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Nintendo Already Anticipating Holiday Wii Shortages
As we approach the holiday season, Nintendo has already said that they don't expect to keep up with demand for the Wii console. In an interview with the LA Times, Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime said they're ramping up production by 33% already, with further increases planned. They're hoping to avoid the scarcity of Wii's that occurred last year, which cost them a great deal of money in potential sales. "We're now producing 2.4 million units a month worldwide. Last year, we made 1.6 million a month. So we've made a 33% increase. One of our competitors projects they will sell 10 million consoles worldwide this year. For us, that's three months of production. We're producing an unprecedented level of hardware to try to meet demand."
...water is wet, the sky is blue, and Macs and PCs use the same hardware. i.e. There is nothing surprising here. The demand for the Wii has been mercilessly out of whack with what is possible (or at least practical) to manufacture, since day one. I know a lot of people thought the shortage was over when Wiis temporarily became available during the summer. (Note that I said "available", not "abundant".) The problem is that console sales always cycle during the summer. The best sales are obviously around Christmas, both before and after. (After for all the folks who couldn't get one during the Christmas season.) Being at the opposite end of the year, summer is obviously going to be the low-point for sales. Consumers are spending their money on vacations and outdoor fun rather than game consoles.
What I find far more interesting is the extreme vitriol expressed by those who commented on the ComputerAndVideoGames.com story. It seems the more successful the Wii becomes, the more the hardcore gamers hate it for its success.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Is it official yet, or do the other contenders still have a shot at avoiding humiliation?
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
What, are they EATING wiis? They've been selling out for over a year now, by my calculations that's 3 wiis per everyone.
1.5*1,600,000 = 2,400,000
2.4 million units a month worldwide
Short of building a cloning machine, what more can Nintendo really do? 2.4 computers a months seems like no small amount to me, especially considering that Nintendo often has good quality.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Let's see. Three months of production, at 2.4 million units a month, is ... carry the one ... 7.2 million units.
Now if they'd said four months of production, I could accept it - they'd be slightly out, but it'd be within a reasonable margin.
To me, there is a serious problem with the Wii.
I've not checked many review sites so if I'm bringing up a biased, poor review site by all means, reject what I'm saying:
2 years in and according to Gamespot only 8 games have made a score over 8.5 - 12 if you count 8.5
This is woeful. You go to the Wii section in any store and the shelves are stocked with what I deem "exploitware". That is, poorly designed games attempting to sucker the Wii mass market into buying games based on advertised novel mechanics (that rarely work).
A year ago, you could forgive this type of situation on the industry having not caught up with the prolific popularity of the console. Now, I find myself losing faith in the Wii. With all the Mario lineup accounted for and Smash Bros done, a "not completely awesome" Metroid. What do we have to look forward to?
Url may or may not work for you (localised) http://au.gamespot.com/reviews.html?type=reviews&platform=1031&mode=all&sort=score&dlx_type=all&sortdir=asc&official=all
I record my sleeptalking
Tell me about it, I mean just look at their sales for the last two years... oh wait.
Hey, look! It's Bono's brother.
I walked into a store a few weeks ago and bought one.
Ok, yeah. I was shocked as hell that they actually had them in stock.
Technoli
Seriously? People are still into this fad system?
Don't get me wrong, there were few people who were stronger supporters of the Wii when it was first coming out with it's new motion control setup. Unfortunately, it seems like all that developers have been able to do with it is create a bunch of crappy mini games where the only point seems to be to flail ones limbs around. The only thing the system does well is shooters (given that every other system has given up on the light gun) while they have been unable to come up with anything compelling in terms of sequels for their major franchises. Shoot, they even managed to release sequels to major franchises (I am thinking of Paper Mario and Mario Kart specifically here but I am sure there are others) that were significantly worse than their Gamecube counter parts.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
Why do you say that? They're still in demand and hard to find.
Hah, like a Linux user would know how without a man page.
"man page" sounds much cooler than "help". Seems that while the "man" is already in bed with the woman, the other users are over by the Windows trying to scrawl in their Notepad
One comment I'd like to make is that Gamespot is useless. They have no journalistic integrity, and their reviews are awful to boot. Check IGN or MetaCritic instead.
I do not disagree with this statement. However, I would caution you to think carefully about the PS2 before you derive too much from it. How much PS2 software was AAA stuff? How much of it was excellent stuff that didn't get the attention it deserved? How much of it was pure, unbridled crap? (Even worse, do you know how much of the last category has been ported to the Wii to "cash in"?)
The biggest issue with the Wii is that some of the best games fall into the category of "don't get enough attention". Gamers pay attention to Monkey Ball Wii when Mercury Meltdown Revolution is the superior title. Zach and Wiki bring back the point and click adventure genre, but no one can be bothered to buy it. Geometry Wars Galaxies is several dozen shmups in one, but hardcore gamers ignore it. Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection is the most amazing pinball simulation EVER, but it goes directly to the bargain bin. Boom Blox... well... Boom Blox is just overpriced IMHO.
And then there's WiiWare. Awesome, great, terrific, incredible games like Defend Your Castle, Toki Tori, Strong Bad, World of Goo, Wild West Guns (if you like light-gun games), Mega Man 9, Bomberman Blast, and LostWinds, yet most of the Wii owners I see don't even bother to hook up their Wii's Wifi.
I don't know if this is a failure to market on Nintendo's part or what. Obviously Nintendo's stuff sells well enough, so one has to wonder what gives. In part, I have seen publishers take a defeatist attitude toward the Wii. (e.g. The only reason why anyone heard of Zach and Wiki was because IGN tried to jump-start a grass roots movement. Capcom spent diddly squat on advertising and promotion.) Which, unsurprisingly, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Still, you'd think that publishers would want to nail their support for this machine while the iron is hot.
I honestly don't think they "get" it. Until they do, a Wii owner has to be a discerning owner. Because that's the only way you're going to find the good games. And there are PLENTY. From Excite Truck to Wario Shake It, the games are there. They're just not getting much attention.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Sadly enough most people are probably not to bothered with that since they end up buying all the same games anyway. (Mario galaxy, Zelda, maybe smash bros as you mention, metroid, mario kart, whatever more.)
Over here in Sweden the only games advertised for the DS is still Nintendogs and New super mario bros (and earlier mario kart). Sure there is a lot of games for the DS, sure there are better titles than those, sure there are newer titles than those, sure there are more interesting and fresh titles than those... Doesn't matter, it seems, because everyone seem to buy what they recognise / their friends have anyway.
But if I was new to the DS I would be wondering if that was all it had and if there never came any new games and such. I can't understand why they show the same old crap. Where is castlevania, megaman, kirby, advanced wars, final fantasy, the new probotector and so on?
Now, I find myself losing faith in the Wii. With all the Mario lineup accounted for and Smash Bros done, a "not completely awesome" Metroid. What do we have to look forward to?
One thing I am looking forward to is the MotionPlus wiimote attachment. You know those lightsaber games we where promised? All the great game ideas that turned out lackluster because the wiimote's motion detection isn't that great? This will make all that possible. The MotionPlus gives 6 degrees of freedom, registering motion and rotation.
Remember how long it took the PS2 to build up a solid library of titles?
Sure, there were dozens of titles at launch, but it took ages for it to build up its now-formidable library, while Microsoft rested on its laurels with Halo.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
Why don't they just raise the price? If there's this huge demand for the thing, just raise the price until supply = demand?
The motion detection is the much smaller problem. One-to-one motion simply isn't possible because there's nothing to stop you from swinging when your sword hits your opponent's.
Chanisms on /. That's a paddling.
And how do we know that the "motion plus" add on wont also be a POS? Since that same argument that except using the wiimote was used before the release of the wii "well it cant be done with a controller but it would be with the wiimote" when in reality the motion controls remain for the most part a novelty. very few games ACTUALLY take advantage of the wiimotes motion sensing capabilities currently and i dont think an add one is going to change that.
And then there's WiiWare. Awesome, great, terrific, incredible games like Defend Your Castle, Toki Tori, Strong Bad, World of Goo, Wild West Guns (if you like light-gun games), Mega Man 9, Bomberman Blast, and LostWinds, yet most of the Wii owners I see don't even bother to hook up their Wii's Wifi.
I don't know if this is a failure to market on Nintendo's part or what. Obviously Nintendo's stuff sells well enough, so one has to wonder what gives.
What is so hard to understand that the whole reason these downloadable small-market games are able to be profitable is because they DONT spend an amount greater than the budget for the game itself to advertise, which would be exactly the case if they advertised them in any major media outlet.
2.4 million a month is about 54.8 per minute. Nearly every second there is a complete new WII console produced. Like, we're talking over 9000 here.
In the case of WiiWare, I was thinking about promoting the online capabilities of the console rather than the individual titles themselves. At least then users might hook up their consoles and Nintendo could realize better royalties across ALL WiiWare titles. Beyond that, I think that sites like WiiWare World already do an excellent job promoting the titles themselves.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
The Wii's problem is that it isn't getting any "epic" games on a regular schedule, which are what are getting all the hype and praise right now.
Gears of War 2
LBP
Rock Band and GHWT
Fallout 3
Dead Space
These are the games that get magazine covers, breathless previews, dedicated forums, etc. They have big budgets, huge graphics, and online features out the wazoo. They pop up every couple of months on the 360 and PS3, and there are a ton right now because the holiday season is approaching. How many Wii games get this treatment? To my eyes, the answer is 0.
I like to think I've got a pretty good perspective on this. I have a Wii that's been sitting unplugged now for months, and a 360 that I haven't played in a month or so. I like games, but lately I've been too busy or lazy to play them. I still keep up with game news though, so I do graze those magazine covers, Metacritic reviews, and I see the forums that spring up dedicated to a single game.
So if all that is the case, why does the Wii do so well? That "hype and praise" I mentioned in the first paragraph doesn't mean *shit* to a lot of people buying Wii games. Someone that sees Wii Music or Wii Fit on TV once, thinks "oh a new disk for my game box!", has the cash and picks it up for the *experience*, even if that experience only gets revived from the closet floor once every two months when friends are over (they didn't really think about that when they got it - these aren't the cash-starved teenagers and college kids that seem to dictate the market and the web climate for the "serious" games).
The Wii is a toy. I don't mean that in a bad or degrading way, but it's the best way to compare it to the other consoles. It's a toy with different marketing and audience goals than the consoles. It's a toy that's sold like gangbusters and really shows no signs of slowing. We've hit the Internet age and computers still intimidate the hell out of a huge amount of people - the friendly white box plugs straight into your TV, and you don't need to buy anything else, read instructions, or figure out what the 15 buttons and analog sticks do to start waving the magic wand around and having fun.
If you're a "hardcore" gamer, the "Wii problem" is simple. Unlike the 360 and the PS3, you need to look at the Wii games that are available and what's on the horizon - look past the magazine covers, read some reviews. See a few things that are interesting and willing to spend the money? Get one. Otherwise don't. People need to get it through their heads - Nintendo doesn't care about you. They care about selling systems and games, and they are doing a pretty damn good job despite the "teeming masses" of people online complaining to them - those masses in actuality are a minority, and not even a vocal one at that, because most people can't hear them.
Hey fuck you.. every time I get enough money to buy a wii it's fucking sold out you assholes!!! Who's wii do I have to suck to get a Wii??
Obviously Nintendo's stuff sells well enough, so one has to wonder what gives. In part, I have seen publishers take a defeatist attitude toward the Wii.
I think part of the problem is that many game makers bought big-time into the idea that the ps3 would inherit the ps2's title. When the wii ended up eating the ps3's lunch, it was kind of hard for many of them to adjust.
Even where they do end up releasing games for the wii, the games often seem rushed and to lack the full attention of the company. I get the impression that some companies view their wii games almost as a kind of stopgap until the ps3 "catches up" and they can get back to their original plan...
We live, as we dream -- alone....
>man lesbian :( guess I'm shit out of luck... if only I was girl
No manual entry for lesbian
Hey, forget the man pages. If I'm going to fuck multiple hermaphrodites and lesbians simultaneously with my big Linux-user dick, I'm gonna need an engineer to work out the logistics and placements!
This ain't no simple tab a->slot b thing we're talking about, man!
> a "not completely awesome" Metroid
Are you joking ?
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
The press average on Meta Critic for the two games you mentioned isn't exactly outstanding:
If these are hopes for the Wii players, the hopes are thin.
About the same on Meta Critic according to their All-Time High Scores:
And for the record:
The trend is quite similar on GameStats too (which is to IGN what Meta Critic and Game Ranking are to GameSpot -- no one is independent).
I very much agree with the original poster, there is a serious problem with the Wii, but it's not just with the hardware, it's with Nintendo and it started before the Wii. However, when you could -- rightfully or not -- put the blame for the sometimes mediocre software quality on a variety of reasons graviting around the below-average GameCube sales (unsupportive 3rd party, hasty development time, tiresome reliance on tried and true franchises), you can't do the same with the Wii. The Wii is a hugely successful console with a bunch of uninteresting games and the regular quality titles from Nintendo, Capcom, maybe a few others.
Even if those two usely live up to modern gaming standards, a majority of their games for the Wii lack surprise and excitement. What are exactly those top games on Meta Critic / Game Stats ? It's quite simple, really:
GameCube ports, which is becoming a well-loved trend among publishers, has to be one of the most obnoxious, shameful idea to ever hit game consoles; for Gumpei's sake, the console is compatible with GC games! The so-called original games are all these pretty lousy Wii Something titles that appeal an awful lot to the heretical casual gamer. Between that and the remakes, the ports and the franchises ad nauseum, what's left?
Add Wii Pro Evolution Soccer to this list. Best soccer game ever.
Small Vito Corleone face appears on the screen, with a speech balloon:
I'm de man around these parts. It looks like you're trying to reconfigure the Barzinis. I'mna make you an offer you can't refuse:
If you neednything, just come tode man.
I own a Wii, and pretty much it just sits there unused unless a good game comes out that I'm interested in. For me that was Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart.
Most of the rest of the titles I see in stores are gimmick/exploitware games that aren't even worth $10, let alone $49.
Much of the WiiWare games seem like mediocre crap that look like ports of flash games -- I've only picked up Mega Man 9 from the crop for its retro appeal (though I think they went a little too heavy on the difficulty.. the older games were not this difficult).
The Virtual Console started off strong with big name releases and now it seems like we get weak releases more often than good ones.
In fact, i'll likely not even power on my Wii again unless Mega Man 3 comes out on the VC.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
We've been having a blast with the Lego series and I've been addicted to World of Goo (wiiware).
Stop pussyfooting around with the phrase "holiday season". If you mean Christmas, say Christmas!
the reason i never bought a wii. i couldnt find them in my area for 7 months, and if i could they were at the low low price of $600. by the time i could, every store had jacked up the price and required pre-registration again.
i dont want to be treated like cattle for something like this. in my opinion nintendo's first venture at this bordered on blackmarket extortion.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Given the tracking problems which Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors have, improving the accuracy of tracking would be a welcome improvement --- which isn't to say that I haven't enjoyed DQS a lot, but it would be more enjoyable if it wouldn't occasionally inexplicably register a thrust and break the hit chain, or if it would more accurately track diagonal slashes.
I'm sure that the developers invested a great deal of effort to get it to the point where it is --- making that easier for them (and the gamer) will help the game experience a lot.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
mmm, not being trying to be nit-picky but without the motion sensing you only have like.. 4 buttons? Pretty sure every game uses motion sensing.
http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
GameCube ports, which is becoming a well-loved trend among publishers, has to be one of the most obnoxious, shameful idea to ever hit game consoles; for Gumpei's sake, the console is compatible with GC games!
The old GameCube games are out of print. If publishers are going to spend money on putting games back into print in order to compete with used, they might as well add accelerometer support while they're at it.
So this is the third year of the Wii being available, but it is still at the same (retail) price as when it was originally released. Granted, sales are still outpacing supplies so we can assume that demand has at least remained roughly static over these three years.
However, we all know that hardware prices tend to fall over time. Unless I am mistaken, the Wii of this year is identical to the Wii of 2006 in terms of hardware. So why hasn't the console price fallen? Will we see it fall before Nintendo releases their next system (whenever that will be)?
An earlier post said that console life cycles average about 5 years. If we are therefore over half-way into this cycle, wouldn't we expect to have seen a price drop by now?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
You're absolutely right. Those times when I've checked out the shelves?
I'm invariably standing next to a family who are buying games on cover alone.
They are the ones in the majority. Not the discerning distinguished gentleman such as myself.
I record my sleeptalking
Sorry that I don't have enough time to fully reply to your post but I would just like to point out how disappointed I was with the Wii's virtual console. Years and years ago I was able to emulate donkey kong country with some very effective graphic smoothing, yet when I play it on virtual console, there is absolutely no care taken to produce anything like that.
I respect the romance of unaltered games but I don't buy that people who want unfiltered snes graphics on their large televisions.
I record my sleeptalking
Now, I find myself losing faith in the Wii. With all the Mario lineup accounted for and Smash Bros done, a "not completely awesome" Metroid. What do we have to look forward to?
One thing I am looking forward to is the MotionPlus wiimote attachment. You know those lightsaber games we where promised? All the great game ideas that turned out lackluster because the wiimote's motion detection isn't that great? This will make all that possible. The MotionPlus gives 6 degrees of freedom, registering motion and rotation.
Quite honestly that sounds like another avenue for ultra exploitware. As novel as the Wii's mechanics are, it is exactly the novelty that is driving the wave of poor games to actually "do okay".
I record my sleeptalking
> a "not completely awesome" Metroid
Are you joking ?
I'm not, but in that particular case I'm only going off a review as it is one of the games I have not played. If I'm wrong, no stress.
I record my sleeptalking
I think it's really excellent. It especially makes great use of the power of the wiimote and nunchuck, which is (was ?) rare. I had stopped playing for twenty years until I found this game, then I couldn't stop until I had finished it...
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
To be perfectly honest - I don't. I've never watched a console from inception quite like I have the Wii (and I could be considered particularly ignorant in that realm, too).
That being said, I think the fact that the majority of people who are buying Wii's are not atypical discerning gamers has contributed to very difference response from gaming houses. Most of the good games are going to the xbox/ps3 with Wii an afterthought.
The strange thing is, I'm hardly a gamer but I read a review or two before I buy. If I am underwhelmed by the Wii I can't imagine what the truly committed to gaming think.
I record my sleeptalking
I think it's really excellent. It especially makes great use of the power of the wiimote and nunchuck, which is (was ?) rare. I had stopped playing for twenty years until I found this game, then I couldn't stop until I had finished it...
Oh.. ahah.
You see the reviews I read and the comment of "not completely awesome" largely refer to the fact that the gamecube versions were the case. With people being a little disappointed with the lack of evolution of the game onto the next generation.
I record my sleeptalking
I seem to remember a number of good games by a year after the PS2 came out, many of which were out even by the time the XBox came out.
Graphics don't really matter for it. You have grandmas using it in nursing homes and I caught my four year-old doing yoga on it. It's just awesome.
I know it's not really a "game," more exercise guide plus a bunch of mini-games, but it goes to an odd selling point of the Wii. The other consoles break out of the console mold by being DVD players and media streamers, Wii does it with strange non-traditional games and activities that are oddly catching on. Still, I'll be getting GTA 5 for the PS3, not the Wii.
not being trying to be nit-picky but without the motion sensing you only have like.. 4 buttons? Pretty sure every game uses motion sensing.
Ignoring motion-sensing, the core Wii remote has seven buttons (one of which is reserved for the Home menu by interface guidelines) and a 4-way D-pad.
Attaching the Nunchuk adds a digital thumbstick and two more buttons. That's just one button short of the dense and unweildy N64 controller.
Not that 'number of buttons' has any correlation with playability, anyway.
Warioland Shake got some bad reviews for being "only 4-5 hours long" which is blatant bullshit according to other reviewers, that's what it takes to go straight to the credits (which most reviewers do due to their limited schedule) but there's about 3x as much content that's optional like secret worlds that are larger than the regular ones even. Even worse, I've seen reviewers downrate a game for being 2d because "we love it but the average gamer demands 3d", an infamous case being Game Informer on Paper Mario.
One suspected reason for shitty third party games is that the third parties think "we can't beat Nintendo on their own console" or "Wii is for casual gamers and casual gamers are just like hardcore gamers except with no ability to cope with difficulty or discern quality games" and just send their worst teams to work on it for what's thought to be easy money. The whole thing predictably fails, the execs tell the shareholders "See? We can't beat Nintendo!" and continue working on their horribly expensive AAA games that then sell less than Nintendo's cheaply made games that were simply designed with a proper understanding of the customer.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I own Super Smash Bros Brawl, and I got really disappointed with the game in spite of all the very enthusiastic reviews. It's just... well... childish. I guess it would be better if I had gamer buddies aplenty and half a pound of Mary Jane at home all the time. Then I own No More Heroes. Which looks butt-fucking ugly and held my attention for a while, but was widely advertised as THE hardcore game to own. While a fun game, I really have issues with how bad it looks.
Now I also own The Godfather: Blackhand Edition which got horrible reviews. It was an ugly PS2 port, it had pop-in and whatnot, and it was just not valued above a score of 6.8-7.8 in reviews because of these factors. The Godfather however, is the game I played most on the Wii, because it simply kicks ass. Nothing like walking into a gang of mobsters, beating the shit out of them with a baseball bat, executing a couple of them with funky moves, and finally shoving the last one into an oven.
Having said that, I finished Super Mario Galaxy and thought it was one of the finest games I've played to date, and I'm not even a fan of the Mario franchise at all. I'm a WWII shooter person, for crying out loud. Finally we have Excite Trucks. It got slaughtered as a totally mediocre game on Gamespot, but got an 8.0 rating on IGN. Having said that, IGN still claimed the head-to-head multi-player mode was tacked on and unconvincing. Funnily enough I've played that game until my fingers bled, and I've had it at the office where I played head-to-head with the IT folks in the labs building until their fingers bled too. It's simply a great game, and I think even IGN's review doesn't give it the credit it deserves.
The moral of this story is this: Reviews say only so much about the way I will actually enjoy a game or not.
At the end of the day, I really want to play Grand Theft Auto IV, but I'll do that on my PC when it comes out. In the mean time I'll still have Day of Defeat, Max Payne 2 and GTA: San Andreas on that platform.
In the mean time my Wii has offered me a very, very good bang for my buck (Literally, if you consider Resident Evil 4) so far, and I continue to enjoy the console. Even the news-reader in the Wii menu which allows you to read stories by spinning the globe and clicking on stacks of stories per region is great.
No gaming system will ever be everything to everyone, but calling games that don't get ranked 8.5 or above by some critic "Exploitware" per default is just plain silly.
I actually disable the smoothing on the emulators on my PC, it looks nice at first but after a while you realize it distorts the look of the game.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
That can be handled by the game mechanics as long as the hardware doesn't interfere.
Sandlot is working on a Wii sword combat game and they did some pretty good 1:1 sword controls in Chou Soujuu Mecha MG for the DS.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
The Wii problem is much, much simpler:
It's not a console for gamers, and thus games for gamers don't come out on it.
Even the low budget PS2 RPG market won't port their games to the Wii, presumably because they don't think they'll sell well to the "non-gamer" people who bought the Wii. The worst thing is, they're probably right.
Fanatically anti-fanatical
Then you're wrong.
To understand just how wrong you are, understand that the Wii is selling better than perhaps any other console in history. If you were to decide how to make and market and sell Wii, you admit you would be doing it differently, and therefore would be doing it wrong. Before you continue to inject your personal opinions into it, remember that they're wrong.
There is a very vocal gaming community- they have websites and television shows, and they purport to represent the large amount of money spent on video games and on video game systems.
The Wii demonstrated that this was wrong; that they don't infact represent that large amount of money at all. The people buying the Wii and playing it are far more like me than they are like you- they are casual gamers who aren't interested in an Xbox or a PS3.
I simply don't play enough games to justify such a huge investment, but I *do* enjoy games- I enjoy Megaman 9, Mercury Meltdown, Cooking Mama and Excitetruck currently. I like games, but I don't want to drop a thousand dollars on something I'll play once or twice a week; My laptop is a 400$ thinkpad- I cannot possibly justify spending more on a game system than I would on my laptop.
Yes, it's obvious, I don't buy as many games as a serious gamer, but it turns out there are *far more of me* who simply wouldn't have bought *any* new console or *any* new games if the Wii didn't come out. I'm just not that interested.
It's a good thing Nintendo discovered there *were* people like me, and I'm pleased to discover that there are enough like me to be profitable for Nintendo because it means that I can continue to play videogames- something I've enjoyed doing since I was much younger.
It is amazing that the Wii is still this popular. All the people I know who have one, it is just sitting there collecting dust. The people I know are fairly cheap, so they got theirs used off of sites like craigslist. Obviously, my anecdotal evidence doesn't jive with reality though if they are still selling this fast. At one point I thought they were selling so fast because people who just buy a bunch of them and sell them for a profit. And that may be true to a certain extent, but it can't be the reason that it is still selling too well today. The only real drawback I see for it right now is that while it is winning the war in sales, it has just as bad third party games as the Gamecube had...maybe worse. I keep thinking I will see the sales drop off, but they keep coming. I'll enjoy tracking this since it seems to be defying logic.
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Linux users have the big dicks, voluminous brains, razor wits, and they get to fuck all of the female instances of all of the above.
So they claim unverifiably on the internet.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
One thing I am looking forward to is the MotionPlus wiimote attachment.
So far I've been loving every iteration of Tiger Woods on the Wii (despite some glaring faults). If all I get for Tiger 10 is a repackaged Tiger 09 with good Wiimotion Plus and WiiSpeak support, I'd gladdly buy it.
You're currently modded "Funny", so maybe I'm just being dense, but methinks you're confused about what's being compared here. Sure, the Wii is cheaper than the PS3 -- priced now at Toys R Us online at $367.95 vs. $399.99 (ignoring for now that the Wii is bundled with an extra controller and a game, whereas the PS3 just comes with a single controller and no game) -- but the GP poster's comment compares the Wii with the PS2 -- which is $367.95 vs. $129.99 -- making the Wii over twice as spendy as the PS2. So the Wii beating out the PS2's total sales record will be all the more impressive. :)
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Mine.
I can't speak for all of us, but the Wii was the only system I was excited for in this generation.
360 and PS3: more of the same. I've played all those games to death. There was a chance for something new with the Wii, and while it hasn't been completely realized yet, there are still possibilities.
Generic FPS Sequel 4 (now with XBox Live micropayments and in-game ads!) is neither new, nor exciting.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
These are the games that get magazine covers, breathless previews, dedicated forums, etc. They have big budgets, huge graphics, and online features out the wazoo. They pop up every couple of months on the 360 and PS3, and there are a ton right now because the holiday season is approaching. How many Wii games get this treatment? To my eyes, the answer is 0.
How many of them get mentioned in the Wall Street Journal? New York Times? Hell, Wii Fit was on Oprah... The Wii get's plenty of press, but it (like they system itself) is different.
Ok, let's use Metacritic...
Wii
First available: November 19, 2006
Scores 80 and above: 36 games
Scores 85 and above: 13 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/wii/scores/
Xbox 360
First available: November 22, 2005
Scores 80 and above: 122 games
Scores 85 and above: 47 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/xbox360/scores/
PS3
First available: November 11, 2006
Scores 80 and above: 79 games
Scores 85 and above: 34 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/ps3/scores/
PS2
First available: October-November, 2000
Scores 80 and above: 319 games
Scores 85 and above: 149 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/ps2/scores/
Nintendo DS
First available: November, 2004
Scores 80 and above: 64 games
Scores 85 and above: 25 games
Source: http://www.metacritic.com/games/ds/scores/
"Good" Game per Month (GGPM) Ratio
Since most consoles were released in November, lets round up their ages by year. And assuming the score of 80 qualifies as a "good" game:
- Wii: 36/24 = 1.5 GGPM
- 360: 122/36 = 3.39 GGPM
- PS3: 79/24 = 3.29 GGPM
- PS2: 319/96 = 3.32 GGPM (*)
- NDS: 64/48 = 1.33 GGPM
*) The PS2 probably doesn't have many new games anymore in the past few years.
It seems the NDS and Wii are filled with a lot more family and kids-friendly games, and these games tend to not favor the critics, and possibly most hardcore gamers.
I bought the family Wii the only time I have actually found one.
My nephews want one and I hope I get to see one before Christmas.
On the other hand. My kinds hit the Wii remote and the IR cover is smashed and now it is nearly impossible to use. Does anyone knows where to find disassemble plans for the remote and where to buy the IR cover?
Thank you
I have to echo the statement about the Williams Pinball game. My wife picked it up and I thought it was going to be another halfassed pinball simulator like pretty much every pinball game on every console ever. Instead, it's addicting and fun, and the physics model actually works surprisingly well. They even have good boards on it (except for Jive Time, that table is evil).
I read the internet for the articles.
HDTV prices continue to fall, analog transmissions are turning off, and most new programming is being filmed in 16:9. Who would buy a standard definition TV anymore? Soon, HDTV won't be considered a luxury but just the new way of doing things. Much like CDs replaced cassette tapes and DVD replaced VCRs. So even if the purchase of luxury enormous home theaters drops off, the adoption rate of HDTV will approach at least the rate of replacement of old sets.
------>HHGTTG
Whooosh.
Ah. Naturally. That explains why I heard Stephen Fry's voice in my head as I read that...(*facepalm*)
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
You're being dense. Poster was talking about current price of the Wii, versus the then-current price of the PS2 at the same point in its lifetime. Not the "as of 10/28/08" price.
Well Scot, glad you didn't speak for all of us. Exactly what games are you playing on the Wii that are so amazingly original? Aside from the control scheme, I can't think of many games on the wii that haven't been done in one form or another. Certainly the most popular games (Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, Smash Bros., Guitar Hero, Metroid) seem to owe a great deal to their previous counterparts. I'm not sure it's fair to say that the 360 and the PS3 are clone factories when in fact many original titles and ideas have come out or are coming out for them. Besides, progress is very rarely a huge step forward. It usually takes baby steps. And the games that you consider to be generic sequels may have actually taken steps in new directions that most people wouldn't recognize if all they gave was a cursory glance at them.
Look, I don't mind the Wii's success. What I do mind is that people have this misconception that the Wii is making huge strides forward for the gaming industry, while the PS3 and the XBOX 360 are content to churn out the same products they've been releasing for years. I find that to be a little insulting. Aside from the Wii mote, I can't name a single thing the Wii has done that the other consoles haven't. And in several areas, the Wii is severely lacking in areas where the other two systems have made huge strides, like online capability and processing potential.
Yes, the Wii is successful, but give it only the credit it's due. It's successful because it targeted an audience that was being largely ignored by the two other console companies. It targeted the casual gamers, and it was largely successful. Nintendo should be proud to have made such a move. But pretending that the Wii is actually succeeding because it is somehow more special or original than the other two consoles is just plain false. The Wii is an exercise in successful marketing, not a beacon of gaming's true potential.
There's a significant difference between duping the game image and going in with programmers and supporting new hardware.
It's not as if they were trying to do something like Capcom's port of Resident Evil 4 (for GameCube) to PS2 or Nintendo's port of Doubutsu no Mori (for N64) to GameCube for a western release as Animal Crossing. Wii is just an overclocked GameCube with more RAM, a Bluetooth receiver, and an internal flash memory chip. As I understand it, porting a GameCube game to Wii involves starting from the existing code base, making sure progressive scan and 16:9 work, rewriting the input code to tack on some waggling and/or pointing with a Wii Remote, and moving the saved game from the GameCube memory card to the Wii flash file system.
They do this all the time to create a buzz and a huge black market for Wii's.. It's like the IPOs of the 90's.. you could make a killing, but you had to have a way to get in.
We'll hear the same stories that we hear every year - the employees of the retailer will buy them all and put them on ebay for 3 or 4 times the MSRP. The song is getting a little old.
If i were Nintendo and Microsoft i would be very tempted to do a backroom deal. Make a price cut for the Wii, and unofficially play up the Wii60 feeling that was floating around before launch. If you could buy both for the price of one high end console you really would have the best of both worlds (casual and hardcore). While the games will never be compatible you could easily make the messaging and Mii stuff crossover from WiiConnect to Xbox live (ala Msn and yahoo messengers). Not to mention it would absolutely kill Sony in this generation.
Well, Bart, your uncle Arthur used to have a saying: "Shoot 'em all and let God sort 'em out."
few games? every game we own takes advantage of it.
The point of motion plus is to make things like sword battles better, if it doesn't do that, then they failed.
Guitar Hero has no controller advantages as it relies on an add in controller.
Mario Kart is quite a bit of fun with the wheel. It seems to work just fine on control once you get the hang of it, like any other control. I haven't even tried any of the other controls.
Games like Rayman's Ravin Rabbids (1, 2, and soon to be released TV Party) are more along the lines of what I'm talking about. They're interesting and far different from the fare offered on other platforms. They're also all "group" games, because at least half the fun is watching other people play. If that isn't your bag, then the Wii probably isn't for you.
And I'd also say that you're off in your claims of 1:1 motion requirements. It may not be a requirement, but that's more a game programming issue than anything else. Rabbids 2 definitely has different effects based on motion, with wrist flicks resulting in much smaller motion than large sweeps in some of the games. Others do not differentiate between the two. Wii Sports also has various games that appear to have motion sensitivities, although perhaps not to an exact 1:1 relationship.
Wii Ski with the Fit is another interesting game with a whole different approach.
From your games list, I'd say your interests may not be best served by the Wii. Or maybe they might, if you look beyond those games. (And no, I don't remember anything about Star Wars fans in relationship to the Wii. Actually, are there any left?)
The cesspool just got a check and balance.