Peter Molyneux, who is essnetially video gaming's equivalent of P.T. Barnum, is at it again. No, not making promises he can't keep, via games that under deliver, but doing that other thing he does best. And that's make outlandish statements, regardless of how ridiculous they make him look.
In an interview with IGN, Molyneux was asked what he thought of the Wii U. And his response:
"I struggle to see anything amazing coming out of Nintendo. There are a few, 'Oh, that’s smart,' but there’s nothing that makes me rush out as a consumer to buy the new device. I’ll give you a great example of how tech should be used. It’s what Nintendo did with the Wii when it first came out. They introduced motion control. They were one of the first companies to introduce motion control and they had a fantastic Wii Sports Game. As soon as I picked up the controller and started waving it around, I got it. I already understood it. But I’m not sure there’s a same sort of application out there for Wii U. I think to myself, 'Well, what’s the reason to get it?' Do you see what I mean?"
Truth be told, what he's saying is a sentiment shared by many. Moving on, when talking about how the Wii U addresses the concept of games run on both a small screen in your hands, and much bigger one, like your television in the middle of the living room:
"When you’re designing a game for a plasma screen you’ve got to really flash the corners of the screen. You’ve got to get movement in, otherwise people don’t notice anything in the corners. Getting people to move their eyes from the screen down to their laps is incredibly hard. There has to be some huge motivational thing like the words coming up, 'Look at your GamePad now.' If you’re going to do that, from a design perspective that sounds a bit clumsy and complex."
Again, Molyneux has a good point, but in this case, he might be a tad bit too harsh since most of us have really gotten a chance to play around with the thing for any real length of time. Unless Nintendo sent him a console with all the games, and has played them front and back, enough to know that every game has such a protocol for players.
But the most important thing is to know who is talking here. Other than designing Populous, Magic Carpet, and Fable, his output in recent years has been exceptionally underwhelming. And at the moment, he's currently riding the high off a Curiosity, an iOS app that asks everyone to tap a cube to see what's inside. That's it. And it doesn't even work, due to server issues.
Though a famous game personality having strong opinions about Nintnedo's new system will always make the news. Something even Molyneux is wise enough to know.
