FIFA producer: FIFA 08 won’t be another port, praises Wii

Wii gamers have said it and will continue to say it until publishers listen: they don’t want ported games on the Wii. And although much of the games coming out now border on the fringes of mini-game insanity, third-party publishers such as Electronic Arts and THQ are pushing out titles that Wii gamers can boast over their more hardcore friends.

 

In a brief Q&A segment with EA Sports‘ FIFA producer Tim Tschirner and developer Brad Porteous, EuroGamer asked the developers’ opinions of people saying that Wii titles are simply Wii ports. Contrary to people’s beliefs that publishers just continue to reinvent the wheel, Tschirner commented on their work for FIFA 08:

We could have gone crazy and just added, like, 25 gestures into this but it just didn’t make sense. At the same time though we didn’t want this to feel like it’s just a port and that we were just throwing in some Wii controls. We found that we had a great opportunity to provide a different spin on playing FIFA, but also introducing a lot of new consumers to FIFA as a series.

Porteous also said that they’ve been toying around with gestures to ensure that each one will be as close to the “real thing,” so it won’t be difficult to learn and remember. “And adding gestures just for the sake of it obviously doesn’t do anyone any good,” said Porteous.

So although the title won’t be another port as many may have feared, the Wii does open up another market to cater to. Expect the Wii version to be designed as a stepping stone for formerly non-football gamers to enter the genre and introduce new victi…err, competition to prove your virtual soccer prowess.

And Tschirner also praised the Wii, calling it a machine that’s “about as powerful as the original Xbox.”

Wii gamers have said it and will continue to say it until publishers listen: they don’t want ported games on the Wii. And although much of the games coming out now border on the fringes of mini-game insanity, third-party publishers such as Electronic Arts and THQ are pushing out titles that Wii gamers can boast over their more hardcore friends.

 

In a brief Q&A segment with EA Sports‘ FIFA producer Tim Tschirner and developer Brad Porteous, EuroGamer asked the developers’ opinions of people saying that Wii titles are simply Wii ports. Contrary to people’s beliefs that publishers just continue to reinvent the wheel, Tschirner commented on their work for FIFA 08:

We could have gone crazy and just added, like, 25 gestures into this but it just didn’t make sense. At the same time though we didn’t want this to feel like it’s just a port and that we were just throwing in some Wii controls. We found that we had a great opportunity to provide a different spin on playing FIFA, but also introducing a lot of new consumers to FIFA as a series.

Porteous also said that they’ve been toying around with gestures to ensure that each one will be as close to the “real thing,” so it won’t be difficult to learn and remember. “And adding gestures just for the sake of it obviously doesn’t do anyone any good,” said Porteous.

So although the title won’t be another port as many may have feared, the Wii does open up another market to cater to. Expect the Wii version to be designed as a stepping stone for formerly non-football gamers to enter the genre and introduce new victi…err, competition to prove your virtual soccer prowess.

And Tschirner also praised the Wii, calling it a machine that’s “about as powerful as the original Xbox.”