Developer Attacks Nintendo Wii Development, Technology

Ever since its triumph over the Sony PlayStation 3 this past holiday season, the Nintendo Wii has been the darling of both the mainstream media and casual gaming population.  That's to be expected, with the console offering a unique, laid-back approach to gaming for half the price of the competition.  However, there's evidence that not everyone is happy with Nintendo's present strategy.  That became clear late last week, as at least one industry figure lashed out at the Wii during the Game Developers Conference.

According to Chris Hecker, founder of developer Definition Six, "The Wii is a piece of [expletive]."  The rather blunt attack was made during Hecker's short speech at last week's "Burning Mad: Game Publishers Rant" seminar. 

Hecker went on to say, "I have uncovered the secret to Wii manufacturing.  The way you manufacture a Wii is you take two GameCubes and some duct tape".

Hecker's argument is one of the first to lash out at Nintendo's decision to use graphics technology not drastically superior to the last generation of consoles.  The Definition Six founder believes "interactivity is about doing something interesting with that input and threading it back to the user.  You can't do that with a piece of [expletive] underpowered computer."

Nintendo fans will certainly find solace in the fact that Definition Six (or 6) is hardly an industry leader in development.  However, Hecker does know a few things about video gaming: he's a key editor at Game Developer Magazine, is an expert in OpenGL and graphics technology, and has worked with Will Wright on the massively anticipated PC title, Spore.

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2 comments
Posted by cK on March 12,2007 at 12:31 PM
Proof in point.  PS3 rocks ass when it comes to horse power, but true, that doesn't mean better games or gaming. Regardless how powerful, or in Hecker's case  underpowered piece of *ish a console is, it's up to the developers to maximize the use of that power. The comment about the Wii being 2 GCs taped together isn't so far fetched ... but it's pretty blunt. There isn't anything noticeabley superior the Wii has over its predecesor GameCube.  Just a kick-ass gyro controlled motion recognition remote.  That's it!  Hehe. Developers/Programmers are a picky bunch.  I should know - I am one.
Posted by modsuperstar on March 12,2007 at 10:46 AM
I do understand that developers like to have more horsepower to work with, but in the end more horsepower doesn't equal better games.  Having technical restraints makes you come up with more creative solutions to problems because it makes you think outside the box.  Good developers come up with innovative solutions instead of whining about it.