So the most recent sales figures apparently make firm what our eyes have told us: that the Wii is doing phenomenal business. It even seems to be outselling the PS2, which even the XBox 360 never did.
My question is, how long can this last, and what effect will this have on the industry in general? Will big ticket titles, like Final Fantasy, move to the Wii? Will games now have be designed with that free-flowing Wiimote controller in mind to be a success (which, IMO, is about as big an empty gimmick as the old Power Glove - not that this says anything about my opinion of the console in general, which is still being debated)? Has Nintendo officially “won” this generation of console, as the PS2 did for its generation?
It’s not an empty gimmick: Unlike the Power Glove, it works, without significant annoyance.
The Wii has one major advantage: it is cheaper to develop for than the 360 or PS3.
It also demands creativity, which is something most game designers view as a challenge. Currently, there is a glut of minigame games, thanks to the experimental nature of the controller: the general thought was, even if one or two games suck, the rest will work okay.
Excitetruck works pretty well, though. But it all depends on the next six months, I’d say.
Has Nintendo won? Well, they subverted the dominant paradigm. That’s a big win. But… well, I dunno.
I honestly don’t see Wii even surpassing the success of PS2.
I agree with E-Sabbath; it’s not an empty gimmick. However since it doesn’t have CD nor DVD capability and it doesnt pack the same graphical punch as xbox or ps3, I don’t see how it’s going to be a lasting phenomenon. I’m thinking alot more succesful than gamecube, but definitely not in the same class as xbox or what ps3 will inevitably reach (regardless of the price). That will of course be determined by the whole hddvd/blu-ray argument.
I’m still not at all convinced that anything other than video games are important in a video game console. I’m buying a Wii to play games on, not movies or music. I don’t think Sony or Microsoft are right to try and push an all-in-one entertainment system.
I also think flashy graphics aren’t as dominant to games as people think. The DS does awesome business, and it’s no where near as powerful as even the Gamecube. People will accept lesser graphics if the games are good, the price is lower, and the console comes with some other interesting feature.
That said, it is too soon to say if the Wii will be a lasting success. I want to see some games that are neither ports from other systems, nor just minigames playing with the more obvious uses of the remote. Super Mario Galaxy should be paticularly telling as to what the Wii can do.
We have a lot of pretty big Wii fans here, so your results may be a little skewed to that side of the opinion.
I tend to think Nintendo has won in that they’ve taken a dominant position as an “alternate” console. They aren’t really going to cut into the market share of the people who will eventually be wanting to buy the GTA games, the FF games, the Madden games on the systems with HD graphics, etc etc. They will be a commercial success and then some, however, as people who wouldn’t fall in that other category buy a Wii, and people in that other category get the Wii as their second system.
I mean, it’s been out for a few months and still has only two games really worth buying outside of the downloads (Zelda and WarioWare), and they’re STILL really hard to find. Once they release half a dozen more top-notch games - and you can bet they will with Smash, Metroid, Mario, etc. still to come - they’ll be in a VERY solid position.
So I guess you could say that I predict a very strong second after whichever of the HD-systems ends up winning out in the end.
Full disclosure: I just purchased a Wii and think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I really don’t see the big deal that it doesn’t have CD or DVD playback. Who doesn’t have a DVD player now? And how much do they cost, what $60 now? All that adding one into the system would have done would be to jack up the hardware costs when they were going for inexpensive in the first place. It’s the interactive and innovate game play that’s winning this round for Nintendo.
But I think that as we’re moving in to the age of HD tv people are more concerned about what they see than you think, Menocchio. Wii’s success can only be attributed to it’s revolutionary way of playing, nothing more. The graphics are menial, the games are just as linear as they’ve always been and it’s still the same damn Nintendo stubborness when it comes to not making them compatible with other media, ie dvds. I think it’s just a matter of time before xbox and sony pickup on the sole reason that made Wii such a success. Sure, PS3 supposedly comes with motion sensitive gamepads, but when I checked it out it wasn’t functioning. So when that day comes (plus the console prices drop to a more comfortable level) PS3 will top the market again.
I tried a PS3 during xmas break and I was so impressed with the overall product that had I had the cash I would have probably splurged. I guess it has to do with my growing up in Hong Kong and being able to (and almost expected to) get my hands on the hottest/most cutting edge products. I didn’t see anybody with a DS when I was over there; everybody sat on busses and trains playing with their PSP’s.
That may be true in five years or so when HDTvs are as ubiquitous as DVD players, but not yet. HD video games are a complete waste of money for me and the majority of consumers. In some isolated cases, like Dead Rising, it’s a handicap if I’m trying to play on a standard TV.
That’s a lot. In fact, that’s everything. Good games will come later, and past a certain threshold, good graphics just don’t matter all that much. Between working around Nintendo’s patents and the inertia of industry, it’ll be quite some time before Sony or MS can release a Wii-like experience, and by that point Nintendo will have the market share and time to perfect the formula.
That must be a Hong Kong thing. In Japan and the US, the biggest markets, DS is supreme. It outsells its next two competitors combined. And #2 is another model of Game Boy (I think it’s the older version of the DS, but it might be the GBA).
I think this is where Nintendo may have gambled and guessed right. Sure, everyone’s moving to HD, but they’re not moving that fast. Sony & Microsoft are gambling the time is now while Nintendo is gambling people are ready to wait a few more years. Plus they’re trying to bring in a whole bunch of people who like gaming, but are maybe intimidated by 16+ button controllers.
Yeah, I guess price is a factor that Sony just neglected.
I still don’t see how Wii will be able to evolve it’s gaming experience into something more than where it is now. More games? Of course. But surely after awhile people are going to wake up to the fact that the underlying fascination they had in the first place was the interactivity and not the graphics. It might take 5 years before HD is as prevalent as dvd players today, but for every year we get closer to the “5 year mark” the more the market is going to get saturated by high density products.
I hurt myself playing with my Wii while boxing. Punching a punching bag allows a nice stop for a punch, punching air means your muscles have to stop it or you stop by letting your arm fully extend. How embarrassing.
It’s definitely intuitive for use, although not nearly reliable and invisible as a good controller. Invisibility is very important to me, I don’t like to be reminded that I’m playing a game. And in a lot of games you can’t just lay back and barely twitch as twitch speed is important. It’s like the difference between writing and typing. But kids love it.
Especially my nieces, 6 and 8. I managed to get an extra nunchuk so we played Wii sports and Rayman all weekend and oh my god it was the best thing they ever saw, despite the smacked head, whacked back, a conked table and the 3 times I was very grateful for the strap. They say the same thing about my 2 DS’s. Prior to Christmas '06 I saw very few DS’s out and about, maybe a kid with one every other month. Afterwards it seems like half the kids are playing on one of them at anyplace I go. I expect the Wii to be an extremely popular toy this Christmas.
I think we won’t really know how it’s going to do over its lifetime until we see how it sells when units are sitting on the shelves. I do think we’re still in the initial rush, kinda like how it’s the jogging that wins a marathon, not an initial sprint. You still can’t buy one just by going to Amazon and ordering one. Hmm, same with the PS3. Once I can do that I’ll say the rush is over.
As for myself I still play my PS2 the most. And will probably spend more this year on games for it then I will for the Wii. In fact I’ll probably only get the Mario Galaxy game and then be done with it. I want to get the Guitar Hero games for the PS2. I’ll probably buy a PS3 later this fall for Ratchet & Clank and start there with that console. It depends on how into my girlfriend I am at the time. Or is it how into me she is?
Yeah. I wouldn’t. I have played way too much actual football, and while the motions are “footballish”, they’re not really close enough, and it feels very, very wrong. It’s the same problem I have with the tennis game in Wii sports - I have played enough tennis that until I switch from making the motions I’d actually make in tennis to making the Wii-friendly wrist flicks, nothing goes right and I get frustrated.
It just feels more intuitive to me to do those actions (or even swinging Link’s sword, for that matter) with the press of a button, since I’ve been using controllers on console games virtually my entire life, to the point where it’s a much more natural extension of my physical actions than a wrist flick.
On the other hand, I think I would pay the entire cost of a Wii system and the game for a fuller-featured version of the golf game in Wii sports. I don’t play golf, so I have no idea how accurate the motions are, but I LOVE that game.
All I can say is that I think the Wii is super fun and that at my particular place of business, we get huge amounts of requests for Wiis and Nintendo DS and almost none for PS3. We also get way more people coming in looking for Xbox 360 than any PS3 stuff. The Wii and PS3 appeal to different markets - Wii to people who just want to have some fun and play around with games, and PS3 to people who care about the techie stuff and want games they have to work at.
Well, so far. While Nintendo does very good with gameplay, the best gameplay in the world is mere busywork without a good, fun, moving and sensable storyline. I had loads of fun playing the Kingdom Hearts, Jak & Daxter, Final Fantasy, Sly Cooper and Ratchet & Clank series for the PS2 as well as Shadow of the Colossus and Prince of Persia and I always wanted to keep playing to see where the story was going. As soon as those games start showing up on the PS3 I’ll be picking one up. It’s still expensive but not prohibitively so for me.
There is a Wii golf game. I’m told it’s good, despite the ‘zany’ clubs. I’m sure there will be more.
Good games for the Wii? Another minigame, Rayman Raving Rabbids, which has revived that franchise.
Excite Truck many people started off by dismissing as a light game, but it’s durable and lots of fun.
The new Sonic could be pretty good, there was a review at 1up today.
It’s true that the current Wii doesn’t play DVDs, but it could, without hardware modification. A codec download will do it. It’ll even do 480p. Not HD, but better than my TV can handle.
It will play MP3s off the universal memory card it has, the SD card. (In Excite Truck, at least)
There’s no reason there might not be a MP3 channel, for example.
One major, major negative for the PS3: It will never have rumble. The tactile nature of the rumble on the Wii is very important, and the same for the PS2. The lacking nature of the PS3 is a killer in games. (It will work with a third party controller)
I tell you one thing. I want a lightsaber game. Now.
One of the most important elements of the Wii is its accessibility to traditionally non-console demographics.
The other day my parents (both pushing 60) were over at my apartment. I fired up the Wii and showed my mom the bowling game. Within seconds she had a controller in her hand and was happily knocking down pins (she loves to bowl). I plugged in Rayman’s Raving Rabbids, and she was amused by things like the throw-the-cow game. If Mom and Dad had the money to spare, they’d probably be thinking about buying their own Wii.
If I had an XBox 360, and had put that batarang controller in her hand, she probably would have shrugged and handed it right back to me. But being able to bowl almost like your controller was a ball? That’s fun and easy for the non-gaming crowd.
That’s where I think the Wii’s main sales strength over its competitors lies – not only will a lot of console gamers pick it up, but people who wouldn’t otherwise buy a console may too. They won’t buy every game that comes out, but they will buy some, and Nintendo is very unlikely to lose them to other consoles.
(Also, not playing DVDs doesn’t matter much anymore – from where I sit here in my desk chair I can reach out and touch four different devices that can play DVDs. Why would I need my Wii to play them too?)
I have played way too much actual football, and while the motions are “footballish”, they’re not really close enough, and it feels very, very wrong. It’s the same problem I have with the tennis game in Wii sports - I have played enough tennis that until I switch from making the motions I’d actually make in tennis to making the Wii-friendly wrist flicks, nothing goes right and I get frustrated.