Bethesda to target mature Wii market this year

No company in the video game sector has been more successful over the past couple of years than Nintendo. They introduced the Wii in late 2006, and while lacking in processing power compared to rival devices such as the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and PlayStation 3 from Sony, the console’s innovative motion-sensing controller grabbed the attention of the masses and has helped it reach a global install base of around 50 million.

Nevertheless, Nintendo still faces some unique challenges in the market – namely that most of its bestselling titles are internally-developed by Nintendo itself (based on popular characters such as Mario or Zelda). While this could be seen as a good thing financially speaking, the company needs more sales from other publishers to ensure the long-term success of its console. Despite this and the fact that recent M-rated titles have been unable to capture much attention from the general public, Bethesda is willing to give the platform a try.

According to a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, the company behind Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion plans to target the market for mature games on the family-friendly console, with at least one big release to be announced later this year. Bethesda believes that even if the game sells to a small percentage of the Wii user base, a small slice of 50 million is still worth their effort.

While the interview doesn’t provide much insight into what their plans are for the Wii, Bethesda did take a slight jab at their competitors by claiming they’re “not going to establish a new range and call it 'My Girly Game Range' or whatever these other companies are doing.”