One concept of the Blue Ocean Strategy Nintendo is following is that a pricedrop is what you consider when the value of your product no longer matches the price and that instead of dropping the price you should increase the value (in this case that probably means building up a stronger software library). Usually there's also competitor pricedrops to worry about but the BOS's goal is to create a product that has no competition. To many Wii buyers the PS3 and 360 were simply never a consideration, games like Wii Sports are played by many people who don't like traditional games at all and to them there is no gaming system other than the Wii.
So the Wii won't really see many pricedrops until it gets EOLed. Besides, why do you require the Wii to hit a lower price than another cnsole would have to if it were as popular? Not enough value yet?
It's the Euro which is currently at 1.25 US dollar (quite the drop there, used to be like 1.50) but game prices are usually aligned as if it's 1$ or even 0.80$.
The Pro is actually the mid-priced version, the cheapest is the Arcade at 150€ that comes with only a 256MB memory card or so, the Pro has the 60GB harddrive and is considered the "real" 360 by most. The Arcade is a pretty bad deal since you get very limited space for saving data and downloaded games so it's often called the "three-shitty" and names like that, it's seen as more of an excuse by Microsoft to claim their console is cheaper than it really is since the Arcade just misses so much stuff the Pro includes that it's a ripoff to buy the Arcade if there's any chance you'll ever want e.g. the harddrive (90€ AFAIK and that's just for the obsolete 20GB one). That's why people dismiss the Arcade being cheaper than the Wii as a marketing gimmick since the 360's real price should be taken from the Pro version. However, now the Pro version is cheaper than the Wii (at least in Europe) so the 360 is really the cheapest current gen console.
WiiWare has plenty of good titles but it doesn't get much coverage. Tetris Party, Orbient, Toki Tori, Bomberman and World of Goo got good reviews as well (I'd ignore Lost Winds, it's too short and the difficulty ramps up so slowly that the puzzles still don't require thinking by the end of the game). Wiiware World has a lot of Wiiware reviews, should help you getting the good ones. There's a lot of new WW games announced so it looks like there will be many releases in the future.
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.
The 360 gives you a lot of games? I was considering buying one now that it's down to 200€ for the Pro but looking through the list of available games I couldn't find many that interest me, what's a good list of games for someone who already has a PC (where the games hit 10€ before they even reach 40 on the consoles...)?
Expanding manufacturing lines costs money and depending on the unit price and the expected sales volume that may not be profitable. Since the Wii was "available" during the year that suggests the non-christmas demand is about equal to the manufacturing capacity being used, increasing capacity for christmas only and having superfluous capacities afterwards can be pretty unprofitable.
I'll do the same thing I did last-gen. I'll buy whichever is the most-popular console when it hits $199. And I'll buy the Nintendo Wii if it's either $100 flat or $150 with a free game.
That's a contradiction, the Wii is the most popular console. The DS hasn't seen a price drop since release (maybe the old DS back when it was obsoleted by the DS lite), all signs point towards Nintendo using the same strategy for the Wii.
Shouldn't the requirement be at least an officer rank, maybe even general staff work if it's about experience in commanding troops? A random grunt won't really know much more than a civilian about the large scale of strategy the commander in chief has to work with.
I've been reading magazines that occassionally came with a free game for so long that I already have most of the games you listed without going out to purchase them...
1. A robot must uphold and comply with the Constitution. 2. A robot must uphold and comply with any other applicable laws. 3. A robot must obey orders given by authorized operators.
Then the first thing they'd do is raid Congress and throw them all into jail:P.
But what about vehicles? Is a tank not a robot just because the operators sit inside instead of hidden away in some far-away base? Is the Goliath rolling bomb of WW2 a robot since the operator sits behind cover and uses a remote control to move it?
Aren't Asimov's robots defined by having no operator and being completely independent in their decisions?
Not necessarily, a well-working militia can also help dealing with foreign invasions before the army is in place and make holding territory harder for the invaders as most civilians can easily become combatants just by grabbing one of the non-confiscated weapons, allowing armed resistance to pop up even in "secured" areas.
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One concept of the Blue Ocean Strategy Nintendo is following is that a pricedrop is what you consider when the value of your product no longer matches the price and that instead of dropping the price you should increase the value (in this case that probably means building up a stronger software library). Usually there's also competitor pricedrops to worry about but the BOS's goal is to create a product that has no competition. To many Wii buyers the PS3 and 360 were simply never a consideration, games like Wii Sports are played by many people who don't like traditional games at all and to them there is no gaming system other than the Wii.
So the Wii won't really see many pricedrops until it gets EOLed. Besides, why do you require the Wii to hit a lower price than another cnsole would have to if it were as popular? Not enough value yet?
In the expectation of payoff. Remove that and they'll probably get a better paying job instead.
Does that translate to "owned by the big media cartels"?
It's the Euro which is currently at 1.25 US dollar (quite the drop there, used to be like 1.50) but game prices are usually aligned as if it's 1$ or even 0.80$.
The Pro is actually the mid-priced version, the cheapest is the Arcade at 150€ that comes with only a 256MB memory card or so, the Pro has the 60GB harddrive and is considered the "real" 360 by most. The Arcade is a pretty bad deal since you get very limited space for saving data and downloaded games so it's often called the "three-shitty" and names like that, it's seen as more of an excuse by Microsoft to claim their console is cheaper than it really is since the Arcade just misses so much stuff the Pro includes that it's a ripoff to buy the Arcade if there's any chance you'll ever want e.g. the harddrive (90€ AFAIK and that's just for the obsolete 20GB one). That's why people dismiss the Arcade being cheaper than the Wii as a marketing gimmick since the 360's real price should be taken from the Pro version. However, now the Pro version is cheaper than the Wii (at least in Europe) so the 360 is really the cheapest current gen console.
If they had to make the singleplayer free they wouldn't put much effort into it. Doesn't work for games where the focus is singleplayer.
WiiWare has plenty of good titles but it doesn't get much coverage. Tetris Party, Orbient, Toki Tori, Bomberman and World of Goo got good reviews as well (I'd ignore Lost Winds, it's too short and the difficulty ramps up so slowly that the puzzles still don't require thinking by the end of the game). Wiiware World has a lot of Wiiware reviews, should help you getting the good ones. There's a lot of new WW games announced so it looks like there will be many releases in the future.
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.
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.
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.
Regional differences. Some areas have plenty, some can't keep up with demand.
The 360 Pro is 200€ now, the Wii is still 250.
It was official on 20 November, 2006.
The 360 gives you a lot of games? I was considering buying one now that it's down to 200€ for the Pro but looking through the list of available games I couldn't find many that interest me, what's a good list of games for someone who already has a PC (where the games hit 10€ before they even reach 40 on the consoles...)?
Meanwhile, the Wii and Xbox 360 continue to sell out - including in Japan.
I think you accidentally slipped an "and Xbox 360" in there, that thing's not selling out anywhere.
Expanding manufacturing lines costs money and depending on the unit price and the expected sales volume that may not be profitable. Since the Wii was "available" during the year that suggests the non-christmas demand is about equal to the manufacturing capacity being used, increasing capacity for christmas only and having superfluous capacities afterwards can be pretty unprofitable.
I'll do the same thing I did last-gen. I'll buy whichever is the most-popular console when it hits $199. And I'll buy the Nintendo Wii if it's either $100 flat or $150 with a free game.
That's a contradiction, the Wii is the most popular console. The DS hasn't seen a price drop since release (maybe the old DS back when it was obsoleted by the DS lite), all signs point towards Nintendo using the same strategy for the Wii.
Noone sane would guarantee any accuracy of the data to unpaying customers.
Shouldn't the requirement be at least an officer rank, maybe even general staff work if it's about experience in commanding troops? A random grunt won't really know much more than a civilian about the large scale of strategy the commander in chief has to work with.
You mean it plays Beethoven's fifth?
I've been reading magazines that occassionally came with a free game for so long that I already have most of the games you listed without going out to purchase them...
Probably would work better with
1. A robot must uphold and comply with the Constitution.
2. A robot must uphold and comply with any other applicable laws.
3. A robot must obey orders given by authorized operators.
Then the first thing they'd do is raid Congress and throw them all into jail :P.
At still higher levels of understanding, the robot would have to consider how the human might harm himself exercising freedom.
So they're going to protect us from the terrible secret of space?
But what about vehicles? Is a tank not a robot just because the operators sit inside instead of hidden away in some far-away base? Is the Goliath rolling bomb of WW2 a robot since the operator sits behind cover and uses a remote control to move it?
Aren't Asimov's robots defined by having no operator and being completely independent in their decisions?
Not necessarily, a well-working militia can also help dealing with foreign invasions before the army is in place and make holding territory harder for the invaders as most civilians can easily become combatants just by grabbing one of the non-confiscated weapons, allowing armed resistance to pop up even in "secured" areas.
I think weapon safety rules are more fitting here:
A weapon must not be pointed or fired at a human or useful animal unless the mission requires it.
Aren't PCs always heroic in RPGs? The problem is that usually NPCs outnumber them and not just by counting the mooks.