It's innovative but low-tech; it's accessible for gamers, but difficult to nail from a game design perspective; it has a large install base, but one that has proven tough for third-parties to crack.
Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich asks again: If your videogame-illiterate (and ficticious) Aunt Sheila walked into a store and bought you a Wii game, what are the chances that it would be a quality title?
From the Wii's launch through 2008, four percent of Wii games, or 12 games, have rated over 85 percent on average. Fifty-four percent of Wii games, or 155 titles, have rated below 65 percent. This rate compares less favorably to the Xbox 360's and PS3's libraries, which laid claim to 48 and 36 85 percent-plus games, respectively.
There may be a few explanations for the Wii's lower marks. First, the hardware is fundamentally more accessible for game makers. It lowers the barrier for game development, but at the same time allows for more lower-quality games to crowd the shelves, typically from studios looking to make a quick buck on the back of the Wii's wild success. This dilutes the library.
Secondly, developers, even the ones with strong track records, have had a considerable learning curve in Wii development. Sure, programming a game isn't as complicated as the Xbox 360 or PS3, but dialing in strong game mechanics that play to the Wii Remote's motion-sensing features and resonate with the Wii's audience (and game reviewers) is difficult. Even Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime recently suggested that third parties don't quite "get it" when it comes to Wii development. They didn't "get" the DS when it first came out, but they caught on, eventually.
Lastly, the old chestnut of whether or not game reviews really matter is perhaps most interesting when talking about a product like the Wii and its software. This is essentially a casual-focused device aimed at a wide demographic, many of whom wouldn't know the difference between Edge the magazine and The Edge from U2.
How does EEDAR handle review scores?
Review scores are one of the ways that the videogame industry judges the success of game titles. While EEDAR does not issue game reviews itself, it does factor review scores into many of its analysis and informational services. The EEDAR review score is a composite score, based on critic reviews from various videogame magazines and websites. This composite score allows EEDAR to show critical consensus at a glance.
EEDAR review scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating superior and lower scores indicating less favorable critic reviews. EEDAR converts all review scores to a 100 point score. Examples of this are:
- Games on a 10 point scale (Example: A game with a rating of 8/10 is converted to an 8)
- Games on a 10 + decimal point score (Example: A game with a rating of 8.2/10 is converted to an 8)
- Games on a 4 or 5 point scale, with the possibility of a decimal point (Example: A game with a rating of 4.5 is converted to a 90)
- Games with a letter grade (Example: A game with a rating of B+ is converted to an 82 (explanation below)
How are letter grade to number conversions done?
EEDAR does not use the standard scholastic “letter to number” conversion for review scores. For example, with a scholastic system, a B- is the equivalent of an 80, while a D+ is a 68.
With game reviews, using a scholastic “letter to number” conversion results in letter grades being converted to disproportionately high numeric review scores. For example, with games whose numeric review scores are in the 40 to 50 range on a 100 point scale, receiving a D+ on the scholastic scale would give that game a review score of 60, a number 10 to 20 points higher than the other review scores. Similarly, games with review scores of 70 to 80 usually corresponds with letter review scores of B, not C.
The intent is to have the converted point value of letter grades be similar in scope to the numeric review scores received by the game. After examining thousands of review scores, EEDAR uses the following letter to number conversion scale:
| A+ | 100 | C | 58 |
| A | 94 | C- | 52 |
| A- | 88 | D+ | 45 |
| B+ | 82 | D | 38 |
| B | 76 | D- | 31 |
| B- | 70 | F+ | 24 |
| C+ | 64 | F | 17 |
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