Slashdot Mirror
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."
Wii isn't targetted at "dedicated" gamers - it's for casual gamers or people who haven't tried gaming before. It might be a shot in the arm for the console industry as a whole, in fact. Heck, I haven't owned a console since the NES, and I'm thinking of getting a Wii ... I just wish they'd called it the Revolution instead :)
expects the PS3 to sell 71 million units by 2011, compared with 40 million units for the Wii
As everyone knows the PS3 will be sold at a loss throughout most of its lifetime, while the Wii will be at an unknown profit through its lifetime. I'd say thats pretty successful if they sell anywhere in that area. Even if they only have $1 profit per console thats a lot more profit than -xx million.
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
...since Wii-glorifying articles.
We're seeing quite a few articles in that style right now, and I predict we'll see several more before the Wii launches. Creating controversy is an easy way to get hits. And controversy is easily generated by suggesting that a point that was generally considered to be long-established ("THE WII WILL BE THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD!!!") may be incorrect ("...but will it work in the marketplace?!").
> Few expect truly dedicated gamers to choose the Wii over the PS3 or Xbox. And ultimately, the advantage may go to Sony.
The very point of Nintendo's strategy is that the truly dedicated gamer won't be their core audience and in fact only a small fragment of their audience. This seems like a non-issue to me.
Basilisk Digital
...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.
I'm a 23 year old PC gamer. The only consoles I own are PS1, SNES, and NES. I do all my gaming on my PC (Wintel). My room mate got a PS2, which I never play, and while the 360 looks killer, I won't buy it for the price.
A $250 Wii? HELL YES! The price point alone is what does it for me. That and the new controller just makes it a lot more interesting then the same old systems with new graphics.
I think this will work really well for them. This will be the christmas present to buy for years to come.
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...
I'm a PC gammer. I've been a PC gammer for almost 20 years now. And I have never owned a gaming console.
That said, the Wii is the first console I've actually considered buying. If the first 6 months look good for it, and someone makes a light-saber game that works with the Wii-mote, I just might buy my very first console.
What I am not interested in is a $3,000 system, which is what the PS3 or XBox is to me. $400-600 for the console. $1,4000-1,800 to replace my 48" projection with a similar sized HD projection. $200 for a few games and a controller, and $200 for new HD or Blue ray movies to take advantage of the HD tv and player.
For $250 I can hit the ground running with the Wii. Another $200 for a few games and a controller and I'll be pretty set for entertainment for the year.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Somewhere along the line "dedicated gamer" seems to have been hijacked (by the media presumably?) to mean something like "compulsive graphics whore who will brainlessly follow whatever the newest trend is." Maybe it happened back when FPSs became the big thing when every "dedicated gamer" seemed to be upgrading their graphics card every other week in order to be able to play the latest game. Regardless of when it came about however i don't think that interpretation has ever fit me, and i like to consider myself a dedicated gamer, though perhaps one who has somewhat lapsed in recent years as i've had to learn how to balance gaming, a social life and a career. There may may be a few people out there that fit that negative stereotype but i really hope that the gamers who are actually _dedicated_ to their hobby are actually intelligent and thoughtfull people who will put more thought into their purchasing decisions than that. But perhaps i'm beeing hopelessly optimistic.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I guarantee you that I'm a more "dedicated" gamer than 99% of the people out there. I've been playing all my life, played almost every classic game and every sleeper hit in some form or another. I've played games on every platform, and I've played multiplayer games on competitive levels. I've played almost every MMOG in existence to some extent. Next month I'm joining one of the world's best game developers to work on what will be some of the next few years' biggest games.
;P Just tired of being called a lesser gamer.
AND I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK ABOUT THE GRAPHICS ARMS RACE!! I WANT INNOVATION, NEW EXPERIENCES, QUALITY GAME DESIGN, AND HAVE A SHITLOAD OF FUN ALONG WITH IT!! THAT is why I can't fucking wait for the Wii to come out. It may not be the second coming, but the DS has proven to me that Nintendo means it when they're going for fun over graphics power. And if WoW, HL2, RE4, Shadow of the Colossus, and other games like them have taught us anything it's that you don't need the ridiculous power to have wonderful graphics.
So all those people saying "Wii won't sell to 'true' or 'hardcore' gamers" or "Wii is for casual gamers, non-gamers, and families only"...you can all fuck off. You wanna prove you're more hardcore than me? Let's hop in a Halo PC or Tribes: Vengeance server and I'll show you what a real gamer plays like.
And no I'm not bitter
From 3 to 1, one being top system:
Number 3 - PS3: The theoretical processing power in their 8 cells is fantastic. I've had it explained to me a few times by my friends (who also happen to be computer engineers), and it sounds like, if done correctly, *for the correct game*, it can be a real thing of beauty. 8 mini processors working in parrellel sounds great! However, if you know something about programming, you know that memory dependence is pretty important. For instance, if you do a simple loop, you have various operations dependent on one or two iterators. Let's say you assign these iterators to its own processor (yeah, stupid, but it's an example, k?) then that processor will be INACTIVE for LONG periods of time while another processor does it's thing. So in the most optimal circumstances, the cell technology is amazing, but in it's least optimal, you may as well be using a 386.
Now the problem isn't that the cell power can be optimized, it's just that there's NO TOOLS TO DO SO AT THIS TIME. That's right, it's up to DEVELOPERS to optimize their own code, and I'm going to be honest, the learning curve and time that's going to be spent doing so is just not going to help this system.
There's LOADS of other problems, too. Lack of units. High unit cost. Expensive cables that (opps!) aren't included. The fragility of the Blue Ray CRC (it's so dense that one tiny scratch can destroy an entire disc because it stops the error correction from even being able to do its job). And the lack of any real online system to be demonstrated.
No question, this complete LOSER this round is PS3. It's time to move Sony next to Sega at the E3 conference. I bet those two will have lots to talk about.
Number 2 - Xbox360: The Xbox is in a realm of its own. It focuses on games that are not innovative, but instead improves ever so slightly on older paradigms. In this, those "hardcore" gamers who enjoy playing the best shooters on a *controller* will enjoy the XBox (yes, I know they're coming out with new controls). Bloodlust, violence, action, and adrenaline are all emphasized in the XBox gaming system. Plus, it has a well established community of online players. Nothing new, nothing impressive, nothing to write home about, but very very consistent. Will not reach a wide interest, but reaches out to a market that is quite full of young angry males. And by quite full, I mean full enough to build an entire business off of them.
Number 1 - Wii: This is not because I was raised on Nintendo. It's not because I owned the Mario/Zelda Cerial, subscribed to Nintendo power throughout the 90's, got up early as a kid to watch Captain N and the Super Mario World TV shows, owned mario comic books, and even paid to see that crappy Mario Bros. Movie. I had all but abandoned that company after my two fav gaming companies, Squaresoft and Capcom, left Nintendo. I'm supporting Nintendo because after ALLLLLL these years of CRAP... I'm amazed to find a company that puts out a QUALITY PRODUCT, who gets THIRD PARTY SUPPORT for this product, who INNOVATES the market using this product, who will successfully INTEGRATE other products into this product, and who has made this ANGRY YOUNG MALE feel like a DOE EYED BOY again. Part of me wants to ask Santa for this machine just to relive the feeling of not being able to sleep at night, waking my parents up to go around the Christmas tree in my footies to open the biggest box first and show a level of enthusiasm that only a kid on Christmas day could muster at 4am.
Where to start? Old games. All of them. Downloadable (small price, price I'm willing to freaking pay). Eventual online play. Wifi. Wii controller. The most amazing Zelda game to date. DS connectivity. Reasonable price range. Company profit. Innovative games like Mario Galaxy. The return of third party support. And the list goes on and on and on and on.
Yeah, hey, this guy is clearly out of touch with what it means to be a gamer if he thinks that people are all about the PS3. In fact, fire this man. He's a bad reporter.
Finder of the any key.
Wii. Wiimote. Lucas Arts. Jedi. Lightsaber. Game.
It's coming. And it will mean Wii will be the platform to beat. The Lucasfilm presentation at Comic-Con showed some of the other aspects of coming Lucas Arts games, like the Euphoria system which allows for truly unpredictable NPCs, and introduces a little bit of volition in the Player Character as well. The demo only made sense when you thought of it in the context of the Wii and its Wiimote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjlFTihRwAk
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
You are slightly off-base on two points. First, all Wii owners will have at least one nunchuk. It is included in the box. If they need more, they will buy more. Secondly, and more importantly, this is better than a third-party controller in the fact that it is a first-party controller that is included with the system. They are two different creatures. Dev's will be far more inclined (probably even required) to program for the Wiimote given the very fact that it comes with every system and is core to the concept.
Will there be crappy implementations tossed-off by barely competent developers? My Magic 8 Ball says, "Outcome likely." Will there be plenty of games that use it flawlessly and in ways that we have yet to consider? Let's ask the 8 Ball again, "Definitely Yes." Will playing with the Wii become a novelty or part of future interface schemes? "Outcome hazy. Ask again later."
Quit being such a troll, go enjoy your X-Box, and bugger off while others (like me) try the Wii. If it catches on, you'll either be playing with one yourself soon enough, or you'll be using some bastardization of the concept from MS or Sony. Hell, Sony already tried to borrow the idea before the full info was out and they're already appearing half-assed... if not quarter-assed.
Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.