoa (Wii), and We Cheer 2 (Wii)."

The prosecution fucking rests.

I guess this is part of the reason that Nintendo charges so much for its hardware. They need to make a profit on the hardware to defeat the piracy problem.

Because kids (or their parents) can afford to buy 100s of games?!?

Namco, consider it an investment in future customers, advertising or just karma for releasing shit games. Whichever makes you feel warm and cosy and less finger pointy.

BTW - Love the "all my kids' friends", yeah because Comte's kid carries around 100 DS cartridges and looks down on all those R4 owners.