Why the Oblivion Engine for Wii is a bigger deal than you make think
13 09 07 - 10:33 Today, Emergent announced a version of the Gamebryo Engine for the Wii. With little fanfare.What do you consider a 'big announcement'. Halo 4? GTA 5? Wetrix 2? Most people think just that way - a sequel to a game or franchise that they enjoy. The reason is the promise of a good game, because it's based on concepts that already work. Because the dev team have a solid starting point as far as concept, story, control, character... there's a better chance of a game being good, because they have a solid start in some departments.
It's being overlooked, though, that this announcement is even more exciting than if Rockstar had announced GTA 5 for the Wii...
The same way a game developer working on a sequel has a leg up because they have a starting point, having good middlewear (such as Gamebryo) is a huge starting point for new games. Middleware is pretty much used in every retail product these days. The only people who don't regularly use middleware are companies who are, partially, in the business of making middleware. Id Software is selling the Doom3 engine to other developers as much as they're selling the game to gamers. A large portion of their revenue is made from licensing the engine. The same is true of the Unreal engine (just look at how many 360 games use this engine). Valve makes a good deal of bank from the Half-life 2 engine... the list goes on. Everyone else, though, uses an established engine as middleware.
The reason this is exciting is Gamebryo is an established game engine - it's not exciting because there may or may not be a port of Oblivion for the Wii. It's exciting because now other developers have a solid leg up, a solid starting point for creating new titles. A wellspring of Wii games can come forth because of this engine. The ability for developers to produce quality content with less ramp up time has just increased.
It's not a magic bullet, but it could be the start of seeing an influx of new games - the cost of admission for development has just been adjusted in favor of the gamer.
It's a win. A definite win.
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