The Conduit devs say game will appeal to casual gamers, Wii wasn’t considered a next-gen system initially

The Conduit is currently one of the most anticipated hardcore Wii games that will be releasing over the next few months. Though, while that is true, core gamers might not be the only group that will be interested in picking up the game. Lead designer Rob Nicholls of High Voltage Software believes that The Conduit “will appeal to quite a few casual players.”

“Naturally, while we would love it if it happened, we don’t actually expect a lot of grandparents to be running and gunning with you. However, given the ease of our controls, the quality of our graphics, and the pleasing nature of our gameplay… we think “The Conduit” will appeal to quite a few casual players as well as the hardcore crowd.”

Both Nicholls and High Voltage CEO Kerry Ganofsky also attempted to answer why the Wii lacks hardcore games.

“I think some developers and publishers were scared by the initial batch of games that were released on the Wii. It was hard to convince anyone that there even was a core market, let alone one that would support original games. Early on we asked ourselves, ‘What kind of game do we want to play on the Wii?’ and “What do we think other Wii gamers really want?” The answer to those questions and many more was ‘The Conduit.'”

“Initially, we think it was because publishers and developers didn’t really consider the Wii to be a ‘next-gen’ platform. It doesn’t possess the same memory and processing power of an Xbox 360 or PS3, so it was written off as not being able to handle the type of games that hardcore gamers would want. Then the Wii’s motion controls turned out to be surprisingly popular with casual gamers and folk who typically didn’t play video games, such as grandparents. Publishers latched onto this new market and were able to put out a number of inexpensive casual games that made them money. But all of this left the hardcore market behind and by the tremendous online response we’ve had to ‘The Conduit,’ a hardcore market exists.”