When Capcom’s Sr. Director of Strategic Planning and Research speaks, I’d say you should at least listen … even if you don’t agree with him.
In a recent message board thread on their official BBS, Capcom’s Christian Svensson tells it like it is, and a world of fanboy fire rains from the digital skies. In response to a thread about wanting more “mature” Wii titles, Svensson is mum on specifics, but admits that most of their upcoming Wii line-up will steer clear of any subject that might garner an M rating.
By and large, I don’t see the Wii being home to a sizeable mature playerbase outside of some of the early adopters. I see it as being very, very broad with a family focus. If there is a “core player base” on Wii (and it’s might be so broad, there might be no such thing as “core”), within two years, it will probably be largely a younger player (or at least younger than 360 or PS3).
Svensson later cites the GameCube as a reference, saying that “6-10 [year-old] males was the sweet spot.” He does admit exceptions — Resident Evil 4 was the best selling game on the console in 2005.
Wars have been started over less, but these comments shouldn’t come as a surprise. Nintendo has long been plagued by the “kiddie” image and despite strong sales, developer perception (or research of actual numbers and facts, as the case may be) may cripple the software library.
Wii fans can rest easy though, knowing that the console did receive the best (and only) next-gen version of Chicken Little: Ace In Action.
