Wii, PS3 Sell Big In First Week

Wowzer writes "Nintendo today announced the Wii sold through more than 600,000 units in the Americas in just its first eight days of availability. That's a rate of nearly one per second continuously since the November 19 launch!" From the article: "The company noted that, when taking into account first-party software and accessory sales, Wii sales have thus far amounted to an impressive $190 million. Nintendo also added that sales of the Wii's highly anticipated launch title, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, has already has achieved sales of more than 454,000 units in the Americas, a figure which it notes represents in excess of of 75 percent of all hardware purchasers." I couldn't find any sales figures for the PS3, just word that the company has sold all the units it shipped. Gamasutra is also reporting sales figures via Ebay for the two consoles. 15,000 PS3s were sold, while the Wii cracked 27,000 via the popular online auction site.

Comments

Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[AKAImBatman]

Before anyone mentions nexgenwars.com, I think you should all read this forum thread about how the numbers are calculated. To anyone who has even an inkling of statistics and probablity, his methods should stand out as highly flawed. Until we have a good sales history and ample supply with which to predict the sales of these consoles, it would be best to stick to the official figures released by the respective companies and retail tracking organizations. (The latter of which is not yet available.)

Gamasutra is also reporting sales figures via Ebay for the two consoles. 15,000 PS3s were sold, while the Wii cracked 27,000 via the popular online auction site.

It's worth noting that 15,000 PS3 units could be as much as 10% of the North American supply. Given that we don't know the actual figures shipped, it's just as possible that 15,000 is 5% of the supply. Either way, it's a significant percentage of the PS3 consoles.

Re:Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[js3]

NexGenWars

Re:Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[archen]

Nintendo may have hit on an important point though. Just dumping your product on the market with a huge shortage before the Christmas season may not be enough. Nintendo has managed to get major numbers out there (4million estimated before Christmas). If it truly is the hot item, then it stands to stomp the PS3 in terms of market penetration. And if the Wii starts ramping up support, it's quite possible that many who planned on getting a PS3 before, ended up forgetting about it because they're perfectly happy with the Wii - which they could at least obtain.

Re:Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[SnarfQuest]

Gamasutra is also reporting sales figures via Ebay for the two consoles. 15,000 PS3s were sold,

How many were put up on ebay and NOT sold? I'm guessing that there are not many more people willing to pay $1000 extra just to get a unit before the next shipment arrives. Think of all those thousands of poor people, who are now stuck with a $800 doorstop. Remember, they only bought it to resell it, not to use it.

Re:Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[MindStalker]

Nope, they are definitely getting sold. Of course after the first few days sellers had to start selling them for $1000 bucks or so. But nobody (unless just just screw up on their auction) is losing money... Unless you count only making $200 for 2 days standing in line.

Re:Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[AKAImBatman]

Nintendo has managed to get major numbers out there (4million estimated before Christmas).

Nintendo's current estimates are 2 million consoles before year's end. The 4 million number was bandied about pre-launch along with Sony's 2 million number. Sony is currently targetting 1 million units by year's end.

If both companies make their targets, there will be a 2:1 split between the competitors. The analysts, however, believe that Nintendo will only manage to ship between 1.5 and 2 million consoles (up to a 500,000 unit shortfall) and that Sony will only be able to ship 750,000.

Wii will see how it turns out. :P

Re:Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[Criminally Insane Ro]

If these videos: http://www.vgblogger.com/?p=350/are any clue, I would say that word of mouth advertising will destroy the PS3.

Re:Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[AKAImBatman]

Sony's shipped what, 200,000? So they'd have to nearly quadruple their production IN THE NEXT 4 WEEKS? God, you're funny!

Um, yeah. You might want to check that attitude at the door. Sony is already missing their projections of 2 million consoles (originally down from 4 million) by half. They're down to a broadcast projection of 1 million consoles for 2006. The analysts that you're quoting for that 200,000 number are the same ones who are saying that Sony will miss their latest target by 250,000 units. Also, if their 125,000 - 175,000 units for North America guesstimate is correct (which has yet to be proven either way), Sony already has 205,000 - 255,000 units in customer hands. (The ~80,000 in Japan were verified using sales figures.)

Sony has had a crappy launch from day one, and will most likely continue to have a crappy launch. (Depsite their best efforts to airlift in new consoles.) Trying to convince others that Sony is an even more dire situation than even the worst case estimates only serves to brand you as a Nintendo or Microsoft fanboy. Which isn't a very good position to argue from.

If you're boycotting Sony, please do me a favor and don't advertise it. Otherwise, with friends like you, who needs enemies? :-/

Re:Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[Kreigaffe]

Actually, my guesttimates on their restock situation isn't based on anything I've heard. The sales figure? Sure, I'm just going by what I hear.. but how many more units will be out before christmas?
I know a fair shake of people who were looking at PS3s (for curiousity's sake, nobody I know or talk to even begins to consider the price a reasonable figure), and a number of people who work in retail.. and everyone seems to be of the opinion that if the stores are even able to get in as many units before christmas, as they had for launch, it'll be a miracle.

Basically.

There's 4 weeks till Christmas.
The numbers Sony had for their launch will have to be DUPLICATED.. for every week from now until christmas.. if their launch numbers were correct, and if the guesttimates for 750,000 units by christmas will be correct.

Call me what you will, but I can't say I see any reason to believe that their production suffered so badly for the months leading up to launch that their projected numbers were cut to a TENTH of what they claimed, but that somehow in the past month they've managed to produce as many units as they were able to muscle out the door for their launch.

I mean, honestly, does that many any sense to YOU? That Sony can't make more than maybe 250,000 units for their launch, but somehow production will just magically increase exponentially shortly after launch?

Seriously. Think about it. They'd have to put out as many units per week, from now till christmas, as they put out in the months leading up to launch.. is there any reason to believe all the problems with production have been solved and they've got things cranked up to ludicrous speed now?

Re:Before anyone mentions NexGenWars

[catprog]

2 million consoles in the US. They still are saying 4 million WORLDWIDE by years end

Vegonomics

[yakumo.unr]

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212

never a truer word on this was spoke..

Fuzzy math

[voice_of_all_reason]

You really have to take the PS3 sales figure and double it, though.

Cuz each PS3 sells twice. Once at the store, and then again on ebay...

Re:Fuzzy math

[oc255]

Hrm, considering that the hardware itself is no cash cow I wouldn't strategize at all on the hardware side. I'd want to get as much hardware crap out there as I can and establish the platform. Sony is sorta-kinda doing that. PS2s exceeded 360 sales even through the 360 launch (which is personally unbelievable). Sony sold 100M PS2s and the PS3 is majorly backwards compatible, now one could argue that the PS2 is $129 and the PS3 is much more at ~$600. But the fact remains that most people already are into the IP that Sony has. Of course one piece of that is GTA which isn't exclusive anymore (this is huge). That combined with the whole center-of-the-living room mess that the 360/PS3 is pimping it's going to be hard to compare the ps2 & ps3. It'll be interesting to see this thing play out.

There are 1500 ps2 titles listed on wikipedia and I'd estimate an equal amount of ps1 titles. So if they continue, you'd have 1500 * 3 platforms = 4500 titles (just listing quantity not quality). Not that it's apples to apples but the Xbox had about 700, the 360 has about 300 so far. Sony is an electronics and entertainment company first, whereas MS was (and is) trying to break into the market. That's just the reality of the situation.

I have a 360. But when FF13, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid and especially White Knight (assuming the videos aren't pre-vis) are released you better believe the demand will be there. Although the price is a bit steep and it's so much more complicated than the ps2 was. It's early, hard to say. PS2 launch was the same imho, all that is different is the pricey High-Def age. Tivo Series 3(HD) is $700, Series2(non HD) was $399 at launch. HD just costs a lot, ps3 is right in there. I'd be curious to know if anyone has any old HiFi (audio) war stories?

Ebay numbers wrong!

[DinZy]

Those numbers are the max systems that were available on ebay not the total sold. At one point there were 26000 Wiis and approximately 50 wiis were selling each minute, while more auctions were being listed.

Re:Ebay numbers wrong!

[xtracto]

At one point there were 26000 Wiis and approximately 50 wiis were selling each minute

Yeah but how many of those Wiis were fake and scams?

Analysts

[HappySqurriel]

I know you're not to believe analysts, but earlier this week they were reporting that the Wii had 4 times as many units and that the PS3 launched with between 125,000 and 175,000 units ...

Until NPD releases its November numbers or Sony makes an announcement I think those are about as accurate as we're going to get.

Heh looks like Sony is a bit embarased

[falcon5768]

I couldn't find any sales figures for the PS3, just word that the company has sold all the units it shipped.

You think thats because all reports point to less than 200,000 actually being shipped when Sony swore they would be shipping twice that many?

Re:Heh looks like Sony is a bit embarased

[FatherOfONe]

Here is what I do know.

Sony said that they would ship 400k units on launch day in North America. They said that the first 500k would have a movie included. My buddy just went to Target yesterday and was lucky enough to get one of the 20GB systems that "just came in" and it also had the movie. So, by my simple math Sony did not ship 400k to N.A. on 11/17.

Now for Nintento... They said they would have 2 million for NA launch. However, now it appears that they actually meant 600k worldwide.

So it looks like both Sony and Nintendo lied. Now Nintendo is saying 2 million by the end of the year, and Sony is saying 1 million. I guess time will tell...

Having said all that I have a PS3 60GB, and so far I like it. It definitely has its issues, like downscaling 720P games to 480P on my 1080i only TV, and the registration process flat out needs to be redone. The password restrictions are ridiculous and some of the error screens need to be better worded. Having said all that, the downloadable games (motorstorm, blast factor etc) are very fun and Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a great game for an old comic book fan like myself. The sixaxis controllers rock and I love that they are wireless. The wireless worked right out of the box and the quality of the system appears to be excellent. I will say that I had around 25 people over for Thanksgiving and most thought that Marvel was "ok" not much better than other games, but Motorstorm was a HUGE hit, it actually got some people that would never watch a game to play it.

Also, I have dorked around with putting pictures on it and showing them to the family during thanksgiving. I found this quite easy to do and love the fact that the pictures come out in HD and the sideshow features are great. Family members had no clue the PS3 could do that and started to understand that it is more than "just a game machine".

I tested a couple of 1080P movies and they look great on my 1080i TV, and coming from the PS2 DVD playback, I can say that the PS3 is much better at playing/managing DVD's and bluRay(PS3 only). Again, I don't have a 1080P set, but I can say that the 1080P content looks better than any of the HD cable stations I have. It isn't a ton better than the Discovery station, but I can tell a difference. I have a 52" RCA Scenium TV...

At the end of the day the people that saw the PS3, played with it thought it was too expensive initially, but then started to change their toon a bit after "messing" with it. (Seeing pictures, videos, and games) My observation of them is that "if" the PS3 was down to say $400 by next Christmas a few of them would buy it. "If" it was down to $300 then most of the families there would buy one. I want to point out that this is almost exactly what happened with the PS2. My family got it year one, then some year two and then the rest year 3.

I will say that the ONLY person that flat out wouldn't give the PS3 a fair shake is the 19 year old Windows Gamer. He is a gamer and I thought he would love the PS3, but it appears that if it doesn't run on a PC, then he doesn't like it. He kept wanting to argue that the graphics at 1920X1080 isn't as good as 24XXX by 2XXXX. I wonder what it will take to convince the Windows gamers to give the PS3 a fair shake.

Lastly I want to say that most enjoyed the "tilt" control of the PS3, few wanted to use if for long and switched back to using a "normal" control. It appeared that people liked to see a motorcycle do weird stuff and would laugh with the tilt controls, but after 20 or so minutes would want to go back because their hands got tired of holding the controller in the "correct" way.

Anyway, back on topic....

I think it is pretty much a fact that this year is really BETA for the PS3 and Wii. Next year will be interesting. I can say that I give the PS3 a 7.5 on a scale of 10 so far. If they "fix" the downscaling issue soon that will go to a 8.5. If they continue to put up more fun demos then is could go to a 9.

All of the PS3's sold?

[LordKronos]

just word that the company has sold all the [PS3] units it shipped

Really? Wow, thanks for clearing that up for me, Sony. And here I was thinking that half of them had been lost somewhere in stockrooms across the country, and another quarter of them were sitting on store shelves while disinterested gamers walked by. I'm certainly glad we got that cleared up.

Too early to tell...

[BTWR]

Didn't Dreamcast sell very well at first too? We need to reserve judgement on all 3 consoles for at least a year (maybe more, or maybe less for the 360) before seeing who the winners/losers are.

As of now, "every system Nintendo or Sony makes is sold immediately!" This obviously won't last, and we'll see who eventually comes out on top...

Re:Too early to tell...

[JayBlalock]

The Dreamcast was in much the same position as the 360 was last year - it was vastly superior hardware very early to market. The competition at that time, remember, was the PS1 and the N64. (oh, and *snicker* The Saturn) The N64 had already come to be regarded as a cruel joke, and PS1 was showing its age badly, so *everyone* jumped to get a Dreamcast. And for a short time, it was fantastically successful.

Then Sony started lying out their asses about what the PS2 would be like and managed to spread the FUD so thick that people nearly quit buying Dreamcasts completely. (despite the fact that the PS2 was, in reality, only incrementally superior to the DC) Sega's marketing department failed to keep up, and the rest was history.

Point of the story being, the DC situation is unlikely to be repeated in this case. It sort of came out in a weird "in between" time, generationally, rather than this situation where the three consoles have all come out relatively near to each other. (remember, people think of the SNES and the Genesis as being of the same generation, even though they were separated by two years)

So what it's all going to come down to is customer adoption and games. Personally, I think Sony is at an INCREDIBLE disadvantage, one I'd be highly surprised to see them overcome. It's going to come down, I believe, to a slugging match between Microsoft and Nintendo in a war of prettiness and grittiness vs fun and fluffy. And I predict they'll end up at something of an equilibrium, maybe 40% market share each, with the PS3 taking the high-end business but little else.

Meanwhile MS claims they won launch week...

[grapeape]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=150030

I cant speak for anyone else but I have a hard time believing that Gears managed to move that many consoles. I was out shopping quite a bit last week and saw lots of wii's being sold but didnt more than a handful of 360's though all the stores I shopped had plenty. Of course the way that Sony and Microsoft count sales is how many ship to retail (including the ones sitting on the shelves) where Nintendo actually counts units sold.

How many of those were busted?

[SilentChris]

I always have to question whether or not those numbers can be trusted.

I bought my Wii and received it early last week. Plug it in, have it find my WPA-encrypted wireless network and proceed with my first system update. You need the firmware update to do anything online. Bong -- 110213 error (Google it -- a good number of people got it). Afterwards the system refused to go online (no virtual console goodness, no more firmware updates, etc). The predominant opinion is that the Wii doesn't CRC the firmware before installing it, resulting in semi-bricked consoles.

Called up Nintendo and, after 30 minutes on hold, I got someone. To their credit, they immediately sent another console out (received it yesterday). It was already updated to the latest firmware. Looks refurbished, but I guess I don't have a choice.

I'm personally very interested in what percentage of those numbers are "usable" systems. 95%? 99%? Even if only 1% are busted, that's still a considerable number of machines.

Re:How many of those were busted?

[hibiki_r]

How can it 'look' refurbished when it's been out less than two weeks? Given that they opened the box up to do the firmware update before they sent it to you, there are very few pieces of evidence that could identify a refurbished system vs a new one that was plugged in once to install an update.

Re:How many of those were busted?

[SilentChris]

How can it 'look' refurbished when it's been out less than two weeks?

The system had small scratches and the serial number was already registered.

Also, Nintendo apparently sold some machines that were previously preview/PR machines (Google it). Many of those boxes talked about requiring a startup disc (http://forums.nintendo.com/nintendo/board/message ?board.id=wii_tech&message.id=213). So those machines were months old -- not two weeks old.

Given that they opened the box up to do the firmware update before they sent it to you, there are very few pieces of evidence that could identify a refurbished system vs a new one that was plugged in once to install an update.

You mean outside the serial number being registered to someone in Washington, DC?

Also, why did they need to open the box up at all? They weren't required to pre-update the firmware on the replacement system -- just send me the replacement. What I should of received was a new system without the firmware update. No scratches, not preregistered.

By the way "pieces of evidence"? It's a console, not a crime scene. No need to get all defensive. So Nintendo made some bum machines -- these things happen.

Re:Zonk plugs Nintendo... again!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummm ... I saw the stats on another thread and Zonk is dramatically pro-Microsoft and Anti-Sony. On another not, the general media as a whole seem to be anti-Sony after all how unfair is it to point out that Sony has installed a virus on their customer's computers, produced exploding batteries, produced the most expensive videogame system in modern history, used questionable legal practices to put an importer out of buisness, promised a worldwide launch for the PS3 and didn't deliver, and dramatically undersupplied when they did launch the PS3.

Re:Zonk plugs Nintendo... again!

[falcon5768]

Um maybe a lot of the anti-PS3 articles are because EVERYONE HATES THE PS3. Seriously I have yet to see anyone besides gamer mags which we KNOW are paid by Sony (and we know cant speak badly otherwise they would get cut off from ex reporters of said mags) say the PS3 is a good system.

Even the ones who dont flat out hate it, pretty much say its not worth it yet, and the benefits of the system simply are not there compared to the 360.

On the otherhand you have a system thats trying to be different. Everyone knows its not as powerful (infact it got some low marks for that) but its FUN and just about everywhere there are storys of adults and kids playing together.

Until sony does something right, I doubt you will ever see pro-ps3 artcles here or anywhere else thats not paid by Sony in advertising. Simply because as of right now Sony has done nothing right, from dust scratching the system, to poor backwards compatability (after ripping on Microsoft for the same) to forcing Blu-ray on a public that from all reports doesnt care about EITHER HD format.

Here's to you, Mr. Anonymous Coward Sony Fan...

[everphilski]

Here's to you, Mr. Anonymous Coward Sony Fanboy Troll!
Mr. Anonymous Coward Sony Fanboy Troll!
Sitting at home in your parents basement with your PS1 and 2 and 3...

Maaaaaaan, thats a lot of consoooooooles....
Or, Mr. Troll, are you playing with a wii?
Tell me, Mr. Troll-man?
So here's to you, Mr. Anonymous Coward Sony Fanboy Troll...
Mr. Anonymous Coward Sony Fanboy Trooo-oooll!!!

Re:Zonk plugs Nintendo... again!

[Maul]

Sony has done some things over the past couple years to make itself look more evil than Microsoft.

It's a manufacturing race...

[alexhmit01]

Sony has a built up brand, people want it... (I've normally only owned Nintendo systems, but I can appreciate that the PS1 and PS2 had HUGE markets)... but they can't get product out the door. To win the marathon, Sony needs to make as many sales as possible to people willing to pay high prices, and figure out how to get manufacturing costs down as they lower price to sell more units... first sell to everyone willing to pay $500, then $400, then $300, then $200, etc.

However, Sony will be able to keep selling units for top dollar, which will help them, because demand is so high... but they can't supply the market.

Nintendo appears to have figured out how to get units out the door. It doesn't matter that 2x to 3x the people want a Sony system as a Nintendo system if Sony can't get them off the line and into stores. Nintendo will sell there demand, and some will substitute a Wii for a PS3. Sony blew this launch BADLY. They may win this round, they may make money, they may pull off a lot (they have a LOT of Brand Value), but they screwed up manufacturing.

If Nintendo keeps manufacturing units and selling them, they will sell games and make money. Some third parties may sign up (if you want to launch a game for next Christmas, if Sony doesn't fix its manufacturing problems by mid-year, Nintendo may be a real option for them). The interesting thing is that Nintendo's system is SO different, it isn't straight ports that will work. Last generation, game companies could switch their target system around without much re-jiggering, but Nintendo's system requires a completely different approach because it is so unique.

However, Sony blew the manufacturing... marketing did its job, but they didn't get product out there. I expect Microsoft to be the BIG beneficiary of this, as Sony and Microsoft are much more substitutable (similar hardware, similar controllers, similar target markets), but Nintendo will find itself fighting in the normal market, not just a niche...

Interesting thing as well, Nintendo didn't overspec their system, they may have underspec'd it. That means that they may be able to get costs WAY down. If Sony's botched launch delays games (because nobody wants to sell games to a dead market), Nintendo may be able to keep moving systems and get the costs down fast. If that happens, expect Nintendo to start selling to hardcore gamers because if they can get a $200 package with 2 games out within 24 months, hard core gamers may pick one up to augment their Sony/MS gaming with Nintendo's unique offering.

Nintendo executed, Sony didn't. Kudos to Nintendo. Sony, get your divisions back in sync.

Alex

Re:It's a manufacturing race...

[Tim Browse]

If Nintendo keeps manufacturing units and selling them, they will sell games and make money.

This is precisely the kind of insightful business acumen that I come to slashdot for.

Official PS3 numbers

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't reveal the exact number of units sold in US as that's a trade secret, but both units were sold.

Re:Going unnoticed...

[Conanymous Award]

Don't want to be an asshat nitpicker, but this just seemed funny to me:

"This has gone largely unnoticed, but Microsoft has started a hell of a holiday XBOX 360 campaign..."

If it has gone largely unnoticed, can we really call it "a hell of a campaign"? On the other hand, if there's anybody in the world able to pull off such a thing (a largely unnoticed hell of a campaign, that is), it's probably Micro"Zuma"soft.

Re:How hard is it to find a Wii at the moment

[Fryed]

For the moment at least, they're still evaporating the moment they hit stores like water hitting a frying pan. Controllers seem to be disappearing even faster - I got my Wii on launch day, but to this day have only been able to get 2 extra controllers and chuks, and those I had to do about a week of searching to find.

By January, they'll probably be easy to get ahold of. If you need one before then, I suggest buddying up to someone at a Toys R Us, Target, or similar store, and finding out the exact moment they plan to unload the Wiis from trucks and put them on the floor.

The Counter-Strike of Game Consoles

[Colin E. McDonald]

I was just looking last night for some stats on sales. I have never been a console fan and I have been a PC Gamer since the IBM PC Jr. but the GameCube changed all that. It was the gameplay and the feel of the controls. I couldn't stand the X-Box or the PS2 hand controls after coming from a PC and was often owned by my kids in FPS which I still think is an exercise in futility on consoles. The GameCube changed that and I really began to enjoy titles such as the 007 and the family oriented games really brought my kids and I together where before we were isolated in our own little PC/console gaming experiences (not that I get much time for it anymore). When I saw the Wii advertised a few months back I instantly saw something that I had been looking for in a gaming experience and that was physical immersion. Of course it was all marketing hype and I would have to see it to believe it. I was also sick of hearing people talk about what a badass system the X-Box and X-Box 360 were knowing that it was nothing more than a crappy PC. I would say, "why not build your own gaming PC and get a really good experience with FPS games". "Well Halo 2 is awesome on the X-Box 360!." I decided to check it out and played Halo 2 for a couple of hours at my in-laws house and to me Halo on the PC blew it away. Yes, the slick cases and "skins" and all of that marketing crap make it seem cool to my kids but it just irked me that it was in no way innovative but then you had to shell out immense amounts of cash for all the items to make it worth playing or owning such as a large hard drive, wireless nic, wireless controllers, headsets, x-box-live. And then PS3 was coming out with an even more expensive system with a HD DVD that could end up going the same way that the PSP's disc format (with movies) went and that is to the grave. Launching with zero titles that I would want on top of that. It seemed like they (MS and Sony) were trying to do what all the home-gamekit builders and outfits like alienware and others had already done a million times better but due to marketing would make you accept that you had to have it and that it was the greatest thing ever. It just pissed me off. I continued to follow the Wii and read about its concepts and Nintendo's approach to development and it just seemed very cool. So for the first time in my life I actually went and stood in line for a game-system on Black Friday with my kids. We ended up getting turned away at a mall Gamestop but I tried a standalone EB-games where in the dark hours of the am I found a group of 5 people waiting for the store to open. My kids and I were 6th in line. When we got in i asked them how many Wiis they had in stock, already knowing that I wouldn't be able to get one and already having decided that I wouldn't waste any more of my time as Thanksgiving livestock. The guy said he had 5 systems and I thought everyone in line was getting one. One guy ahead of me bought a PS3 and a Wii. I stayed in line anyway even though it looked bad and my kids were with me so it would be even more dissappointing for them as the excitement had been mounting for a couple of days. Well, this lady turns around to me and says, "You are going to get one". I kept wondering what she was talking about and lo and behold she was buying her grandkid a PSP. We stepped up and asked for the last Wii and he pulled the bag up with all of the the launch stuff in it and we were just totally jazzed. My oldest boy actually made the sound of angels heralding (cheesy movie/cartoon rendition) when they put the bag on the counter. The kids were off for Turkey Day and we spent the rest of the day having one hell of a time with the new system. I haven't had this much fun playing a game and feeling immersed since I first played the text version of Hitchhikers Guide on my PCJr. The new controls are just amazing and the design of the system both on the physical level and within the Wii menu was just completely sweet. I can really see this system becoming a cornerstone for family entertainment. My wife, who has never had any intere

Re:The Counter-Strike of Game Consoles

[zapp]

Wow... there is only one thing I can say to that:

TL;DR

(too long, didn't read)

Seriously, does your keyboard have an enter key?

Re:The Counter-Strike of Game Consoles

[genooma]

Is this a convention of people who refuse to use line breaks. I'm in.

The Math....

[Duncan3]

Sony loses $300+ per unit.
Retailer makes maybe $50 after they pay all the extra security.
Ebayers make $500-1500/unit minus...
the Ebay makes 5.25% + Paypal 2.90% = 8.15% of that (more then the retailer most likely)
And then of course all the violence, injuries, and robberies.

Sony got screwed royally, and everyone else won the lottery.

Console developers need to get their shit together and learn what a Dutch Auction is.

Re:How hard is it to find a Wii at the moment

[seebs]

Haven't seen any surviving in stores; I stood in line in the cold (sub-freezing) for a couple of hours to get mine and have no regrets at all.

However, the production rates are supposed to be HUGE, so I bet there will be some soon.

The killer, for me, is that I can't get the 4th nunchuck for my system. No one has ANY Wii accessories in stock; they sell out so fast it's not even funny.

Re:WTF ?

[fuzz6y]

As it reads, 454,000 SOFTWARE purchases exceeds 75% of all HARDWARE purchase(r)s. Does that mean 75% of all wii purchases, or 75% of all console purchases ? If it's the latter, does that mean non-wii owners have been buying this game (if that's at all possible) ?

If you see two ways to interperet a statement, and one of them doesn't make any fucking sense to you, go with the other one.

Re:From what I here and see, WII has the advantage

[krakelohm]

Actually from what I have seen online, the sensor bar is no more then a row of LED's that the wiimote "see's". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Remote

Re:How hard is it to find a Wii at the moment

[Kankraka]

Last weekend I was at EB, they'd just sold out their last one. Not five minutes later there was a purolator truck outside and a guy unloading another shipment of Wii's and Wii accessories. Those too were being snapped up pretty quick, but the crowning moment of being there? Hearing this:

Customer: Hi, I'd like Twilight Princess for PS3.

EB Employee: Uhm... What?

Customer: Zelda, for PS3

EB Employee: Uhh, yeah.. that's not for PS3, that's a Nintendo Wii game.

Customer: So...?

EB Employee: Ma'am, you need to have a Nintendo Wii *points to the display beside the counter* to play Twilight Princess, or a Game Cube, when it's released for that.

Customer: So I can't play Zelda on PS3?

EB Employee: No.

Customer: So I spent 5 hours in the cold to buy my son a PS3, so he could play the new Zelda, but now he can't?

EB Employee: The new Zelda is for Wii, not PS3, I can show you our PS3 selection if you'd like?

Customer: No, I want Zelda for PS3.

and it pretty much continued like that for a couple minutes before she grasped the concept that she wasn't going to be playing zelda on her ps3. Makes me wonder how many other confused non-gamers are out there in a similar situation. :)

Re:How hard is it to find a Wii at the moment

[Criminally Insane Ro]

We'll probably see a commercial Wii emulator for the ps3 soon if that conversation is any indication.

Re:How hard is it to find a Wii at the moment

[edxwelch]

She probably spends a lot of time trying to figure out how to get a CD into her iPod.

Re:Zonk plugs Nintendo... again!

[MeanderingMind]

There also haven't been Godzilla attacks (a la Tokyo), but joking aside...

There's the lack of a supply, the broken demo units, the broken global launch promise, the small number of launch titles, their Live-like network mess, the backwards compatability problems, the thefts, the shootings, the riots, the huge ebay prices, the hiring of homeless people to stand in line for scalpers, the arrogant statements by the people in charge of Sony (You'll but it without games, lol), the loss of rumble for "innovative" motion technology that was around at the time of the PS1, the really weird and freaky marketing campaign and finally the rumors that the 400k launch systems were really on the order of 150k.

In contrast the only stated problems with the Wii are as you have listed. One of which can be largely attributed to user error (we don't blame baseballs for broken windows), one of which is rather unprecedented in the history of consoles (I can't think of a console launch where controllers were one of the sold out items) and another of which has had an overwhelming postive resposne from Nintendo (quick replacement for your bricked Wii, not to mention rather isolated incidents).

So while you can probably come up with similar justifications for most of the reasons I listed for the PS3 launch being a mess, the point remains that Sony has easily bested the 360 and the Wii combined with twice as many easily remembered issues with their launch.

I won't even touch listing positive aspects of the launches. I don't think we need to continue this episode of "World's most one sided launch fights".

It's not released yet

[paladinwannabe2]

Zelda: Twilight Princess won't be out for GameCube until Dec. 8th, if memory serves. This only refers to Wii purchases.

no, they don't

[Ender Ryan]

Sony loses $300+ per unit.

No. An analyst says that Sony loses $300 per unit. That is the same $900 / unit that analysts were talking about a year ago and was generally thought to be complete bunk. Just before the rootkit fiasco when everyone decided hating Sony would be the new cool thing to do on the Intertubes. Now when an analcyst spouts some bullshit numbers that ignore the fact that Sony owns the production lines for many of the PS3 components, people take it as god-given fact.

Re:Input device defines gaming...

[yarbo]

"That said, if the Wii shipped with a "game cube" controller and made it a way to build games for both, they might have been able to snag more by being the uber-system (both types of games), but that might have discouraged Wii-style games, so who knows."

like this?

Re:How hard is it to find a Wii at the moment

[MadMoses]

Me too. I bought a new CD and folded it up (that sure was hard to do) but I still couldn't get it to fit in that slot in the bottom. And the worst part is, now the CD won't work in a regular CD player any more!

Damn DRM!