GDC 2007: "The Wii is a Piece of S***!"

jogara · 03-09-2007, 01:50 AM

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March 7, 2007 - During a session at GDC this morning entitled "Burning Mad - Game Publishers Rant," time was taken about half way through to allow developers a chance to spew their own rants. One speaker, Chris Hecker, currently working on Spore at Maxis, took the opportunity to call out Nintendo for not taking games seriously.

"The Wii is a piece of s***!" Hecker began his talk, which was called "Fear of a Wii Planet." He blasted a few bars of Public Enemy to set the tone. Hecker said the Wii is nothing more than two GameCubes stuck together with duct tape, and that the console isn't powerful enough to provide the next-gen experience he has been waiting for.

Although he stated the system is "severely underpowered," Hecker noted that he wasn't simply referring to the Wii's graphical capabilities. He wants to spend a console's CPU making games more intelligent, and he has found the Wii doesn't have the power to process things like complicated AI.

Hecker also took Nintendo to task for not taking games seriously enough. "It's not clear to me that Nintendo gives a s*** about games as an art form," he said. To illustrate his point, he searched for references to games as art on all three console manufacturers web sites. While he found numerous such references on both the official PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 sites, Wii.com had none at all. He then shared quotes from executives at Sony and Microsoft talking about games as a serious artistic medium, and then a quote from a Nintendo executive saying the company only wanted to make "fun" games.

Hecker ended his spirited rant with two demands for Nintendo: First, recognize and push games as serious art. And two, "make a console that doesn't suck ass."

I don't have a wii, and i don't want a wii. However, i'm not going to comment on this with a 10' pole.

jogara · 03-09-2007, 04:04 AM

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I don't know who has read the internet, yesterday. In a [unintelligible] panel I said a bunch of things. I was trying to be thought provoking and entertaining and fun and a lot of the stuff went too far over the top—on the entertaining and fun side, so that it was no longer thought provoking, just inflammatory. And in the process I hurt a bunch of people I care about. And so, I want to apologize now.

When I'm on stage, I'm me. I'm talking talk from me. From me. I'm not representing EA or Maxis.

I want to make two things perfectly clear.

I do not think the Wii is a piece of shit. Nintendo needs to be applauded for trying to interface on the controller front, the user interface front, on making games accessible, on making a console that you don't need to mortgage your house to afford.

Secondly, it's totally obvious—and I'm sorry that I implied otherwise—that everyone at Nintendo is passionate at making great games. Some of the games give me hope that we will be seen as an art form on par with movies and books.

Now today his apology is posted... sounds kind of forced, but the whole thing is comical.

acevedo12 · 03-09-2007, 07:10 AM

its funny how he says the wii sucks when hes working for EA, one of the biggest half-assers in the business(anyone remember live on BFMC2 for reg. xbox)

Assman3 · 03-16-2007, 05:16 PM

i have to agree wii does suk! to call that pile of shit next gen is amazing. it aint even a hd console! and u have to pay to download da classics?!?!?! the only gud game on wii is super smash

tirminyl · 03-21-2007, 05:28 PM

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Originally Posted by Assman3

i have to agree wii does suk! to call that pile of shit next gen is amazing. it aint even a hd console! and u have to pay to download da classics?!?!?! the only gud game on wii is super smash

And you DON'T have to pay for full classic games on the 360?

Simon · 03-21-2007, 06:09 PM

That guy is such a penis. But I have to agree with him on both counts.

mike 360gl · 03-21-2007, 06:18 PM

wat makes the wii next gen is its gameplay...i have a wii i loved it for like 5 hours but now im bored with it. its good its just not that good and the only ppl who dont get bored of it are ppl who are to unco to use a controller. but the wii is not a piece of shit.

TREX · 03-25-2007, 10:49 AM

The Wii will have amazing games such as Zelda and Mario but yeah it's not a powerful console. I mean the Wiimote sensor works far better than the PS3 sensor but who cares for a virtual controller, I prefer the xbox 360 pad, more relaxing and you don't feel like a total twat when you are playing the game.