Iwata: Zelda Wii is coming this year

[AJR]

So is La Mulana. I'm still interested in playing both on the Wii. Partially because I want to support the guys who made those games, and partially because I'm interested to see what changes they make.

[Hidoshi]

RPG development costs and budgets arent viable in today's marketplace. The sky is also blue

more at 11

That's complete bullshit. You can make an RPG for relatively little money, provided you don't blow the roof off the cinematics budget. It's not like companies don't have money either. If Namco can afford to normal map everything in Tekken 6, any similar publisher can afford to create your standard RPG framework.

[Kevadu]

That's complete bullshit. You can make an RPG for relatively little money, provided you don't blow the roof off the cinematics budget. It's not like companies don't have money either. If Namco can afford to normal map everything in Tekken 6, any similar publisher can afford to create your standard RPG framework.

I agree completely.  Obviously RPGs require a big budget if you try to be S-E, but there are plenty of developers content to make perfectly good but less shiny-looking games at a much lower budget.  The problem is that there is no real reason for those developers to embrace next-gen hardware (since they really aren't pushing the hardware to its limits anyway) so they continued to develop for older systems (PS2 in particular) and portable systems.

Now it looks like the PS2 is finally going to die (Sakura Wars will probably be the last PS2 game I buy, and that isn't even a new game really) so they're really just focusing on portables.  I think a lot of publishers are afraid to put out games on the 360 or PS3 that don't live up to people's graphical expectations even if they games themselves are excellent.  Look at how much some reviewers slammed Disgaea 3 for its graphics...not saying it didn't deserve to lose some points there but it kind of felt like at least some reviewers couldn't get past the graphics for long enough to even look at the gameplay...

Keep in mind that this problem really isn't limited to RPGs.  The development cost of a AAA title like Uncharted 2 has skyrocketed compared to development costs of AAA titles 5 years ago.  To some extent this has been made up for by the size of the gaming market increasing, but it's not increasing at the same rate.  Publishers are (rightfully from a business perspective) afraid to pour that kind of money into development of a title they don't think has a high chance of success.  This leads to the current situation of lots of pretty-looking games with highly derivative gameplay.  And its only derivative of the best-selling titles which, for the most part, are not RPGs.

[Eusis]

Just get CS for the PC, It's free!

Some people do want to support the game properly you know, and/or have played the game and just want the upgraded WiiWare version.

[Myght]

Just get CS for the PC, It's free!

Some people do want to support the game properly you know, and/or have played the game and just want the upgraded WiiWare version.

Yah but, the game was always free on the PC, and CS for the VC Is a straight port with little added content.

[Gen Eric Gui]

I think you need to check your sources.  Graphically, the entire game has been rebuilt from the ground up, and a whole ton of new content has been added.  CS Wii is going to be a significant improvement over the standard free PC version.

Bayonetta and Darksiders are two recent examples.
Then there's FFVIII, Dragon Age, the COD games, the GTA games, Assassins Creed, ETC ETC ETC.

But Wii DID get Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Dead Space Extraction, all the various amazing Nintendo games like Mario and Punch Out! and Fire Emblem, Little King's Story, A Boy and his Blob, Muramasa, Madworld, Zack & Wiki, Trauma Center, and on and on.  Which is my whole point, the Wii doesn't get the OTHER consoles "Big name" shared titles, but it gets it's own collection of awesome games that nobody notices (and no other console gets(usually)) because they aren't in HD.

[Sagacious-T]

RPG development costs and budgets arent viable in today's marketplace. The sky is also blue

more at 11

That's complete bullshit. You can make an RPG for relatively little money, provided you don't blow the roof off the cinematics budget. It's not like companies don't have money either. If Namco can afford to normal map everything in Tekken 6, any similar publisher can afford to create your standard RPG framework.

Well, I should have worded it better. It costs shittons to develop a fully fledged RPG for the 360 or PS3 and its difficult to make a profit in today's marketplace.