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1 Million Wiis To Be Sold in U.S. By December
Gamasutra reports on comments by Nintendo's Reggie-Fils Aime, who is claiming the company will have sold 1 Million Wii consoles by December 1st. From the article: "Nintendo's previously stated plans called for the company to ship approximately 4 million consoles globally before the end of 2006. It is not clear whether the new figures stated by Fils-Aime are still in line with these numbers, since no estimate for Japanese or European sales were given. Sony's plans call for 1 million consoles sales in the U.S. by the end of March, 2007. When interviewed by Reuters, Fils-Aime also commented on the potential lifespan of the Wii, suggesting that a four, five or even six year lifespan was 'just about right.'"
A million sales won't be a surprise. The fun begins when/if the Wii begins to vastly outnumber the PS3s available. Ramping up really fast will no doubt attract a lot of development that doesn't want to wait around for there to be enough PS3s. This time next year may well tell the tale of who wins this round of console wars.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
That system sold roughly 700K in its first two weeks. Considering the fact that the Gamecube is considerably more popular than the N64 was (thus generating more brand loyalty), going up to 1M would not be an unexpected boost.
Oh, and for the record, the Dreamcast sold about 500K in its first two weeks, and that was outside of the holiday season and limited by supply. As usual, launch figures don't prove much of anything.
Rob
Additionally, all the game reviewers (justly) savaged the PS3 games - except for Resistance: Fall of Man, they are so lame as to want to make you barf.
Can't say I blame them - after sitting thru the reviews, I'd be angry at the quality of the release games for the PS3.
Not the same on the Nintendo Wii side - so far, all the games are great! Zelda - well, it's Zelda - my son and his friend were jazzed, but I never really was into that game. But it works well. They still have to master the jumping on pillars thing.
Rayman's Raving Rabbids is everyone's favorite - it's just plain FUN! Plus, those bunnies can dance! If you hate dancing, well, you might not like it, but otherwise this is the gem of release day.
Excite Truck is cool. Glad we got it.
And the bundled Wii Sports is amazing! Boxing tires you out, Golf is cool, Bowling takes a bit to get used to (hint - line up with the sensor bar), and the others are good too.
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A million sales won't be a surprise. The fun begins when/if the Wii begins to vastly outnumber the PS3s available. Ramping up really fast will no doubt attract a lot of development that doesn't want to wait around for there to be enough PS3s.
Additionally, it's only $2000 for a dev kit for the Wii, but $20,000 for a dev kit for either the PS3 or the xBox360. I can see developing fun games in a small shop for the Wii on a lark - or even a hobby (ok, I'm not poor) - but $20K? This will probably result in a lot more ports to the Wii than you'd expect - not just because 95 percent of game developers seem to be buying Wii consoles for themselves - but also because it's a new mode of play.
I'd love to play the Lego Star Wars II version of the Wii, with my Wii-mote humming when I use it as a light saber, or pinging when I use it as a phase pistol! Plus, I can see doing force moves with the nunchuk!
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You're more or less right, but there is a difference. If you invest in stock you get something, stock. You made a purchase that may or may not increase in value. When Sony loses money selling consoles they don't have anything.
Sony bought a customer.
-dave
/., where "Apple and Google provide Iran with nukes" will be refuted with "But Microsoft is a convicted monopolist"
12408 PS3 systems on sale on eBay. And 20574 Wii systems. Way too many. Many of those speculators are going to lose money.
Actual selling prices on eBay are around $350 for the Wii and $750-$800 for the base PS3 today. That's today; there have been significant drops since yesterday. There are still many excessive "buy it now" prices on auctions, and high reserve prices, but those are just asking prices, and are meaningless. Those auctions fail, while the lower priced ones end in a transaction. "Reserve reduced" is now showing for many auctions.
Prices are dropping faster than they did for the Xbox 360.
I haven't picked up a Wii yet (had no intentions of camping overnight for a console), but probably will later this year, primarily just for Zelda.
... interesting for a little bit, since it uses a new play-mechanic, but ultimately stale in the long run.
That said, I've been reading a lot of reviews for these games (Zelda, Excite Truck, and Wii Sports in particular), and it's generally only Zelda that has gotten the big thumbs up. The other two are fun, but it's questionable how long you'll be playing them. One of my biggest concerns is that some of the first Wii games are going to be like the first DS games
Are you finding this to be true? I wonder if it depends on the audience as well. If you're a hardcore gamer, then no doubt games like Excite Truck and Wii Sports are not going to hold your attention very long. But if you're a casual gamer, which is who Nintendo is now targeting, those games might be good enough for you. And hardcore gamers will still have titles like Zelda: Twilight Princess to obsess over.
If it's anything like the DS, it's probably going to take a few months before developers really "get it" in terms of how to use the Wii-mote properly. Already reviews are starting to show that some games (Red Steel in particular) do it badly, while other games do a better job.
-- jchenx
the sad part is your way off.. sony makes 8$ per copy of 3rd party games.. at a 306$ loss they need 38.25 3rd party games sales to break even.. i don't know anyone with that many games for one consol..
they are hopeing to make it up with movies.. trying to make blue ray have a a foot hold in the home.. i don't know how much they make per disk on that.. but it better be alot or this is going to really sting
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
Don't get me wrong, I love the Wii for its controls. But I hate the weak graphics. I like gameplay, but I'm not going to pretend that graphics don't matter. I'd rather have both. I understand that they're focused on the controller this generation and that's great.
But I was hoping that the following generation would come in 4 years and would maintain the fun controls while packing in some respectable power behind it. I sure hope I won't have to wait 6 years for the Wii's sequel.
This is more of an anecdote than a source, but I can state with certainty that the Target I work at got 8 PS3's in, as opposed to 51 Wii's. Both lines were full by midnight on launch day. All stores in my area (I've been given approximate numbers for a Walmart and 4 EBGameStops) have very similar ratios and reports. That may or may not be representative, but at least it's hard numbers.