Wii may have a negative effect on PS3-360 gamers, says Bleszinski

Through an email sent to website Level Up, Tyler Bleszinski, older brother of Cliff Bleszinski from Gears of War fame, expressed his thoughts on the Wii’s rapidly gaining popularity and its possible effect on hardcore gamers. Apparently, he’s troubled by how Nintendo is reaching its hands to casual gamers and pushing the market towards that audience.

Being a gamer himself, Tyler grew up with Zelda and other titles generally aimed at guys. With the Wii reaching millions of non-gamers, he believes that publishers might also move in the same direction. In other words, casual games could overrun deeper games.

“The NPD sales figures since November have been troubling to me as a hardcore gamer who loves new IPs and in-depth experiences… There have been umpteen stories about the scrappy little Wii wooing non-gamers and bringing in hordes of new converts to worship at the altar of Mario,” he said.

“I’m not saying that the videogame industry shouldn’t strive to bring in as many new people as possible,” he added. Tyler told a story about how he found an old woman at the store looking for Cooking Mama and Wii Play. “If these are the type of games that become blockbusters, then you can count on other gaming companies who cater to the more hardcore gamer to promptly change direction.”

Tyler strongly believes that gamers who got into the scene because of the Wii and its casual games aren’t likely to get into more hardcore titles. It’s difficult to imagine that the woman at the store would be playing Metroid. He continues:

If Nintendo winds up outselling the 360 and the PS3 by a wide margin, how soon will it be before we gamers are using the Sixaxis to chop up onions with in Metal Gear Mama? How long before we’re frantically swinging waggle remotes for tennis, bowling and golf in Halo Sports?

I sincerely believe that bringing new people to video games is a good thing. I like seeing the business continue to grow and be even more successful, because I’m old enough to remember the videogame industry crash between the Atari 5200 and the Nintendo Entertainment System. But ultimately, going more mainstream can have unintended consequences–ones that could negatively impact the breadth and depth of the kinds of games that I love, as do millions of others.

Through an email sent to website Level Up, Tyler Bleszinski, older brother of Cliff Bleszinski from Gears of War fame, expressed his thoughts on the Wii’s rapidly gaining popularity and its possible effect on hardcore gamers. Apparently, he’s troubled by how Nintendo is reaching its hands to casual gamers and pushing the market towards that audience.

Being a gamer himself, Tyler grew up with Zelda and other titles generally aimed at guys. With the Wii reaching millions of non-gamers, he believes that publishers might also move in the same direction. In other words, casual games could overrun deeper games.

“The NPD sales figures since November have been troubling to me as a hardcore gamer who loves new IPs and in-depth experiences… There have been umpteen stories about the scrappy little Wii wooing non-gamers and bringing in hordes of new converts to worship at the altar of Mario,” he said.

“I’m not saying that the videogame industry shouldn’t strive to bring in as many new people as possible,” he added. Tyler told a story about how he found an old woman at the store looking for Cooking Mama and Wii Play. “If these are the type of games that become blockbusters, then you can count on other gaming companies who cater to the more hardcore gamer to promptly change direction.”

Tyler strongly believes that gamers who got into the scene because of the Wii and its casual games aren’t likely to get into more hardcore titles. It’s difficult to imagine that the woman at the store would be playing Metroid. He continues:

If Nintendo winds up outselling the 360 and the PS3 by a wide margin, how soon will it be before we gamers are using the Sixaxis to chop up onions with in Metal Gear Mama? How long before we’re frantically swinging waggle remotes for tennis, bowling and golf in Halo Sports?

I sincerely believe that bringing new people to video games is a good thing. I like seeing the business continue to grow and be even more successful, because I’m old enough to remember the videogame industry crash between the Atari 5200 and the Nintendo Entertainment System. But ultimately, going more mainstream can have unintended consequences–ones that could negatively impact the breadth and depth of the kinds of games that I love, as do millions of others.