Slashdot Mirror
Wii 'Popularity Bubble' to Burst?
A combination of industry and developer observations has prompted Tech.co.uk to wonder if the Wii's overwhelming popularity is due to end sometime soon. This is based on a report from Japanese business newspaper The Nikkei, which published an article recently entitled 'Software Houses Miscalculate Audience, Demand For Wii'. "The report goes on to discuss the likelihood that many Wiis are gathering dust in owners' cupboards, citing one software house president as saying, 'People bought it out of curiosity, and it's likely a lot of them haven't used it.' Given that September saw Wii sales fall sharply in Japan for the second consecutive month, it seems reasonable to speculate that the bubble inflated by the novelty factor is starting to deflate, but writing Nintendo off at any stage is a perilous course to steer." Is this just worrying, or is there validity to this?
"Wii are bored".
from Japan to the US. I still can't get one in a major metro area of WI. And I can see at least 5 games that I want to play.
Meh, a real sig would take too long, and I have an MMORPG to play with....
is who gives a shit if this so called "Popularity bubble" bursts? Honestly, will anything be different? Will your wii not work anymore?
This statement is very poorly timed and thus most likely completely inaccurate. 1. Christmas season starts soon. Christmas = high sales period. 2. Wii has 3 extremely popular games being released between now and february.
Until a third party publisher releases a game that sells well on the Wii, it shouldn't be surprising that developers are shying away. (Given Nintendo's track record of dicking them over.)
Have I played my Wii much recently? Not really. I beat Metroid Prime 3, and that was fun, but other than that not to much out there interests me right now. Of course, by the same token I've played my PS2 even less than my Wii. I just don't have much time right now to spend on gaming consoles. When something like Smash Bros, or Mario Kart hits I'm sure it will see more use.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
I don't know anyone that has a Wii that is gathering dust, and that includes the one at my Mother's house.
Games for -all- consoles tend to be a bit lacking this year, as far as I'm concerned, but the Wii has definitely kept up with the others in terms of game count. If anything, they should be asking if the PS3s are gathering dust. There's hardly any good games yet, and the ones that ARE out came out later than their 360 counterparts. Gamers aren't known for their patience at the time of a game's release... They buy what's available.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Unpopular systems get few new games made for them. Popular systems get many new games made for them. If you have a Wii, you really should care.
In other words, when was the last time you saw an Atari 5200 game hit the market? =)
/// Not a super-genius . . . yet. ///
It also 'seems reasonable' to speculate that everyone who bought one still plays it every night...
They should have added "It 'seems reasonable' that the company the 'software house president' works for isn't selling as many games as they would like because their particular games suck balls."
I definitely think there's cause for caution with regards to a Wii "bubble" bursting. However, I also think that we're only just now starting to see big games come out for the platform, and that will support the popularity more and more as time passes. The only big name game we've gotten is Zelda. Metroid just came out. The Big Three Mario games (platformer, racing, fighting) haven't hit the console yet, and won't until next year. That's going to step up the support for the platform. So until then, I think it's right to worry, but I think in the long term there's not much to worry about.
Isn't it also possible that, given the Wii's phenomenal sales 'till now, everyone who wants one has one?
No matter how much I decide to like the Wii, I highly doubt I'll be buying two any time soon.
-:sigma.SB
WARN
THERE IS ANOTHER SYSTEM
With all the heavy hitters that Wii has lined up in the next few months, one can only conclude that this article is BS. I bet these are the same 'analysts' who predicted that Nintendo would remain a distant third last year at about this time. They were wrong then and they're wrong now.
Suggesting that tons of people bought the Wii and have never even used it is a really awful assumption. While it's true some people will buy it and use it less often than other's that's not to say it will sit in a box collecting dust. I got the Wii on launch day and my girlfriend and I have gone through periods where we use the Wii and lot and then periods when we dont play for a while. It has more to do with our jobs then a lack of interest. Some of the games we most want to play have not even come out yet. Regardless, the Wii does not have some special characteristic that will make people lose interest and not buy games for it any more that they would for the PS3 or Xbox 360.
Wii flaccidating time :(
Welcome to 4 months ago. That's the last time I bought a game for mine.
It was fun at first, and my dad still asks me to play a game of golf with him on it, but seriously, the novelty wears off very quickly.
I think most of the problem stems from the lack of original gameplay. The games that I bought were ones that just wouldn't work nearly as well with a different control scheme. Kororinpa is the best example. Using the wiimote to move the screen around is very intuitive and very fun.
But look at the raft of games coming out at the moment: Fifa 2008, Madden 08 and about 6 different kid's films adaptations. What makes me get this for my Wii instead of my 360? The control scheme is the Wii's only advantage, and what advantage does it have in anything that's coming out at the moment?
Most of the time when they do try and take advantage of the controls, it comes off worse anyway. Apparently Trauma Centre: Second Opinion is just far too fiddly and how many of us have stood spinning in a circle looking at the sky in an FPS?
I would love to see this succeed because for once someone tried something new, but with a lack of original content, what could you possibly achieve over the competition? To be honest, we all saw this coming
In the months leading up to the release of Halo 3, XBox 360s dropped and dropped in monthly sales.
In the months leading up to the release of [Super Mario Galaxy], [Wiis] dropped and dropped in monthly sales.
Not to say the Wii's popularity isn't dropping, I just think it's too early to draw a definitive conclusion here.
I hate to say "I told you so" but there are a lot of us doing just that these days. It's too early to say this is a definitive trend, and it also might really only apply to one territory, but I personally think it's going to continue to play out, and worldwide.
Nintendo's made no secret of trying to attract "casual gamers" - housewives, girls, the elderly. They appeal directly to those groups in their ads. Their most heavily hyped "games" - if you can even call stuff like "Wii Fit" a "game" - are geared towards them.
So they package "Wii Sports" in with the system (or "Wii Play", I can't remember which one Japan got), those casual gamers buy it and I guarantee half of them don't even realize there are other games available for the system. If they do, they don't care - they're casual gamers, they're not out buying a new game every week. They're content with their pack-in game, and when they lose interest in it, the system just gets stuffed into a closet and forgotten.
It's happening. Look at the Japanese software charts, not just the hardware charts. Not a single Wii game in the top ten last week, this on supposedly the most popular console in Japan. That's actually not even unusual these days. Devs have to be taking notice of this by now, and the Nikkei article suggests that they are.
The only question in my mind is whether or not it's too late to turn things around. I think that certainly a few of the big games in the pipeline will help, but then the competition's got big games in the pipeline too (not to mention a price drop). So it's not going to get any easier for Nintendo. And they've already pretty much cemented the system's reputation, through their own doing. Not many hardcore gamers in any territory are going to want to own the system that their grandma and little sister thinks is cool. That probably sounds harsh, but that's the way 18-24 year old males think, and they make up the majority of hardcore gamers.
Whether or not the Wii continues to outsell the PS3 and Xbox 360 (by whatever shrinking margin it can muster), the big problem for them is that games aren't selling, really at all. That will in turn mean less third-party support, which will in turn mean fewer hardware sales in the long run. It's basically the GameCube all over again. These trends have a way of being self-perpetuating vicious cycles once they get started.
Of course, Nintendo will always have handhelds to rely on. The DS continues to be a money machine, though it's running neck and neck with the PSP in Japan right now too (and was beaten handily week before last, with the PSP redesign and Crisis Core launch).
Without a shred of evidence, this merely echoes some other newspaper article without investigation. This is no better than an "ask slashdot". The other article apparently says Wii sales declined two months in a row, without saying if other consoles gained. I assume the Halo effect (heh) help Xbox even in Japan, so we should expect to see some spike there, but I'd be more curious to hear about sales from the studios' POV. Are there any Wii titles they were late to put on the platform that have sold better/poorer than expected? Any that outsell the other platforms' version? I suspect this kind of article is mere hope from the harder core gaming crowd, trying to blow the Wii like they had done before launch.
I'll admit, I'm getting a little irritated with my Wii purchase. I've played a handful of games on it, and that's about it - there's nothing else out I want to play. Worse, the only titles coming out in the near future (within the next 6 months) that even sound halfway decent are Nintendo titles.
Where are all the 3rd party developers?
The DS had the same problem. Even now, most of the truly good DS games are Nintendo first-party titles (although I have a number of well-liked third-party titles on my DS). Hopefully the Wii just needs a little more time to build up a library, like the DS did.
It's also possible that everyone who would be buying games now has a wii and things couldn't get any better for game developers. "Installed base" is much more important than current hardware sales. And finally, *the amount of people buying wii games* is what really matters. As a developer thats all I'd look at. Anyone got the numbers for that in Japan?
-- http://thegirlorthecar.com funny dating game for guys
I know my credibility on this issue is near zero around these parts, as I've not been afraid to state all along that the Wii is over-hyped, but I agree with the fundamental tennet of this argument; many Wiis are not getting used because there is very little on them worth playing for more than about 10 minutes at a time. Looking at the "new releases" reviews on the average game-site (IGN is my personal preference, but your mileage may vary), it's easy to see that games coming out for the Wii mainly fall into 3 categories; "party" games (or extended tech demos, as I tend to think of them), rushed and nasty cross-platform ports and virtual console games (whose quality varies from the stellar to the derisory - but which many games will have been emulating for free for years).
The first category are ok on occasions when you have friends over, but are no use at all the rest of the time. A brief glance at gamerankings will show just how badly Wii ports of cross-platform games tend to fare. And virtual console games... well... great... but I don't want to spend all my time on my new console playing games that came out a decade ago.
There are a tiny number of other titles which actually have some gameplay value. Zelda is ok... slightly above average for its genre. Metroid Prime 3 is pretty good, although I still have problems with the backtrackeriffic gameplay style of Metroid games. Resident Evil 4 remains one of the only two cross platform games to actually be enhanced through being on the Wii (the other being Rayman Raving Rabbids, which falls into the "insipid party games" category anyway).
I know what people are going to say at this point; the Wii isn't for me, it's for the casual crowd. Thing is, I suspect that over time, even the average Joe will realise that, cheap though the Wii is, the limited use it eventually gets still means its horrible value for money.
Right now, Nintendo have things pretty easy. They had an unprecedented hype-machine for the launch of the console and some excellent initial sales. However, it seems to me that for those of us in the UK, the comparison to Gordon Brown's political honeymoon as Prime Minister are most appropriate; there comes a point at which people realise there's no substance there and the wheels fall off spectacularly. Happily for Nintendo, Sony continue to shoot themselves in the foot at every opportunity. They have an excellent machine out there, which, despite the high price-tag, is significantly more future-proof than any of its competitors (especially with the Blu-Ray drive, which is looking like a better and better idea). However, because they've mismanaged their relationships with developers and insisted on pushing their horribly broken and unnecessary motion-sensing controller, they've yet to attract a significantly better range of games than the Wii (although at least the PS3 has slightly more in the way of "substantial" games).
My instinct still stays that when all the dust settles, the slow-but-steady pace set by the 360, with no gimmicks, few headline-grabbing features, but an increasingly solid and well-rounded games lineup will win the day.
The Wii is a novelty in the sense it is new, and quite a few of the current games are novelty games. Games with minimal graphics and quick to develop and hit the shelves (monkey ball, wario ware...) and host a short short quick game play. My Wii has collected dust shortly after I bought it about 6 months ago.
Granted, the long term of the Wii will ride on "anchor" games like the Metroid and Zelda franchises. I loved Zelda, and it looked fantastic on the Wii. Metroid P3 Is also a fantastic game. It looks great and makes amazing use of the Wii Mote. Games what these will be what will become the mainstay of the Wii and give it the holding power it needs to succeed.
I had Neglected to mention the Resident Evil 4 port. I had the GC version and bought the Wii one when it came out. I would have to say it gave RE new life. Granted I haven't played it in quite some time, there is a good chance I'll be going back to finish Wii RE4.
I know analysts love to pop bubbles and spew negativity at things that are succeeding, possibly to devalue the item in question. I would really have to say that while the Wii is a "Novelty bubble" now, it will, if managed right, sweep into being a mainstay console. THey just need more high production games like MEtroid, RE and Zelda. (Not those particular franchise but High quality...)
I'll take a further step into the pointed edge of the sword and dare to say that I believe the PS3 will be here to stay as well. Sony makes stupid mistakes, that is unquestionable. But with built in Blue Ray, and upscaling/smoothing of PS2 games it has a slight edge. Sure they are releasing bargain bin PS3 with no BC but that is hopefully a market water "test". In fact for the last 3 months ownership, I've only played PS2 games on the PS3.
hmm my wii is tretty dusty, but thats just because i dont clean it :P
i still use it almost everytime i have people over. girls love it, so ya!
You remember all those other game consoles that had HUGE initial success, that had a massive game lineup and huge developer support, that everybody loved - - - and then people just got sick of it and the company went out of business?
Yeah, I don't remember any consoles like that either.
The demand has dropped in Japan because they probably have sold one to just about anyone that was likely to ever buy a TV console system. In the US, the Wii is still very hard to find. I'm looking to buy one, and have called probably 10-20 stores around work and home and none of them have them in stock. Most stores are receiving regular shipments but they sell out within a day or two.
In other words, the Wii may be at that point in its popularity curve in Japan, but it's far from it here in the US.
I read on a gamer forum that "Wii = teh sex" so... if that is indeed true, I would imagine that demand for Wii will continue to increase...
increase some more...
increase to a very large size...
and then rapidly decrease in size, lose all interest, and begin to feel slightly guilty for playing with the Wii that way.
Well, that's what I thought about the Dreamcast too. I mean, who cares if it only sold a fraction of what the PS2 was selling? Mine will still work, right? And Sega will surely keep making games for it, right?
Well, I'm proud to say, I was partially right there. My Dreamcast still works flawlessly. Hasn't had a new game made for it for a damn long time now, though.
Seriously, the prices of developping a new game are insane these days. Actually, make it: for a decade or so now, and it's only getting worse. So they need a certain market size just to recoup the costs.
And no matter what game you make for a console, not every single owner of that console will buy it. Doesn't matter what game it is. Even Hallo 3, not every XBox owner on the planet bought it. And that was a major success. You have to hedge your bets a bit for the case when it's a lot less of a success. I.e., you have to have a bit of a safety margin there.
So if a bubble bursts, it can be bad news. But, hey, your own console will keep working.
And before someone pipes up with "But Nintendo itself will keep making games for it"... well, so much good that did to the popularity of the N64, eh?
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Combination of Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 making a killing on the console market and the pre-Christmas season spending lull. I expected a drop in console sales for any platform that didn't have a fresh killer game like Halo 3.
Everyone I've talked to that owns a Wii is still playing the Wii sports and some of the original games, but are fully prepared to lay down some hard cash for Nintendo's holiday releases.
I love how this gets rolled into a major fud story.
If your mom plays the heck out of Wii Sports, that is ok for Nintendo. But if that is all your mom does with it, than things could be better. Sure, Nintendo is making a profit on every Wii sold, but they also want to make yet more money. They (and Sony and Microsoft) usually do this by getting you to keep buying new games.
For a 3rd party publisher, the fact that your mom really likes Wii Sports does not do them much good. They did not make Wii Sports, and they sure as hell aren't getting a cut of the profits on the hardware. If 3rd party publishers cannot make successful games on the Wii, than there will be problems down the line for the Wii.
Most 3rd party dev's were caught off guard by the Wii. In the past year, most of those that did not jump on early have only really managed a few quick and dirty port jobs. In order for the 3rd parties to do well, they have to figure out how to make games that appeal to the Wii install base.
I am certain that the first 3rd party game that will do well on the Wii will be Guitar Hero 3. Beyond that, I am not at all sure what else is in the pipeline for the Wii from 3rd parties that will work well. I myself want more core type games (Metroid 3) to come out on that system. But if the gamers who buy those games are all on the Xbox 360, than that is where those games will come out.
END COMMUNICATION
I don't believe any of it unless Netcraft adds the Wii to its soon-dead list.
Actually this is interesting because my non-gamer friend also sold their Wii. He actually stood in line and managed to nab a Wii last Christmas. After the initial interest and curiosity died down, their 6-yrs old son (now 7), seem to enjoy the old Gamecube I lent them. I'm guessing it's because I had all the best games for the GameCube, while their Wii was limited to the Wii Sports and a handful of mediocre titles. It's all about the games you buy. There needs to be an easier way for non-gamers to learn how to choose and buy games. Right now it's more of an "appliance" or "toy" mindset. You buy it, and they're supposed to just play with it for a long time. They sold their Wii two weeks ago and bought a PS3 instead. The free demo games are a nice way for providing "unlimited" entertainment value for their son -- at least for right now.
Honestly. What are the killer games for the wii? One of the biggest is a port from the gamecube (twilight princess)! One isn't even out yet (and don't tell me nobody bought a wii for Brawl...)!
But seriously, it's a new system. The 360 and PS3 can say the same thing... but they are just hardware upgrades. The wii has an entirely new control scheme, and a new input device is a lot harder to adapt to then a bigger CPU. People have begun to take advantage of it (metroid...) but it still has lots of potential. The big example is always the whole star wars thing. Lightsabers just seem such a natural fit to the wii. The problem, of course, is that it *could* be done horribly. I was *not* looking forward to the the 50 different sword/lightsaber clones a week after the wii's release. But I haven't seen any *yet* which means they aren't rushing them out - so I hold out hope it will actually be done pretty well.
Everyone who wants one has one? I suppose you're right. I did want one, but having wasted much time trying to find one to buy, I no longer want one. Playing games on my PC is way more fun than failing to buy a Wii. And the upcoming Christmas season isn't going to make finding one any easier.
I was one of the few that waited in line overnight to purchase one of these golden machines. Hooked it up and started playing it for a few hours. Took it down to the folks house for the holidays and everyone went nuts playing it, thought it was the best thing ever. Then the lack of any good games came along. Rayman raviing rabbids? Beat it. Zelda? Biggs? Played them to death. Wii play? Wii-suck. Harry potter was something the women loved to play. Me I got bored.
Then I found the Xbox360, with gorgeous graphics, fast game play, and more titles than I could play for a lifetime. I've probably spent close to a grand in buying stuff for it and hooking it up to my 1080 LCDTV, and with XBLA me and the lady can play against each other when she's at her house and me at mine (chix love hexic, don't ask me why). I look at the wii and think "Man it's got such potential, but there's NOTHING worth playing on it" then I pickup the 360 and play another round of bioshock or Dynasty warriors against people around the world.
I like my wii, wish there was more for it, and if I could sell it for $500 with 3 controllers and all the games, it'd be gone in a heartbeat.
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
Wii don't want their shovelware. Maybe if more development houses bought into the spirit of the platform rather than try to sell us the same old crap, they'd see some money from the this miraculous new demographic that is using the Wii. Most people didn't buy a wii because they want to play [Insert Old Product Here] while waving their hands in the air, when little thought has been given to the conversion and resulting mechanics and the whole package was banged out over the weekend by an intern. And I've yet to see a title that was ported to the Wii that was as playable as it was on the original platform, so I'll wait until we have more wii-centric original games to play.
My Wii is collecting dust, but mainly because it has been waiting for Super Mario Galaxy.
Sanity is a sandbox. I prefer the swings.
HEY LISTEN UP!
1. You have not done a survey, you are just spouting out the same bullcrap PR produced by Sony and other companies, namely "our product is more expensive therefore better". You do NOT know what most serious gamers are doing, just what you personally are doing and from the fact that only about 50% of the posters here agree with you, I would assume that only about 50% of the 'serious gamers' agree with you that the Wii is not for them. While this is not a survey, it is a lot better than than blindly repeating your own impressions as if they belong to everyone.
2. Serious gamers don't give a crap about whether their grandma or little sister also likes it. They care about the games (see other opinion below). If Nintendo comes out with some kick ass games for the Wii, that take advantage of the cool interface instead of trying to take advantage of the high end graphics, then guess what, Serious Gamers will use it.
3. What makes you think that next year, they won't come out with a cool upgrade along the same lines that seriously boosts the popularity of the old system? Merely a new, better interface will probably be just as easy to create as creating a new game that goes with it. -------------- The other opinion is basically that people really don't care that much about the system, they care about the games. Yeah, one system might have better interface and the other better video and processing power, but the truth is that the differences between them are relatively MINOR compared to the differences between the games. That is, people would rather play a good game on a bad system than a bad game on a good system. If people were to take HALO 3 and downgrade the graphics etc. to make it work on Nintendo, People would rather play HALO 3 on Nintendo with BAD graphics than playing Tic Tac Toe on a Sony machine or an XBOX, even if it had incredibally detailed graphics and animation.
This means that the game companies have no one but themselves to blame If in fact Wii is dropping in popularity it is because the companies failed to put out good games.
The game is king, not the system.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Unfortunately mine has been gathering dust. I bought the Wii as soon as it came out because I was so excited to see what Nintendo was offering and experience it first hand. I enjoyed Wii Sports when the system debuted and I thought Wario was a great game that actually took advantage of the Wii's controls, but that is where my interest started to wane.
When I started to play Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4, I really could not get past how bad the graphics were compared to games like God of War 2 and especially Gears of War. I know graphics was something Nintendo was not mainly focusing on but RE4 for Wii barely looked as good as it did on GameCube. Not to mention a huge flood of shovelware games that companies put out because they thought any game with Wii controls would be fun, only when a handful (Wii Sports, Wario Ware, Rayman Raving Rabbits) actually used the controls well. After witnessing so many customers come into EB Games and just buy the system not to get anymore games, TFA has some validity. Many people are satisfied with Wii Sports which speaks well for Nintendo because they made a game with such lasting appeal. The big issue is that other software companies have yet to make games that are appealing in their adoption of Wii controls.
For me the big question now is, Nintendo has the third party support, but can we see anyone else besides them that makes a game that take advantage of the controls and uses the additional graphics power in the Wii?
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
last year I had an SDTV.
I was in the "graphics don't matter" crowd because I honestly thought the difference between the wii and the PS3 were minimal on my set.
I now have a 50" HDTV, and it pains me to fire up any device that is 480p on it.
It's fuzzy.
I'm not complaining about number of polys or texture resolution, it's just that anything I play on it looks like someone smeared vaseline on my eyes.
I think spending an extra 2 bucks or so per console to get the native resolution up would have been a great investment, because I don't think it will have the same lasting power with 480p output being the best it can do.
Add to it that only platform exclusives actually work well with the remote, and Nintendo could have some staying power issues. The fanboys will scream and shout that it's jsut not true, but they are probably all still using SD sets.
Gameplay is great, and I loved my Wii the first few months, but it's been stagnant, and I've only played 2-3 games I truly enjoyed.
As others have pointed out, the PS3 has been out a similar length of time but is doing much worse, while the Wii has surpassed the XBox 360 in sales in half as much time on the market.
Since the Wii allows new ways to play, games of genres that users have never considered before now seem appealing. I never bought a golf game before, but I have my first for the Wii. I would never have considered it if it were on any other system. If the Wii is gathering dust on anyone's shelf, it is because games simply can't come out fast enough to satisfy those who bought one.
In my opinion, Wii seems to have many more games worth owning and playing compared to the other two. Personally I have all three consoles, with 22 games for the Wii, 4 for the XBox 360, and 2 for the PS3. I just have seen more high profile titles of multiple genres on the shelves that are worth buying for the Wii.
Wii: Trauma Center, Excite Truck, Super Monkey Ball, Super Paper Mario, Metroid Prime 3, Resident Evil 4, Need For Speed: Carbon, Godfather: Black Hand Edition, Sonic & Secret Rings, Wii Play, Wii Sports, Wario Ware Smooth Moves, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Call of Duty 3, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Tiger Woods, Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi, Elebits, Spongebob Squarepants, SSX Blur, TMNT
Xbox 360: Bioshock, Burnout, Halo 3, Ridge Racer 6
PS3: Virtua Fighter 5, Ridge Racer 7
I still have to get other games for the Wii... Cooking Mama, Scarface, Mario Strikers, Mario Party, Zack & Wiki, there's probably more... Honestly, how are people bored? I admit there could be some longer games for the Wii, but considering it's on its first year, and considering the games actually worth playing on other consoles, what could there be to be upset about?
Twinstiq, game news
Since the article wants to use Japan's sales numbers, let's look at Japan's sales numbers. The total HW sold by the Wii was more than any other non-portable console. The total SW sold for the Wii was more than any other non-portable console other than the PS2.
This article, like many anti-wii opinions expressed on Slashdot, is just someone who doesn't like the Wii figuring that because he doesn't like it, because his is gathering dust, that everyone's must be.
I agree that GH3 will sell best from 3rd parties, but you also touched upon the problem. What do 3rd parties have in the wings to cater to "your mom" or other casual gamers? Stuff like WiiSports, or Karaoke, or WiiFit will appeal to casual gamers, but if you look at the game lineup (even on the VC) there are VERY FEW games targeted in that direction. Nintendo captured a new audience, but even they have failed to capitalize on this market.
im a long time gamer, since 1982 when i was just 7, and have been playing "heavy" games like rts, rpg and mmos for the duration, but even i am thinking of acquiring a wii just for chilling out factor.
Read radical news here
Seriously. I think the slump in sales is something akin to the one that appeared in Xbox 360 sales prior to the release of Halo 3, or more accurately it's similar to the low sales experienced by the 360 this time last year, before its big Xmas uptick in sales. It's the usual doldrum between when the console hits the ground and when the games catch up. Because most 3rd party developers took a "wait and see" approach to the system, most were pretty late in starting their projects for the Wii. We're not going to see a lot of the more interesting 3rd-party Wii titles until 2008 as a result. Given that most games take one to three years to complete, and most developers and publishers didn't start their Wii projects until after a few months of sales data was available, we're just starting to see the leading edge of the 3rd party wave now, and most of the top-tier 3rd party titles won't show up until next year. That's hardly going to kill the platform, there are nearly 13 million Wii systems sold and they can't be unsold. At most it will slow down the growth of the install base, which is still the most common console among this generation, at least for now.
As for people saying that the Japanese market is "saturated" with Wii systems, hardly. The PS2 sold over 20 million units in Japan, so clearly there's more potential sales in the Japanese market than the 3.66 million units currently sold. The analysts are obsessing over weekly numbers and not looking at the bigger picture. The Wii has sold in one year what it took Microsoft two years to do with the 360. It's almost managed to sell in a single year the total number of GameCube's sold in that system's entire lifespan. Its sales rate is comparable to the PS2 in the first year of its lifespan. And as I already said, for now it's the most common current-gen console. The delay in 3rd party support, and its focus on a wider audience, will likely prevent it from achieving a PS2 level of dominance, but the platform itself is here to stay.
I don't mean this as flamebait. I managed to get my hands on a Wii last February and I love it. I have bought a few games, though, and pretty much every one of them has been lame. The one exception is Zelda. And Rayman is OK. But all in all, I think the game publishers are shooting themselves in the foot. I can tell you now that I am much slower to buy any games and will be renting them first just to weed out the bad ones.
Game publishers shrugged off the Wii for the 360 and PS3 only to see the Wii go nuts while the 360 and PS3 mired. So too many of them have been rushing titles to market that aren't well designed, aren't fun, are nearly just demos, don't play well, etc. (See Smooth Moves, Brunswick Bowling, Sonic & Secret Rings, etc. if you don't believe me).
I think in general that the better games aren't yet on the market. As the Wii finds its audience and the game publishers learn how to actually use a Wiimote as an input device, and get stung with a few titles that just sit on the shelves, we'll see some better games. Until then, I'll just keep playing bowling - it's one of the best games on any platform in my opinion.
For what it's worth, Metroid Prime 3 has substantially less backtracking than the two previous installments.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Speculating that the so-called "Bubble" is about to burst is probably more likely to become a self-fulfilling prophesy than anything. This is really just some high-brow writer trying to ask a question he thinks is provocative, when in reality, it's about as irrelevant as questions come. If the Wii is losing popularity, then it is, if it's not then it isn't and neither thing is going to change the fact that the little white box is now in more homes than any other present generation system just itching for new software that every development house and some that aren't even invented yet are drooling to make. Furthermore when most people see a box gathering dust, they start looking for ways to make their investment useful and are just as likely to start buying more games as to get off the Wii bandwagon.
Personally I've been playing my XBOX 360 more than anything recently, but I don't attribute this to any failing or waning popularity on the part of the Wii. I attribute this to the fact that the XBOX has been out for two years now and finally started to hit its stride. Developers have finally reached the point where they can start delivering on their promises. In the year prior to this one my XBOX 360 was gathering dust just like the Wii is now and the inane speculation was that the 360 had passed its peak because it was gathering dust. Does anybody think that now?
Give the Wii another year and see if anybody is still saying that it's heyday is over. The reality is, it hasn't even really started. And look at the really big games this Christmas, the 360s biggest potential seller is Mass Effect, and the Wii has Super Mario Galaxy. Does anyone seriously think that Mass Effect, awesome though I'm sure it will be, will sell even half as many copies of Super Mario Galaxy? My prediction is that Wii will still be outselling PS3 and 360 combined in both hardware and software.
For all of you gamers with any console, go give it a good finger swipe on the top to see how much dust is there. Especially if you have a system that is front-loading. Most people don't move their consoles and most people are too lazy or apathetic to bother dusting it. I was recently at a friends house and saw how much dust was on top of his Xbox. It was pretty ridiculous. So the lesson here is; don't relate a system's popularity with the amount of dust on them.
That isn't true with regards to the Xbox. They did 155K in May, 170K in July, 276K in August. September is expected to be higher and I'm sure the trend will continue till Jan. Here is a nice chart for you. http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20070914235723.html
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I expect interest in the Wii to double or even triple in the next year or so. The Wii is the market leader and in the eyes of the casual public, the most refreshing and different gaming system to come out in a LONG time.
Lol.
Look, part of the group that bought the Wii are casual gamers.
Casual. As in not every day.
To be frank, that's the market.
Now, a better question would be, when HDTV gains majority market share of the TV base in 2009, will this impact Wii sales?
That is much more relevant. Will Nintendo have a new console out in time? Will Sony continue to ignore reality? Will Microsoft achieve total dominance with the vBox (successor to the HDTV-enabling xBox360)? name is my suggestion
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
My Wii is collecting dust, but mainly because it has been waiting for Super Mario Galaxy.
You need to get the chiba-influenced MySims for your Wii.
It's really cool.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I'm in no hurry to buy a Wii but I know for sure that I will be buying one at some point in the future.
I had the Wii on my must-buy list around the same time the pre-launch frenzy was nearing its peak.
If only for Paper Mario. Damn those gameplay vids rock!
Given the glut of PS3s and XBox 360s and lack of Wiis, I would say it doesn't look like it's declining just yet.
It appeal to the more casual gamers, the Wii's titles are different to other systems. People who have a Wii aren't interested in spending hours alone playing online games.
Given how poorly they've been selling, you can probably get that bundle for Holiday 2008. It will of course have a 5 gig hard drive, Only support Wired Controllers and only has 1 USB slot. (but it'll be a "next gen" USB slot)
I wanted one the second they announced the controller. Bought one at launch, and have played maybe a total of 20 hours in the last year. There just isn't anything fun to play. It's a bunch of crappy party games, ports and remakes. I haven't bought a game since the Paper Mario mistake...
I know a lot of people who will *instantly* buy a wii when the first (good) Star Wars game hits the market. Shooter, that is.
...
And yes, I'm one of them. So it might be a little bit early to say "that's it"
By my recollection the media has been pulling stories like this out of their ass for years. They've been talking about the "Wii bubble about to burst" since before it arrived on the market.
If Wii sales ever start to fall, or if the Wii is going to become less competitive relative to the PS3 and Xbox 360, it isn't going to be this winter. Look at the veritable fuckton of games that are being released for the Wii between now and December.
http://gonintendo.com/?p=26233#more-26233
Compare that to the launch lineup it had last year, which wasn't exactly stellar but was probably better than what the PS3 and Xbox 360 had at launch, and it's clear the games lineup Nintendo has for the Wii this winter is going to sustain its popularity, if not catapult it.
"Apparently Trauma Centre: Second Opinion is just far too fiddly"
No. Go rent it, the controls are great, its easier than the original for the DS.
I have a Wii, I have a 360, and a PS3. In order of use, PS3>>>>Wii>>360. Why? Well in short, games I play. The PS3 has backwards compat for a lot of PS1, PS2 titles I never played and a tiny handful of new stuff that was fun. The Wii has Zelda, Metroid, and some mario stuff, the VC is good, but really some of that stuff is just too old for my taste (and I think for the common gamer). Not a bad showing to be sure, but not the huge obsessive products like GTA, FF, etc... The 360 is a piece of shit that runs Halo. Granted, Halo will sell a lot of green coloured pieces of shit, but they're still pieces of shit. Or maybe the new versions aren't, either way, now that Mass effect has gone the way of EA I don't see much keep the 360 for.
Why are people expecting the "casual gamer" crowd to play games all the time? Someone like my Mom and Dad will play the games from time to time, when they are in the mood, but they will also sometimes go a few months not even plugging it in.
Thats what makes them 'casual gamers'.
If they were hardcore gamers, then it would be a suprise if they didnt play anything for 6 weeks. I just don't see the suprise factor here.
When eBay has more consoles for cheap you'll know
Now how hard was that? sheesh
First off, I'm not a typical game console guy - the Wii is the first game console I've ever liked enough to buy (excluding the already antique Atari 2600 my son bought about two years ago, which is also much more fun than most modern video games...)
;-)
Like a lot of Wii customers, one big reason I never bought any other console was that the games hold little to no appeal.
The Wii is fundamentally different, by design. No one thinks Wii Sports has great graphics, but *lots* of people will line up to play it. Case in point: There was an active, mixed crowd surrounding the bigscreen Wii at the big Captain Morgan's "Crewsade" parties here in Austin just a couple of weeks ago. No other console (or game) could hope to draw that kind of crowd. Cheesy graphics can be *fun*.
Active games that really use the Wii's unique capabilities will be huge hits. Lame ports of games aimed a the "traditional gamer" crowd will fail miserably. Almost all of the Wii's "grow the market" buyers, like myself, didn't buy previous consoles for one over-riding reason: we don't like playing those games. Games that require you to "earn" your way through stupidly jumping through hoops a zillion times until you get it right will fail in the Wii marketplace, but *fun* games, like the best of the Wii games, will do *very* well, especially because the Wii is really (IMO) the first effective "social" gaming platform for people with actual social skills.
In short, the problem is gamers, and the fact that most game programmers are gamers, so they crank out the kind of gamer-think crap that Wii buyers never wanted, and won't ever buy.
The Wii will probably eventually be a stunninng success, but that means game developers (or other programmers that "get" the Wii) are going to have to start writing Wii-only (or at least Wii-centric) games that *really* leverage the console's unique capabilities. Wii games with the graphics of Blazing Angels (which for all its warts, at least shows the Wii can do decent graphics) and the gameplay/fun quotient of Wii Sports, especially for multiple players, are certain to be hits. Sadly, we're still waiting for those... (BTW: avoiding the whole dark goth theme would be a good idea, since this is one thing that made previous games and consoles unappealing...)
Oh, and how about using Mii definitions to drive higher-res Mii renderings for more serious-looking games? Why has no one done this? If I were in a gaming company, that's just one of many innovative changes I'd make to leverage the Wii platform. Tehre's gobs of potential there, just waiting to be unleashed...
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
Polularity to end due to lack of fucking games. I play a lot more VC than I do wii games.
And when is Earthbound out for VC damnit
That's all it is. CRYBABIES that can't STAND that Nintendo once again is the winner. WAAAAHHHHH I PAID ALL THIS MONEY TO WATCH A LOADING SCREEN!!!! WAAAAAHHHHHH Hard core gamers? F the "hard core gamers". That's BS. I've been gaming since Atari 2600 and I PLAY NINTENDO. That's it. Hard core gamer = NO LIFE LOSERS THAT BITCH AND MOAN TOO MUCH.
Move on, nothing to see here. This "story" was most likely planted by Sony (or even Microsoft) to try to cool down the public's enthusiasm for the Wii. This is exactly the same thing we saw earlier this year when Microsoft and others were trying to convince anyone who would listen (including themselves) that nobody would want the iPhone.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
My former roommate had a Wii, and honestly after the first week of playing with it, we went back to our PCs. This guy was a big Nintendo fan, owned every previous console and played all the in-house developed games. He couldn't bring himself to play Zelda: Twilight Princess or Warioware Smooth Moves (which prior to purchase he had claimed were completely awesome). After I played both games to the point of boredom we really quit doing anything with the poor little guy except surf the internet (YouTube TV was a fun hobby for a while) and play the Virtual Console games, which we could've used an emulator for on our PCs (and not have to wait for Nintendo to release a title we want to play, at that). So from experience I can say we didn't play that thing nearly as much as we thought we would before we bought it.
For those of us who have beaten everything we care to play (please see Zelda,) the Wii is sitting around and collecting dust. A little variety is necessary.
Who cares how much they play with the Wii. There's only one thing that matters.
Are they satisfied with their purchase and will they buy a Wii2?
...of weirdbeard's wii is going to be somewhat crazy.
Guitar Hero III
Mario Galaxy
Geometry Wars Galaxies
the zelda-zapper game thing,
Mario Kart (whenever it actaully comes out)
yeah, this really sounds like the bubble is going to burst...
how is early fall supposed to be anything other than slow for any sector of retail?
Its the lull before the late-fall --> christmas shopping season.
Japan can buy less videogames all it wants, that doestn change the fact that i'll be spending like $350 on games in the next few months, and thats ignoring virtual console games.
This is a bunch of FUD
Come read my stupid blagablog. Rants and Giggles
nintendo has made money from day one from their sales.
now they can sit back and watch the cash trickle in some more after the initial deluge.
microsoft and sony on the other hand will only see (potential) profit when they get some games that the majority of the owners of their console wants. for microsoft, thats already happening to some degree. for sony, that will be the next final fantasy, metal gear solid, and most likely one or more that i have forgotten about.
remember, those two sell their console at a loss, nintendo does not.
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
I didn't know conjecture constituted news. You could easily figure this out by asking Nintendo how many Wii's have gone online in the last week.
I hate sigs.
I have a Wii console sitting within arm's reach. Due to work demands, I haven't turned it on in three whole days, the longest span of inactivity since I bought it about two and a half months ago. When I get tired of the games I have, I will do a little research (namely, what's better on the Wii than on any other console, and a good game to start with) and have another couple months to enjoy.
The Wii appeals to a market segment that otherwise would not be gamers at all, because so many of the games have a "grip it and rip it" approach. You don't have to learn to use the console and can concentrate immediately on learning to play whatever the game is. As long as the focus is on those games that cater to the strengths of the Wii (namely, the controllers), I don't see the popularity going anywhere unless or until the market is saturated.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
The wii (sometimes plus a nunchuk) is currently being offered on Amazon.com and E-bay for $100-150 over its list price. So it seems that many people are stilling will to pay a mark-up for one of them, at least in the US.
I don't have time to play mine...curse this thing called REAL LIFE!
"Just Smile and Nod." --Huck
Of course the Wii hasn't been selling recently! Halo 3 came out, what, 3 weeks ago? Who's going to try to compete with that?
Don't trash the rest of the GC. You can get a Gameboy player used for like $20 now, and there are TONS of GBA, GBC, and original GB games worth playing. On that note, The GC with a GB player can play EVERY Zelda made except the recently released Phantom Hourglass, (and the dreadfull CD-i games). I still actively play my Gamecube because of this.
If you played a Non-Melee character in Oblivion, and specialized in either Ranged Magic, or Ranged Weapons then would that make it an FPS?
Also Try Metroid Prime 3. I'd say it's the superior FPS setup. Better than Dual analog, and yes, better than Keyboard and mouse. The (left) Analog stick beats the crap out of WASD for motion, the controller as a gun is nearly as quick and precise (I said nearly, but it's close) as a mouse, and the motion controls used to rip a shield out of an enemy's hands (via the "Grapple gun") then blasting them with your gun offers a level of visceral immersion not available in other systems/ set ups.
I don't think Metroid Prime 3 is a true FPS either (It's an adventure/platformer, really), but I would LOVE a FPS using the Metroid Prime 3 engine / universe to come out.
This is brought to you by the same school that says Apple is dying and BSD is dead. Oh well.
For me the biggest issue with Wii is the lack of new games. I am waiting in anticipation for Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart and possibly some good RPGS. The other issue that needs to get sorted, is that the friend code system sucks (not the target audience - whatever) and there isn't much in the way of network game. In general I am happy with the Wii, but I believe the blame is currently on the software companies.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
We play the party games with friends now and then, the 2 player mini games once in a while, and we played lots of Zelda.
I'm holding out till xmas for Metroid Prime and I want Super Mario Galaxy too. So what if Nintendo makes all the good games for their consoles? I just want fun games.
And maybe the SquareEnix stuff will be good for Wii later on, they're supposed to be doing final fantasy multi-platform.
I have a Wii and I barely play it.. My kids play it every now and then but days (weeks?) go by without it being turned on. My son continues to play his gamecube more. Why don't I play it more? I can't stand playing against AI.. I want to play real people and 1 year later where are the network games?!? Are there any?? I think there are a couple like the Pokemon one and I heard Call of Duty or some such is coming out in a few months with game play up to 16 people. The Wii has alot of potential but if they keep focusing on party games and things like Wii Fit, then people are going to get tired of it.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
The console is expensive if you buy a controller, and the games are also. They look like shit and are short on innovation, unlike Locoroco. No wonder nobody's buying them.
First of all sales have dropped because all gamers have one now...ok maybe not but it's a nice thought.
Secondly consoles arn't the money makers. The game sales would be a much better representation!
I have had a Wii since february and it tends to have bursts where I use it like crazy for a month then don't touch it for a month when I got it I used it constantly for a month then I stopped for about 1.5 months. then I bought a whole bunch of VC titles and played them straight for a month then stopped for another month, then I got paper mario and that was a sweet 3 weeks then Super metroid came out on the VC and did I ever play that but once again I stopped for a month. So yes it experiences "Dust" periods but Nintendo has been releasing content to bring me back and I like the casual aspect of it and how it doesn't own my life. The wii is not going to go anywhere it is just a different genre of console and market where people casually pick up a wii-mote from time to time. Different, Not dieing. :)
If your Wii is gathering dust, I've a so-far Wii-less home where my two sons would love to keep the dust off it for you.
Can't say as I've seen any at garage sales, where shelf-dust-collecting devices tend to end up.
This is the problem with purists: endless classifications that serve no real purpose except to exclude. Classifications do this automatically -- of course -- and some are valid -- of course! -- but when it comes down to an absurd pissing contest about who can be the most pure on a particular subject, you have to ask if there isn't something wrong.
I see this in music all the time. You get "purists" who believe that it's somehow helpful to have jazz fusion and Indo-jazz fusion and Indo-jazz Bollywood fusion and Indo-jazz Bollywood fusion fuzz-pop. The same with games. Is it a first person shooter? I don't know; is it in the first person, and do you spend a lot of time shooting? The answer to this question seems pretty straight-forward.
Of course now some purist purist is going to come along and tell me why it's important that purists constantly and consciously engage in follicle division, and why there are seven kinds of purists, and this is their genus, et cetera. You know what? We're not 19th century scientists any more. Not everything needs a rigorous classification system.
What is is all that is. Isn't that obvious?
So if you ain't shooting, it ain't an FPS by definition....
No sig today...
I bought my Wii because I thought Wii Sports was great; but since it came out, I haven't seen any more games like this. I'm just not interested in 80s style platform games like Mario, and if I wanted FPS games, I'd just stick with my PS2.
... so why aren't they making more games like this?
The Wii Remote is fantastic with Wii Sports
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
... seriously, it's way too early to speculate, we can have this conversation again sometime in the next year and a half. We have yet to see how the "casual" market will work out with the Wii, and not to mention what kind of success 3rd parties publishers will have on the Wii.
Perhaps Wii games just don't really appeal to me but I just can't get into the Wii for the life of me. Frankly I think one of the main reasons is because after a long days work I just wanna sit back and play mindlessly, many 360 games allow me to do this whereas using the Wii remote actually requires you to put effort in. Other than that I think it's just that games on the 360 to me appeal more.
One final reason that I'm a bit pissed about the Wii is that I bought a bunch of Virtual Console titles I was looking forward to playing, yet there's a bug that's existed since release effecting EU PAL consoles and the virtual console whereby many games don't work correctly with HD displays over Nintendo's component cable and I don't have any other inputs spare (I have a PC on digital in and the 360 on analog in). Some Nintendo apologists blame the displays but when other devices (including the Wii itself outside of it's VC) quite happily display in 480p okay it's pretty obvious where the fault is. It doesn't even seem like a hard fix as when you call up the Wii menu and interrupt the VC game it actually shows the game okay in the background, thus far Nintendo's only response to me has been "we're aware of the problem", unfortunately that's the same response they've given me for almost a year now.
I don't hate Nintendo and I don't hate the Wii, I still play Wii sports now and again and I play various party games like Rayman's multiplayer mode, Warioware etc. when friends are over but for every hour I play on the Wii I seem to spend about 200 on the 360 or PC. The lack of worthwhile multiplayer is another major turn off.
I'm hoping they bring a new pikmin game out or something, I loved them on the Gamecube and I think that might give me the Wii the attention it deserves, because when it comes to I still think the concept of the Wii is awesome. Until that game comes along that draws me in though the Wii just isn't for me - I'm sure I'm a minority but I doubt I'm alone either.
You can't take the sky from me...
Nintendo seem to be selling virtual games at a great rate,here in australia there now more than 100 available, and I know I've bought 10 or so. I bet the profit per sale on a virtual game is close to that on a Wii game.
I can only speak for myself, but my Wii is gathering dust. I've had it since launch day, and once I finished Zelda and Elebits, it sat unused until Metroid. I blew through Metroid in a week and set the Wii aside again. My seriously consider skipping the next Mario (me? skip a Mario?) Yeah. The Wii is been a big disappointment for me. I picked up a 360 last month and I am blown away by the online functionality (you listening Nintendo?). Plus, there is a huge library of killer games with more coming this holiday. I can't believe I'm supporting a MS console.
Is my DS. I remember similar fears at this time in its life.
Nintendo designed the Wii with the focus of having fun with family and/or friends. Really, just playing the Wii by yourself can be fun, but playing with friends is where the system truly shines. Unfortunately, people have real lives too, and don't really have time to play games every waking moment.
I'm reading and replying to this from my wii. oh...I just dusted it last week too...
6 Wii's have been traded in this week for a new 360. Make of it what you will.
I believe that once the Wii "Balance Board" (name may change) comes out early next year, it will cause some more excitement for the Wii platform. To me, it is another console revolution like the Wii remote was/is. The balance board not only detects which way you are leaning, but it detects your center of gravity. The balance board will initially support the new Wii Fit program. The Wii Fit program has some exercise routines including yoga. The "Balance Board" will have a lot of potential for new games also. It would be cool to have a surfing or skateboarding game that supports the board.
I had a Nintendo 64 when it came out, and I played with it occasionally. I got one of the last "thick" PS2s, and a small handful of games for it. Every 6 to 9 months, I'd see some game that seemed interesting, and play it for a week or two. Between times the PS2 gathered dust.
I finally got my hands on a Wii last February. Since then, it's been used at least three times a week, sometimes daily. I played through Twilight Princess, then downloaded Ocarina and played farther through it than I ever had on the N64. The girlfriend and daughter enjoy the Everybody Votes Channel, and once the Wii is on to "check for questions" it usually winds up being used for some game or other. Games where the people watching can "help" are popular at my house: Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, GameCube titles like Wind Waker and Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door. I play a lot of Virtual Console games from my childhood. Lately, I've not used the Wii quite as much... because I'm playing Phantom Hourglass on the DS. (The girlfriend has complained that Nintendo needs to provide some way of mirroring the DS screen to the TV via the Wii, so that she can watch me play.) We occasionally play Mario Party 8 or Wii Sports together as a family.
In short, the Wii has seen several orders of magnitude more play time than any other console I've owned since the Atari 2600.
It'll get a lot more use when Nintendo releases some form of Tetris for it. The girlfriend will shove me aside to get her mitts on the Wiimote when that happens.
I'm not a kid anymore, but I still like me some toys. The Wii is just plain fun. Nintendo understands how to make fun games, and that they don't have to be hi-def eye candy if they're actually enjoyable. The "shovelware" vendors don't get this. That's why they're scared -- their business model is based on pretty, not fun, and that business model doesn't work for Wii owners.
I'm a professional UNIX administrator. I use Macs at home because they just work. By the time I get home, I don't want to muck with the computer anymore, I just want to do things. The Wii, especially with Nintendo games, is just fun. I'm not a Nintendo fanboy -- I hated Nintendo when I was young and an Atari fanboy -- I just think that this product meets an untapped need really well.
In my opinion, the people pooh-poohing the Wii because of its graphics seem a lot like the folks who derided the Mac's "toy-like" graphic interface, or the iPod's "limited" interface compared to the Rio... such people completely miss the point that they aren't the mass market, and sometimes simpler is better. "The Wii is dying" is the "BSD is dying" for 2007, I guess.
God DAMN! It's like watching a bunch of no-necked jocks arguing about the best sports team around here.
Nothing like a spot of, "The Wii is the best console out there!" followed by, "No way, N00b. teh 360 is the r0x!" ending with a, "I say, old chap, the PS3 is the superior system!"
How old are all of you? 13? You can like your favorite system without slamming the other systems, you know. That is, unless you are worried about your penis size.
Yes, this is a flame. I just can't believe all the whining that goes on around here every time a console is mentioned.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
As an owner of a Wii myself, I've been finding it extremely difficult to tolerate playing most Wii games for more than a couple days. While motion controls may enhance gameplay in many instances, it should not be the only control scheme available. Many of us who are older or disabled are extremely sensitive to repetative movement in the arms, hands, neck and back. Unfortunately, there aren't many Wii titles that allow you to switch between button mashing and motion controls, so once you hit your limit of what you can tolerate in terms of pain, you only have the option of walking away from the game to recover. Combine this with the fact that many of us also work physically demanding jobs, and soon you have to choose between gaming or job security.
Of course, a lot of the problem, is that Nintendo has yet to provide Wii users a true, wireless controller for more traditional games aside from that crappy classic controller you have to plug into the Wii remote. Sure, there's the wavebird, but a true, Wii-native controller would be better. (Perhaps Nintendo could take a page from Sony and create a Wavebird/Wii-remote hybrid that does both traditional controls and motion controls in a single unit.)
8==8 Bones 8==8
The village is a traning stage. Fun begins when you get out from it.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If their numbers are correct, this chart shows that the Wii has outsold the PS2 and SNES, a couple of the most popular consoles ever, for this point in its launch. It also shows that the PS2 had a similar slump at a slightly earlier point, which is why the Wii has just caught up with it.
Looking at the weekly sales chart for consoles in Japan, it seems as though the Wii dropped about 50% of its weekly sales over a two week period in August, and 2/3 in about a month.
This seems an improbable drop without a causal factor - is it possible that Nintendo simply reduced console output to Japan in an attempt to divert resources to the US holiday market? Production, presumably, is capped at this point, so that's probably their only viable way of increasing US supply.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
In fact, pretty much every person who buys a PS3 isn't the intended audience. The Wii is designed and marketed to the casual player, the PS3 to the hardcore player. The games are "shallow" because they need to be easy to play, so anyone can play.
History has shown that once a console gains market dominance it's all but over bar the fat lady singing for the competition. Sure they may be able to eke out a borderline existence but no console has ever had a heartwarming come from behind Disney style win once a clear leader was established.
The NES bitch slapped all comers. The Playstation surprised everybody, destroyed Sega and did Japanese fetish like things to Nintendo. The PS2 laughed like a bad guy in an anime at the competition before crushing them all.
Despite all this the current crop of "games journalists" seem to be adamant about how Sony will execute an amazing come from behind win. "It's has the hardware that gives me wet dreams." "It's a Playstation and therefore is sent from heaven to save us from actual gameplay." "It's bigger than the first generation XBox controller." "Zero Punctuation owns one so they must be the shit."
I believe that Sony has fluffed this generation in a way that rivals the mistakes made by Osborne or Apple in the early 90s. They took a name that was the pretty much the definition of sex in the nerd world and turned it into the equivalent of COBOL for masses. Unless a Y2K event happens in the near future, Sony will be pan handling for change soon.
As for the 360, MS has never made hardware this complex before and it shows. It is less reliable than a business person who honestly believes that ties make you more professional and successful. Consoles are supposed to be something that gets about as much attention as a VCR. You plug in in under 2 feet of cables and the charming photos that Aunt May sent you last Christmas and it just works. Not something that requires raised floors and dedicated air conditioning to survive the harsh environment of the average consumer's home.
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
however, it's the deadzone between the summer and the christmas season.
during the summer, people arent in school, etc, so interest into gaming systems will be there, though the summer is also kinda dead as well.
christmas is coming up, people are saving their money to buy gifts for the upcoming holiday season. so sales are down everywhere.
when I worked at radioshack, the whole month of october was dead until the last 2 weeks, then we started picking up, early shoppers, etc. then black friday came along and it was active until january.
Also, it should be noted, in the US retail sales in general are down, this is bound to hurt sales figures.
"...citing one software house president as saying, 'People bought it out of curiosity, and it's likely a lot of them haven't used it.' "
It's crap like this that shouldn't even be making headlines here at Slashdot. If this president had some industry numbers showing that demand has gone down, maybe he'd have a point. Perhaps his software house didn't anticipate the popularity and is scrambling to deliver a title or two? Perhaps they invested too much time/people into other consoles? Whatever the case, it's still speculation.
No sig for you! Come back one year!
I used my Wii for a while right after I got it. Since then it's had it's times of dust building, with the occasional use here and there. I have Wii Sports and Wii Play and I'm set for now. However once Smash Brothers Brawl comes out my Wii will need a new heatsink. That being said the best games normally come out a year or two after the launch. To me Wii Sports is a game that says, "Look what the Wii can do, now do it better." Just like Super Mario Bros. did for the NES.
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
Perhaps, because it's the best version available? Seriously, I have an HD projector, (a 96" screen, and all 3 systems) and so far the Wii owns all in Sports games. Yes the graphics aren't as good (Tiger Woods is especially PS2-tastic looking), but Madden and Tiger Woods simply play better on the Wii than any other system. I can't wait till Fight Night comes out for it.
Super Mario Strikers.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
No offense, but this year has easily been one of the most block buster gaming years in the entire history of gaming. On the 360 along we've seen more 9 and 10 rated games that all other consoles combined in a single year! Forza 2, Bioshock, Halo 3, Mass Effect, The Orange Box, Guitar Hero 3, PGR4, Puzzle Quest, Eternal Sonata, and a whole slew of others.
There are 10 PSN games worth buying? No seriously... I have a PS3 and I have found the game selection lacking (both online and retail) and the reviews seem to be mediocre at best. SuperStarDust HD and what else?
Same here. Hell at this point if I could play a BluRay movie without the Cell, you could rip it out and I wouldn't notice.
As far as PS2 games, check out the "Sub $10 used game market"... Metal Gear Solid 2, SlyCooper, Jak & Daxter... All good stuff. Oh, and Psychonaughts... it's like $12 and great.
I have never enjoyed console gaming much until my brother bought this Wii for my house, I was really surprised at just how much I enjoy playing it. I guess one of the things I really like about it is how its designed for more than just gaming with the web browsing and all that built in and easy to use. And while I understand the concerns raised by one poster about how those controls would be difficult for someone with certain disabilities I just do not see how its relevant. If you have physical disabilities (as I have) there are certain limitations you have to face in life and there will be things or products that simply are not the best choice for you. Wii's entire marketing was based around the 'physicality' of the controllers, how could anyone have bought this without being aware of the physical requirements to fully enjoy it. In the end, pick the product that fits your needs.
There are two ways too look at it. Yes, it's in First Person, and yes, you shoot. So it's a First Person Shooter. However, the games we generally put in the FPS genre are all quite different from Prime and Prime 2. Prime and Prime 2 are Zelda games with First Person Views, and we generally don't call Zelda games Third Person Shooters, even though Zelda is third person and you shoot.
So Prime isn't an FPS the same way that Zelda isn't a TPS.
There are a bunch of great third-party Wii games announced, Monster Hunter 3 for example.
The thing is that Wii software sales aren't poor. They're actually better than the PS3's, and on par with what the 360 had a year after launch. And that is even with the crappy third-party support the Wii has as of now.
Wow, I didn't even realize it played GBC games. I just ordered one. I wish my micro would play the GB and GBC Zeldas :-(
Of course, there are also a bunch of downloadable PS1 games:
While the Wii's game selection is nothing to brag about, it beats the PSN both online and offline, even without any original online games. Of the originall PSN games, only Warhawk is a must-have. Some are decent, but most are pretty crappy.
But thinking about gettng on for Christmass. The thing that puts me off is that in order to play these "casual, group orientated games" I have to go and buy at least one, and probably more, extra controllers for it. Additional controllers are a significant fraction of the basic purchase price. If I want to play multiplayer Wii sports etc with the kids on Christmass day, I can't do it "out of the box". Hardcore consoles are aimed at hardcore players, usually playing solo or online for multiplayer. The big selling point of the Wii is to play games together in the same room. Not putting at least one extra controller in the pack kills that immediately.
Oh man, that is pissing me off so much. Other from not being able to launch game from the SD card, this is my single issue with the Wii. I bought Super Metroid last week. Why the hell do I have to plug the Wii into the video port of my beamer in order to play it? It looks like crap that way! Nintendo, fix this. I don't need USB keyboards and all that other crap, I just want to launch VC games from the SD card, and play all VC games using component cables on my HD beamer. Thanks a bunch!
And yeah, a new Pikmin on the Wii would be awesome.
Wow, you're right. VGChartz says that only two PS3 games have sold >1 million world-wide: Motorstorm (1.28) and Resistance (1.72). The Wii, OTOH, has 8 >1 million sellers, including two third-party games. Zelda is the largest seller after Wii Sports and Wii Play, and it sold 3.78 million copies.
Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4 (two of the highest rated games ever), Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, Soul Calibur II, Viewtiful Joe, Prime 2, Super Mario Sunshine, Eternal Darkness, Super Smash Bros Melee, Rogue Leader, TimeSplitters 2, F-Zero GX, Pikmin, Super Monkey Ball, Beyond Good & Evil, Paper Mario, ...
See, this is where you move from "okay, he has different tastes from mine" to "bat-shit insane." The PS2 has nothing that can compete with stuff like Resident Evil 4. I mean, PS2 is plainly situated in jaggie-land. There's really no comparison between the PS2 and the Cube.
Well, it obviously couldn't play DVDs, but it did online just fine. Unfortunately, hardly any games made use of it.
Okay, which games are you talking about?
Yeah, unlike the PS2, or the Xbox, or the 360, or the PS3, or any other damn console in the history of consoles. I do not own a single console which fits into my entertainment center (by which I assume you mean it I can stack it). Actually, the Cube has the advantage of being small, so it's easy to place it, but the Xbox? Or the original PS2? Not so damn much.