Julian Eggebrecht: Wii developers are 'sloppy'

Wii News | Factor 5's gamemaking legend disappointed with Wii developers

In a brief interview with IGN, Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht has had his say on a few topics, and he had plenty to say about the Wii. Factor 5's GameCube games were the highest performing titles on any console last generation: their title Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike had the highest polygon count of any last-gen game, was fully bump-mapped, and still ran at 60 frames per second. So, given the similarity to GameCube architecture the Wii features, Eggebrecht's take on the console will be an educated one. Most people have been underwhelmed by the current crop of Wii games' graphics and when asked if he thought developers were being sloppy, Eggebrecht wholeheartedly agreed.

"Yes. I'm so disappointed knowing exactly what the Wii can do, and I still think nobody knows it better than we [do]," he said. He went on with specifics relating to the GameCube and Wii's advanced hardware features: "They all have finally figured out, five years into the hardware's life cycle, how to do at least basic shaders and a rim light, but that's what everybody does. But I still don't see enough bump and normal-mapping, if any. I still don't see enough post effects, although you would have insane fill-rates with Wii." He said he compared last-gen'sRebel Strike to current Wii games, and said "Why isn't anybody else doing this on Wii? I am at a loss. I really am."

So will he right this wrong by developing a game for it to show what it's really capable of? Not right now it seems: "Right now, we certainly haven't planned anything for the Wii outside of some third parties who have approached us about licensing DivX and MusyX (Factor 5's music tools)". So no for now, but he did suggest it would compliment his company's current choice of platform well: "I love the Wii, absolutely. As I've said many, many times, the perfect combination of consoles to have at home is a PS3 and Wii. Everybody really should have one."

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25 Comments

Marka

5 years ago

All wii devs want to do is cash in on the hype.

Itachi

5 years ago

Marka wrote

All wii devs want to do is cash in on the hype.

I so agree with you, i just think what's going to happen when the hype dies down.

LeonJ

5 years ago

Agreed, Wii games are not even up to Gamecube standards as of yet. I played Rayman the other day and the graphics were awful. I thought it looked like a early Cube game.

Nev

5 years ago

Quote

He said he compared last-gen'sRebel Strike to current Wii games, and said "Why isn't anybody else doing this on Wii? I am at a loss. I really am."

I'm not at a loss. Rebel Strike sucked.

Seriously though, this isn't totally without reason. Nintendo purposely kept the Wii's architecture to a minimum so developers could make games quickly and cheaply. So what do we have? Quick, cheap games. Is anyone surprised?

Realistically though, it may be in Nintendo's best interests to not have the Wii's full power tapped in its first year. If we'd gotten Resident Evil 4 as a launch title for the Cube, everything that followed would have been a disappointment.

It's part of what keeps consoles going for a 5 year cycle without graphical upgrades... the gradual improvement of games as developers get to grips with the hardware. Games are coming that look > GameCube... Sonic and the Secret Rings will probably be the first, then followed by Nintendo's franchises, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime, etc.

What's the rush? A lot of the games are crud, yes. But crud is crud, regardless of polygon count or normal mapping. (See - Sonic the Hedgehog 360).

thebigm

5 years ago

He does make the point that I was thinking all the time, Wii developers are not using all of the Wii and to it's full potential. Like Nev said however, games should be released that do look improved over the Cube best games.

renegadesx

5 years ago

leonmc wrote

Agreed, Wii games are not even up to Gamecube standards as of yet. I played Rayman the other day and the graphics were awful. I thought it looked like a early Cube game.

All of Ubisofts titles look like cube games, Rayman it sort of suites it for, everything else its like they are not even trying. Look at Zelda, look at its art, thats how you make visually appealing games without the need for raw grunt

dc0079

5 years ago

The problem is not many developer actually developed on the gamecube before, so they've to start from scratch.

Joseph

5 years ago

Super Mario Galaxy is by far one of the most impressive Wii titles graphically I've seen so far. Just by how smooth and rich everything is. I say to Mr Eggebrecht wait a year or two.

Cerebral

5 years ago

He's not wrong. Factor 5's Gamecube LAUNCH title - Rogue Leader looks better than anything on the Wii at the moment. That's saying something.

?oe?oe

5 years ago

It doesn't help when they port PS2 games. No effort at all.

xstatc

5 years ago

I totally agree with Eggebrecht comments. I know the Wii is not all about graphics, but how do you expect people to belive that the Wii is more powerful than a GameCube if they keep making games that dpn't push the limits of the Wii?

Crestfallen

5 years ago

The question is, why are Wii developers "sloppy"

Karai Pantsu

5 years ago

Because at launch you can pump out any old slop and people will lap it up due to there being a lack of titles. See: Any console launch to date.

People have such short memories, the same things were said at the 360 launch and now look at the quality we're getting. Just have some patience.

Gamesta

5 years ago

I don't see what the problem is.The graphics aren't supposed to be amazing so why should anyone care about what the graphics look like?

Now if PS3 came out with graphics that were crap that would be a different story seeing as the PS3 is supposed to have the best graphics.

People shouldn't care what the graphics of current Wii games are.The problem I find with the Wii at the moment is that most of the games are just ports.How come people complained when the PSP came out about how most of the games were just ports but now that Nintendo is doing the same thing it's fine?

Sin Ogaris

5 years ago

The reason why graphics are being discussed is because it's clear that developers are half arsing things. If the XBox 360 were released and all the developers banged out games that looked better than last gen but only marginably people would be ropable because they would be damn sure the systems could handle things better than that. It's the same with the Wii, people just want to know what the thing is capable of, third party developers aren't giving us that information.

realitybites

5 years ago

crestfallen12 wrote

The question is, why are Wii developers "sloppy"

Probably because the payback (i.e. profit) from Nintendo home console games is not very good.

Most third party developers do "just" enough because historically only first party titles sell extremely well on Nintendo home consoles since the SNES era.

And from what I can see history is still repeating with the Wii. Need more time to establish that trend though. Red Steel sold well but I suspect there was a degree of disappointment with the visuals. It came and went quick.

RE4 and Starfox on the GC look great so I find it hard to believe all developers are sloppy. Those two are MIA on the Wii for different reasons.

Ports are always lazy because your developing to the lowest common denominator. In this case the PS2. I agree ports will NOT help Wii long term. If I can get the same game on the PS2 why bother.

First generation titles always look a bit iffy. Although the developers should have had plenty of practice with the GC. Which may be the reason they are re-using old libraries and they are dumbing it down.

If Mario Galaxy can look a whole bunch better thats good for Wii owners but Mario titles aren't meant to be "realistic" more cartoonish so its hard to compare that with titles like Red Steel and CoD 3.

Crestfallen

5 years ago

Gamesta wrote

How come people complained when the PSP came out about how most of the games were just ports but now that Nintendo is doing the same thing it's fine?

do you have to ask?

---------------------------------

realitybites speaks the truth, very good post.

anyway its quite shameful that what is being released as new hardware has launch titles being outdone by the launch titles of a 5 year old console.

Developers are lacking (for reasons expressed by realitybites) but still the launch titles of the PS3 and 360 are light years ahead of the PS2 and Xbox.

DancesInUnderwear

5 years ago

Gamesta wrote

How come people complained when the PSP came out about how most of the games were just ports but now that Nintendo is doing the same thing it's fine?

Uh, what? Every man and his dog is jumping on the 'Wii has no good games other than Zelda' bandwagon. Okay, every man and dog that aren't Nintendo fanboys, but still...

As a side note, at what point did accusing everything of being Nintendo biased replace Sony is d00med!!11!1 as the forum goers weapon of choice?

?oe?oe

5 years ago

If Capcom just use the RE4 engine for RE:UC with no graphical improvements then we have a problem. RE4 still looks great even when compared to some 360/PS3 titles. I don't know why developers aren't using the power of the Wii(or even GCN) when Wii is just an extended processor of the Cube. It's in the same 'line'.

Karai Pantsu

5 years ago

DancesInUnderwear wrote

As a side note, at what point did accusing everything of being Nintendo biased replace Sony is d00med!!11!1 as the forum goers weapon of choice?

Since Nintendo news has been more frequent than Sony news, I believe...

renegadesx

5 years ago

Gamesta wrote

The problem is Wii graphics are meant to look good, not amazing but good.

If a game is graphically inferior on purpose (Warioware, Rayman) thats one thing but using terrible graphics of ported PS2 titles that were not that good in the first place thinking it will sell because "oh but but but the graphics dont matter on the Wii" is just plain stupidity, making them look like late cube titles, or better is what you should aim for

And if you do not want to make it pushing pixles, change the art style

Show off the positives, hide the negatives, most 3rd parties are not adhearing to that and making the Wii look like an inferior machine. When Nintendo starts making games looking good (Galaxy, Corruption etc) developers will consider it just like the cube and abandon it saying how unfair it is. They are just being lazy

Crestfallen

5 years ago

joejoe wrote

I think you meant to say "then we don't have a problem"

The point is, are you really content for the new machine you just bought to only be able to play games on par with those released for a 5 year old console?

And I'm not sure if you have a 360, but saying that RE4 has better graphics than any 360 game is quite debateable.

?oe?oe

5 years ago

crestfallen12 wrote

joejoe wrote

Nah we would have a problem, since Capcom made one of the best looking games of last gen, they have to step it up. They set the bar, they raise it. If it's the same graphical quality of RE4 I'll still be happy, but it shows that they aren't using that little bit more of extra power.

I said RE4 still looks great compared to some of 360's games, I didn't say it was better.

Crestfallen

5 years ago

joe joe wrote

yeah, I agree.

I wonder if that extra power will make any kind of descirnable difference. It isn't looking good so far, but I guess Wii owners already knew that before they bought it.

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