2K prez: Wii flooded with crappy titles

Someone had to say it. In a recent interview, 2K boss Christoph Hartmann remarked that the Wii market is flooded by “crappy titles,” making it hard for the real gems to shine.

Someone had to say it. In a recent interview, 2K boss Christoph Hartmann remarked that the Wii market is flooded by “crappy titles,” making it hard for the real gems to shine:

Where people go wrong in the casual market is that, while the development costs are exploding on the casual side, they’re treating the Wii like the old PC market – making cheap, accessible games.

They think if they make ten titles and two are hits, they will finance the other eight. But they forget these eight crappy titles will flood the market and will lead to problems in terms of production – and upset retailers. Also, the consumer will be pissed off because they’ll be confused.

2K’s own Carnival Games, which got meager, if not downright stinky, ratings from critics, was a commercial success. Hmm… I honestly don’t know whether Carnival Games would be considered a “crappy title” or not, based on those facts. Anyway, on the success of the game, Hartmann comments:

Had we released it last week, it would have been much tougher. ThereÂ’s far too much stuff in the Wii market [now] and itÂ’s hard to shine. While the Wii is the strongest growing console, itÂ’s a risk not to have well known brands in your games.

• Dallas News: Nintendo also to blame for poor quality Wii games
• Nintendo on its gaming community: we’re about quantity, not quality

Via MCV UK