As per this post, the Wii is arguably the fastest-selling piece of consumer electronics in history. It’s been a year and a half since it was released, and it’s still incredibly hard to find for the average consumer who just wants to walk into their local store and pick one up.
Now, this part is arguable - and please don’t derail the thread with an argument about it - but the Wii’s software lineup remains incredibly sub-par, with no “killer app” or system seller a la Halo or the latest Metal Gear or Final Fantasy game. Super Mario Galaxy is probably the closest that the system has at this time, and the vast majority of the rest of the system’s library is comprised of cheap ports of games from other systems, such as the Playstation 2 or the Gamecube (which the Wii is built on), with the Wii’s control system grafted-on as an afterthought.
Why, then, is the Wii so popular? It’s not the games.
I think it’s the gimmick of the controller combined with self-sustaining hype; the Wii Sports pack-in gives a greater sense of interactivity and accessibility than it actually provides. Even though the home user is merely telling the player when to swing their racket, Wii Tennis really feels like a cute Virtual Reality tennis simulator - the average person “feels like they’re playing tennis.” They then buy the system based on the promise that they’ll be interacting with future games in a similarly intuitive way.
As for the hype, it’s the whole classic cabbage patch/elmo/etc. thing all over again - more and more people want one because it’s hard to find, so it becomes more hard to find, so more people want it, etc.
One argument I’d like to shoot down right away is that the Wii is bringing “casual gamers” back to the fold. This has been summarily disproven over and over again.
Re: “Gimmick of the controller” - I mean the way that the controller immediately appeals to people and feels novel. I do not think that the wii controller is “a gimmick,” but I fear that developers will not take full advantage of it and instead resort to lazy “shake the controller to make your guy eat a power-up”-style uses. The Nintendo DS debuted four years ago with a similarly innovative interface, and to date I can count on one hand the amount of games that have actually used it to innovate rather than resorting to “tap the touch screen to have your guy eat a power-up.”
better, shinier graphics aside, its the only console thats made a significant change in games for, well, ever. Of course people are going to want in. The Wii is heading in the direction you thought games were heading when you were a kid. Of course, I too have those shake-for-shakes-sake fears about lazy programmers.
I don’t know if casual gamers have been brought back with the Wii, but I do know that people that would ordinarily have no interest in video games do have an interest in the Wii.
My fear is that the Wii controller turns into an odd dance of waving the controller to replace the odd dance of mashing buttons on a regular controller.
I have to say that you seem inclined to shoot down anything that anyone tells you, not just the casual gamer argument.
That said, it’s a fun system. The controls make most games more fun than they would normally be with a regular controller. The virtual console is a nice touch if you have internet. All in all it’s just a good little system.
Wii Sports is the killer app, no ifs, not buts. That it’s a pack in is just a bonus. In the one territory that is not a pack in it has never left the weekly top 30 and has sold close to 3 million copies. Almost two thirds of Japanese Wii owners own Wii Sports.
Well, could you make an argument that back in the day, the killer app for the Nintendo was Mario Brothers? I think you seriously could. With that same rationale, I don’t see why Wii Sports can’t be the killer app, but I’m very meh over it. Maybe I just need more time with it.
Wii Sports
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Mario Galaxy
And a fourth (Super Smash Bros Brawl) is less than 3.2 days away.
As for the casual comment, just take a look at the ridiculous number of senior centers that have purchased Wiis. Seniors love the system.
Not only that, middle-aged librarians who have no clue what a video game is love the Wii. I did a demonstration of Wii Sports for a bunch of librarians and they all loved it. Three told me they were going out that day to buy Wiis for themselves and for the libraries they work at.
The Wii is bringing in casual gamers and it’s printing money because of it.
I fiddled with Wii Sports the first day I had the Wii and haven’t touched it since, preferring the more meaty ‘first-party’ Nintendo games. My dad, who is fairly up on technology but isn’t a real video game player, got the Wii and is simply loving Wii Sports.
The controller definitely isn’t gimmicky; is a computer mouse a gimmick? I always hated FPSes on consoles, because using the joystick feels like using the keyboard arrows to direct the cursor on a PC. Sadly it just hasn’t been taken advantage of nearly enough.
IMO, producers don’t want to take a risk on developing good games for the Wii. Being a new thing, with little historical data to back up sales projections, it’s a risky choice. I think if a producer took the plunge and funded a developer that really worked hard on a good game for the Wii which made proper use of its controls, it would be a huge hit and appeal to a very wide customer base. But if it fails, then you can’t market that game to the 360 or PS3 people. When it comes to money, it seems to me that a producer would rather make a mediocre game for mediocre platforms to make mediocre profit, because there’s no risk inherent. That’s the biggest obstacle to the Wii, I think, despite the amazing sales numbers. Some companies are waking up, I think, but maybe not enough.
Oh well. I’m a sucker for the Nintendo franchises, so I’m happy with the Wii even if I never buy a non-Nintendo game for it.
Were Zelda and Mario killer apps on the Gamecube too? They were great games, but they didn’t push that much hardware, and I think the same is true for their Wii sequels. SSBB is on a whole other level though. It will be the hardcore system seller, no doubt.
Super Mario Galaxy currently sits as the number 2 all-time best reviewed game on Game Rankings, behind The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. If that’s not a killer app, I don’t know what is.
Sorry, folks, the joke’s gone on long enough. It’s time to spill the secret.
The real reason for the massive Wii sales is that most of the world is annoyed with Playstation/XBox fanboys, and are buying Wiis to spite them, and to cause them to post (sometimes) thinly-disguised Wii-bashing threads on forums.
If Nintendo released a standard console with a gamepad controller, Mario and Zelda still would have reviewed well and sold systems to the Nintendo faithful. That wouldn’t have resulted in much more than Gamecube level popularity. Wii Sports and the controller it was built around is the reason “the Wii is so popular.” I think that distinction makes Wii Sports the killer app. TP and SMG are merely great games whose sales will no doubt by bouyed by the userbase Wii Sports provides.
