Digging for Gold

Shovelware will destroy the casual market and it'll take the innovation that the developers claim to embrace with it.

It will you know. Just look at the amount of budget games littering the Wii section of every online and high street store. Many of these games have production values so low that absolute zero will feel positively cosy to them. Guilty “Developers", a word I'm reluctantly using to describe the creators of the Wii's dross, release game after game hoping that one or two will sell well enough to make a profit and cover the costs of the games that didn't break even. With so many Wii games out there this is a business plan that numerous companies are working to. But for how long will it work?

The number of Wii games released in the final quarter of 2008 was so large that game magazines and even internet review sites like CVG, Gamespot and IGN struggled to keep up. It proved impossible to review every game and so many appeared on the shelves without judgement. Sometimes review copies aren't sent to the media until the launch of a game has passed, we all know why that is, but the problem here is that there simply isn't enough time to play test all the releases. So the crap games slip inconspicuously onto the shelves. Along comes Casual Gamer A, picks up the case of Shovel ware 2000, reads the back and then hands over their cash.

Shovelware isn't solely down to large developers, although all us Wii owners have a special place in our hearts for Ubisoft. There are numerous smaller companies out to make some fast cash developing games quickly on the Wii's straightforward architecture. Making matters worse is that not only do the crap games surreptitiously appear but so do good ones.

One of the truly sad things about all the shovelware is that it makes finding that diamond in the rough so much harder. Not only do the crap games not get reviewed but some of the good ones, maybe even great ones, won't either. So they'll pass us by completely unnoticed. And the developer of this glittering yet invisible gem then has to run for their livelihoods chased by a very bad men from those very bad banks that don't pass on the interest rate cuts.

If you're thinking this is a rant or perhaps just a little far fetched it's worth remembering the 8 bit days of computing when there were so many releases it was utterly impossible to keep up. Further back than that the Atari 2600, a console close to my heart, died because of shovelware. It drowned beneath a sea of unplayed black plastic cartridges. Its soul is probably buried next to all those ET cartridges in New Mexico.

Ok, so it's not possible for a Wii game to be coded by one person in their bedroom over the weekend but it is possible to churn out games every few months. There are a lot of companies doing just that and it's infinitely cheaper than trying to produce the next Mario Galaxy or World at War or No More Heroes.

People that have enjoyed gaming for many years already know what the industry is like and I, like lots of you, will check out what I buy as much as possible before I hand over any cash. The uninformed, casual gamer will often just trust the game they’ve picked off the shelf. Eventually though these people will realise they're being duped and they'll walk off into the distance. Well into the past anyway. They'll probably go back to playing monopoly or watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Gordon Ramsay curse the night away.

What of the casual gamers that do stick around? Two things. One, hopefully they'll start to research their purchases. If official reviews aren't available hopefully a good average score submitted by readers will be and they'll make considered purchases. Incidentally, I am currently encouraging my brother to at least flick though the pages of a game magazine if not to trawl the net for info on his games. He is indeed a new generation game player who purchased such games as GT Pro and Carnival Funfair. Two, they'll be doing exactly the same as the casual gamers that walked away. Only they'll be doing it on their Wii's. Until production values start to thaw.

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* Shovel not included.