Wii sports games still lagging behind

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 November, 2008

Peter Moore expects it to take a while.

EA Sports boss and correct football team supporter Peter Moore has said that his Wii games struggle because people are happy with Wii Sports - and that licensed sports games for Wii will lag behind other formats for some time.

"The challenge we face," Moore explained during a chat with MTV Multiplayer, "is that that consumer gets Wii Sports right out of the box and that's a sports experience that's good enough for a lot of people."

Earlier this year Moore announced the All-Play range for Wii, which does more to make the company's sports games accessible and incorporate Wii-specific features like Miis and Jamie Redknapp.

Early examples include Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play, which has sold loads in the US, and caught our attention despite "the slightly opaque nuances of control needed to hit the medium shots and putt", as we put it. We're so wordy.

Moore told MTV that sales are alright - especially for Tiger - but that Wii owners will be given even more incentive to look up All-Play next year, and not just hardcore gamers who also own a Wii, although he's pleased that some of them have bought into All-Play already.

"As you well know, I was the proponent of the Wii60 in the early days. I think there's going to be a very strong multi-console ownership in homes. And I think that's bearing out," he said.

When it comes to the Wii Sports-loving casual brigade, though, "We know what we were doing wrong." Presumably we'll find out what that was and how it's been tackled when Moore and friends introduce us to the next round of All-Play games next year.

"The bottom line is we knew what we weren't doing right. We've corrected that. We're seeing progress. Is it easy? No. Will we ever see attach rates for authentic sports games, for licensed sports games, on the Wii to the same we see on 360 or PS3? Probably not in this cycle. Are we going to see continued growth of both? Absolutely."

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (8) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    Never thought about it, but it's true I'd never buy a Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf or Boxing game for my Wii because I've got Wii Sports, so he has a point.

  • ED209 #2 3 years ago

    Damn right!

    I refuse to buy a golf game on the Wii because I know it's going to have it's own control system, just so that it is different from Wii sports. But the controls on Wii Sports golf are perfect, and anything else wouldn't be.

  • sneetch #3 3 years ago

    @ED209
    Surely all golf games on the Wii should control pretty much like golf?

    Now, I thoroughly suck at golf - Wii Sports or regular - I'm all over the place, a menace to man, beast, tree and shrub but my brother, who actually plays golf well, consistently makes excellent shots while I'm out hunting for water or trees so I can't fault the controls there, he says they're pretty good and who am I to gainsay him.

    The only problem he has with the game is the limited course selection so he picked up Tiger Woods.

  • Cadence #4 3 years ago

    I can't stand people who pose their own questions then answer them.

  • thiswaynow #5 3 years ago

    > I can't stand people who pose their own questions then answer them.

    Do I care about that? No.

  • Dan234 #6 3 years ago

    In reviewing the box art of new game releases every week, we noticed that every EA Sports “All-Play” cover for the Wii features a smiling athlete.

    It’s even more noticeable if you compare them to the covers of the same titles released on other platforms.

    When we sat down with EA Sports chief Peter Moore last week, we asked him why there are grinning athletes on the box art of their Wii-only sports titles.

    “It was something I wanted,” Moore said. “Brett Favre was the best example. The intensity for Favre on the [non-Wii 'Madden 09'] cover — for me, it didn’t feel right for the experience I knew we were developing on Wii. So I said to the team everybody should smile on the Wii package. It embodies the experience. If you played ‘Madden’ on the Wii and you’re playing with guys with the heads the size of five watermelons, it’s hard not to smile. We wanted to be able to deliver that experience on the packaging.”

    MTV Multiplayer
    Edited by 1 at 26/11/08 @ 13:35

  • knocker #7 3 years ago

    Would I buy enhanced versions of wii sports with online (and possibly motion plus) support ?

    Probably.

  • YobRenoops #8 3 years ago

    Because they're gash?