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Will the Wii Work?
Today BusinessWeek is running an article asking Will Nintendo's Wii Strategy Score? With the Tokyo Game Show this week, they run down the trials facing Nintendo's little-box-that-could both here in the States, and in Japan. From the article: "Few expect truly dedicated gamers to choose the Wii over the PS3 or Xbox. And ultimately, the advantage may go to Sony. Yuta Sakurai, an analyst at Nomura Securities in Tokyo, expects the PS3 to sell 71 million units by 2011, compared with 40 million units for the Wii. Microsoft, meanwhile, is planning a stripped-down version of the Xbox without a hard-disk drive and other accessories that will cost about $250 in Japan, where the U.S. software maker has endured disappointing results."
...yet I've only ever heard bad news about the PS3. The Wii is the first console I've ever been excited about, simply because it's meant for my gaming style: multiplayer, social fun.
Nintendo is a staple of life for many gamers. Mario and Zelda are characters they grew up with. Even if it wasn't for the innovative controller, the low price point alone almost guarantees that many gamers will pick it up somewhere along the line.
The fact that Nintendo's console is selling for a profit also means that they don't have to sell a bunch of game titles to get into the black -- if a person never buys another product from Nintendo after the console purchase, they've already made money.
and more: "Though the Wii doesn't boast all the features and processing firepower of its rivals, Nintendo believes its easy-to-use controller will give it an edge."
And finally: "There's also a danger that the Wii could cannibalize sales of the DS, which has been a smash hit with casual gamers thanks to its user-friendly design and titles..."
Acording to Wikipedia, total sales of the DS and DS Lite are over 26 million world wide. This is equal to their Gamecube sales and that has been out since 01. I'd say we can call the DS and DS Lite both successful. Seeing as sales for the DS Lite are still hot, I don't expcect that comined number to sit under 30 million for long. The author is full of it, or a fanboy. He obviously hasn't done a lot of research. Nintendo is no longer hoping that the DS will appeal to anyone. Now they know.
As far as the Wii goes, I know plenty of people who wouldn't buy a Gamecube because of its lack of 3rd parties. Though I own many games that are frequently requeseted when we get together like Mario Kart and even Robotech Battlecry. Well, ever one of these people is positively raving about how much they want the Wii. We'll see what they (and I) think after release. But I haven't heard one person say they don't want it. Reasons? Cheap, looks like fun, and "My [significant other] actually wants one too."
Nintendo won't have a problem with this gen.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Wrong. The nunchuk is included with the base system, so everyone will have at least one.
Well Squeenix very recently refocused it's handheld strategy due to FF3/DS: they tried to boss nintendo around so that they'll have a big batch of DS Lites ready fearing that low DS availability would cripple FF3 sales.
They readied themselves for sales of 300.000 on the first week...
FF3 sold 330.000 copies on the first day, the whole japan was out of stock within 4 days (with an initial shipment of 500.000).
The next week or so, squeenix announced 3 games in the making for NDS.
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
You mean like Singstar or the host of eyetoy games for the Playstation 2. How do you play those with a standard controller again?
This is entirely inaccurate. They were demonstrating tools at GDC for this, and various vendors have engines already available. Also recall that the PS2 really was bare metal on release; it remains the most difficult of the last generation, and yet it was the top seller with the most games. And the PS3 is said to be very familiar to those who worked on the PS2, so...
Yeah yeah, it's the PS2 all over again.
Are you talking about HDMI? They're under $10. Which cables did you mean?
Well, since the Blu-Ray DURABIS2 can withstand steel wool, you'd really have to be mistreating that disc.
And XBOX Live! was going to kill the PS2.
The 360 is in the realm of FPS's and sports games, just like the original XBOX. Contrary to popular opinion, frat boys who play Halo are not hardcore gamers. They're casual gamers. Hardcore gamers are the ones that play all the games, especially the obscure and oldschool ones. They import the original before it comes out locally. They might have an XBOX, but only because they're completionists, not because having an XBOX makes them hardcore.
That is, you're a closet fanboy who has been waiting all these years to come out. Yeah, I grew up with Nintendo too, and read the magazines, saw the shows and movies, and didn't think much of anything else (Sega what? Sony who?). That said, "QUALITY PRODUCT" is premature, "THIRD PARTY SUPPORT" is hopeful, and "INNOVATIVE" is hype. Do you love your Wii? Is it bad?
Actually, the virtual console launch list is only 26 games. 26 games I've played, too. This is ni
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage