Infinity Ward Overlooking The Wii

Recently Develop had an interview with Infinity Ward about their newest game that is about to release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This is a sequel to an immensely popular game (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare) that sold well and scored critically well, and until recently, was absent on the Wii. With the announcement of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex, Treyarch will be porting CoD:Modern Warfare to Wii owners. In their interview Develop asked Infinity Ward if they would ever develop the Wii version for CoD:Modern Warfare 2. How they responded may not be exciting news for Wii owners.

The question was posed to Infinity Ward, "What needs to happen before you consider [developing for] Wii," and their response was an interesting one. Infinity Ward said, "If we felt like we could deliver the cinematic experience we were going for on other platforms, then we would gladly move to that platform. Right now, we don't think the Wii can deliver the exact experience that we’re doing." While Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling was very careful about wording it as not to say 'the Wii can't handle our game', it certainly seems to be what he's saying.

This is reminiscent of other video game powerhouses snubbing the Wii for similar reasons. When asked if Resident Evil 5 would find its way onto the Wii, one of the game's producers, Masachika Kawata, said the Wii couldn't even handle the game's loading screen. Then of course there was Epic Games Vice President Mark Rein who didn't feel it was economically feasible to develop for the Wii, because " unless you're going to sell your engine to Nintendo, you're going for scraps on that platform."

Now nobody is making the argument that the Wii can go toe-to-toe with the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 from a graphical standpoint, but does that really mean it lacks the potential for a "cinematic experience?"