Infinity Ward’s community manager Robert Bowling has revealed to Developer Online that the Nintendo Wii does not meet the technical standards required for game development.
Bowling explained in an interview that the Wii’s hardware simply doesn’t deliver the kind of video quality required to meet the studio’s needs when developing new titles.
“If we felt like we could deliver the cinematic experience we were going for on other platforms, then we would gladly move to that platform,” said Bowling. “Right now, we don’t think the Wii can deliver the exact experience that we’re doing. We like to be very equal across all platforms, and if it’s not equal then we won’t do it.”
Despite current sales numbers totalling over fifty million units globally, it is well known that the Wii is by no means the most technically advanced console on the market. In order to appeal to a more general market Nintendo developed the console for use on most displays.
Although the console supports the 16:9 wide screen display format it can only render video in either 480p or 480i formats.
Infinity Ward is known for the visually progressive franchise Call of Duty. It seems however that the developer feels as though the Wii cannot match up to the performance required to develop these games.
Another obstacle for the Wii is its motion control interface. Upon launch many users were disappointed to discover that the motion controller could not provide 1:1 FPS support. Although this has been rectified to some extent with the Wii Motion Plus addon there are currently relatively few titles which support the improved motion sensor.
An announcement such as this may worry Nintendo. Although the Wii is the best selling console of its generation recent numbers indicate that console profits have dropped by almost 50% since April. Despite a recent 20% price reduction, Nintendo still sold 4.25 million fewer units than in the same period last year.
It appears therefore that after two years the Wii market may now have reached a saturation point – meaning that Nintendo will need as much support as possible from development studios in order to keep the console afloat.
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