“Graphics aside,” it begins, the Wii will finish off 2008 “with a roar that includes features once only thought possible on the PS3 and Xbox 360.” So says a GamePro article. The big reason for this article is highlighting that the recently announced “Call of Duty: World at War” will also be available on the Wii. Exciting? Yes – but is that suggesting that there is some sort of magical “feature” of the Wii, allowing this to happen? No, it just means the developers are willing to take the time to produce lower quality models and textures to port the game to the Wii.
The Wii is, indeed, expanding it’s online support, with more and more multiplayer games (the future CoD:WaW included) slated for release on the system. And yes, even future access to downloadable song packs for games like Guitar Hero World Tour (using the in-game store) are in the works, other DLC for Wii-Ware games, all of this is great news for the Wii.
But is all of this showing that the Wii is really starting to come up to par with the “features” of the other consoles? It all sounds like some heavily dedicated developers not wanting to miss out on a large install-base.
For the Wii to truly “start to match” the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, they are going to need an easier way to manage your contacts and friends, real time voice communication, and a host of other features that Nintendo themselves has no interest in adding to this generation of their product.