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Wii Shortages Could Last For Months
Next Generation is reporting that, apparently, the Wii shortages could continue for some time yet. This is news from Nintendo's Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo's VP of marketing and corporate affairs, speaking to the Game Theory Podcast. Says Kaplan, "There is a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of working on what we are producing and the numbers continue to rise but the product is so very popular that we may see a supply / demand situation last for some time. We are at absolute maximum production and doing everything we can. The number of units that we have been able to produce has far exceeded our hardware production in the past and the production levels of a lot of our competitors but demand continues to be really high."
I've seen them on TV and on the Internet. I've seen empty boxes with price tags on them in stores. I've seen demo systems behind glass running a demo.
I'VE NEVER SEEN THE WII
Does anyone actually own one and play it in their home? These things have supposedly been out since Christmas, I live in a major metropolitan area, I know lots of people, and I don't know anyone that has one or heard anyone talking about playing one. Did they only make a few dozen that were snapped up by Best Buy employees?
I don't believe the demand is there anymore - I only here people buying XBOX 360 because that't the only thing to buy.
Sleep is for the Weak
You do realize, its the VP of marketing's JOB to tell us crap, the VP of hardware production and logistics should be out there making us more Wii-s.
It's quite simple actually... the Wii is not made for "normal" games. If you want to play "normal" games, get a PS2 or a PC.
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
Use the nunchuck as a movement joystick, and the remote has 2 easy access buttons (1,2) and the nunchuck has 2 (c,z), along with 4 menu buttons (up,left,right,down arrows) and two option buttons (plus,minus).
Not terribly many games use more than 4 quick access buttons, and 6 menu buttons. A few, yes, but not really that many.
Most games do use just one joystick, unless its a FPS game, which traditionally use two, and you can see why the Wii won't need two joysticks.
I bought a Wii, a half dozen games, a gamecube controller, gamecube memory card, another half dozen gamecube games, and an extra wii-mote, and only just barely hit the cost of a ps3. That was the biggest selling point to me.
Thats funny, I haven't used the 360 for anything other than a means of watching HD movies since I got the Wii.
I see Zelda, Paper Mario, Wii Sports, Wario Ware, Elebits - and even "crappy" wii games like Rampage are fun on the Wii. And I see nothing really worth owning on the 360 (I guess Gears of War is alright, I'll pick it up when its cheaper though..)
To me, the 360 and PS3 don't offer anything that I haven't played before - they're the exact same games I've played since the PSX era, with the exact same controller. The games are just shinier. But, the Wii offers something new.
I've played Far Cry for both, both are supposedly "crappy" titles, relative to what's out there. But the wii-mote actually works, and I found the Wii version engaging because of it.
What does that prove? Nothing. Just that different people have different tastes.
But the numbers seem to show there's more of me than you.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Hate for MS? Are you joking? The average consumer vaguely knows MS is a cool technology company and might know they make Windows. The reason the Wii is in such demand is a series of well planned moves from Nintendo. They aimed at the casual gamer market instead of the traditional game console market. They continued their support for the younger children market. Maybe you are not understanding the demand because you are not the average buyer. The average buyer has an old console and is looking for one from this generation. They do not have two xbox 360's. The average buyer cares about price and the Wii is killing MS on price. The average consumer has seen the TV ads and the occasional article or news program commentary and what they took away from it is that the Wii is new and different with different controls and new types of games, while the Sony and MS systems are the same thing with slightly better graphics and a big price tag.
Nintendo took a big gamble in abandoning the traditional controller and focusing on a new type of gameplay. They took a big gamble in aiming at a nontraditional market. Those gambles paid off. Most of the big game developers expected them to fail and ignored the Wii as being too different from the others, figuring it likely either Sony or MS would win and they could make a quick port if they backed the wrong player. Those developers are all trying to reverse course and announcing Wii titles in the works.
I think you're right for the most part that the Wii only has a few good titles right now. That doesn't much matter to the average buyer though, because the average buyer only buys two games a year. I also think the strategic buyer on a budget, looking to the future will probably conclude that the Wii's popularity will result in it getting many of the best games a year from now. The only people it does matter to are people like you, who are going to buy several consoles and pick up a Wii anyway. You did buy one, right?
In summary, if you're looking to think hatred for MS is the cause, I only wish people were that conscious of MS's actions and that ethical and meticulous in their purchasing decisions. The Wii is winning on its merits, which are merits that don't apply to unusual buyers and hardcore gamers like yourself. Note, I am not a fanboy for any game console. I have a PS2 and an old dreamcast somewhere. I probably will not buy any current console for a year or more, or not at all. Right now, If someone gave me $600 on the condition I bought one, I'd get a Wii and a couple games and pocket the rest of the cash.
I think that's the point: PS3s are prettier than the XBox or PS2, but they aren't any more fun. So far, it seems like they're offering the same sorts of games with better graphics. For a lot of people, the Wii is more fun than these other systems because of its novel control scheme. Yeah, yeah, it's a bit gimmicky, but it makes certain sorts of games easier and more fun. It makes people get up, move around, and make silly movements.
And so the question in some people's minds has been, "what's going to have a greater demand: pretty graphics or fun gameplay?" It's not that the Wii can't have pretty graphics or that the PS3 can't have fun gameplay, but which one sells more depends on which feature people are more interested in.
Clearly you're a gamer, so you don't understand how real people game. You've got a game maintenance cycle. If you can't buy a new game every month, you don't care about the console.
Real people are not buying the Wii to play a game every month. They're spending $300 to play WiiSports. That's it! If the console never does anything else, they still got to play WiiSports for a couple of months. The entertainment cost is comparable to going to the movies once a week.
Keep in mind that first, real people don't sit down and game for hours every day. Bringing the Wii out on Saturday afternoon is a treat. It's like Monopoly or Scrabble. This keeps it fun longer.
Real people also don't have a whole set of consoles. When they're playing the Wii, they're getting the full enjoyment of "I'm playing a videogame!" on top of "I'm playing WiiSports." You no longer have fun just because you're playing a videogame. For you it has to be either a GREAT videogame or a NEW videogame.
So all these real people are going out and buying the Wii, and guess what? There are about four times as many of them as there are people like you. The whole videogame hardware production pipeline was geared towards the forty million people who buy videogames regularly, divided among three console brands and the PC. When the wider population taps in the pipeline hits capacity fast. I guess you don't remember Pac-man. Same thing happened.
Each Wii owned by a real person will probably only run four to eight games in the next five years. Shocking, isn't it? Nintendo isn't scared of this because that's where they already were... I know I only played about eight games on my Cube, and only six on my N64. They were all great, and I haven't had time for more than that. A game or two a year is my console limit as an adult, even though I work in the field.
So think Scrabble, not Halo, and you'll get it.
"Normal" in what sense? Keep in mind that the entire idea of a controller with a thumbpad on one side and buttons on the other didn't exist until Nintendo came along. I'm sure people then were also skeptical on how "normal" games would be played. ;)
The Wii-mote can be turned sideways, and in that respect can function a lot like a "normal" Nintendo controller. Super Paper Mario is one game I own that does this. Plus it also occasionally makes use of the pointing and motion abilities, too, in a very intuitive and easy to play by manner.
There's also the Wii Classic Controller, which is (as its name implies) a classically-shaped controller. While intended for the Virtual Console, I wouldn't be surprised if new games start requiring it, too. Plus, as you say, you can just use the Gamecube controllers.
While I'll admit that needing to buy a Wii-mote, and then also buy additional controller parts (classic controller and nun-chuk controller) is irritating, and rather expensive, in the end it's probably a smooth idea, as it increases the number of game styles the system can support. And it's not like consumers aren't already used to buying unique controllers, such as the Guitar Hero controller or DDR mats and the like.
They can't "drop the ball on this" unless Microsoft or Sony creates their next-gen system right now with a motion-sensitive remote controller.
Nearly 90% of the "too old to play video games" age people I run into (mom, dad, uncles, etc.) say that they're interested in the Wii. My dad admitted that the reason he's interested in it is because the controller is a remote, and he knows how to use a remote. Or at least, he'd never admit that he didn't know how to use a remote.
But any other gaming platform? They wouldn't own up to the fact that they could figure out how to play games on them.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
You, sir, are an idiot.
Neither games nor consoles are "sitting on the shelves." Being able to sell every piece of hardware you manufacture isn't "dropping the ball"; it's called success.
To follow this a bit further, lets talk about gaming. We have an Xbox and a Wii. I play Halo and other FPS games with my stepsons and they just flat out pwn me. A good game for me is one in which I can get 5 kills on them before they get 25 on me. (FWIW I'm even worse with PC controls.) When we played multiplayer MoH on the Wii, however, I was within only a couple of kills of them. 10-9, 15-13, that kind of thing. The controls really are that much easier to use, and that much more intuitive.
I have every intention of buying a 360 one of these months, but won't until after next Christmas since I think there'll (a) likely be a bundle with Halo 3 and (b) a price cut too boot. The chances of me buying a PS3 are pretty miniscule unless corporations pay enough money for the cycles that it will pay itself off in a reasonably short amount of time. Not that that's likely, mind you, just that that's about the only thing that I can see that would get me to spend the money.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
N certainly earned its share of negative karma. You're dead on about the SNES CD with Sony, but they also broke the cardinal rule of Japanese business and partnered with Phillips (a non-Japanese company) as a 2nd try to not be caught with their pants down on the transition to CD games.
Also in the day, Nintendo didn't let 3rd party companies release too many games per year to avoid them from overshadowing 1st party title release volume so you find things like Konami releasing games until the Ultra label and other oddities.
Then you have stock-fixing at stores where they'd be denied the newest most-in-demand SNES games unless they also stocked a bunch of tepid Game Boy items that simply weren't selling.
Right now there are no saint video game company players. But, I think Nintendo took it on the chin enough with the sales of N64 and Gamecube that they know they gotta be on their best behavior.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Say what?
Yeah, that sums it up.
Nintendo was committed to a CDRom attachment for the Super NES. The product (known as the "Play Station") almost made it to market. Right up until the CEO of Nintendo read the contract and realized that they had basically sold the farm to Sony. He nixed the deal at the 11th hour. Nintendo then started working with Phillips to create a joint CDRom design.
Nintendo eventually realized that Phillips didn't know their heads from their rears and pulled out. But not before Phillips decided that they had the best thing since sliced bread. Phillips managed to get a license to produce a few Mario and Zelda titles out of the deal, and thus the worst Mario and Zelda games ever imagined were made for the (you guessed it!) Phillips CD-i. Nintendo ended up skipping the CDRom format altogether, and stuck with cartridges until the DVD was available. (GameCube discs are Mini-DVDs recorded at Constant Angular Velocity.)
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