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Nintendo's Sale Dominance Gets Noticed
Via Kotaku, a Wall Street Journal report on Nintendo's continued dominance of the game charts. The piece rehashes the February NPD numbers and discusses the role the Wii and DS have had in revitalizing a company the WSJ refers to as an 'also-ran'. "To take better advantage of the Wii's growth, EA moved quickly to ramp up game production for the system, acquiring Headgate Studios, a developer in Utah focused entirely on making titles for Nintendo hardware, and shifting resources in other EA development groups to Nintendo projects. The company released four titles for the Wii in March, including a version of its Tiger Woods golf game in which players swing the Wii controller like a club. EA is also working on a line of consumer guides for the Nintendo DS that will be aimed at older players in Japan."
In fact, Nintendo is doing so well, that Square-Enix has suggested that Final Fantasy XIII may in fact be heading to the Wii. (Probably as a port.) In any case, they have 100% confirmed that it will no longer be a PS3 exclusive.
I just bought Super Paper Mario two weeks ago and I already have six saved games on it from all my roommates AND my girlfriend, and it is difficult for me to find time to play on my own console because someone is always using it. I own 4 games for it. Twilight Princess, WarioWare (this one got old except for at parties), Super Paper Mario, and Wii Sports. Of the 4, I'd say there are 3 games which are among the most fun I've ever had playing console games. There are great games for other consoles, sure, but i don't own those consoles. I can only speak for the Wii, but I think there are plenty of games on it right now which I have a ton of fun playing.
?? Not sure where you got your numbers. They don't match anything in this story or the last one.
February:
Nintendo DS: 485,000
Nintendo Wii: 335,000
Sony PlayStation 2: 295,000
Microsoft Xbox 360: 228,000
Sony PlayStation Portable: 176,000
Nintendo Game Boy Advance: 136,000
Sony PlayStation 3: 127,000
The Wii is beating the PS2. It's not dominating it, no, but it's selling 40k more a month.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
It's being fucked with by the distribution chain, too.
Example: GameStop held onto thousands of units over a couple of months just so they could horde them into $600 packages and sell them on their website.
Which is how I got mine because, well, let's face it, super paper mario is pretty kick ass.
yeah, same with the PS3 it wasn't obvious or advertised. There were two demo units running through a cycle since i was stuck in town i thought i would try my luck and get a controller since the entertainment desk was directly opposite they let me have a controller. I have no idea if its standard practice
1.) The high price. $400 is still way too much for a console.
2.) The lack of variety in the games. It's all first-person shooters.
3.) Its complete lack of presence in Japan. With Sony's failure, that leaves all of Japan, and all of Japan's developers, to Nintendo.
Since its November launch, the Wii has already sold over half the amount the 360 did in a year. At some point this year, the Wii is going to surpass the 360's total sales, and it will be another embarrassing mark for Microsoft's money-losing Xbox division. The ultra-expensive "XBox 360 Elite" isn't going to help matters any. It's like Microsoft is obsessed with catering to the smallest, most hardcore target market as possible while Nintendo gets to target everyone else.
"Sufferin' succotash."