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Wii Launches, Sells Out Peacefully
porcupine8 writes "Like the Playstation 3, the Nintendo Wii sold out on launch day this weekend. Unlike the PS3, the launch was a peaceful affair with no reports yet of console-related violence in the US. This may be partially due to the fact that Nintendo promises to have a total of four million units in stores by Christmas, with the bulk of those going to North America.
Midnight launch parties on both the east and west coasts ushered the new console in with a bang." Please, if you've managed to snag a Wii yourself, share your opinions below! Update: 11/20 17:25 GMT by Z : A few quick impressions from 24 hours of owning a Wii, and some links on the subject if you Read More.
All I have to say so far is pretty positive. I snagged Rayman Raving Rabbids, Zelda, and (on a lark) Red Steel. I haven't had the heart to play Red Steel yet, but Rayman is a great, quirky mini-game game. I think this format is going to be pretty common for the Wii, and I'm actually looking forward to it. Zelda is ... Zelda. I really, really like it, but if you're getting tired of the same old thing you're going to be disappointed. My big complaint is the glacially slow internet connection. I have never owned a Genesis, and so wanted to snag Sonic for some cheap laughs. Purchasing Wii points took about half an hour, and I never actually managed to download the game (despite having paid for it). I'm hoping that today, with less hammering on the servers, I'll have more luck. Expect a more complete review next week. In the mean time, Chris Kohler at Game|Life has had a Wii since last week, and has some considered opinions on its launch issues, and a bit more specifically on virtual console problems.
That Wii gamers are peace-loving pansies, and PS3 users are bad-ass tough guys.
Therefore PS3 games will be cooler.
-PS3 fanboy, loal x 3
This one nailed it: Console Lines
4Z5TX
And there was me thinking it was just women who suffered from this social problem... :P
I am sure the Wii didn't have a "shortage" either.
At least we Europeans don't have to wait until March for the Wii (like the PS3), but we can start enjoying it as soon as December!
Thank you very much Nintendo, you'll get my money!
I purchased my Wii this morning at a local walmart. they had 2 left I got one.
I wonder about some of the headlines or are they making "assumptions" based on the sales at major metro areas.
I bet there is a walmart or two in smaller towns across america that still has a unit on the shelves.
PS3: 1 unit
The question that's coming in the spring, when the PS3 might actually be available in quantity, is what kind of demand will exist once all the hardcore types already have theirs.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
I thought it would sell out on day 1, but what I worry about as an English man who hasn't pre-ordered is if we'll see stocks pick up before christmas. Ideally it'd be good to be able to buy one off the self after less than a week... but with hearing that the bulk of their stocks are going to North America I'm left a little worried - I might have to preorder after all.
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Be ready for the first Fedora-on-wii videos!
Just kidding, really, but is it feasible? What CPU does it use? Another Power-based from IBM? Has it got lots of ram? And what about the data, how is it fed to the machine?
--
Superb hosting 200GB Storage, 2_TB_ bandwidth, php, mysql, ssh, $7.95
If Nintendo really can have 4 million Wiis in stores by christmas, a late november launch makes sense, but in the case of the PS3, why did they release this late when they know full well they won't even begin to meet demand for christmas?
Christmas buyers aren't your hard core fanboys who will wait in line to buy the thing, so why not launch it in the summer, get the fanboys set, then work hard to produce enough of your system to keep in in stock for christmas buyers (you know, like MS did). Sony made a major error here, in that lots moms and dads buying the system for their kids are going to wait a full year till next christmas to do so. Meanwhile, Nintendo has Wiis in stock, for 1/2 the price, ready to be snatched up by Santa.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem
form of violence. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s= &threadid=2183346
I don't understand the meaning of this word. Resell? Wii? Huh?
Does anyone have raw numbers comparing the Wii and PS3 sales? (Or noone releases these?)
I would be interested in seeing how many times the number of Wii units sold vs PS3, since we know that the Wii supply was plentiful and the PS3 scarce.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
That's because the robbers make roughly 60% less money for each unit of felonious prison sentence.
No way would I go to jail for 10-25 years just to make $250. But, for $600 it starts to look more attractive.
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
But they poked out his eyes with one of those fancy controllers.
It's interesting to note that on Ebay the Wii is going for several hundred $, while the PS3 is going for several thousand $. It's probably because Nintendo has promised to ship 4 million consoles. I wonder where the equilibrium price is for these consoles? Will Nintendo make more money by shipping a lot but charging $250, or will Sony make more by shipping less but charging $600? Is the craze that Sony causes by undersupplying their product worth it in the end?
December 2nd can't come too soon. We had massive camping and disappointed pre-orderers at two local gamestores for the PS3 launch (so I'm told -- $600?! No, sorry, not even for White Knight), but the Wii launch is probably going to be smooth as silk. I say this because I walked into a store which wouldn't even take pre-orders for the PS3 and asked if I could pre-order a Wii and Zelda. "Oh, sure, no problem. Do you want us to give you a call on release day to remind you?" Thats like the definition of non-hysteria.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Wii Bowling so far has been the most popular Wii Sport, with Boxing/Golf also being played often. Bowling's Power Shot training mode, where an additional row of pins is added each frame, leading to a final frame of 91 pins, has been played a lot.
First system I've gotten on Opening Day, thus far I think it was worth it.
SAILING MISHAP
Having stood in line at Best Buy for 16 hours for the Nintendo Wii, it was quite boring. No fights, no one driving by with BB Guns, no one taunting us. There was a big sense of camaraderie and a fun game of soccer in the parking lot.
My real question would be... is anyone else having sensor issues with Red Steel? The cross hair jumps all over the screen and it's not hard for me to make the game spin in one direction constantly while holding the controller in the opposite direction. I wonder if I setup my sensor right. However, my 3 other games (Zelda, Marvel, and DBZ) all work very well.
Cheers,
Fozzy
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
I'm just glad to see some positive press coverage of gaming for once. In terms of friendliness, camaraderie, and just plain fun, the Wii launch stood in stark contrast to the PS3 debacle. I commented some time ago in a thread that I'm a fairly hardcore PC gamer but the Wii was enough to make me consider a foray into console gaming. This launch has only solidified that temptation.
Good work, Nintendo
P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
I went to two WalMarts just in passing on Saturday afternoon. There were people lined up at 2PM for a midnight release. I figured this was out, as there were already enough people in those lines to suck up the shipments. Called Target, smaller store, to see how many they would be getting...42. SWEET!!! Went to Target at 4:45 AM for the 7:30 AM hand out of tickets only to be told by the almight list holder at the front of the line that they were full, even though there were only 20 or so people in line. His excuse was that there were people who put their name on the list and were elsewhere at the moment. BS, but whatever. Went to KMART and was one of four guys in line. More people showed up, but they only had four. I heard stories in line about the terrible nature of people and moron managers from the night before, but I can say that if you were just a bit persistent, this launch was much easier on consumers than the PS3 launch ever had the chance of being. I didn't really fear that I was going to get robbed at gunpoint for my Wii, especially since they are supposedly going to be restocked shelves by Friday.
yesternite before midnite....some where in south park.... *in cartman's voice* "come on! come on!..."
Gee, thanks. Your prejudice is so nice. Don't write off us "flyover" states so quickly. Don't forget that for all of you on the coasts, us Midwesterners feed and clothe you and produce the ethanol that powers your car. NASCAR is actually more popular on the coasts than it is in the Midwest, believe it or not. Around here, football is what we care about, and that is pretty much universally loved nationwide.
"Small town America" is what built this country. Don't be so quick to discount us.
Now that the Wii has been released, has anyone found any more technical details (CPU etc.) about it? I know it's not about the graphics, but I'd like to know a bit more about what it's capable of.
Not sure, but Red Steel has had lackluster reviews on gameplay and the dev-team always had some issues with the control - i.e. the small targeting "reticle" (i.e. once the remote moves out of this small reticle, the player turns). Your sensor bar may be fine, the game may just suck :)
It could be that the price of the units make them more of a commonity. Some people might have been counting on selling the units at a 400% profit and when they couldn't, getting pretty angry. $250 profit is a lot less than $2000.
It might also have nothing to do with money and more to do with personality and character. PS3's and Wii's probably attract different kinds of people, but each attract a certain type of person. Back in the 90s I did a study of people using browsers by first blocking IE and allowing Netscape users in, allowing that to happen for a couple months and then switching it around so that Netscape users where blocked and IE users where allowed in. The site was a fan site for a musician and so people visiting had a strong desire to see the content. In each case, when I blocked a certain browser, I would receive angry emails from the people that were blocked. Maybe about 25-50 for each browser. I found that IE users on average would use poor grammar, make more spelling mistakes and generally shorter words than Netscape users. I also found that most Netscape users would send longer emails while several IE users would be very short and frank with me. The same effect is most likely the case with gaming consoles, computers, operating systems and everything else.
Of course "day 1" is a sellout...this is one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book.
If they made 1M units available on day 1 and only 50% sold, the headline would be: "Plenty of Product X left after first day (expect discounts soon)"
However, when they make 100K units available on day 1 and all sell in a few hours, the headline is "Product X sells out first day (don't expect a discount soon)"
The whole point is to create a buyers frenzy and match it with artificial supply constraints to ensure everyone pays full price or more, all while getting free press from Slashdot and other media whores with lazy editors...
...and different attitudes from what I've read
It seems like Sony is targetting the hard-core gamers with the price tag, game selection and exclusivity of the unit itself. Nintendo seems to be going after the soft, middle part of the market that includes casual gamers, stay at home moms and other people who want to pick up and play for a few minutes a day without investing their life in it.
Third, Wii games are getting slammed in reviews. Even their main system seller game is getting so fairly negative reactions and reviews.
Yeah its only the best reviewed game of the year with an average review score of 97% after 16 reviews (gamerankings.com); if it can maintain that average over 4 more reviews it will only be the second best reviewed game of all time (second only to The Legend of Zelda:OoT).
Second, the Wii appears to be having huge numbers of problems. Not the insane failure rate/dead consoles fiasco Microsoft had with the 360s, but huge numbers of minor to medium problems. Dead/flakey controllers seem to be very common, networking problems, disc read errors, problems updating the Wii software, and a fair number of DOA Wiis.
Link?
First the number of consoles actually shipped to NA appears to be dramatically lower than promised. Nintendo gave out new estimates for NA shipment plans for up to middle of January and they sound about half of what was promised. Only about 2 million units instead of 4. The massive lead in sales people thought Nintendo would have over Sony doesn't look like it will happen with Sony at 400k with the initial shipment and 600k in the process of being air shipped by Christmas. Nintendo appears to be around 800 from estimates so far. Nowhere near the massive installed base advantage they were hoping for.
First off, Link?
Secondly, every store I called on Friday/Saturday (to determine where I needed to go to get my Wii) had between 3 to 8 times as many Wiis as they had PS3s (with a guestimated average of 4 times as many units); the lowest ratio of Wii to PS3 was at the store I went to which had 5 PS3s and 15 Wii. I could see that my city being a little disproportionate, but if the PS3 sold 400,000 systems I expect that Nintendo had (at least) 1.2 Million.
I have however heard the PS3 undersupplied, which would make sense if Nintendo Shipped 1 Million Wii and the PS3 only had 250,000 units shipped.
Ninntendo fans are violent psychos who take potshots at their natural enemies - Sony customers. Sony customers are much more docile and peaceful.
I thought Nintendo was taking a profit on the Wii while Sony was taking a loss on the PS3... So that would mean Nintendo needs to sell one to beat Sony, it Sony sells none, and doesn't need to sell any if Sony sells one.
That is if you ignore the profit from game sales, and look only at console sales.
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
s/commonity/commodity/
Just read an article in the paper about the NASCAR political demographic. The majority is upper or lower-middle class men. Also the army and navy both sponsor NASCAR and it costs half a million to get a quarter panel graphic, but they will not disclose figures on how much they spent advertising with them. This is our tax money! FULL DISCLOSURE! *ahem* Anyway the point is that you're totally fucking wrong about the NASCAR demographic. And BTW I hate NASCAR, because I only watch racing that involves turning left and right and they only do that twice in their season.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
getting his hands on the Wii? I hope the poor fella stayed be patient for 2 months and did not end up freezing himself to the future all over again ... those atheists are pretty nasty creatures to deal with.
Unusable! you mean for Mame-type gaming? Why, back in my day, we were happy if we could get a readable font and a color other than green or orange!
Seriously, Nintendo is very tight with proprietary intellectual property, and it is probably too much effort to try and put *nix on it. I'm sure wireless drivers will be a nightmare, especially.
PS3, on the other hand, sounds like it was a bit rushed into production, and offers 'expandability' and seems therefore more likely to be hackable.
Come on slashdot... if we want a wii for $250, how do we go about getting one now that we missed the launch lines?
I waited outside of Best Buy for 10 hours to get my Wii. I've told myself that I'd never stand outside of a stoor waiting to buy anything except food, but I have to admit that I had great fun. Since I just moved into a new town a few months ago, it was a good opportunity to meet some fellow gamers, as well as to build up anticipation for finally getting the system.
Although I waited all night, the line I was in didn't actually fill up until about 6:30 am. At 8 the store handed out vouches to the first 24 people in line, then we all lined up again at 9 (along with quite a lot of people who had no idea that there had been vouchers handed out earlier, and were hoping to get a system).
I got Zelda and Red Steel (although now that I have heard how abysmal the Red Steel seems to be, and since I haven't opened it, I'm considering making an attempt at returning it and getting Monkey Ball instead), and I have to say that so far the system has definitely been worth it.
The only problem I've had so far is that nintendo's servers seem to be having problems, because I keep running into timeout problems when trying to update the console so I can get into Wii Shop and check out the virtual console.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
So has _anyone_ managed to get theirs working? Is it only the rush of hudreds of thousands of people trying to update at once that's fubared their server or is it just not working at all?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I preordered it a month or so back so my Wii (still looks really strange writing that) was all ready to go when I picked it up on Sunday at 10am. Bestbuy, which was next to the store I bought mine from opened at 8am, so I figured hey why not stop by at 8:15 or so just to see if I can grab zelda and the classic controller.. heh, there must of been 200 people there trying to push they're way into the doors! screw that, i'll wait till 10am and grab it with the system.. Went to the store, no problems at all, grabbed it, played all yesterday, etc..
And ya, now my friggin arms hurt! a good workout hurt, but still. This game system may single handledly change the fat kid playing video games generalization to in shape kids. Popped in wii sports when a few friends came over and I must say, we had a great time and had many laughs (heh, boxing is jokes, not perfect but it still gets the heart rate up and kinda makes you look foolish)
I thought this would be a gimmicky system, but so far everything has run perfectly(controller, setup, virtual console, etc).. I'll see how I feel about it in a few months, but so far it's been an awesome experience. Good work nintendo
MrJynxx
No violence? Yeah right. While I was waiting for a Wii someone actually jumped on my head. As if that wasn't enough, he then threw a turtle shell at me.
Got to Walmart @ 2:30pm. Was #17 out of 20 in line. My friend Chip was #13. #8-12 was a family (father, mother, 2 sons and a daughter) all in line. They had done a few days in line earlier this week and gotten three PS3's. They were really really nice people. At 8pm walmart handed out 20 vouchers and once we had them a few of us went to Bob Evans for some dinner. Back to Walmart and at 10 they let us inside to get warm. That was nice of Walmart. At 11:45 these two doofy looking guys come up and offer $500 for a VOUCHER. No Wii, just a VOUCHER. The family in front of us took them up on the offer and also sold the doofy guys a PS3 they had for $1800. Got my Wii, headed home. Also, it is amazing.
adventure-today.com
Its relativly cheap system and new "remote" is exciting feature. It is probably something my wife would like to try out and find it fun enough. However, for me, one of the 100,000,000 guys that purchased PS2, I need games that I like to play. I need my PES (real football). I cant imagine waving around an remote to play PES. Not to mention that graphics will look like PS2, which looks pretty bad on my HD screen. So that leaves me with xbox or ps3. Xbox has the lead and has the games, but for me, difference is huge, even if price is THE same. - Blueray support from out of the box (and why is it cooler): 1. HDMI connection (lack of which will make xbox unusable for HD movies in the future) 2. Support for H.264 compression format of Sony HD Camcoders (Both DVD and HD), which normal players cant play right now. And Sony makes around 99% of the HD Camcoders right now, way ahead of everyone else. Format is not proprietary, simply most DVD players dont have it implemented yet. 3. Blueray HD movies - why would you have to replace complete collection of DVD's? Thats what I cant figure out from other people posts. You simply buy or rent (Netflix!!!) Blueray movies and voila! 4. Support for 1080p which is a lot better than 1080i and 720p that xbox plays. Screens are very expensive right now, but in 3-4 years, they will probably be a lot cheaper. And PS3 can play 1080p content without issues (unlike XBOX which might skip frames on 720p) - Free online play - you dont have to pay for online matching service like you do for xbox. - Standard bluetooth - connect ANY mouse or keyboard to your PS3, no need to buy extra expensive stuff just for PS3. - Standard wireless - no brainer. - Support for diffent flash drives and usb drives (not only memory sticks). - Swap HD drives easily - hard drive is built so it can be easily taken out and replaced (plus it is 60GB vs 20GB in XBOX). - Water cooling - a lot cooler than xbox. - Support for LINUX out of the box. PS3 has an option to install additional OS in its menus. Can it be less complicated? - You can play DRM free audio/video over your HDMI connection. How cool is that? Easier and simpler than playing DVD's. - Actual PS2 chip on the motherboard for real support for older games and nothing extra to buy. With Wii, you can buy older games in game packs - but why, when you already have them? Plug and play. This is the most open product that Sony has ever delivered. Err, that anyone has ever delivered. For $600 you get full blown HD entertainment system, that you can easily install Linux on, manage your family multimedia, music, play games, movies, etc, etc. $600 is dirt cheap. And this is why next time this year, PS3 will outsell xbox 360. Due to expensive HD cards, PS3 is cheapest HD option you can buy. And by Feb 2007, HD screen will be in 20% of homes in the USA.
...I received two phonecalls yesterday: one from my brother and another from another buddy. The content of both messages was simply "Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!" Awesome. :)
Dude only a fool takes offense when none is intended, and it is the bigger fool that takes offence when it is.
AKA. Don't feed the trolls.
This guy is some poor fool has to make himself feel better by tying his self worth to where hey lives since he can not find anything about himself to be proud of.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
eBay has 25K+ steady with 50 selling every minute. Some units are going for reasonable prices (360 w/ Zelda shipped which would cost 330-340 on amazon ), but many are still about 100 bucks higher than retail (not including tax). The volume is rather ridiculous and the listings are very misleading ( Wii sports = 5 games, extra controller = the one that comes with the system). There are 42 from my locale and from estimates that appears to be 15-20% of all consoles sold here.
I think sooner or later this is going to bust.
I've had no problem with it. That said, the game is not great. Do you have a reflective surface in the room? I've heard reports of issues just like yours from people with glass coffee tables and such.
I found out something good and geek-worthdy about the wii.
There is a way to set the sensor bar sensitivity in the root of the main menu, before the channels.
The interesting thing is that it shows you a PIXEL DUMP of the infrafed camera in the wiimote.
that camera looks at the 2 IR LEDS in the sensor bar.
If you see more than 2 light dots on the raw pixel dump, you can adjust the sensitivity with
a 5 level slider.
You can play with this by passing a refrective surface near the bar and you will see where it registers
on the wiimote-mounted camera-sensor. (you can also deduce it's resolution).
i caught on to xkcd with the 'sudo sandwich' comic. i've been reading it since and it's now a part of my regular comic lineup (penny arcade, pvp, megatokyo, ctrl-alt-del and xkcd). you know it's good when you resonate with such a large audience using stick figures.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
When I picked up my Wii on Sunday from the local EB, the manager mentioned that he was told to expect more units in store by Wednesday at the latest. If that turns out to be the case, that's a far cry from what we're hearing about PS3 restocks.
Well, I noticed the same thing. I think the way they designed it, you turn by moving the cursor to the edge of the screen. It probably has some algorithms dependent upon some kind of timing related to this. The upshot is, if you point it away from the screen too far or too long, it doesn't know what to do, so you have to keep it pointed at the screen. Kind of tires my arm.
Whenever it goes haywire, I'm always able to fix it by just pointing the Wiimote at the center of the screen, and it'll "recenter" you and quit moving.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
FWIW: I got a WII at a GameStop. They got 15. They had 6 PS3s on release day. I went by a Target yesterday and they had about the same story. They recieved 94 WIIs and said they got 32 PS3s.
Back in the early 90's I worked at an Electronics Boutique with the NES, Sega Master System, SNES, TurboGrafx and Sega Genesis were hot. Sales often came down to availability. If a kid wanted a SNES for Xmas but we only had Genesis in stock, the parent usually ended up getting the Genesis. The reverse also happened often. Both systems were in short supply and high demand for several years around the holidays. They were both comperable and had many of the same games. It looks like the WII will get a much larger system base if they can outsupply Sony 3:1 in the near future. I suspect they could even catch up with the 360.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
Whats the relationship of your sensor bar to your TV? Is it above or below? I had my sensor bar about 8 inches below the bottom bezel of my tv, and it was not easy to use. I propped it up with some books to be closer to the bottom edge, and things improved. Then, I put it on top of the TV (changed the sensor bar settings) and I feel I got the tightest response at that point. If this doesn't help, I got nothing.
I'm still on the fence regarding red steel; the reviews are all over the place.
This is where I get my recommended daily allowance of "Foot in Mouth."
To all the doubters, I think we've gotten our proof that Nintendo is a contender again.
Big box stores such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart had campers early the night before and easily sold out hours before official store opening.
To say the least. The Future shop picture in that article is at a local mall here. They had nearly 100 units. That line-up had gone all night. But what's really amazing is that right behind that store (past the Winners you can see the sign for) is a Best Buy. With 90 units. Also lined up. Also sold out before store opening. At the other end of the mall is a WalMart. Also sold out before opening.
Half a mile away is another mall, with a Zellers, Toys'r'us, and EB. All sold out before store opening (Toys'r'us several HOURS before). All with dozens of units each. EVERY store, big and small, sold out within the first few minutes after opening. Small towns 50 miles out sold out within minutes.
Nintendo shipped anywhere from 2-5x as many units as Sony, and THEY'RE ALL GONE. Something like 25-50% of the PS3s were on ebay within hours, and the price is already dropped down nearly to retail value. Most Wii owners are actually playing theirs.
This is most definitely NOT the soccer mom and grandpa crowd. These people lined up for hours in the sub-freezing cold to be the first to play the new Zelda. You don't get any more hardcore than that.
Interestingly enough, and I've never seen this with a console launch, GAMES are sold out too. Most stores didn't get near enough copies of Zelda, and only had 3-5 titles each. The only title on the shelves that seems to be in quantity as of this morning is Excite Truck. A local WalMart here has nothing but that - and over 3 dozen copies of it. Look for it to be the first discounted game, if the stores around me are any indication.
The Wii might just end up being the "Tickle Me Elmo" of this year's xmas season.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Don't get too snide; coastal tax dollars pay you to grow the corn and make the ethanol and southerners grow the cotton. We've paid for that corn several times over before we get to the pump. The irony of "red states" in the midwest is that they're the beneficiaries of what amounts to socialist farm policies.
And yes, I'm from a small town that grows obscene amounts of corn on the taxpayers' dime. We only burn ethanol in our cars because we've got to do SOMETHING with all the surplus corn that is produced. If there were no tax subsidy, there would be no ethanol.
Small town America is great, but don't confuse reality with fairy tales. Reality is a bitch.
Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
First the number of consoles actually shipped to NA appears to be dramatically lower than promised. Nintendo gave out new estimates for NA shipment plans for up to middle of January and they sound about half of what was promised. Only about 2 million units instead of 4.
Huh? 2,000,000 is, like, six orders of magnitude bigger than 4.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Checking craigslist(Minneapolis), the average Wii console sale price(typically + 1 game) is around $400-450. yes, the jacked-up prices for a Wii are LESS than the street price for the premium PS3.
Strange, no?
My favorite sales pitch on craigslist was the person who said they "needed" to unload their PS3, for $1500. Perhaps they shouldn't have bought it 2 days prior for $700, no? I also saw one ad who wanted to sell their PS3 for college books, tuition,etc. Of course, it was for a 4-figure amount. But if you are a broke college student, you shoulnd't be shelling out $700 for a get rich quick scheme.
Ha!
This is relativly awsome.
I unfortunatly can't test it out for I lack a Wii, and that makes me sad...
however, some one should actualy mod this guy up, this is the exact info asked about!
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
Here in Calgary, there were smart people and stupid people. I got up at 7 and went to Futureshop, there were 100 people in line for 96 Wiis, 30 minutes later there were 150. Out in the cold -6 I believe it was at the time. That is Celsius.
400 feet away in the nearby mall, I was seventh in line at EBGames which had 35 Wiis. I waited 2.5 hours and was through the interal line pretty quick once they let us in. I had a heck of a time finding the Nunchuck. Everywhere was sold out. Best buy, Futureshop, Toys r Us, the local EBgames it was tough.
If High Definition televisions remain terribly expensive and the public remains unconvinced of the benefits of HD, the Wii will have a big advantage over the Xbox 360 and PS3. If HD sets drop rapidly in price and people buy them in droves, the Wii will be in big trouble. Consumers with HD will want a HD experience.
I think it was a mistake for Nintendo to exclude 720p functionality for the Wii. There is a generation switch in televisions between standard def and high def, it would better for the Wii to play both sides of the fence. It would narrow the graphics chasm between it and its competitors.
Both Nintendo and Microsoft will benefit from Sony's shortage fiasco. Let's face it, your not getting a PS3 anytime soon. I must admit that I was surprised to hear that the Wii sold out. Honestly I thought demand was a lot of hot air from Nintendo fan boys and it didn't exist for most of the gamer community. I was wrong. This Christmas it will come down to: do you prefer Gears of War or Zelda?
Nothing against midwesterners, but Gas is what powers my car, not ethanol when I can help it.
Ethanol is pushed upon us by the corngrowers, and my area requires that 15% be put in during the summer. Of course, everybody thinks it's nice and ecofriendly, but Consumer Reports recently reported that with even that low percentage of ethanol it lowered gas mileage by a significant percent, so much so, that during the summers' prices, a $3.20 gallon of 85%/15% gas/ethanol was comparable to buying a $4.00 gallon of regular gas.
Also, since producing ethanol is an energy loss, it doesn't do much of anything in the scheme of things. Except help the midwest build refineries for ethanol and farmers sell their corn.
Just wanted to say I bought a Wii from South Memphis Target. Everyone was just extremely pleasant, target manager gave us free coffee/hot chocolate/popcorn, we got issued tickets that reserves our order in line. We were able to get back into our cars and warm up before the store opened at 8:00am. We all filed in. Bought the Wii. Left. No issues. Been playing tons of bowling ands boxing with my roommate :)
I was a little upset yesterday that the Wii launch story didn't hit Slashdot. Ah well, I was too busy playin the Wii anyway. I've posted my Wii story to my blog. In short: I love it.
My friend got me the console and a few games (yay Costco) but now I'm trying to figure out what our best bets for extra controllers will be...
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
You forget that Nintendo could release a HD Wii in two years if they wished; I'm sure there are already designs internally for such a thing.
GPL Deconstructed
I was skimming through the radio stations last night and I caught the end of an anti-drug commercial. It said "resist 'we' (peer pressure)" but for a moment I thought it was a Sony commercial saying "resist 'wii.'"
My devoted girlfriend spent 16 hours in line in front of Target to get a Wii. Even though she's not really interested in or knowledgeable about games, she says she had a great time, even with temps dropping into the low 30's. According to her accounts, everyone was sharing food and drink, playing board games, talking about other non-Nintedo passions, and there was even some passing around of bottles and flasks for older line-bound customers.
I think it's great that the Wii promises a unique social experience with their system, and somehow end up with Wii Communes (as my girlfiend called the lines) that offered the same ethos. I guess this is the sort of good stuff that can happen when you keep greed out of gaming: it stays fun.
Actually, Nintendo won the profit war the second the first PS3 was sold. :p $0.00 > -$300.00.
I'll have to check into that tonight. I have a glass-top table between the couch/tv and the cursor is very jittery in the wii menu but oddly seems to be fine once I start a game so it's only a minor annoyance. Thanks for the info.
YES. Red Steel was having a few fuck ups when I played multiplayer. I kept randomly freaking the hell out while we would play and you would suddenly find yourself looking at the ceiling. I think this is more game related than anything else, but I'm gonna wait and see what people are saying.
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - BenF
Maybe just maybe they figured that Wii purchasers have learned superior fighting skills from their past consoles than PS3 players. Not so safe to attack and rob.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I for one got a dead Wii. I got to play about an hour before the power just flat out went off and would not come back on. Called Nintendo tech support, he had me try a couple of things like unplugging the power adapter for 2 minutes, reseating the connectors, try with just the power adapter, nothing else attached. After 10 minutes or so, he concluded it was dead. Since my copy of Zelda is stuck in the Wii, I have to send it in for repair. Estimated time: 2 weeks. At least I only waited in line about an hour.
As for other links, check the gamefaqs message boards, the nintendo message boards.. I'm sure there are plenty others. I don't think it is wide-spread, but it is out there.
I hope the speculators get stuck with consoles they can't shift. I have plenty of money, but I'm not buying from a speculator. I'll just wait.
It's like domain name parasites. Don't feed them, people, you're only making the problem worse.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Amen!
Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
Oh a forum ... With such a well respected resource how could I ever doubt you ...
The fact is that until a problem is reported as being a problem from a well respected resource it is probably (mostly) lies. Suppose 0.1% of Wiis have problems and that Nintendo Shipped 1 Million units (for nice round numbers), this means that 1,000 users have problems; being early adopters they are more likely to access the internet and post asking for help on a forum so there is 500 forum posts. 0.1% is an acceptable failure rate yet seems to have a lot of problems because of there are a lot of forum posts.
So yes, I still want a REAL source.
Very cool.
:)
How do you do it though?
(I don't have a Wii yet but judging from your description this sounds like an easter egg?)
Zach Stroum (Nitendo dude) has a pretty good review of the game. Mentions the same issue.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I'm not having any issues with Red Steel. It took about 5 minutes to get the hang of the controls, but after that I think they rock. My 15 year old son has done nothing but bitch about control issues though. I think the issue, for him, is that he wants to use very gross movements to aim the gun and this takes the pipper out into the movement control zone rather than keeping it in the fire zone. When I play I bet the end of the Wiimote doesen't move much over an inch in any direction except when zooming in.
Best Buys had over 100... I planned on going around 3am, but a friend called and said over 100 people were in line at midnight.
Went to a Circuit City that had 15, only 4 people in line when I got there at 2am. They handed out vouchers at 7am. Was surprised at the influx of people around 6am. Almost felt bad for the parents who showed up at 10am when the store opened, but yet I didn't. I braved the cold, and had fun with some other fans all the same.
Relatively little commotion, some people were upset... the employees had a meeting before the store opened and a lot left with empty display boxes, but did it obviously to incite some sort of "envy". A guy in line was friends with all the employees and he told me that they had empty boxes. Seems ridiculous that the manager would allow this.
At any rate, love the Wii... worth the wait.
Starmen.net
Don't be too hard on the AC. After all, I heard that use of the Wii caused cancer in lab rats. (I don't have a link, but my word on a Slashdot forum ought to be good enough.) And to be fair, the reviews of Twilight Princess weren't all superlative. The worst one I read--at Gamespot--called it merely "great." Sheesh.
And as far as hardware/software glitches, I'd have to say BFD. I'm not aware of any industrial manufacturing process that produces 100% flawless materials. And, as the AC pointed out, the incidents of problems are far below those reported for the 360. I'd have to say that's...pretty good. Of course, I haven't seen any numbers for the PS3, but then again, I don't hate it (or the 360). So I haven't been trolling for any bad news, no matter how insignificant, to feed my resentment over an emotional involvement with a gaming console.
All, and I mean all, units were sold out to preorders and the handful of units that were available for the general public. I could get any number of PS3 untis (our BB had at least 10 in a pyramid on the floor, and who knows how many more in the back), but Wiis were non-existant. At 8AM they're all gone. I even went out of town, none there either. Our BB dude said that they'll have some more next week. Yeah, right. Here's the local store count for those of you who care:
Best Buy: ~50 units
Sears: 2 (WTF? 2... are you kidding me?)
FYE: ? (they weren't open until noon...couldn't wait around to find out)
Wal-Mart: ~50
Sam's Club: 5 (WTF? 5?)
Game Stop: 5 (all preordered and waiting for the folks to pick 'em up)
Target: ~15 (all taken before you could blink)
Toys R Us: (supposedly) ~70...all gone in minutes.
Near as I can tell, based on this, the Eastern half of my state had roughtly 300 to 500 units total (if you account for some stores I hadn't thought about.) Amazon.com got hammered by midnight shoppers, and they ran out in less than 1 minute...which, naturally, pissed off all the rest. There was a ton of nasty forum posts about that--Amazon's admins nuked a lot of them quickly. Some were actually kinda funny. I think the best deal I saw was Wal-Mart's online bundle deal, but that was sold out in a heartbeat. Better luck next week, I guess.
Playing devils advocate here (my Wii is doing just fine):
These days, the only place you'll hear about problems, if they exist, are in web forums. Eventually, you'll get news reports whose source is actually the web forums. Then you'll get anecdotal stories from people who are actually well-known (game reporters, bloggers, Penny Arcade, etc.), which is just as bad as web forums. And if you're lucky, eventually eventually eventually the company will admit there is a problem. But only after tons of people have posted to tons of forums and the news sites pick it up. Even then it's not likely. That's how it has been with problems with just about every console since about the PS1.
So, while I have no reason to think there are widespread problems yet, I wouldn't write it off because it came from a forum. I just don't know where else you'd be expected to get the reports. It's not like CNN has a test lab of Wiis or something.
Ugh, that's what he said.....
Normally I'd agree. I have friends who play fps-type games much better at a console than on a pc, but personally I've always felt the mouse was superior for aiming.
But to add this note in relation to a wii, that's just hilarious. I mean I've longed for ages for a good motion sensitive aiming device, it would greatly improve the speed, reactivity and efficiency in an fps.
Wii remote > mouse > gamepad.
Of course, that is my personal experience, as I said I have friends who swear by the gamepads. I'll have to let them try the wii sometime soon.
Don't forget that for all of you on the coasts, us Midwesterners feed and clothe you and produce the ethanol that powers your car.
At 4 times market price due to various subsidies, price inflation and other sorts of welfare.
Don't kid yourself. You provide *nothing* that couldn't be gotten cheaper elsewhere without your welfare payments included.
Damn, /. needs digg-like editing. I always have an "oh yeah, I meant to add" moment about 30 seconds after posting.
/. (which is itself a web forum) links to these stories and people post the same thing here. And every now and then there's been an anecdote by a journalist ("my mother's computer told her Windows was pirated"). And I can throw in my own anecdote about it happening with me when I tried a third-party permission setting tool for XP Home and accidentally turned of read access on some directories. But it's all just anecdotes with no actual provable support, because that's the nature of the internet.
So, anyway...
Oh yeah, I meant to mention this reminds me a lot of the problems with Microsoft's WGA. It's the exact same story. Lots of people posting on web forums saying they are legit but they've had problems with it. Then
I don't like waiting in line to spend money. So I decided to call ahead the day before and find out how the stores were handling the launch. My local Target (Northwest Denver) said they were doing a lottery on Sunday morning, and handing out tickets at 7am. That worked for me, so I went up there at about 6:45, stopping for breakfast on the way. I waited in line about 15 minutes, behind 22 groups of people buying consoles. The Target employees came out with 24 tickets. Everyone in line at the time who wanted to buy a console got one. Some people continued to wait in the cold for one of 14 copies of Zelda. (I sat in the car and watched the line count.) The store opened an hour later and everyone bought their consoles. A few people showed up between 7 and 8 describing the lines at Best Buy and other stores. I guess I got pretty lucky.
There was a shortage of extra controllers, so I only have one. This is a bit of a bummer because even on turn-based multiplayer minigames on Super Monkey Ball, I can't seem to play 2 players without more than one wiimote. Anyone know how?
Or they could just allow the Wii to play at 720p without intentionally crippling it. My Xbox (first one) plays some games in 720p. The Wii outclasses the original X-box in every spec (except disk space, they both uses DVD9 for media, and the Harddrive is larger than the onboard Wii (flash) memory). There is no technical reason why the Wii can't output in 720p, except that Nintendo didn't put an option in the settings.
1080p is not "a lot better than 1080i and 720p that xbox plays." 1080p is only 30 FPS, so it's really just 1080i without the jitter, and I doubt you can see any difference. For videogames 720p at 60 FPS clearly makes the most sense. (Although again I'd say, it'll be uncommon for anybody to notice a visible difference between these formats anyhow.)
First the number of consoles actually shipped to NA appears to be dramatically lower than promised.
On what information are you basing this? I visited three targets (the third still had a spot at 3:15am) and each one of those targets got EXACTLY the allocation of Wiis that they were promised.
Second, the Wii appears to be having huge numbers of problems.
What is this based on? I have heard, online, of 2 dead consoles from all of the US. None of my friends had any problems (nor did I), and all of us have seamlessly connected to the internet, bought virtual console titles, and played GC titles.
Third, Wii games are getting slammed in reviews
Yep, the launch titles aren't that great (discounting Zelda, whose gameplay is classic zelda, but the graphics are decidedly last gen). Still, the Nintendo launch lineup is FAR better than the launch lineups of the PS3 or X360.
Will you please get a valid source of information before posting your #$%* again?
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
Well from my reading of the major console discussion boards the hardware/software problem rates are something like:
< <360
PS3 <<<<<<<Wi<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The PS3 pretty is only having some minor software problems like not supporting upscaling for people with old TVs that don't have 720p but do have 1080i. I've only seen one or two people report hardware failures and those were shown to be fanboy fakes.
The Wii does seem to have quite a bit of problems that seem all over the map. The only really troubling ones are the large number of Wiimote issues where people are having to shake/bang their controllers that stop working or properly sensing orientation.
The 360 - well, we all know what a disaster that was.
Actually, the Cube is more than capable for playing MAME ;-)
See my page
"Only about 2 million units instead of 4."
2 million to the Americas, 4 million worldwide. Nintendo still has to sell consoles to Japan and (unlike Sony) Europe.
Check to make sure that your Sensor bar is at the edge of whatever surface you rested it on. My TV is in the middle of the TV stand, and I put the Sensor far down right in front of it. I found while sitting on the couch the angle was such that it didn't communicate properly with the pointer. (part of the TV stand was in the way from that angle). So I moved the pointer to the top of my tv, and put it at the edge. Everything works fine now.
If the Wii sensor bar is a camera and the Wii 'prefers' to be connected to the internet 24/7, does that mean that Nintendo can secretly watch its gamers?
I guess I will have to play mine while wearing a tinfoil hat.
</paranoia>
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
Having the exact same problem. The cursor will suddenly center itself and jump around. Zelda is fine, Monkey Ball is fine, Rayman is fine, etc.
Nothing else has those issues. Going to try covering my glass coffee table and adjusting where the Sensor bar is(currently below a 106" 1.8 gain screen).
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
The walmart I camped out in front of had 29 wiis, but only 6 ps3s. That's been the general pattern everywhere I checked in my city. About 5 times as many wiis as ps3s.
I'm an EB employee in Columbus, Ohio, and I helped open the store on Sunday for the Wii launch. I wasn't around for the PS3 launch, but my manager was, and according to him our store has sold one game for the PS3 so far. OTOH we've sold at least 30 or 40 Wii games since the Sunday launch. Apparently not many shoppers want to play games for the PS3 (yet), and Sony obviously has eBay to thank for their sales reports.
Sony could look at the high prices of the resales on eBay, and decide that $600 is not too high a retail price to pay. Hopefully they're re-evaluating their decision to use scarce components and, in turn, suppress their supply. IMO if the Wii supply was suppressed as much as the PS3, eBay would have similar high bids for that console as well.
Disclaimer: In case you couldn't tell, I am a Nintendo fanboy. But if something better and more innovative comes along, I'll be happy to jump ship =)
I have an HDTV, and 720p vs 480p is a marginal upgrade. A well encoded 480p DVD is practically indistinguishable from OTA 720p HDTV, because my TV has a good upscaler.
The early adopters who bought HDTVs with poor upscalers may notice a massive difference, people with huge 50"+ sets may notice a difference, but the majority who only started buying HDTVs recently and who buy regular size sets should have no problem.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
My sensor bar is at the foot of my TV, just in front of it, at the edge of the TV stand. I've read through the Wii manual on the sensor bar and such, but I wasn't sure if there was something I'm missing. I use to have the sensor bar at the top of my TV, but sitting on the floor, it wouldn't register due to the TV blocking any direct sight of the bar.
I'm inclined to believe this is a game thing since my 3 other titles work well. I'm just disappointed because Red Steel does have a lot to offer and can/could be a great FPS game, drumming up memories of the old GoldenEye on N64. However, if I try to point the 'dot' at a creep and instead it's flying all over the place as if my hands where shaking, it makes a 'twitch' game a lot less enjoyable.
The game is pretty easy (maybe made so, due to controller problems?), so I don't doubt I can beat it relatively quickly, I'm trying to decide if this will be a quick trade-in or not. The problem is, the story is pretty good, the level design is interesting (racing up stairs to stop cars leaving the parking garage, defending an office, etc), the graphics are good, and the AI is pretty good(guys running around to get behind me, ducking behind cover, etc. makes for enjoyable 1player shoot-outs.) but the controller problems are beyond frustrating. I guess I just want to find out there's something wrong with my sensor and not the game, because I want to enjoy it. hehe
Cheers,
Fozzy
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
As my girlfriend pointed out "There won't be any fucking kids, and you need a membership card". Got to the store an hour before opening, 32nd in line and easily nabbed one of the 46 Wiis they had.
All I have to say is that I have a sore shoulder from playing Wii Sports. The games are very simplistic, yet so much fun. Boxing is great, if you don't mind the guy not punching _exactly_ as you moved, but the sweat will make you feel much better. My suggestion:
:-p
play some boxing, after a few games switch to some tennis and/or baseball, which can be played while sitting down. Just watch that forearm, or you'll end up like me
Good job Nintendo!
This is most definitely NOT the soccer mom and grandpa crowd
In our line of 41, outside of a Target in Pittsburgh, PA, here's how our group broke down, roughly:
There were about 10 nintendo fanboys. Most were really only there for the new Zelda. These were mostly high school and college aged boys.
There were about 15 gamers/hardcore gamers. Guys aged 20-30 with multiple consoles who were clearly veteran gamers.
Finally, there were about 15 parents and grandparents. They were either there with their kids or there for their kids. I am including a couple of wives who were there for their husbands in this category.
So, I disagree with your statement that these were definitely not soccer moms. Really, it was quite a diverse crowd, where pretty much everyone was represented. A more interesting comparison might be between this crowd and the crowd lined up for PS3s... I think that the PS3 crowd was comprised of only hardcore gamers and profiteers.
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
Games: Zelda, Trauma Center, Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Sonic, Super Mario 64
Console: Excellent really. The fact that it ISN'T the size of an oven (nor produce as much heat) is a great thing. I'm extremely happy there. Setup is a little more difficult with the addition of the Wii Sensor Bar, but I work around it pretty well.
Been playing Trauma Center, and Zelda more than anything else, the other games are pretty good.
As for the Virtual Console issues described above, I had no issues what-so-ever. I purchased 2,000 points ($20.00 worth) and got them instantly. Also, even Super Mario 64 downloaded rather quickly. So fast to say I was impressed. The only complaint I have is that I'd never enter my details to buy points when anyone is in the house. The TV I'm on is big enough to see a huge distance away, so it's a bit of a security hazard.
Empathetic-- 94% You tend to walk in someone else's shoes a hundred miles before pointing a finger.
Would a first-hand account help? I bought my Wii on opening day, and it works. However, every disk I insert comes up with a disk read error after a short while of playing. I can eject the disk and reinsert it, and usually after 3 or 4 inserts, it reads enough to continue. Because of this, the Wii is somewhat playable. However, having to reinsert the disk perhaps 25 times over the course of 3 or 4 hours of play yesterday is crazy-making.
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
I'm pretty big on my movements too, and I've toned down the sensitivity to 'low'. I think my issue is partly leaving the 'screen' when moving, while, not entirely, as even small movements can make the pointer jump around or end up in a corner. I've even started over to do the 'fish tank' sight in, to make sure I didn't mess that up.
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
That's true. On the other hand many people have more than one TV. Even if they don't already it's pretty simple. Buy a HD TV, put your old TV in your bedroom or somewhere (if you're buying HD you probably already had a good TV) and hook your wii up to that.
When I was a kid playing my Amiga we had only one TV and I couldn't play when someone else wanted to watch TV. Consoles aren't social that way. If you're playing a lot and sharing the TV with someone else then additional TVs are a must.
Getting content for HD screens is still a problem. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD hasn't played out yet and it could be a couple of years before it's clear which way to go. There's a limited choice of broadcast HD and not everyone can get it in their area. Some people have HD already (or soon) and for them a PS3 or Xbox 360 might be a better idea but I reckon that this battle in the console war will be decided before HD takes over.
the more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the pipe
I thought demand would be less than it was. Doh!
So I'll take some advice. What's the best plan for picking a Wii at retail now?
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
I had problems with the cursor jumping all over the place in the wii main menu and in wii sports as well. I figured out that It changed depending on my position relative to the wii. When I was sitting off to the side, or too far away, It would have problems, but if I stood right in front of the sensor bar and adjusted my distance, the twitching stopped. Playing around with the sensitivity setting in the wii main menu seemed to help some.
Unless Nintendo has some massive manufacturing issues, I expect this to continue at least through holiday 2007 , even if FF XIII, and MGS4 are both released at that time.
Red Steel is just what you'd expect from a launch title. Lame story, flawed gameplay, merely decent graphics, etc. If the game came out a year from now, it would be execrable. But for now, it's not bad.
For what it's worth, my probably busted Wii was able to go from entering the store to playing F-Zero in about 4 minutes. That's buying points (or whatever they're called), viewing the store, downloading the ROM (or whatever it does) and then hitting the play button. So just for your own information, maybe your wireless is screwed up.
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
I enjoyed the subtle taste of bias when ratio goes from 1/3 to 1/4.
I bought my Wii at midnight and had it online within 30 minutes of purchase.
The internet connectivity was VERY responsive, I immediately bought mario 64 (which works wonderfully).
I signed in at 8am this morning and the internet was VERY laggy.
Let them get things sorted out and it'll become very responsive again.
Let's all remember the VG Cats strip about Vegonomics: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212 "Have you sold out of your new toy yet potatomoto" "Nope" "Oh that's right, you made a whole lot of them. See ,you'll never make it doing things that way"
Zelda is a good game. Spent all night last night taking turns with a few friends (not my Nintendo but a friend's). But it is not the second best game of all time. Its not even remotely close.
(Obviously this is my opinion.) What Nintendo has shipped is a very respectable GameCube game with a couple of Wiimote add-ons which only work so-so. Art direction is great (although I was more of a Wind Waker fan), music is nice, story is identical of course as pretty much all Zelda games. Honestly I found myself getting a bit pissed off at the controls, they are not as accurate as a regular button sometimes (shield block nunchuk-thrust sucks, half the time it does a spin attack. And you can just wave the thing wildly and usually win. That is just stupid.)
Anyways, don't put a lot of stock in gamerankings.com; after all it is a useful guide to collective impressions, but that's all it is. Zelda has a huge following. Maybe the biggest following of all game franchises - its way up there at any rate. If I'm a raving Nintendo fanboy and I've been waiting for Zelda for years - particularly since it was taken from my previous system, the GameCube, so it could be a launch title for the Wii - well, to come home and admit that the game is just Pretty Good and not OMFG BEst tHiNg eVar... that is a bitter pill for many. Just sayin'.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Yeah, that is pretty much the way I see it. It is really, really, sensitive, and you don't have to move off the screen to get it to turn. Just a few degrees of wrist rotation will leave the Wiimote still pointing near the center of the screen and the pipper will be off screen and you will be spinning. Me, I sit in a chair and never move more than my wrist unless I'm zooming in. If you move around like the guy in the trailer you will just watch the blurs go by.
I went to three different stores in order to get my Wii, and I have to concur that there was nothing but good spirits and a sense of camraderie. The first store (Walmart) had over 400 people waiting for a lottery of only 36 systems, cops were there but everything went very smoothly. The second (also a Walmart) only had 29, and I was of course 32nd in line. The last store had 68, and I was there at 6am for #25. I have to admit I am not a hard-core gamer, and it is increasingly rare for me to wait 4+ hours for anything, but waiting for the Wii was actually fun. Everyone in the line was talking, and playing games, we were just genuinely excited. As for the Wii itself, so far it is the most fun I've had on game system since my Atari 7800. My friends and I were up last night playing the Wii sports for a couple of hours, and it was a riot! I did buy Madden '07, GT-Pro, and Zelda but haven't played them yet...
"Don't be so humble - you are not that great." - Golda Meir
It's hard to know how the PS3 is faring because so few were shipped and so many were sold on ebay and may just barely be getting into actual players' hands. If .1% of all the wiis sold have problems that might be enough to form noticable clusters on forums. If the same percentage have problems on the ps3 what are the odds that any of them will even find each other on the same forums? You might hear of one or two people tops. If the number of wiis sold (and actually played already) is 10 times more than the ps3s sold (and actually played already) then the percent bad would have to significantly higher for anyone to take notice of ps3s.
yeah, I was playing with that last night because we were having some SERIOUS trouble with games once I got home, but everything was working flawlessly at my friend's house. We were having cursor stability issues (namely, the finger would jump all over the fricken screen).
it turns out that the wiimote was picking up the lights from this lamp next to the TV. I wouldn't have realized that that's what it was except that it's got 5 bulbs in a very unique pattern that I could see when adjusting the sensitivity. Once we turned the lamp off, everything worked great.
Although, this morning, I was having issues again. But it turned out that it was being caused by the fact that our TV is in front of our wall of windows and it was picking up the light from outside... so I guess that means no play during the day. sucks.
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
After doing some power gaming with Wii Sports, Zelda, Red Steel, and Super Monkey Ball (all of which are great games), my reaction the day after: my shoulders hurt like Hell. Maybe the Wii will get me back into shape?
A friend of mine had planned to go stand in line for 8-12 hours for the midnight launch at the Super Walmart in Concord NH. We knew there would be "minumum 20 per store"... and heard rumors that this store would have somewhere in the range of 30-40. When we got there at noon, there were already over 50 people in line; we told our friend and he decided it wasn't worth 12 hours wait in the cold for the possibility that the store had more.
Well, the store did have more. 80, in fact... they didn't sell out until noon on Sunday. My friend was pissed.
That said, I think everyone who really wants a Wii will be able to get one (at market price of $250) by Christmas. I don't think the same can be said for those who want a PS3.
Have you read the Moderation Guidelines Addendum?
Why the hell do they spell it Wii if its pronounced "Wee"?
To my language center Wii = "Why", not "Wee".
Is it a case of how the Japanese pronounce i's, sort of like how they have difficulty with l's?
The Wii is worth every penny I spent on it. I consider myself a 'gamer' of all types, RPG, FPS, RTS, etc... and as long as the Wii continues to have great games I can see it easily earning Nintendo its throne back. It's fun, plain and simple. You really couldn't ask for much more. Graphics are meaningless if a game is not fun.
Zelda is beyond amazing and I cannot imgaine how it would play on a Gamecube. How many games has anyone played to the point where they fall asleep playing because you just couldn't stop?
I was pretty careful not to say "Second Best Game of All Time" because it is difficult to really determing what is the "best" game ...
I was (mostly) trying to point out that his comment about the "main system seller getting bad reviews" was false being that the lowest score is 88% from Gamespot who generally have lower scores than most sites.
I got to my local Target at 6:35 AM and joined the line. At 7:00 AM Target employees gave out tickets to people in the line. I was number 56 out of 60 tickets. I went over and had breakfast at a nearby Panera Bread and was back to Target at 7:50 AM (the tickets reserved my system till Noon). By 8:30 AM I had my console and was headed home.
The Wii was relatively easy to set-up. The only complication was that the sensor bar could not fit on top of my TV since it would cover some buttons. I rigged it to the base of the unit, and loaded the Sports Game.
I'd gotten and extra Wiimote (but a second Nunchuck controller was not available). The connection to the TV was a composite (video + 2 RCA stereo jacks). This ONLY supports 480i in 4x3 aspect ratio. A separate (unavailable at local stores) connector is required for 480p in 16x9 aspect.
I played several of the Wii Sports games with my family. The Wii features a little applet called the Mii that lets you create an Avatar. These are used as both players in the Sports games and occasionally as part of the random group of on-screen spectators.
The Sports games are a lot of fun. The controller has the normal complement of buttons, plus motion sensors, rumble, speakers, and lights. The Sports games take full advantage of these. You move the controller to simulate the sport you are participating in. For instance, to bowl, depress the 'B' button, make a 'bowling motion' and release to ball. Another set of buttons lets you side-step or aim the ball. Synchronized with your motions, your avatar moves and releases the ball down the alley on the screen. Golf and baseball are similar.
The controller has a wrist-strap on it. Each game advises you to put on the wrist strap. Do it - otherwise the controller may go flying! You also need to be careful when moving the controller to avoid clocking some other player. The Wii requires quite a bit of living room space.
The one disappointment was the Wifi. My wireless network is very much locked down. I slowly had to open it up and try connecting, but thus far have had no luck at connecting the Wii to the Internet.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Great!
Um, how?
I'm confused... why do you people always ask the Sony fanboys for Link?
Waited outside gamestop for a few hours on the day the took reservations. We back again Saturday night/Sunday morning for the midnight release. Great little system. I got 4 launch games, but I've played wii sports (the bundled game) more than anything so far. I can't wait until they release some more channels for it; I'm excitied to see what kinds of things they'll do with them in the future. Nintendo got it right this time, I'd say.
Buckethead
Oh come on. There were roughly the same number of Wiis put up on eBay as there were PS3s over this past week. And there are more Wiis than PS3s up on eBay as of this morning. There were about twice as many Wiis shipped as PS3s. There are hundreds of thousands of PS3s out there being played for the past few days. Massive numbers of people are online playing Resistance and huge numbers of people are all banging on the machine installing Linux and compiling/running Linux apps. The PS3 has had an extremely trouble free launch.
However, the console discussion boards are filled with people having a large variety of Wii problems. Like other people have stated, the Wii problems are nowhere near as bad as the 360 a year ago.
-- The Lineup --
Loved the wait in line for 8 hours... really.. the rain, not so much. Seeing all the poor parents with their kids show up an hour before openning, even more depressing. Getting my sweety hands on the Wii, priceless.
The EB I got my console at was rather isolated so I didn't expect a ton of people to show up. Even so, over 300% of the crowd that wanted it were turned away.
The other problem with such a small store was games. Every twilight princess had been pre-oredered. Guess what, they were taking pre-orders for the games up to the night before. Since pre-ordering for the console was over months ago, I didn't even consider that the games would be pre-orderable up to last bloody night. The really sad part of this whole thing is there are probably a large number of people who pre-ordered the games and have no console and a few people like me who have the console but can't play the choice games since they were all pre-ordered. So I'm forced to hunt them down at other stores when stock comes in. That annoyance rests squarely on EB in my mind. Don't allow pre-orders of games unless they have a system pre-order you fcking tools!
Everyone in line was great, and I can't praise them enough for making the wait tolerable and at times a lot of fun.
-- The Wii --
Firstly, the controllers are a lot smaller than I expected. There was no problem in them fitting my gigantic hands though, so no problems there. I have noticed that the sensing of the remotes isn't as good as it could be. I'm not sure if this is realted to my enormous television (50") or maybe the placement of the sensor bar, but I did notice the system just plain act wierd once and a while. I hope a system patch will eventually come out to deal with the issue. It wasn't bad enough to stop playing, it just wasn't always consistent.
The system setup was fun and interesting. Wi-Fi was a snap, the setup of the rest was almost brain-dead. There were two system updates on launch. They took around 3-min a piece on my reletively fast broadband.
The Weather and News channels were dead. The pictures channel was empty since I didn't have an SD card (why no out-of-box support for USB media?). The shopping channel had games, but I decided to hold off getting into them until I had seen the rest of the system.
I had a few friends over when I got it so the first thing we did was set up all their Mii's (character avatars). Everyone enjoyed this function and I'm glad it was included. My other friend bought a Wii, so maybe we'll do a Mii parade... Seriously Nintendo, there must be something better that you could do with that. How about an embedded sims or something of the sort? Btw: There is the equivalent of friend codes in the Wii, just in case you misses the memo.
-- Wii Sports --
I jumped into Wii Sports next to see how to use the controls in a gaming situation. I tried each game in turn to get a feel for them all. The controls were definitly hard to get used to the first while. I was doing quite poorly since the wii-mote's behaviour sometimes felt erratic in how it recognized things. After a while, I understood how to use the controls well enough to get through most of the games, and have a lot more fun.
Tennis is really fun. I got a little (physically) tired playing it after a while.
Baseball was ok. It was simple and low impact fatigue.
Bowling is a sport I hate in real life and it hasn't changed here.
Golf was pretty fun and not very fatigueing. It had a lot more problems with my wii-motes though. I tried and tried to find the 'right' way of doing it, but what I did perfectly right one time would be perfectly wrong the next. Frustrating at times, but still a fun game.
Boxing was really fun to play, makes good use of both controllers, but man does it tire me out. Jab Jab Jab Swing Miss Block Dodge!! ACK
There are a few training / testing modes in the game as well. This seems right out of brain age, but for workouts. I can say that this sports title was fun to play if a little fatiguing at times. I enjoyd it because a little extra fitness in my daily nerd life could never hurt.
Anyways, I hope that gives some insights into what you can expect out of the Wii whenever you get yours.
Bye!
I picked up my console at midnight on saturday and raced back to the dorms to find 10 people waiting in front of my door to play it. The only mutiplayer game that i had was Wii sports (both zelda and COD3 are single player) so i ended up having to play that game first. Everyone that was there enjoyed playing with the console and were surprised how accurate the wii mote was at detecting movements. After they left at 2 am i got to start some real gaming action with zelda and COD 3. Zelda lives up to the hype as the true successor to Ocarina of time. the controls are flawless in the game and the gameplay (so far) has been great. I really cant say anything bad about this game, the simple fact is that it might be the best console game for any next generation system (its basically a two horse race between Gears and Zelda as the best currently availible next gen game). COD3 is a good launch title for the wii, but unlike zelda it is not nearly as polished. My Biggest problem with COD3 is that you cannot adjust the sensitivity so it takes a good half hour to get used to the sensitivity. My other complaint about the game is no online or multiplayer mode. Why was this excluded from the wii version is beyond me. however even with these downfalls this game is still good and is a good example of what first person shooters will play like on the new console.
Waited at Best Buy for 10 hours. Brought 4 friends and a tent. When we first go there, a Best Buy employee came by and took a picture of each person standing in line. We were told that this would help reassemble the line in the morning to weed out the people who had sneaked in front of others during the night and whatnot. A picture of you in the camera would also guarantee you a Wii the next day. And sure enough, it worked. Everyone entered the store in a very orderly fashion the next day to get their Wiis. No idea how many "non-photographed" people were turned away while I was blissfully making my purchase inside the store.
Unfortunately they were short on extra wii motes, nunchuks, and classic controllers. Plenty of games though.
By the way, I'm currently having the wireless problem too (the 32002's or whatever they are). It appears to start downloading updates and then freezes after a certain point. The progress bar does move, just very slowly. Yes, my wireless network works, my laptop says so. I think the problem is that the server was getting more and more hits as the day went on. My friend was able to update his Wii at about noon, (even though it was slow, it completed). I, on the other hand, did not get hooked up until later that afternoon. Maybe today will be better. I needs my virtual console games.
I was very impressed that the Wii sold out. I didn't expect it. Then I read that they intend to release 4 million units by the end of the year, not on launch day.
Like it or not, I still had to be impressed, if for no other reason than pretty much all the fans got to get one. I'm happy for you all getting to enjoy your new toy. I'm pretty jealous because I wish the launch of the PS3 had gone as well.
On the profit thing: Starting out strong is great, but what really matters is who wins in the end. I think Sony has a great chance of making a great profit, espcially if you count the number of Blu-Ray discs that will be sold as a result of so many gamers owning a Blu-Ray player. That said, it's all about the games, and I loved playing Motor Storm at the kiosk.
TW
at the EBX (aka Gamestop) at Pacific Place Mall in Seattle, and were 6th out of the store (yeah, that was my son with the RESERVED sign).
Our well-oiled and hot cocoa filled band of three got there around 11:30, only 18 in line ahead of us, but some were like us, a group of people there as support staff. After delegating tasks, we managed to pick up our pre-ordered Wii and got out sixth (6) from the store, with official Nintendo staff taking pics of us. Even though we had forgotten to preorder a memory card, an extra Wii-mote, an extra nunchuk, or any games, we left with the only copy of Rayman's Raving Rabbids as well as someone's preordered Legend of Zelda game. All the controllers - both Wii-mote and nunchuks - were sold out ahead of time, as well as most cool games.
Drove over immeadiately to the Fred Meyer just a few blocks from our house, which apparently let customers into the store (but couldn't purchase) at 11 pm. They were sold out of Wii consoles (they had 70) and controllers as well, by the time we got there at 12:30, and had closed the doors.
We set it up and made Mii versions of ourselves, storing one on the Wii-mote, and played a quick game of bowling, and boxing. Then we went to sleep until 7 am. OK, only four hours sleep. Total cost still way less than a PS3 or an xBox360, with Sims 2: Pets and guide books for both Zelda and Sims 2: Pets thrown in. No, not a Wii version of Sims 2: Pets.
Next morning, tried out the boxing game (fun! exhausting!), tennis, bowling, and golf. Played Legend of Zelda until one of us had to leave (his mom came over, so it was down to my son and I). Also played a fantasy RPG (dungeon) for the GameCube, using GameCube controllers, on the Wii - graphics were sharper, load times were superfast, plays like a dream.
After talking with some friends, we figured out the Sears store might have some controllers and Wii consoles left over - our friends had picked up two consoles out of three people.
So, back in the car, went to Sears (next to Starbucks international HQ), picked up one of their two last nunchuk controllers (sold out of Wii-motes), and got Excite Truck (they still had one copy). Next door, picked up a 1GB SD memory card for the Wii at OfficeMax for $19.99 - sweet!
Then drove over to Costco. They said they won't get delivery until Tuesday, but if you get their sweet package (dirt cheap), you get both Zelda and Excite Truck with it! Best of the bundles we heard of! Think they may also sell it online if you're a Costco member. Well, no Wii stuff, but we bought four two-packs of beef jerky and some nuts, so worth going there.
Back home - played various games. A wonderful day!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Just to let you in on a hint, farming is of very low importance to the masses in the red states.
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
You said "Thats one store" but in reality I gave numbers for 2 stores that are 2 different chains. I'm not sure what the overall national numbers were. but the stores I know of in my area reported a 3:1 ratio.
Regardless, I agree with your statement which is a rehash of my initial comment that Nintendo will be taking a lot of Sony's sales due to inavibility.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
GPU 233 MHz NVIDIA NV2A
Memory 64MB
Oh well, I've got a few karma points to burn...
The Raven
Not an easter egg. It helps pin down any source of interference.
The funny thing is that people who know, get a little insight into
how the whole arrangement works and corrects itself.
Its a set of accelerometers working in concert with a camera-reference point system
not unlike those used in motion capture for CGI and movies.
I was lucky enough to not have to wait in line for more than an hour or so. I went by a local Kmart at 7 AM on Sunday, got a voucher for Wii #5 out of 8, and was back home in bed by 8:30.
Went with a friend to pick up the Wii he preordered from Gamestop. Stopped by Walmart on the way and saw the line--about 40 to 50 people waiting by the layaway department. My friend got his from Gamestop about 12:30 and we went to his house and played till about 2am. Then I went to get my wife and we headed to Best Buy. Got there about 4am. There were 3 tents, one person in a sleeping bag, one man sitting in a chair and an empty chair next to him. We sat down and started to wait. Then we decided to go to Walmart and buy a chair and some gloves and blankets :-) We didn't really need to sit there all night because it wasn't till after 6 that anyone else showed up.
As BB employees showed up for work, someone in line jokingly offered each one $500 for a Wii. Then at 7am the manager(?) came out and annouced that they had 24 and the first 24 in line would get one. (We were number 11!). We were given tickets and told to came back when the store opened and we would recieve one.
Waiting outside about 10 minutes before the store opened was fairly uneventful. There were some excited kids at the front of the line. When they opened, we walked inside in line, traded our tickets for a Wii, picked our games and paid. It was all very orderly.
I almost forget, at Gamespot, there where a couple of people who showed up "in character." Someone came dressed as Link from the Zelda games. Another person came dressed up like a country music singer--boots, cowbay hat, and guitar--and....a Darth Vader mask. He called himself "Garth Vader."
Picked up Zelda, Excite Truck and Madden. I took to the controller as soon as I picked it up. It's very intuitive. We spent most of the time playing Wii Sports. Haven't even had a chance to check out Zelda yet!
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
You mean like this? VG Cats take on the consoles
home
My 9 year old son had been saving up for over six months to buy the Wii, so we just _had_ to get on on Wiiday this Wiikend. Of course, he's cursed with a dad that can't do anything as sensible as preorder! We planned our early AM assault on two Target locations in the Twin Cities, one in town with 39 consoles, a backup just-opened suburban with 70. At 7:45 when we hit the first Target (7:45 for an 8am opening, I tell you, the poor little guy is cursed), we found a line much deeper than 39 people long. We just kept driving out to the second and got there at about 8:05. No luck, all 70 were spoken for. Very sad moment for poor cursed son. The story had a happy ending, though, since we realized Best Buy opened at 9am and we found one by 8:20 and got ticket #75 of the 84 they handed out. Best Buy was terrific, very organized and helpful. Linemates, some of whom had waited from 11pm Wiiday Eve till 8am when Best Buy handed out the first round of tickets, were a friendly and talkative crowd. We waited the 40 minutes and got the Wii.
I have been _very_ impressed. I'm a long-time Mac and Apple fan and the Wii shows signs of thoughtful design. Very easy packaging, simple setup, soothing interface, usable without reading any instructions. We started setting up by 10:20 Central time and the Wii asked to go through two rounds of "update" (about 10 minutes each) after we got the console up on our home wireless. My son picked up Tony Hawk, but has mostly played Wii sports with his father, his brother, and four friends.
A few highlights...
- the little "bump" the controller gives you as you pass over a button in the interface
- the spacial effect of sounds from the controller
- the fun every kid (and I) had designing our own Mii
- the wonderfully smooth action of the control, even allowing a physically challenged brother get into the action
- the soothing music of the interface
- the clever (and appropriate) animation during disk insertion (9 year old _loves_ that one)
- the appearance of all the Miis we'd created on our baseball team (a riot watching kids thank each other for "their" hits)
- the messaging and calendar system with the automatic log (poor cursed son) of play time spent on each game each day
- the ability to email into and out from the console
A few issues...
- neither news nor weather are working (later found the press releases about these being delayed for a few months, but Nintendo really should have updated the Wii Menu to either say that or remove the buttons until they work)
- the lengthy update cycle before we could play (would have been nice to have had some piece of paper or warning that it would happen, or an option to skip until later)
- the Wii froze once during baseball and had to be unplugged, luckily it started up again just fine
Bottom Line...
I think Nintendo has a real hit on its hands. The Wii is just a blast.
One thing I had heard very little about was the integration of Miis into the Wii experience. Each Mii is an avatar of sorts, designed and named by a player. A Mii looks a certain way (maybe a bit like you? maybe not?) and has certain attributes (favorite color, birthday). When you play certain games (Wii Sports, for now) you choose which Mii is playing the game, stats and skills accrue to that Mii. Baseball was especially clever in its use of Miis: your team wears the favorite color of the Mii you picked to play, other Miis from your console populate the home team, etc. Miis can "mingle" and go on "parade" to other consoles (we'll have to wait for a few more Wii's in the hood to test this feature). Miis can also be downloaded to the controller (the Wii Remote) and taken on the road to other Wii consoles where they can be uploaded and used (this is a much more natural process than I just made it sound like). The Miis represent a kind of social gaming trainer that will change how people interact with their gaming environment. It will be really exciting when other game authors come to learn and use the whole Wii ec
Nintendo's market is VERY different than Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo lost 3rd party support in the N64 era, and only slightly recovered with the Gamecube. They will probably recover more with the Wii, primarily because the system is SO different, companies will make a bunch of interesting puzzle games that take advantage of the different UI.
However, Nintendo can come in third and be very happy in their market. Sony/MS need HUGE 3rd party support, because they only make about $8/game sold by third parties. Nintendo makes most of the top sellers (keeping $42/game), and publishes most of the rest (keeping between $16 and $30/game... publishing games sometimes means that they pay development costs + profits, and then keep the $42/game, but figure that the royalties + costs brings that down a bit).
Also, Nintendo has traditionally sold consoles at a profit (at some points with the Gamecube, they sold at a loss). Supposedly that's only a few dollars a console at launch, losses during heavy cuts, and profits in later parts of the system's life. Microsoft bit a big bullet in the Xbox because they were using customized parts with contracted pricing, they learned their lesson this time. Nintendo uses mostly off-the-shelf components, and sets their contracts to decline over time, which Microsoft is aping).
Nintendo probably makes money if you buy their System + 1-2 games (a Mario game and a Zelda game, for example), and then cleans up if you buy more. Because Nintendo's stop selling games are normally Mario, Zelda, and a few other of their games, they make much more money per console than Sony and Microsoft do with their third party fees.
Remember, profits are in the games, and Nintendo's premier games normally sell in the same quantity (or higher) than Sony and Microsoft's top games do... not sure how Mario Sunshine vs. Halo worked out, but if Microsoft outsold them, it wasn't the HUGE difference that the console sales volumes would indicate.
Sony owns the market of hardcore gamers, but Microsoft looks like they are going to do well in the Xbox 360 arena. However, hardcore gamers that rent a few games a month may not put more money into Sony and Microsoft's pocket than a casual Nintendo customer that buys Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and a few other premier games.
Hell, Animal Forest never had a huge player base, but it used simple N64 era graphics with simple programming, and no doubt turned a nice profit.
As a gamer, I'd love Mario to be the most high-tech game on the market, but I can appreciate that Nintendo can make games that are 80% as high-tech as the MS/Sony games are for less than half the cost, sell the same number of units, and make more money. Nintendo has spent two generations not being the top dog, and still made money, while Sega dropped out of hardware, Microsoft lost $4 billion, and Sony kept going. It's unclear whether Sony made more money off the Playstation as Nintendo did with the N64 (the companies don't break out numbers, and analysts gave mixed estimates), but the fact that the PS outsold the N64 4:1 and we're not sure who made money demonstrates the power of Nintendo's business plan... and the Xbox 360 and PS3 are requiring MUCH larger hardware subsidies as last round... last round, Nintendo turned profits, and Microsoft outsold them 2:1 and lost money. Competition makes things better for consumers (as the MS vs. Sony battle to destroy profit margins demonstrated), but the companies with more monopoly pricing power do better.
Expect Nintendo to keep doing their thing, making innovative new systems, selling in third place, and making gamers happy along the way.
Alex
My cousin came over to visit for the holidays and we ended up camping out at a Target at 4AM, we were 27-28 in line at a Target that got 60. Around 7:30 or so lucky #60 showed up. Not too bad, things went quickly. We were home at about 8:30 and unpacking. Target did a great job on this one. ...now, my cousin also needed one for his work (yes, he is a lucky SOB), so we went over to Costco about 5 minutes before opening. They had about 48 and we were number 40 on line. Things took a bit longer, and they had a much stronger focus on making sure everything stays in order vs. setting up a nice streamlined method to getting everyone thier stuff quickly.
Playing the Wii feels like this is the future of gaming, it doesn't have a wow factor graphics wise, but it DOES have a "Wow, this feels like the way games should be played" feel. IMO, it's the freshest idea to come to gaming since 3D. Playing Excite Truck is more like driving than just mashing down buttons and tapping the stick. Playing golf feels actually satisfying. Playing tennis with four people was a blast.
Online capabilities were effectively MIA for the GC. The Wii however... we got IMs going back and forth between them, they have an easy to use store, pleanty of room for more capabilities. I give Nintendo many props for getting thier online stance setup and off and running extremely well.
In conclusion:
Launch: great titles, good supply, well organized
Play: fun and fresh
Capabilities: a refreshing feature set that has pleanty of room for expansion
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
I got my Wii home, and wireless bought stuff fine at 11am-noon Sunday. When I tried to go back online at around 3pm it was totally dead (I had to pull the plug from the Wii). Tried it again today (more games are supposed to appear every Monday) and it was fine. I'm not worried, I just wouldn't recommend using it on Dec. 25th (note to any parents, if you want your child to experience Mario/Zelda-1/Soloman's Key ... buy/download it before you wrap the Wii). After Dec. this year, I expect it'll fine all the time.
Also, I wasn't expecting much from Wii sports ... but it's very enjoyable, even to people who normally don't like sports in any form.
One bad point about the release is the lack of accessories. Esp. the Nunchuck, it looked like they needed roughly 1 per. remote but had nowhere near the supply (almost every game uses the thing -- which is also "nice" in that your controller is like $60). Oi, Nintendo make some more Nunchucks ... like NOW!
Rayman was nice, and my Wife liked it a lot, but I kept feeling that it would be much better for Rayman 2 after the developers have worked out how to program the controller well. I'm not sure anyone could do much about that kind of problem though.
ustr: Managed string API with ave. 44% overhead over strdup(), for 0-20B
I preordered my Wii at my local Funcoland(yes, it's gamestop, but they still call themselves funcoland). They were allowed 8 preorders for customers and 4 preorders for employees(Nintendo alloted) All week I would stop in and confirm that they were going to do a midnight release for the Wii. They confirmed each time.
I got off work at 8pm Saturday night. I stopped by one final time. They said to show up at 11:30. I got there at 11:40 and was the 3rd person in the store. At 12:01 we were given our systems. Because I live close to Funcoland, I was at home with my Wii in my hand at 12:15am.
I purchased a Wii, Zelda, Red Steel, 1 extra Wiimote and 1 extra nunchuck. I also preordered a classic controller, but I was told those will not ship until next week. I declined to buy Wii points in the store, figuring I would buy them online (My mistake).
First, I drooled... I had a euphoric orgasm and unpacked it.
I set up my video camera to video my first experience with my Wii. I'm a big dork.
After the system booted, my brother's kitten noticed a big pointer on the screen and immediately started chasing it around the screen. I entertained her until I had the initial set up (Date, Time, Language, etc...) completed and Zelda started.
Zelda is awesome. It started a little slow though... This isn't a game review.
The major complaint I've seen is people complaining about the WiFi connectivity.
I have an issue with my wireless router (I can't get my PSP to work with encryption). So, I didn't expect the Wii to work.
First off, I tried the normal set up. I entered my WSA key and hoped for the best. It failed. To be thorough, I set the connection up manually and specified the IP for my Wii. It worked IMMEDIATELY. The system updated and rebooted with out a hitch.
I did, however, notice that my wireless mouse (Logitech G7) was being very laggy and jumpy while the system was doing an update. The wireless connection for my Wii was incredibly slow. I have an 8Mbit connection at home, I've never seen anything slow on it. After reading some of the posts on the Nintendo Nsider forums (www.nintendo.com/wii), several people suggested changing the router off of channel 6 and on to channel 11. After I did this, everything is now lightning fast. I can perform updates and connect to the Wii Shop channel instantly.
As I said earlier, I did not buy Wii points at the store... Every attempt at purchasing points online has resulted in a message that states my address entered is incorrect. I've verified it time and time again, but have had no luck. I've emailed the company that administers my debit card, but have not heard back from them yet. So, I do not have any information about the Virtual Console. There is an area to download the Opera browser, but it says it is not ready yet and to keep checking back. I will go purchase Wii points tonight and try the VC out.
The Mii channel is very freaky. It's almost disturbing to think that other 'people' will be visiting my Wii. I turned on the Mingle feature, but have not seen any visitors yet.
Total, I've played my Wii for about 24 of the ~36 hours I've owned it. I've had no issues that make me regret purchasing it. I am pretty sure after a few months of boxing and sword fighting, I will lose some weight. It allows you to be very active if you want to be.
Now, I will play my games and wait for new content and hopefully some friends to pick it up so we can play together.
Sounds very similar to the issues I had when working with this PIC microcontroller scanning an array of IR transistors. Sunlight has a lot of IR in it. Remote control sensors in TVs usually handle this fine because the signal they received is conveyed on a carrier, which is easy to pick out from the "DC" signal of the sun. I also remember having fun waving in front of my bedroom window's mosquito net a single IR transistor wired to a battery and my sound card's line input (I was trying to design an optical guitar pickup) with the sun shining through it. "WOOooo... yoooop...WOOOO.... yooop". Very amusing instrument. ;) Unfortunately didn't work when it was overcast. :P
ok first things first
I mean i saw the commercial for the WII and to me playing mario tennis isnt even worth 5$ As for PS3,,,ok there is the blue ray but let'face it, it's almost dead in the water because it's probably going to be HD-DVD (always the cheapest that wins) so basically,,no movies to run on those machines so your buying a dead end machine like the minidisk, remember those from Sony?
And i get enraged about those console because you need to buy them all to play all the games out there and i just dont get people shooting themselves or trying to sell their PS3 on ebay at 53 000,,,i mean who's the asshole who will buy that game because i want to kick him real hard for being that stupid, eventually they will be enough console out there and probably bug free
Anyways you know i'll stick with my computer, i get the best of every world and games with the better graphics, i just need to update my video card once in a while,,,which doesnt cost much if you wait just a little bit before buying the latest card
Here's my conspiracy theory for the day:
Sony shipped only a small number of units just to whet the appetite of the public.
They are keeping the remaining stock to sell on eBay themselves for thousands of dollars each.
They finally figured out there's no point in selling the first runs at retail when they can get much more revenue with a small 'official' distribution, and then make the big money themselves instead of letting scalpers have all the profits.
Now, pass me my tinfoil hat and tell me I'm wrong...
Windows isn't the answer... it's the question. NO is the answer!
yeah, I'm surprised that they didn't come up with a way of having the IR pulse in such a pattern as to make it distinguishable from other light sources.
Remote control sensors in TVs usually handle this fine because the signal they received is conveyed on a carrier, which is easy to pick out from the "DC" signal of the sun.
When I used to live with my mom when I was like 9, the remote never worked in the mornings because the sunlight would go right on that part of the TV for a couple of hours. we eventually realized what caused it and moved the TV. but it baffled us for quite some time.
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (Junekatoon)- Lively celebrations, frozen fingers, and bleary eyes characterized the morning of November 19 for dozens of area residents waiting in line for Nintendo Wii game consoles.
Gamers braved the freezing weather for up to 15 hours; with near-constant wind and temperatures dipping down to -7 degrees (20 F), many turned to their cars for heat. Complaints of the cold were widespread. Ononymous declared, "I can't feel my hand". Brian couldn't play his DS because it was too cold out. Card and board game activity was severely limited. Jennifer stated "Don't wear a skirt."
More here
(It's never too late to join the Renaissance)
I picked one up after arriving at the store an hour before it opened.
Zelda is absolutely amazing. I don't want to spoil anything, but every aspect of the gameplay seems very polished. I've also spent about 7 of the last 30 hours playing Wii Sports... My shoulder is literally sore from playing Bowling. Much better for my body than sitting down and playing WoW....
I will say that for the most part, Wii Sports gameplay feels a bit shallow. For example, in baseball youre only responsible for swinging the bat or pitching. There realy is no fielding or anything of that sort, but I'm sure franchise baseball titles will be more than happy to remedy that. For any complaints I have of Wii Sports, I've still spent an obscene amount of time playing it... My mom, who I would far from describe as an avid gamer, is also hooked. She forced me to take turns with her, and is coming over just to spend the day playing while I'm at work.
As for the Virtual Console stuff, the site was getting pretty hammered. It timed out a few times before I gave up for the day.
The Mii concept is neat in practice as well. Wii Sports tracks your gameplay statistics via your Mii, and graphs out your improvement.
These are just a few ramblings of my first impression, but its been very very good.
I'm even more excited at the prospect of being able to use my DS with it for new content or enhanced gameplay. I wouldnt have called myself a Nintendo fanboy before, but post Wii, I definitely am.
Nintendo has done it again. It reminds me of the day after Xmas when I got my SNES.
Nintendo predicts to make profits off the Wii by 2007, the consoles being sold so quickly is a testament to that. However statistics also say that Sony is losing 300 dollars for *every* console sold, I mean, no wonder they had to limit sales, I would! They're sending out, what, 400,000 units, that's more than a a hundred million in losses! So much for the blue ray...
You might look into a diesel car. Soybeans > Corn.
Vote Libertarian
...and everyone is just now going home! My birtday was Nov 19th, and the wii/lan party went from midnight (launch) into today, with varying numbers of people. The one thing that has been consistent:
:-(
People who weren't considering getting a wii want one after playing wii sports.
It's simple, it's MUCH better than most reviews give it credit. I think it's meant to wash the unconverted of their hesitance. Red Steel, the other game I picked up for launch, is "ok." I'm expecting some other studio to make something similar, and actually do it right. The game's concept is spot-on, but the execution feels undetailed, and like....a launch game. The sword combat is most dissapointing, I was kinda expecting a hyper-difficult simulator along the lines of "Kengo: Master of Bushido" or "Bushido Blade" - But it's clearly possible, and certainly coming.
Yes, I'm an idiot - I decided to wait on Zelda
Why can't all fpga/microcontroller manufacturers just release free optimizing compilers???
There you go, my initial Wii experiences in a nutshell.
My girlfriend enjoys playing the Wii. My Dad enjoys playing the Wii. The Wii really does attract people who wouldn't normally play games.
The Wii is fun in ways that haven't existed before. The Nintendo Wii is the consumer electronics device that will capture the heart and mind of America. It is the iPod killer. While Microsoft and other companies have been pulling out their hair trying to create the iPod killer, Nintendo has managed to do it without even trying to do so.
Once the word gets out, Sony is in some serious trouble.
My Blog Sucks.
The summary included the phrase "Wii yourself" - I bet that's happened to more than one Zelda fan on launch day.
sic transit gloria mundi
Or should we say current gen now? Anyway, see the tally so far here. I would love to have the sources on these, but I am ready to believe the numbers. And considering at what I have personally been in stores on PS3 launch day, Microsoft sold a LOT of 360's that day. For dissapointed PS3 buyers, Microsoft proposed in Canada a bundle which contained a premium system, with Ridge Racer 6, Ghost Recon : Advanced Warfigher, Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged (6 games from the XBL Marketplace) and last but not least Gears of War (standard edition). Everything for 450CAN$. That was a one day sale (now the price is around 600CAN$). That was 50CAN$ less than what we pay for a premimum system normally and a couple hundred less than what you would have paid if you bought everything separately. They were flying off the shelves. So MS probably outsold the PS3 on that day. Well, in Futureshop's across Canada at least. And they GARANTEED (and still do) the console to be available, or they throw in a 30 dollar rebate off your next purchase. The store I was in in downtown Montreal had run out of copies of Gears of War so they still sold the bundle and indicated on the receipt that the customer didn't get the game and could come and get it any day now.
I have had that happen. I think it's because the IR circuits get overloaded. They have to have a lot of gain to pick up the faint light from the remote control. It is no match for the sun.
Do you call this peaceful? Come on people.
\
What grit sandpaper did you use on your corneas? 150 perhaps? Or maybe you have a 13" TV?
The difference between 480p and 720p is like night and day. I don't mind how 480p looks at all. I think with good equipment it looks very good, but I'm not going to say that they're practically indistinguishable. The difference is glaringly obvious. (Even more obvious when you consider that most 480p content is 4:3, while most 720p content is 16:9).
That said, Even with a native 1080p resolution on my television, I bought a Wii and not a PS3. (Though I may end up getting a PS3 some day) The fact of the matter is that people buy the system that has the games they want to play nothing (literally, nothing) else matters.
Oh don't get me wrong - GP was spewing all sorts of fanboy garbage. You are right.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Sure, 720p is becoming more common (as LCDs and Plasmas grab marketshare), and 1080p is becoming the standard on the high end, but the majority of sets out there are 1080i. Is there is HUGE difference between a movie in 720p/1080i vs. 480p, absolutely, because film internally has such a high level of detail. At the video game level... well, it's NOT huge. More lines are always better, but in a fast moving game, 480p @ 60 fps is really fluid. Sure 720p @ 60 fps would be better, but I would prefer we have a fluid 60 fps than get into more lines. If you have a 1080i set, you can't benefits from 720p unless your set has an "up-converter" from 720p or a "down-converted to 480p).
One of the points of consoles is that with a fixed hardware base, you tweak to get max performance instead of losing stuff to abstraction because you don't understand the hardware. If I was playing on a non-HDTV set (a distinct possibility depending on what TV the console is hooked up to), I would prefer that my games at 480i push the system. If you need to build a came to go at 720p, then you can't have as much going on, for the same hardware, as a machine that only needs to push 480p.
For this generation, HD will be common but not everywhere, and 480p will be pretty good. Last generation, I loved getting 480p games over 480i games, but it was alright either way. Everything being 480p is good enough for now. HD OTA looks MUCH better than DVD, but DVD looks MUCH better than VHS, so we deal. I think that one more rev of console power will make it easy to make 1080p the norm (figure 4-5x the pixels of 480p, but we'll have 5-8 times the hardware) that can output at 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, or 480i depending on your monitor with no difference in playability.
The same way I can enjoy DVDs, I can enjoy 480p gaming. I believe that the hardware in the Wii will push out 480p with full 60 fps MUCH more reasonably than the other systems can push out 720p or 1080i content. This time, 480p is the norm, next time, 720p or 1080p. It's more about more polygons than more lines.
Alex
I do. Super Mario Sunshine sold less copies than Halo, however... Nintendogs outsold Halo 2 and almost every entry of Pokemon outsold GTA.
Got my wii around 11am Sunday. Had to wait in line at toys r us even though I preordered it. Not cool.
Picked up Rayman, Zelda, and an extra wiimote and the cases.
First impressions:
Nintendo really capture something with this console. I was getting mad at my gf for being better than me at bowling. The people we played with actually play tennis and were able to add topspin and chop the ball. Bowling adds curves perfectly. The movement recognized by baseball and golf were cool too.
Boxing will take a while to get used to.
Rayman:
Great party game. The on rails shooting sequences are top notch and this game can provide a good workout.
What amazed me the most about the system, being a gamer since the atari 2600, was it's ability to turn anyone onto it. My gf's parents even played the system and were getting totally into it. I understand why nintendo chose this route instead of putting everything into the newest hardware. The last time I can remember a truly memorable console experience was why I played Halo. But that was just a FPS in a nice package. There really hasnt been any innovation in the gaming industry for far too long.
Gripes:
I really want a company to push what the wiimote is capable of doing. I think Wario Ware will give us the first feeling of that and Mario Galazy will take it to a whole other level. But that isn't until 2007.
I've also heard that the wiimotes eat up batteries galore. I want nintendo to make a docking station that recharges the wiimotes through the nunchuck port. Right now I still have the batteries that came with it and they're lasting but I have energizer litium batteries lined up next. From everything in the wiimote its no wonder the batteries would go quickly, speaker plus vibration, plus bluetooth transmitting plus led's = massive battery consumption.
The Future:
I'll have more info when I play through Zelda more. I haven't even unlocked fishing in the game yet.
More to come......
In the first 2 days, it was reported that Sony sold 81,639 units in Japan, and a total of 66,684 games sold. Their Tie ratio was 0.82 . So not everyone who bought a PS3 bought a game (even though it didn't come with one, not even a demo disk). I would be interested to know what the tie ratio is for the Wii, especially considering their's a game bundled.
Yeah. While it seems pretty evident that Nintendo is crazy trouncing Sony at the launch point, it's entirely feasible about a year (IF PS3 gets the games) that Sony will once again be dominating the market. Sony's still taking a huuuuge gamble at this point though, because if they don't get the games that make the uber-system worthwhile they're nothing but toast in a year. And this is my first /. post. Yay me! ;-}
Haven't gotten the system yet (but it's on my wish list!) and I'm wondering how realistic it is? The bowling game in particular.
Twenties Retirement
Even though Gears of War is tempting as hell, and would look really sweet on my TV, I eventually decided to go with the Wii. Why? Because I still have some Gamecube games I haven't beaten. Because I really want to play with the Wiimote. Most of all, because it's $250. The "premium" 360 is still $400, with no games and limited backward compatibility.
HDTV adoption won't really hurt the Wii. It would be nice if it were prettier, sure. I'd like to play Zelda at 720p, at least. But when you combine the novelty of the controller, complete backward compatibility, and a price that's 30% lower than the nearest competition, it's really not a big deal that your TV doesn't get to show off.
The PS3 will bomb though
Certainly possible. A little(like, by 2 years) too early to decide.
the gaming press hates it
Some of them certainly seem to. Others.. not so much. The "gaming press" has HOW MUCH credibility though?
gamers are "meh" about it
Riiiight.. that's why the ones with more money than sense are spending record amounts on a game console.
and the best game for it (Resistance: Fall of Man) is basically seen as a shitty knock off of Gears of War.
Now you are smoking some seriously insane crack! I'm not too fond of this pesky reality either, can I have some?!
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Congradulations! Welcome to the world of the foocher!
Here were have a wide selection of trolls and fanboys for you to either join or rationally debate in the most futile way against! but wait... there's more!
Constant anti-Microsoft mudslinging and anti-Sony mudslinging!
So... enjoy the world of the future! Enjoy Slashdot.
Looks like a large chunk of the 512 flash memory is system-reserved. The equivalent number of "blocks" free on a fresh Wii is roughly one-third the 1GB card I put in. (I'd go verify, but then I'd be forced to play for another couple hours. :-) It will probably take a while to fill the system to bursting with content... unless they start offering demos, and for full games that's very unlikely with such a small internal reserve. Theirs is the party of inclusion.
Is there word yet on how much is onboard the Wiimote? I would've thought that was the logical place for an SD slot.. but slower speed I assume.
Oh, and there's no crossover between Gamecube and Wii data. No backing up or offloading your Cube memory cards onto SD. Dagnabit!
The PS3 has much of this built in, but the largest complaints come from people (like myself) who would be paying for extra functionality that we won't use. If I buy a 360, I could later choose to buy a HD-DVD drive if I changed my mind. It's all or nothing with the PS3.
Personally If I wanted HD-DVD or Blu-Ray I would buy a seperate player anyway. They play smoother, and typically have more features than what you get in a game system. Sony's been touting the PS3 as 'a cheap blu-Ray player'. Problem is, I believe them. I believe it will be 'Cheap' as in low quality, rather than 'cheap' as in 'inexpensive' when compared to stand-alone units.
Since this post, I've seen new numbers. It appears Nintendo isn't crazy trouncing anything. If they only sold 500,000 units vs. Sony's 400,000, then it looks like Sony is doing very well for itself in mindshare. The numbers are the key, and if those aren't right than my analysis will obviously be wrong. But 500k is kind of small for Nintendo to sell out as leisurely as they have.
TW
I noticed the same thing yesterday. The cursor in Zelda was fairly steady, but in the menus the cursor was pretty twitchy. I just assumed that the six shots of espresso I had trying to stay awake in line to get the system had something to do with that. Guess as soon as I get home I'll have to sit down and try to track down shiny things in my living room as well.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
I also got a console yesterday - I had to do damn server moves all day, so couldn't get home to play until almost 7:00 at night. We knew the guy that owned the store, so he reserved a console for us. My wife picked it up at 5:00, seeing as I was at work all day anyway. All the games were sold out. Everywhere. Guess where I bought Zelda? Blockbuster video - for only 5.00 more than the game store. Sweet! This is a small console. Very Apple-like. The cable for the sensor bar is *really* long (12 feet?). The Wiimote is smaller than expected - batteries almost double the mass of the unit - so it's light too. I'm 6'2" - there was worry of a short nunchuck cable, but I can hold the nunchuck on my chest and make large sweeping arm movements with cord to spare. Nunchuck feels good. The rubber on teh analogue stick is not too rubbery, and not too plasticky.
So far, I've hit a table with the Wiimote, my son hit the light in the basement (on the ceiling) and my wife put a dent in the roof. I've never had so much fun breaking shit. AND - not a scratch on the Wiimote. The Mii's are a whole hell of a lot of fun to create. They spectate when you play the WiiSports, too! (look behind you when you're bowling, for example.) I've only played Tennis, Bowling and Boxing. Boxing is 'meh', but I only boxed one round (you use both controllers to box...and you get TIRED! It's fantastic.)
The Wii connected to my 3com AP with absolutely no problems - All common encryption schemes supported. Channel selection is slim right now, but that will change. On to Zelda...
GET IT. I got yelled at because I was 'cutting grass' too much. This game is much darker than those in the past, and the controller scheme is flawless. (You can run and swing the sword now...)
I'm holding out on games as the reviews arent' in yet (Red Steel I hear is not so good).
Big N has a real winner here. Opera. Online. Swinging virtual swords. George Lucas, I hope you're paying attention. I want to hear my Wiimote make that tell-tale lightsabre sound...
Went to bed at 3:00am.
Not really, because you know it does cost money to make the systems regardless of a profit or loss. Unsold Wii = -$200, Unsold PS3 = -$850. However Nintendo produced much more as everyone has been so quick to point out. Your hypothetical point is wrong.
Give me a link to your fabulous screen. I want.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/whatsnew/2526081bfbcf e010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
Popular Science got one about a week ago, and broke it, so they made the best out of a bad situation.
I agree. A lot of control problems seem to root in people trying to make over the top movements (myself included.. case in point: hammer throw in Super Monkey Ball)..
I must say when zooming in Red Steel I feel a bit like I need to be Mr. Fantastic to pull it off completely, but it turns out okay in the end.
The problems I have with Red Steel aren't control related but the game slowed to a crawl once for ~1 second and freezes everytime it loads a new checkpoint or a new area. This for me is really annoying.. I can get used to it by not moving the remote when it freezes (it caches your actions like a slow computer) but it's still kinda lame. I think the whole "drag the pictures to make this happen" in the menus is kinda unneccesary and lame, but again, once you accept it it's ok.
All in all it's a good game.
- Alex
Nintendo's first shipment was 500,000. They expect to have several million out by the new year. Sony, on the other hand, shipped 400,000 units and there are no further expected ship dates this year. If those reports are true, Nintendo will have major major mind share over Sony come 2k7.
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
Total agreement from me on those points. I hate the load lag, and I have a pointer with a trigger for an FPS. Hint, hint, devs. ;)
Well, it was a balmy -25F here in Fairbanks, Alaska. GameStop had sold out preorders, and I have no idea what was going on down at WalMart, but my choice (and the choice of most Fairbanks residence) was the Northwestern based, Kroger owned chain, Fred Meyers, of which there are two Super-center sized box stores in town. The one I went to reported having 100 Wiis and the other reported having 90. Just for your info, they reported having 8 PS3s at launch.
They close at 11pm, but for the Wii openned at 12:01am for an hour. Since it's so cold, lauches up here aren't exactly the same kind of thing they are down in the states, noone camping for hours on end, partially because everyone knew that NOONE else was going to be crazy enough to do that. I got there at about 10:40pm, and stood in line with some guys. It was a really nice, relaxed atmosphere, some people brought chairs, but most stood around and gabbed, trying to keep themselves warm and taking turns going back and forth to warm up in near-by idling cars (noone was going to be an ass about it... it's called "survival"). Nintendo DSs were out of the question, since it's kinda hard to push buttons with thick, canvas and wool gloves.
At just after 11pm, "Freddy's" shoed out it's remaining customers and did something wonderful we didn't expect, they openned their doors, gave people numbered tickets, and let people line up inside. There were many people there (a number of my buds) who weren't even buying that night, but just wanted to join in the festivities. After going inside, some Nintendo DSs broke out, but we were having a good enough time just hanging out that I didn't really have much interest in playing mine.
At midnight, there was a joyous cheer as the line started moving a bit. The staff (all of which were wearing "Wii Play" shirts), had set up a few islands in the middle of the front isle, which had games and accessories. The Wiis were handed out in order of ticket number (I was #44 out of 100), at a window, and everyone (surprisingly calmy) went for games and accessories. When I got there, there were a number of copies of Zelda left (one of which I nabbed), something like 3 VC Controllers left (also one of which I nabbed), but unfortunately they had long since run out of extra Wiimotes and Nunchucks, but that'll be okay for the moment, especially since one of my other friends bought a system, so we'll have two controllers for the moment. Copies of Red Steel were long since bought out, but I hadn't planned on getting one, since Zelda will keep me well enough occupied for a while, and FF12 and Okami are still running strong on my PS2. Overall, a very pleasant and successfull launch experience.
Now, onto my impressions:
I had a little trouble, at first, getting the sensor bar setup in the right place, considering my TV setup, but when I came up with works fairly well, and I'm planning on getting a new TV soon anyway. I was able to get up online instantly, although I noticed that besides the shopping channel, none of the other channels were currently up yet. It's really nice to have the controllers separated for Zelda, I never noticed how ridged a one-piece controller could be. When not having to use the pointer features of the Wiimote, it's wonderfull to just lay your hands down on the couch on either side. My only real gripe is the speaker in the Wiimote... I won't mince words: it sucks. I wasn't expecting anything stellar, but I was hoping that they would be smart enough to use it for only very simple sounds: clinks, and swipes of swords, things like that. But they're trying to use it for too much: voices, menu sound effects, various atmospheric-based sounds that don't even make sense to be coming from your hand... just not smart, and feels a bit gimmicky. I imagine that down the line, companies will become more intelligent about WHEN to use the really really basic speaker in the Wiimote... but it seems they're not, yet. Also, the lack of volume control, or mute on the Wiimote totally baffles me. My only other gripe is th
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Purchasing Wii points for me took about literally 3-5 seconds after I clicked on what essentially is a submit button (i forget what it says) and then Virtual Console games downloaded at a fair speed..
... but I had no problems with WiiConnect/24
Not as fast as they should have. Being that my download speed averages about 900k/s, NES games should download instantly but they took like maybe 5-10 seconds.
A good question is when the poster of this article and other people that had problems try this? I didn't get my Wii online until 12:30 because I woke up at 10 (when the store I reserved at opened) and didn't buy the Wii til 11:30, then I got home and spent a while opening everything (3 controllers, 2 nunchuks, Wii large home organizer from Target, and the Wii itself)
I do have to say that the Switch and Carry Large Home Organizer that Target sold prior to the launch is flawed and the Wii does not fit in the stand, in any way shape or form, due to the Wii having rubber feet on the left side that are used for placing the console horizontally. The included vertical stand has notches for the feet. After I think about my experience with other Switch and Carry products I'm not surprised and I'm actually hitting myself in the head for buying it.
- Alex
My wife and I managed to acquire a Wii on Sunday morning. We first tried at one of the local Wal-mart locations, where we arrived at about 5PM to check out the situation. There were already some people lining up, but we confirmed with an employee in electronics that nothing would happen until midnight. So, we decided to come back before midnight and see if we could get in line. Upon arriving at the store at 11PM, we noticed there wasn't a line anymore. When we asked the salespeople, they said they'd given out the little tickets to everyone and told them all to go home. So all the units were technically "sold", though no money changed hands, and I think the people had until noon to come in and purchase the consoles with their tickets. This did not make us happy, as the previous salespeople had not told us the truth.
Anyway, we decided to try Target next (though they were closed, and I already knew how many they'd be receiving) and there were only two people camping out at the door. We went home, waited until about 6AM, and went back. We got in line (5th in line) and waiting until shortly before the store opened, where the employees handed out the tickets with a 15 minute validity after opening to go and pick up our consoles. Altogether, Target was incredibly professional complete with signs, helpful salespeople, and an orderly process for getting the Wiis to the customers without any problems. My hat off to them (if I wore hats, anyway).
Okay, so after that little adventure, we were the proud owners of a Wii. I am not exaggerating when I say we've enjoyed this console more than any other. We picked up an extra Wiimote and nunchuck attachment, Rayman's Raving Rabbids and Twilight Princess. When we first powered it up and went through the setup, it was as easy as could be to get it updated and ready to rock. We played Wii Sports for a few hours, then Twilight Princess for a few, and finally Rayman for a few hours after that. The controllers worked almost perfectly, and the experience was not only fun but invigorating! Heck, we actually got some exercise from all the bouncing around with the wiimotes.
Just for the heck of it, I also bought and downloaded a copy of Donkey Kong for the virtual console. That worked as promised too, and I had a little bit of old school nostalgia that was easily worth $5.
So far, this is our favorite system ever, and we look forward to getting more games later. I'd say we're interested in the majority of the titles that will be available for the console, especially if they make use of the interactivity the Wiimote provides. Nintendo did an awesome job, and they're going to be receiving many more of my dollars in the future. Sony and Microsoft, on the other hand, won't see a cent.
The difference between 480p and 720p/1080i is night and day with broadcast tv, but it doesn't hold true always for videogames. Remember, you're comparing real life to polygons. There's not nearly as much information there to transmit. Granted, it will still look better, but it's not as dramatic as you're making it out to be. The biggest difference between this gen and last gen is in high rez textures, and they're going to look fine in either format.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
I attended Nintendo's launch event in Los Angeles Saturday night and it was packed with people. I don't think even Nintendo expected this many people to be there. The PR folks kept assuring us there would be more than enough Wiis to go around even without a preorder, but sadly that wasn't the case. They ran out of wristbands for the people in line a few hours before the launch hour and people had to be turned away. Overall, the event was pretty disorganized and when they finally started selling Wiis, the line moved at a sluggish pace.
I don't see why it should ever take this long to move a line. You go in, you say, "Hi I'd like a Wii and X games. No warantee, thanks." Then you pay. But I think there were people who actually waited in line for hours who got to the checkout counter and said, "So...what game do you think is good?"
There's a full recount with pics on my site.
As an aussie without a wii yet, I have one question. Can you play gamecube games using the classic controller? I have seen info about saying you can't but the local EB store seems to think you can. We want to be able to play the gamecube mario kart till the new one comes out.
Thanks
Yes yes yes. I'd been saving my shekels for months and i stood in line saturday night so i could take one home and play all day sunday.
One) It worked easily. Synching up controllers, connecting to my wifi network, aligning the sensor bar -- all these things happened with no goofing around, push a button or select a menu item and it happened, first try. Thank you nintendo for _not_ choking my game machine with 'not ready for prime time" features.
Two) Audio environment. I love all the lounge music. I'm happy leaving the Mii parade running in the background while i make lunch.
Three) Controllers - they work beautifully. As easy and intuitive as i'd hoped. When i figured out how to hook (spin) my bowling ball in wii sports, I was sold. This is satisfying and i'm pretty sure my great aunt, whose fingers are too arthritic to hold a bowling ball anymore, will be able to play this game and enjoy herself.
Four) Zelda looks beautiful, the control scheme is satisfying, and the beautiful scale of the thing is inspiring. (spoiler alert!) When my son was asked, after entering his name for the game, to enter a name for Epona (Link's horse) we both whooped with pleasure. Small touches make such a difference. Over and over again we said to each other 'yes, that's the way to do it.'
Five) Rayman raving rabbids. Yes yes yes. Dozens of minigames with excellent use of the controls and a crazed style that is both amusing and a little disturbing. You can tell that the developers loved what they were doing. All the polygons in the world are useless if you can't get the developers excited about making great games.
Well, gotta go play some more.
I was at a friend's family event this weekend and at one point we had a conversation about the new consoles. They were asking me questions about the system, and the intelligence of Nintendo's position can be seen here:
"My nephew was asking me about those new game machines that came out."
"Oh yeah, both the Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii came out!"
"So how much are they?"
"The PS3 is $600." ::gasps and foreign lang. cursing::
"What about that Nintendo thing?"
"$250, with a game included, just like they used to do with the NES and SNES."
"Ok, that's cheap! I'll get him that for Christmas."
Miyamoto's genius: Reasonable pricing, availability, and an appeal to the memories of when consoles could play something right out of the box.
Ultimately there are bound to be at least as many stories of Wii failure than there are PS3 failure. Many more units were (and will until the year end of 4M) be sold.
Just moving to Omaha, Nebraska, I found myself not knowing where I should turn for my anticipated waiting line for the Wii. I shopped around 2 weeks in advance, and found out that I had the best odds outside of town about 30 min. to Freemont, NE at there local Walmart Superstore.
I showed up at 5:00 pm and was greeted at the door, and upon asking where I needed to stand in line for the Wii, I was told to go ahead and head back to the Layaway desk.
Once I got to the Layaway entrance, I noticed there was a few people already there, and asked the last person in line if they knew how many units would be available so I could count heads. They happily told me that the Store manager had just stopped by and handed out chairs for the 20 consoles that would be available, and that there was 2 chairs left. So I took my seat next to them, #19!!!!
About 3-5 min. later, another 2 people showed up and we informed them that there was only 1 seat/console still available, and so one of them sat down, and the other decided to just hang out since he was the other person's ride, and they where glad that at least one of them was going to get one.
A few minutes went by, and the store manager stopped by again, and informed the person sitting on the floor that there was only 20 consoles available and he would not be getting one. this person said they had already been told by the line, and he was just hanging out with his friend, and waiting anyway. So the store manager leaves, and comes right back with another chair for that person to sit in. That was really nice.
Well anyway, bathroom breaks and even the occasional trip to the in-store McD's was welcomed by all, and seats where saved all around as we took turns.
Sitting in the warmth of the store for 7 hours playing old NES games on my Motorola Q cell phone, and chatting with all those around me, was a great experience, as I had never done the opening day launch before. Then about 20 min. before midnight they set out all the games and extra controlers that they had available on the layaway counter for us all to look at in anticipation.
At midnight we all stood from our chairs, and proceeded to one at a time approach the counter, pay for our Wii and accessories, and wave to those left in line as we walked off with a satisfying grin across our faces.
What a good time. And a big thank you to that Walmart manager who provided us all with chairs, and the ability to sit inside the warmth of the store that day.
Afterthought. . . The first guy in line did get there at 5am, and he was a store employee!
Self proclaimed wannabe geek. You know how it is. Most of us who read this stuff probably fit in that category.
My experience (ok 25% mine 75% my girlfriend's with me watching :-) ) has been a good one. The controllers are a work of technological art and make games more interactive and interesting. Wii sports is silly and entertaining and meant to be played standing up :-). Twilight Princess is an awesome combination of Zelda and duckhunt. Run around with a sword slashing things to bits by swinging the remote around. Switch to the slingshot or boomerang and aim at the screen with the controller to hit stuff. Very slick. Much more fun and interactive than aiming with a controller. I can actually hit stuff now :-). All in all, I imagine we'll see our PS2, and other consoles rusting from disuse. I'm looking forward to more titles coming out and the online features filling out.
Had a Wii launch party with 10-15 of my nearest and dearest. First and foremost, NO LOAD TIMES. Okay some load time, but faster than any other console. Most of the games seemed gimmicky focusing on new ways to interact. As a party game system it was funny to watch people gesturing as they played. One draw back is the insensitivity of the system to normal movements requiring players to over articulate and exaggerate their motions. The day after my arms are sore from several hours of playing. It was also necessary to move furniture to create an area for players to stand and gesture wildly as they played. The Freebie Sports Game disc didn't have much in the way of long lasting entertainment. The clear winner from the initial release is Rayman. Unfortunately as a single player, it is more or less a pass around/turn taking party game. After a day of motion based video games, most launch party attendees were happy to sit down to a controller based game on a different console.
First, the bad:
;-) Seriously, this thing is really fun to play, and my gut tells me that I'll still think so once the novelty wears off.
1.) I popped wii sports in first thing, and tried all the events. Last, I tried baseball, and I hit a line drive to the right outfield that caused the system to lock up and emit a horrible buzz. A power cycle fixed it, and the problem never happened again.
2.) I signed in to the Wii Store, and for some reason (heavy launch-day usage?) they weren't responding. I gave it 20 minutes on the "Connecting..." screen, before verifying that although I could move the pointer, no buttons would do anything. It took a power cycle to turn it back into a useable system.
3.) It's a bit disingenuous to say that the system supports 480p, when that resolution requires a $30 cable that nobody will have in stock until mid december. And it's a bit disingenuous to say that the system can connect to a wired lan, when that requires a $25 adapter that won't be available until mid january!
Now the good-
1.) Sports and Zelda are a blast. I got stuck in Zelda's forest temple, but that's nobody's fault but my own.
Austin is more fun than Dallas.
that only applies to HD-DVD - Blueray player. Otherwise, you get more with PS3 (bigger hard drive for example).
:-)
Also, with xbox, you actually have to buy MS approved stuff or void your warranty... PS3 specifically is designed to be upgraded by everyone.
- Option to install additional OS (Linux)
- Use any bluetooth keyboard/mice, dont have to pay extra for "PS3" version
- Upgrade hard-drive yourself without voiding warranty - hard drive was specifically built to be easily accessible and upgradable, and you can plug and play.
Thats what I like better about PS3 itself. You can also use any kind of usb memory and 2-3-4 different types of flash memory, which is very different from Sony using only memory sticks before.
As to the quality of Blueray, actually, tests found PS3 implementation to be better than first standalone blueray drives on the market, which cost 50% more than complete PS3.
C'est la Wii.
are you actually counting the diferences of Wii and X-box architeture?
:3
i mean,its PPC versus shitty x86
and by your logic,the Video chip of Wii must be only half of the speed of the X-box 360 one,as X-box 360 has only 500 mhz on the video chip
New estimates indicate that Sony's numbers were even lower than the world's already lowered expectations. According to industry analysts, only 10 PS3's were shipped, and around 100,000 were sold.
You live and learn. At least, you live.
After a failed attempt at getting one at wally world (the manager came out at 7PM and said there were 20 available for midnight, and I was #22), I stopped by Best Buy at 7PM and saw more people, but the people at the end of the line said they had a massive number available (over 100). I grabbed some warm clothing and a folding arm chair and got in line for the night. Tickets would be given out at 8AM, with the store opening at 9AM. Here's what I observed:
* Everybody was friendly, it was easy to make friends.
* The line was about 20% Best Buy employees. Sounds like no employees got any special preference.
* The front of the line was the quietest; those were the people in tents who got there before the PS3 even started selling.
* Much Mario Cart action, and the high point of the evening was when a semi ran over a pizza (I guess you kinda had to be there).
* Shortly after midnight, a few cars came by with guys who got midnight Wiis, and tried to sell them to us. Offers ranged from $6 (that's $6, not $6 above retail) to a half-bottle of beer.
* Tickets were handed out at 8AM, and everybody in line got one. The people toward the front of the line were half-jokingly yelling at the people at the back of the line who arrived at 7AM. I was #36, my boss (who arrived just before midnight) was #48.
* When they opened the doors at 9AM, they let us in 10 at a time so we wouldn't rush the games aisle to get games/accessories.
* I commend the manager for his evilness. Basically everybody in line wanted Zelda, but there were only about 10 on the shelves, so those sold out quickly. I wanted Zelda and Excite Truck, so I at least got one that I wanted. Now, while we were waiting in the checkout line with our controllers/games/etc, he comes around with a stack of them that they "just happened to find now".
* Speaking of games, I saw most people buying games with their Wiis. By contrast, I heard that out of the ~30 people who bought PS3s at that store, only 6 got a game. (Remember, the Wii comes with a pack-in game, the PS3 does not.)
* I got my Wii, Zelda and Excitetruck. By 10AM I was at home, setting up the console. At 11AM, after playing a few rounds of tennis, I fell asleep, having no sleep for the last 26 hours.
(This was the Reno Best Buy, if you care.)
I came across the South Park: Make Love not Warcraft episode thanks to mention about it here on Slashdot, which I found rather humorous, especially since it handled the truth of game addiction and its consequences fairly accurately (being a game addict myself). What was particularly striking was how gaming tends to contribute to poor health, as hardcore players may not balance exercise with their gameplay.
The Wii brings back the arcade - where you had to stand at most of the games. It's harder to get lazy when you have to stand up to play a game. Wii Sports in particular was a lot more fun than I expected, and even has a rating system to tell you your approximate age based on how well you perform in four different sports. Of course I got a rating 13 years older than my present age, although part of that was due to distractions and difficulty finding the "Pause" button. Ultimately, however, I feel that unlike many other gaming systems, and PC gaming in particular, it will be much harder to be unhealthy while playing Wii games.
In addition to bringing back the stand-up arcade, the Virtual Console was one of the biggest selling points for me, as I love retro games, and I have a soft-spot for Nintendo games in particular. I look forward to the expansion of the library of available games, although I have already snagged the classic NES Zelda just to try the system out. There is something really cool about playing classic games on a nice television set with fully functional controllers - as opposed to fighting with an aging machine that has failing controllers and has already been patched together for functionality more than once with limited success. I also hope Nintendo plans to put up a release schedule so I can plan for the games I really want (at the top of the list is Final Fantasy, followed by Castlevania 2 and Dragon Warrior III).
Being a father of three also creates a demanding budget, which is why I am particularly happy to have a system that fits my budget. The functionality of e-mail and web-browsing also makes it a mini internet computer as well. Altogether it is a lot of bang for the buck.
My only frustration would be the multiple controllers - there is the standard Wii controller, plus the Nunchuk, plus the Classic controller (sold separately) which is a little annoying, although the fact that they are wireless by default, have built in speakers and rumble-pack, and 4-player support is available makes up for a lot.
Overall, I'm a much happier camper than I have been with either the Playstation 1 or 2 (I've never owned nor do I plan to own an X-Box).
There's my 2 cents.
I like this post. It's nice to see a reasonable reaction from the Zelda fans. I usually cant gauge any sort of truth from reactions to a Zelda title, since it's either bitter rebuttle, or pure fanboyisms of "OMG TEH LEET!".
Based on this comment, Ill probably try out the new Zelda. It's pretty good? That's fine by me. I can believe that. But I went into Ocarina of Time having been THOROUGHLY prophesied that it was the greatest Zelda ever, and to this day, Ill still take Link to the Past over it any day, and now I hate OOT just because of the fanboy following.
Dont get me wrong, Im not attacking nintendoers here. I have the exact same problem with the Devil May Cry series on PS. Loved DMC1, havent been able to get a reasonable reaction to any DMC afterwards until years after they've dropped and the hype has died down. And Im not one of those people who have the cash laying around to just pop out 50 dollars on a new game on the *chance* that it's good and that I havent been lied to.
The AP reported about this guy. Whatever makes you happy, I guess. Although if he was going to put a Nintendo reference in his name, he could've at least chosen something a little subtler. I mean, how does that work when he's cruising bars?
I.T.J.: The name's Johnson. Triforce Johnson. [Shakes hands while wearing power glove]
Random lady: Oh! It's so bad!
[Insert your own "Play with your Wii" joke here.]
I produce electronic music and write little games. Have a look.
Just to let you in on a hint, he said "the irony of red states in the midwest." That's right, not all states, not all red states, and not all midwest states.
And for a second hint, regardless of the number of people doing the farming, the farm lobby exerts an extremely powerful influence in traditionally ag-intensive states. Every douchebag dressed up for Country dancing is a potentially sympathetic vote for the farm lobby; even if they're accountants and dentists, they vote the way they imagine themselves--as "salt of the earth" folks. Regardless of how much more important services and industry are to the economy, farm states vote like farm states.
wait.. that's not a television! that's just a white screen. I thought we were talking about TVs. Imagine how happy I was when I saw that I could get a 120-inch tv for $260 hahaha :)
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
There was no violence at our little gathering at the Fred Meyer in the rural Oregon town i'm currently living in. However I did bring my gun along, just in case i got the opportunity to shoot someone. Unfortunatly Mr. Freeman didn't show.
I got my Wii at the local ToysRUs. This one was one of the 12 nation wide that was opening at midnight. They had 148 consoles and I was 105 and my friend was 104. We stood in line a total of 7 hours from 6pm to 1am.
I have to say though that even though my feet are killing me it was actually kinda worth it. The system is an amazing piece of technology and I look forward to additional functionality from Nintendo and 3rd party vendors in the future. The Wiimote is very very cool.
I stood in line at our local wal-mart for 6hrs to get a Wii. I was #23 of 30 lucky enough to get one. I bought Zelda & Ultimate Alliance with my system. Ultimate Alliance is so so. Zelda is a wonderful game. Swinging the controller around to attack things is actually a lot of fun, even after several hours of playing. I really enjoy this console and I definately do not regret my purchase. The wait wasn't anything special. I sat in a chair in the garden center armed with my DS for entertainment. I'm really glad I brought my heavy coat with me because it was defiantely cold. Two people sold their seats during the last hour before midnight. One went for $150 and the other for $200. The two guys who bought the seats said they had to get their hands on 2 more systems because they had already pre-sold the consoles for $700. I guess cutting into their profits was acceptable that late in the game.
Most 480p content is 4:3? Since when? Most DVDs I have are 16:9 or wider, and the other major use for my TV is the PlayStation 2, which has widescreen support in most games.
I was comparing 16:9 480p Faroudja-upscaled DVD with 16:9 720p OTA HDTV. On a normal size screen (under 46") with a good upscaler, at regular viewing distances, I still maintain that there's no major quality difference between upscaled 480p from a good source, and 720p.
Sure, if I position my eyes a foot from the screen I can see the difference. But I don't play games or watch movies that way.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Wee? Wye?
The Toys 'R' Us in my town stored their pallet of 40 wiis in the wrong spot in their warehouse... the spot where rain fell on and ruined them the day before launch. /Stood in line two hours, played for six or seven. //3 generations, all played bowling together. ///my brother wondered how many people have accidentally punched each other yet.
I resold one for $500 with a game only 10 hours after I got it.
Nintendo sold just over 600,000, while Sony sold just over 200,000.
"Sufferin' succotash."
The store owner, who normally gets up at 4:30 am, ended up picking one up at Kmart, third in line. Yeah, they sell them there too!
All the 40 to 55 aged men were talking about how jazzed their kids - boys and girls, ages ranging from 4 to 17 - and their wives and girlfriends were about it. Some of us went with our kids or girlfriends to wait.
Main game buzz - everyone got Zelda, most of the dads were kind of "ho hum" about that, but the kids liked it. Everyone - and I do mean everyone - liked Wii Sports (comes with it). Lot of sore arms today.
Rayman's Raving Rabbids seems to be very fun - everyone who had it said it was the best game.
Excite Truck was apparently fun to play. I haven't tried that yet, but did get a copy. Not enough time.
Someone had Red Steel - they said it was ok, but didn't talk much about it. Didn't seem displeased with it, just not jazzed as they were for the other games.
That's how it's going in North Seattle near Gas Works Park.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Xbox could support 720p games (though only a handful) because it had 64K of unified memory, system and video ram together. The framebuffer could be as large as you needed, 3MB for 480p (front and back) or 7MB for 720p, or more.
Details are sketchy of Wii's internal architecture, but if it has a more limited framebuffer size, 720p may simply not fit. Depending on how the graphics buses are arranged, it may need to put the Z buffer in certain areas of video memory too, who knows. The old Voodoo2 could not manage more than 800x600 (unless you stuck two of them together) due to framebuffer size limits.
At the least, you'd have to make a big tradeoff in speed & texture quality, even if you don't scale the hardware up. Any 720p games will be compared to X360/PS3, and suffer for it. Nintendo knew what they were doing; rather than try and compete on graphical quality (not their strength), they compete on price and controller innovation, as they have always done.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Nintendo will make more since the product doesn't cost them $250 to produce and therefor they make a profit on each and everyone sold. Sony on the other hand might lose upto $300 / console so the fewer they sell the more they "make", or well, the more they don't lose ;)
But of course Sony hope to make up for that in games and blu-ray royalties I suppose.
$400 of that $900 is for the labor costs he accrued using up the roll of toilet paper.
Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
Most 480p content is 4:3? Since when?
Most 480p content is NTSC video after a 3:2 pullup. With square pixels, 480p is *never* 16x9. It is 640x480. 720x480 with rectangular pixels is as good as 480p gets. Simple math. You've got both horizontal and vertical resolution loss between 480p and 720p no matter how you get your signal. If you've got reasonable vision, and a screen that is larger than 30", you can walk into a room and tell at a glance if the video is 480p or 720p (or 1080i. It is very hard to tell the difference between 720p and 1080i at a glance).
480p content is good enough for me, but I'm not going to say I can't tell the difference. I can, and very easily. Anecdotally, I'll say that most people can.
Wow, I was almost starting to believe the propaganda that the Xbox family wasn't only for Halo (and would have done just fine if Microsoft didn't embrace and exclusify the franchise); but, wow. It's a good way down the list to get to any Xbox game at all and then a loooong drop to any Xbox game that isn't Halo. Even sorting by America instead of Total just moves Halo closer to the top and doesn't help the relative outlook of an other Xbox titles.
The last consoles I owned were a Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. I'm strictly a PC gamer, but I do plan on buying a Wii after Christmas because its novel control scheme should offer something that PC games do not. Buying an XBox or Playstation would be redundant because they offer nothing over PCs as far as hardware goes.
~CGameProgrammer( );
after waiting in line for 8 hours drinking too much mountain dew
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212
hehe
*takes bait*
Maybe it's low 'cause they've got some decent launch titles
When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
Oh, great comic site...! I've never seen vgcats.com before...
*drags into comics folder on bookmarks toolbar*
Thankee ^^
When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
It's in the Wiimote section of the setup screen.
System settings 2 > Sensor Bar > Sensitivity
Page 50 of your Operations Manual.
Clones are people two.
The anamorphic DVD is 720x480. That's a 16:9 image with (almost) square pixels. The image is sent down the HDMI cable to the TV, which displays it on the 1280x720 screen by scaling to 1.5x original size. Where is this "horizontal and vertical resolution loss" supposed to be coming from?
Most people can't even adjust the brightness, contrast and color appropriately on a regular TV, so I kinda doubt it.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I got a wii! thank god. After an exciting night of ufc action, I decided to go wait at WalMart all night to get a Nintendo Wiines. I sat down and worked on call for my company all night outside of Walmart by plugging in my laptop to a vending machine at the front of the store, and then connected to the internet via my Blackberry on the EVDO network in order to do any work tasks. I had a coffee just before the start of my wait and I was 10th in line. Walmart had approximately 30 Wii's available and they were scheduled to open at 9 amm, but gave out tickets to the people that were going to get wii's at 7:15 am. Boy was I tired in the morning when I finally got my WII and my copy of Zelda: Twighlight Princess. I must say though that I am very impressed. I didn't pick up Red Steel due to really bad reviews but a couple of the other games like Rayman and Monkey Ball looked fantastic. I'm very impressed with the responsiveness and accuracy that the motion sensor controllers have. Nintendo are frikin' geniouses and I can't even imagine paying for a playstation 3. I could buy two wii's for the price of one ps3. I must say though, due to the fact that I am jacking my neighbors wireless and internet and amplifying their signal with a repeater I apparently cannot update my Wii so I will unfortunately need to break down and finally start paying a damn isp... hmm, or will i .,, moo haha ...
and the fun continues ... Zelda is great. A sudden unexpected turn in the game has made it wicked. can't wait to play it tomorrow.
too lazy to write any more about my system because well i should be playing it right now ...
catch ya later,
neil
neilmcwilliam.blogspot.com
Sunofa...
I was 35 in line when they told us there were only 30 in store. #^$^%%*#^%
Wound up spending a cold night in front of the new Target in Bedford, but I did get ma Wii!!! ^_^
After unsuccessfully store hopping before the sun came up on Sunday, I went to a local furniture and electronics store Monday morning. They were not open on Sunday so they sold their stock of Nintendos the next day. I showed up ten minutes before opening and there was already a good sized group there. Someone told me to sign "the list". I found a list, put myself down as #31 and crossed my fingers. As the door opened we found our way to the service area where they were being sold. People were arranging the line according to the ordering on the list. Here is where it gets interesting... The list was not generated for the business. The list was created and handled by the MOB! There was an orderly mob in charge of the Wii launch at this store! It boggled my mind!
There were 36, I got one. My girlfriend who doesn't like videogames nearly at all loved the interface! ("Wow that new Nintendo is small!", "What a cute little controller!", "This is fun because I am doing the action not pushing confusing buttons!") You should have seen the smile on her face when the lightbulb went on in her head connecting her movement to the action on the tv. Another victory for Nintendo.
3A 4E 22 05 C1 83 0B 7A
It's random, but my posting it here is probably considered illegal to someone.
OP is correct - The resale market for the Wii will be very low because nobody short of a mindless nintendo fanboy would want want a gamecube in a differently-shaped box.
Although your statement is correct, it's also irrelevant, since the Wii is not "a gamecube in a differently-shaped box" by any stretch of the imagination.
In case you want to see more comics and haven't seen this site before, http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/ has a large list of various comics.
Stopped adding to my bookmarks after adding 20 more comics from that list. *grin*
home
Top selling Xbox game, Halo 2, 7.55m units, next top selling game, Halo, 6.44m units.
While the top sellers of all time are classic Gameboy and NES games in general, that was when Nintendo monopolized the market and restricted the variety of games.
The top selling Gamecube Games are:
Smash Bros Melee, 6.1m
Mario Kart: Double Dash, 6.01m
Super Mario Sunshine, 5.56m
So, the Halo franchise moved almost 14m units in two games, and the Mario Franchise moved 17.57m.
Granted, the Mario games used 3 games to do it, and Halo only 2, but my point remains the same. While the two Halo games outsode the top Mario games by between 10% and 25%, Nintendo clearly did better with their top franchise than Microsoft did (and that's without counting all the other Mario derived games on the list).
The Xbox outsold the Gamecube by a long shot, and the Gamecube's top games were competitive for top games. I think that it demonstrates that while Nintendo can't print money like they could in the NES games, they still have a model that moves a LOT of units.
Alex
They heydays of the NES are gone, but they can print money. The DS is doing phenominal worldwide. If you check the above chart, there are 15 DS games that sold over 1 million copies.
Keep in mind the NES had a 6 year life before the SNES came to market, and they released games for another 2 years afterwords. The DS just turned 2 years old. :-P
Go look on eBay now, those PS3s that were going for $8000 are now down to about $700-800
Everyone with decent levels of feedback is still getting quite a bit. And I hope to god that all the assholes with more money than sense are done. Not everyone can afford to go crazy like that, so it's not very telling that it's dying down.
Now there's a flood on the market, and nobody wants to buy the damn things.
People not getting several grand on eBay for the things is not an indicator that nobody wants them. Being willfully ignorant much?
Next you'll be telling me about the negative user reviews of PS3 games so far. Funny how most games had more user scores than pre-release units of the PS3 existed. Yeah, it's not the anti-Sony nuts doing it, couldn't be.
Also... 400,000 PS3s? You realize the Wii launch is about 10 times that large.
A.) I don't fucking CARE! I have ABSOLUTELY NO CONCERN FOR WHO WINS THIS "CONSOLE WAR." What I do care about is pointing out the bullshit, lies and FUD.
B.) WRONG. There are nowhere NEAR 4 million Wiis. Nintendo said they'd have 1 mil in NA at launch, and they supposedly didn't quite achieve that. I do not care, just pointing out that you're wrong. Here's a source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6162151.html
FUD is not fun for anyone, no matter who is spreading it. Please stop it.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
The local SuperTarget that I went to had 33 units, and I waited outside for mine since 10:15 that evening. I was #25 in line, which filled up by 10:45. The police did briefly come that morning, the reason being that the manager came outside around 6am to speak to us, and forgot to disarm the alarm system on the door before unlocking it. There were about 40 people in line when the tickets were distributed.
I bought my system with The Legend of Zelda Toilet Princess (awesome game), Red Steel, and Excite Truck (both of which I haven't played yet). I also got a points card, which I was disappointed to find out that Super Mario RPG isn't available on the virtual console yet. I've played my Wii on a 13 inch television, which I haven't had problems with other than it being small.
Also to note is that I have the $40 Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector by Buffalo, which I use for my DS. The Wii works flawlessly with it as long as my computer is turned on, so I don't need to buy a wireless router just to get my Wii online.
Controls / graphics / Sound ... = Well done. The thing that I think of most in Rayman though, is Laughing. It has a great art direction, the bunnies through their various actions and the mini-games are so fun/weird/WTF!? you can't help but laugh and have fun. It is a very lively and funny game.
The anamorphic DVD is 720x480. That's a 16:9 image with (almost) square pixels. The image is sent down the HDMI cable to the TV, which displays it on the 1280x720 screen by scaling to 1.5x original size. Where is this "horizontal and vertical resolution loss" supposed to be coming from?
720x480 isn't even close to 16:9 with square pixels. 480p at 16:9 with square pixels would be 854x480.
On a screen 1m across, w = 1000/720 = 1.39mm, h = 1000 * 9/16 / 480 = 1.17mm.
Is a shape that's 14x12 close to square? I think so.
But this is beside the point. I repeat, where's this "horizontal and vertical resolution loss" supposed to be coming from?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Wait after Xmas and they may very well be half price.
I have a PSP and any game I buy has been released months ago.
And whenever available I go second market.
I don't understand the need to have something as soon as it is made available.
By jumping at a buy immediately I put myself at a disadvantage as a buyer. That is fine I am starving and need to buy some food, but for a game?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.