Maxis employee and Spore designer Chris Hecker caused quite a stir on Wednesday when he declared "The Wii is a piece of $#&%!" during a GDC-sponsored rant. He said the Wii was nothing more than two GameCubes stuck together with duct tape, and Nintendo didn't treat games as a serious art form. Apparently there was more fallout than Hecker anticipated, as he made a public apology the following afternoon.

Before beginning a talk entitled "Animating a Character You've Never Seen Before," Hecker took a moment to reverse his previous statement. "I do not think the Wii is a piece of $#&%," he said. He explained he was trying to be thought provoking and funny, but that his rant went too far.

He also said Nintendo should be applauded for their efforts in trying to take gaming in new directions. "It's obvious everyone at Nintendo is serious about games. To sweep all that away in order to get a laugh from the audience was unkind and uncool."

Hecker also noted that when he is giving a speech (or rant) he is speaking for himself, and not for Maxis or EA, which owns Maxis. EA has been throwing a lot of support behind the Wii, so it may have put the company in a strange spot when one of its employees publicly denounced Nintendo's new console.

IGN.COM

edited on Mar. 9, 2007 09:47 pm by Batistablr