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Wii May Be Succeeding in Widening Game Market
superdan2k writes "When Nintendo brought the Wii to market, one of their stated goals was to get people who didn't normally play video games using their console. Based on an article from the AP, it seems they've made some headway in capturing the senior citizen market. With the Wii's price point, and it being a good way to get people engaged in physical exercise, it's easy to envision it catching on with other retirement homes beyond the one mentioned in the article."
If you'd told me a year ago that my grandmother would actually try a console game, I'd've looked at you most puzzled.
But Wii tennis seems to have near-universal appeal.
But that could because my grandmother is dead.
Hurry up and rush out that Get Off My Lawn! title for the Wii!
Lest we forget, the Wii has also captured the elusive 22-month-old demographic, as evidenced by this video.
If that's not widening the demographic, I don't know what would be.
Goo goo g'joob.
Amen. Now we just have to wait for their next Gamecube so we can sell.
Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.
I'm normally reluctant to bring a new tech into my house that will make the kids sit around turning into lumps. But with the Wii's apparent success in inducing physical activity and playing games *together*, it offers something that just doesn't seem to happen with the PS/3 or 360.
So I find it interesting that the Wii cracked its way into *my* home: the home of a gamer who didn't want his kids (previously) to have a console. Now if I could only find one in stores...
OK, so I'm a member of the widened market. Unfortunately this widened market seems to be soaking up all the Wii's as soon as they hit retailers' shelves.
Does anyone know when the northeast U.S. is supposed to have a supply to meet demand?
(I know you can get them at Ebay etc., but they're pretty over-priced. And walmart.com sells the bundles, but I don't want to drop $650 initially.)
People seem to forget that the DS started widening the game market with titles like Brain Age and Nintendogs. The Wii is just an extension of that.
My wife, who has never played games in her life is now regularly beating my ass at wii sports. Tennis and Bowling. Shes scored 273 best score on bowling on wii, I've only managed 144 and I've been playing games for 25 years. Go, as they say, figure.
No. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/11/13
Interesting to note that after only a couple of months release the PS3 has 19 games with a metacritic rating of 75 or above yet the Wii has only 9 games.
(The Xbox 360 has 79 games, but then it has been out for over a year, so not a fair comparison).
I'm sure there are plenty of reasons, especially revolving around the new controller and how to make best use of it - and to be fair, I'm not qualified in any way to comment - but the statistics do show that for whatever reasons the current portfolio of Wii games rated "excellent" is smaller than that of a system which has been out for a much shorter time.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw this into the pot for some discussion.
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I get tired of hearing about how I should buy a wii because of how much someone's grandmother likes it. Should I start watching Matlock too?
The Wii is a video game console, and the video game market is thus a superset of the Wii market. While it's true that most of the "new gamers" the Wii has attracted probably wouldn't be interested in the XBox 360 or PS3, that doesn't change the fact that they are now part of the video game market.
I know for a fact that my Wii has people hooked who are no gamers. From my wife to my neighbour, everyone who's tried it loved it, and yes it's the controllers, the fun-factor, the "fuck the graphics, let's try to make an actual game instead of a tech demo for our graphics engine" attitude.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Boxing on the other hand is a completely different matter, with it's remote and nunchuk action if you want a workout that's the one to choose.
And of course there are other games, Rayman Raving Rabbids has plenty of games that require frantic high speed shaking of one controller or the other (or both in some cases).
My Friend's Father recently suffered a head trauma and is having problems with his balance and is a little slow to react. They are thinking about getting a Wii so he can work on his balance and his reaction time with the Wii Sports. It's a fun way to achieve those things, he is already using my friend's DS and Brain age to try and speed up his reaction time.
I think that using the Wii as a Physical Therapy tool may be unorthodox, but honestly I think it might help him.
"Just call me Girly Blank"