Shaoko

stringerbell

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

Sure I got burned with crap like Furu Furu park ($20 to play one level of Bubble Bobble and a 1 level shmup >_< ) and waggle fests like Mario & Sonic whose sole purpose seems to be to make my arms sore but I'm also the type who's willing to take a chance on a $20 game like Dewy's Adventure or Octomania and really enjoy it.

battra92

They compare the Wii to the 360, but fail to include the PS3. Guitar Hero sold "2.2 million copies for the Wii, but 2.8 million copies for the Xbox 360 and almost 5 million for two versions of the PlayStation." So how many copies were sold for the PS3? They don't tell, because that would kill their "nobody buys Wii games because it's for casuals" story.

In fact, they write "The average Wii owner buys only 3.7 games a year, compared with 4.7 for Xbox 360 owners and 4.6 for PlayStation 3 owners, said a Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter." Let's think about this for a second. First, where did Pachter get his numbers? Second, given the install base of the three consoles, that evaluates to 90.65 million Wii games sold each year, compared to 86.25 for the 360 and 54.79 for the PS3.

Suddenly the Wii's game sales don't look so bad anymore.

The article specifically names NMH. Unfortunately, this game isn't exactly selling poorly. There are about 400'000 copies in the chanels (official number), and it'll probably sell around half a million in its first year (my guess, admittedly). That's not bad for a game like this!

Zack & Wiki is indeed selling somewhat poorly (around 0.33 million copies sold). But guess what? It's not surprising! The game could potentially appeal to children, casuals and hardcore alike, but Capcom created a package design which looks like a kiddie game. And there were no ads. How are casual gamers supposed to find out that this game could appeal to them if nobody tells them so?

Let's go back to last gen. Psychonauts sold poorly on the PS2. Okami sold an abysmal 270'000 copies on the PS2 (if I remember correctly). Did anyone complain that PS2 owners don't buy games? In fact, I would not be surprised if Okami sold better on the Wii than it did on the PS2.

Let's face it, you can screw with the numbers and make them say whatever you want. Fact is: games can sell on the Wii, even innovative games. Cooking Mama sold incredibly well, Trauma Center is doing well, and Endless Ocean is doing well too. The fact that Zack & Wiki did not sell >1 mio (which it would have deserved) is Capcom's fault, and Capcom's alone.

L_K_M

whenever I go to a game store wii sport are always on display.People buy the wii because its fun and affordable and not realising its full potential.does the attach rate include wii sport?

@doomstalk

lol I guess if nintendo ran the wii at a lost it will be singing a very different tune now.

some1 say Oprah give me a "John Trovooolta"

chaseus

Spyke72

What's funny is that the DS was the exact same way, still is to a certain degree. When it first game out, developers tried to treat it like a GBA 2.0 with touch controls and two screens, and we know how well THAT worked out.

Smartest thing for EVERYONE to do would be to just give it time. Developers will realize that the Wii is not like conventional consoles and will adapt, just like they did with the DS.

GhostWhoWalks

If it was not for the VC and a few good titles i would not of bought a Wii at all. now if you will excuse me i got to start downloading River City Ransom.

MURDERFACE

ridleysaria

Also, Okami is out already? Time to go bump up that attach rate.

DrCrumb

Fujoshi

Remember the GC's attach rate was very high and Nintendo boasted about that.

Minister of Fun

chemical_eng_mx

This is partially due to the Wii selling like hot cakes and partially due to Wii owners buying games, contrary to popular belief!

w3stfa11

KM91

wonder6oy

EmeraldDragon

PaulHunter

Young people - 18 to 30 which is the core audience for both Microsoft and Sony - have money to burn. They can afford games, and a lot more besides.

Parents / families who own a house, cars, and have children and who are buying Nintendo can't really afford to buy a lot of games at the prices they are.

Yes, this is a gross generalisation, but it's still valid on the whole.

When you can buy 2-3 DVDs and 4-5 CDs for the price of one game, you're not really competing very well for the entertainment dollar.

I've said this before - if Nintendo really want to be a family console, they need to reduce the prices of their games.

FunkyJ

Ampillion = That Man.

Qik

synapticflow

i have spent twice as much on wii games as i spent on my wii.
save for one title that is mediocre, i think they're all great games.

that is all.

snowlock

bobtheduck

Burakki

I don't know, I've got the games I feel are really great, TP (though it was a bit of a swing and a miss, I still love it), Raving Rabbids (my favourite game on the platform for ages), Red Steel (average)... then... er.. SSX Blur (average), Mario then I think, which was excellent and Zak and Wiki.

But Mario Karts been out for a few weeks now and all I can say is I feel lukewarm towards it. Perhaps it's finally been done to death in my mind, the DS game was near definitive. I also don't get SSB, it was fun on the cube and N64, but I don't see anything new to it. It's just a bit of a PR machine now, not a game that's offering any kind of experience.

I probably own more wii games than the average owner by a factor of three but I still feel a bit blassé about it all.

But to be honest, I guess as far as Nintendo goes, it's a total success with no downside. I'm still buying a tonne of games afterall, and I'm imagine they couldn't care less if I buy 15 instead of 30 if every housewife in the world is buying Wii fit.

I own more 360 games and for the first time in my mid-twenties life, I bought more console games than PC games this last year.

I don't think any of this reflects much of a trend or market direction, just where the publishing effort is going at the moment. I expect by the end of the generation the PC will come full circle, the Wii will have been sold to everyone and the other two consoles will occupy the traditional console space.

I'll just go where the good games are.

David Whitney

Dirk Dorkelson

Because third parties have such a weak showing, the fact that Nintendo is handily carrying their OWN console to the top is pretty impressive. Could Sony's first party sales keep the system aloft? Could Microsoft's? Nintendo is dominating the market with what amounts to NO help from other companies. Sure, there's a poor attach rate for Nintendo consoles, but that low attach rate is pretty meaningless to Nintendo itself, and doesn't presage failure for the console or the company releasing it.

Basically, the deal is this. I'm not going to buy crappy games just because there's a lot of crappy games being made. I'm going to NOT buy those games, as I have every right to do. I'm not biased against third parties, I just want to get my money's worth. If someone wants me to buy a game, no matter what company, no matter what system, it has to be good.

Frankly, the other consoles seem in much worse position. I haven't bought a 360, because of the past penchant for breaking. I haven't bought a PS3 because I haven't seen a game library that justifies the purchase. If a blockbuster game comes out on those systems, I'm less inclined to buy it because I don't own the hardware. If a great game comes out on the Wii, I can gobble it up.

It probably sounds like I'm a Nintendo fanboy, but I'm genuinely not. My genre of choice is Tactical RPGs, which Nintendo is historically not the most prolific supporter of. If anything, Sony CONSOLES are probably the most obvious purchase for me. The fact that I haven't got a PS3 speaks more highly than the fact that I have a Wii...

Balius

I didn't think that Nintendo fanboys would still be bashing Jeff Gerstmann for his Zelda Review, especially after the Kane and Lynch debacle. Shows how difficult it is for Nintendo fanboys to let it go.

mikemil828

OK sorry, but I do agree with your post absolutely. No advertising, low game sales. Makes sense to me.

JokesJokes

Arklop

So yeah. It's no surprise.

ShinjiKinomoto

Be careful who you call a mindless follower. The 360 crowd could just as easily call you a lemming for "buying into the hype" and now you're stuck with a system "without any good games." It's not fair to make rude blanket statements about people just because they own another system, especially if said system has the best games library of the generation so far.

(This is coming from a wii owner. I've got a 360 too but I consider the wii my primary console-weird right? I've owned 20 wii games, 3 of which I traded in. My favorites are Metroid, SSX Blur, Mario Galaxy and Brawl. Loving Okami at the moment and definitely looking foreward to Boom Blox.)

JokesJokes

kylo4

CallMeRotten

Short, simple, introduces the heroin, her unique attributes (arm cannon) and creates name recognition. If they ran this commercial now, months after its release I bet they'd double its sales just from kids on summer break.

Agree/disagree?

JokesJokes

The casual audience is not necessarily casual about their spending habits. This itself is evidenced by the fact they bought the cheapest console on the market. With the Wii games market flooded with crap 3rd party games, people are just waiting for the right type of hype about a good game - word of mouth. Just me saying I was getting SSBB caused two other people (casual gamers) in the office to preorder it. And here are the complaints I got from both people after they bought it - they were both disappointed that the game did not use the wiimote movement controls, and that they could not fight with their Mii. Who can blame them? You shot yourself in the foot, Nintendo. You sold a system based on motion-based gaming and you delivered with Wii Sports. People are waiting for Wii Sports 2, or something along the same line. Stop making games that would play better on a traditional platform and you'll sell more games consistently.

noelix

:)

Onizuka-GTO

Considering there has already been a list of the 3rd partis that have met success on the Wii thus far in it's lifespan (Capcom, Ubisoft, Hudson, Activision) and I may be missing one or two.

I think that "3rd parties don't have success" Or "3rd parties won't support Wii" arguement tired and more importantly a tad bit irrelevant.

Now if you're saying ALL 3rd parties or something sure, but come on there are already 3rd parties having HUGE success with million sellers thus far, and smaller devs having some measure of success.

I mean a game doesn't have to sell a gazillion copies to be considered a success.

And more importantly if you look at the charts most of the Wii games seem to have staying power on the charts which equates into profit as well.

I personally don't care either way, but to keep using recycled speculative comments from Wii's launch makes no sense. I mean so 4 top 3rd party devs have game(s) that have went for 1million+ in sales (Kotaku posted something from our site thatvideogameblog.com on this).

So do we need to wait for Konami, and a couple other companies to have million plus sellers before we say 3rd parties can make money on Wii? I mean to go from GC where no one but Ninty made money, to 4-5 3rd parties (and more coming), I'd say that's great progress and shows potential for what to expect in the future.

But that's just me

FunKrusher

mariospants

The reason that nothing I said doesn't imply that PS3 owners don't buy games is because 1. I never said that 2. I wasn't trying to imply that.

As I stated in my post before, if people are looking at THE ATTACH RATE of the PS3 particularly to the Wii and saying "See PS3 owners buy more games than Wii owners!!!" you have to take into effect that ATTACH RATES are effected by number of systems sold vs. software sold so if a system has low hardware sold and comparible numbers of software sold with a system that has more units. Of course their attach ratio is going to be higher.

That was pretty much it, once again I wasn't implying anything either way.

FunKrusher

JoseJX

I'm also pretty sure that the Wii has consistently outsold all of the other platforms in software since this holiday.

JoseJX

Combing Japan sales data with Euro and NA sales data shows the PS3 with the lowest tie ratio.

The wii is selling more games and units then the gamecube ever did and shouldn't the xbox 360 be selling far more games then previous years?

The wii attach rating keeps going up as do the game sales numbers while the xbox 360 tie ratio has remained the same. As the wii ownership increases more wii software will be sold on average.

In two to three months the wii will have outsold the xbox 360 and the wii software sales will outsell xbox 360 sales. It may not be shown on a top ten but it's the entire catalog that is selling. Like with the DS you need a software totals number not just a top ten of the best selling to get the complete picture of what is going on saleswise.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

The crap games end up in bargain bins, while the first party titles that won't PLC lower than $29.99 just sit in the case. When somebody buys a 360 or PS3, they almost ALWAYS buy at least one game to go with it. Sometimes two or three. Rarely, rarely does someone buy a Wii and a game. Most folks don't even buy extra controllers, or even really seem to know what they're buying or why they're buying it. I know, I ask who they're buying it for and what games they want to play on it. They just don't know.

LockeEWiggin1

gaggle64

Nothing you said contradicts my statement. Per owner, PS3 buys = 360 owner in odds of buying a game.

PS3 owner = 360 owner > wii owner for odds of buying games. the numbers support me. (Ration of games : systems) PS4 = 360 > wii.

kingmanic

Yamster

Standard? I think you are confusing digital signal with HD. All the switch does is make old rabbit ears no longer work. Anyone with cable satelite or a tv made in the last ten years won't be affected by the signal change.

Also as for lost revenue xbox 360 games cost far more for a developer to make so a wii game with less sales earns far more on average.

Zack and Wiki commericals were never shown in the us. Stores at first only stocked a few copies and Capcom said they had a hard time getting stores to stock the game. Capcom also has said that sales of Zack and Wiki were a success.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

The # of units of wii games trails 360 games, while the total revenue trails further due to cost differences. The attach rates for the 360 and ps3 are similar so for any particular person who owns a PS3, they are just as likely to purchase games as any particular person who owns a 360. Both would be more likely to purchase a game then a wii owner as the numbers show.

that was the point of the article, the implication of the sales data, and the same pattern that afflicted the GC except there are more Wii's one year after launch then GC one year into it's life. 3rd party Developers didn't support the GC as much due to the same rationale.

kingmanic

Jun581 won't give you tree fiddy!!

attach rate is worthless. its about volume.

do you think any game developer cares about the attach rate of their games vs the total sales volume.

man, the nytimes has some dim bulbs

triclops41

Funny when one actually compares sales numbers from each region and this would be total sales numbers not just the top ten sales for each month.
[ds.ign.com] is the top 100 selling games in Japan for 2007. Xbox 360 didn't have a single title. PS3 had 4. Wii had 14. When combines total software in Japan for the three consoles meaning wii/ps3/xbox 360.

Wii beats the other ones hands down. Nintendo first party software sales in Japan are a monster on the wii easily beating out all the other software sold on the PS3 and Xbox 360 even when you combine the Wii third party titles.

Nintendo is responisble for selling over half the software in Japan last year. Nearly ten million wii software first party alone.

The PS3 when you actually look at software numbers has an abnormally low tie rate.

It gets even worse when you do North American and Europe numbers.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

HD will become standard in the US next year and that can only mean good things for the PS3 and not so good things for the Wii.

fenderfuel08

HAGE

Ps3 owners buy more games than Wii owners? Where are they at on the sales chart.

If your going by this whole "attachement ratio" thing you have to take into consideration LOWER SYSTEMS SOLD generally give you a high attachement rate, that doesn't mean they buy more games.

Actually in Wii trails 360 in terms of software sold monthly consistently. but the attachement rate is significantly lower because Wii has many more systems sold than BOTH those systems worldwide.

It's simple math vs. simple speculation.

FunKrusher

Nintendo system has like what 7-10 million sellers? I don't think that's bad by a stretch.

I don't pay any mind to these sorts of things, the haters need to learn that Nintendo isn't going anywhere, and this pretty much solidfies it. It baffles me how people say "oh the wii's got 3 good games" still to this day?

I mean half the people that say this haven't even played the games they're shitting on.

The only thing I think the Wii needs is more advertising. We hear too much about Ninty's games and periphals and not the other guys.

Also funny how people are claiming Nintendo is doomed, being that their games cost 25-30% to make vs. PS3/360 and their games (Zelda, Mario, whatever mini-game you're hating on) tend to hang around in the sales charts forever (Zelda TP is STILL in the top 50 for game sales), I think they'll be okay.

FunKrusher

I have been a loyal nintnedo customer since the SNES but I am not ashamed to say the Wii is the last nintendo console I'll ever buy. I think nintendo may be shooting themsleves in the foot by feeding their core base scraps(good scraps, but still scraps) while giving the meat to the casual base.

fenderfuel08

My point is that this issue has nothing to do with gaming, but more to do with the state of our economy here in the US. People are worried and when people are worried, they dont spend money.

rubadub

I don't know what you guys are talking about. My little brother watches Cartoon Network on Sky and there was a Zack and Wiki advert on the television every 2nd commercial when they brought it out here. :P

Wuffles

Jun581 won't give you tree fiddy!!

I believe there has been a complete mis-identification of the successfully targeted demographic both here and at Nintendo's headquarters.

Up to this point, it's been generally assumed that those most likely to purchase a Wii would fall into the category labled as, "the Casual Gamer" - which is a term difficult to define in it's own right. But I believe there's more to it than that. You see - I AM one of those who went out of their way to buy one of these things, but in no way would I consider myself "casual" in the least. Oh, sure; I don't put in the hours anywhere near what I used to (thanks to all those adulthood responsibilities that come with ...well, adulthood), but my experience with gaming goes all the way back to the original Pong, so it's reasonable to assume that my own hopes and expectations in continuing game development would exceed even those of latter generations growing up with PS1's and 2's in the household.

And to be honest, by the time Microsoft and Sony began touting the amazing "features" of their next-gen consoles, it was all becoming quite boring to me; more of the same with prettier graphics, virtually no real innovation to speak of. With that setting, it's very easy to see why Nintendo's new Wiimote technology struck a powerful spark of interest in me. Finally; REAL innovation - REAL improvements in gameplay mechanics! For the first time since the release of the PS1, I had a game system I could really look forward to!

And now, cue the passage of time. I am a family man in my late 30's (given away by my hands-on experience with Pong, of course). Most others I know who have purchased a Wii are also in their 30's or early 40's. Some of them are looking for their kids - some are looking for themselves. Some of them could be called "casual gamers" - others, certainly not! But the one thing we all seem to have in common is (suprise!) that elusive 30-40-something age bracket. And we all seem to be after the same attributes; something safe for the kids, but fun for us after hours, and we want it affordable and reliable (no thanks, Sony and Microsoft).
[btw - I know there's lots of young people with these systems too, but I'm pretty sure we outnumber you by a lot.]

Well, I think it's safe to say at this point in the console wars that the Wii has got all our small children well covered with plenty of safe, non-violent entertainment, and even has Grandma occupied for short bursts of time, and that's fine and all, but us 30-40-something-year-olds who bought the system to begin with are feeling pretty let down right now. We have needs too! Wii Sports was fun for a month or two, but that wore out a looong time ago. We need something new and fresh to wave our Wiimotes at! Something adventuresome, artitistic, cinematic... something like Bioshock! ...or, that Mass Effect alien game! Or how about something like that "Tomb Raider but with a dude" game that came out recently - Drake's somethingorother, I think it was. A little fantasy violence is fine by us, but not that ultraviolent freakshow swearfest like what's in that game "No More Hero's". And enough with the kiddy stuff already; we're about as "Mario'd-out" as we can be.

We, the buyers of Wii, are not just "Casual Gamers", a title you have so recklessly assigned us. We are the "Adult Family Gamers", and our tastes are varied, smart and sophisticated. Though we remain silently unsatisfied with your selection of title thus far, we refrain from selling our little white boxes out of hope and faith; hope that you will one day awaken and see us for who we truly are, and faith that once that day arrives, you will strive to quench our undying thirst for entertainment extraordinarre.

...Either that, or I guess we could just buy a cheap Xbox 360 w/remote when they finally stop breaking down all the time.

wonder6oy

I_Hate_This_Place

You need to look at it in terms of total gross revenue of software sales. At an attachment rate of 4.7, an install base of 18M means 85M units of software sold for the 360. Compare that to 21M Wii's selling 3.7 units per console, and you get 78M units of software sold.

That doesn't seem like a huge difference, but in terms of dollars it's even bigger than it looks, since 360 games sell for $10 more than Wii games - that's $70M less that's been spent on Wii games. That's a lot of money.

And that number will increase as long as the console sales stay pretty close together, and the difference in attach rate stays the same which seems likely to happen for the foreseeable future.

I'm not saying the Wii is doomed - it's carved out a huge market for itself and has been a cultural phenomenon. It's reached an insane number of households in a year and a half. But I would say that 3rd party support will probably continue to suffer for the indefinite future.

The Wreckard

Several stores cut the price on their own when they had tons of the ugly green things just sitting out in the aisles unsold for eight months.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

Swizzler121

Nirual

LeLoi

You know you post contradicts the article and most sales figures. PS3 owners do buy games, at about the same rate as 360 owners and more then Wii owners.

Also, Sony has set their price so as not to take a per unit loss. Sony has virtually totally vertically integrated the major components. A loss at first was likely but at this stage the economies of scales, the advancement of technology and the vertical integration would have greatly diminished the cost per unit. MS has as well. What hurts MS as a division was the RROD warranty extension. Per unit they have been profiting for some time on the 360 as they didn't make the same mistakes they did with the actual xbox per unit loser (expensive HD, out sourced parts contracts which had a bad price reduction over time and off the shelf equipment). However they cut too many corners and it bit them in the ass.

kingmanic

firesign

QuasarSquirrel

I_Hate_This_Place

I_Hate_This_Place

Considering how much was spent on advertising and the failure to sell tons of Halo 3 xbox 360s until ridciously slashed low in price I think most of any money made was wiped out.

Microsoft wanted Halo 3 to be a system seller however the sales figures showed an abysmall rise in system sells.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

I believe they made money with halo 3 also...

reptile168

reptile168

I_Hate_This_Place

Microsoft still has a six billion dollar loss on the xbox 360. The damn division has only pulled in profit once and that was on Halo 2 release quarter but the next quarter completly wiped it out.

Sony is losing money hand over fist.

As for attach rates PS3 game sales for the most part are in the toilet in all regions.

Wii software sells extremely well. Recent Euro figures show that a huge chunk of weekly sales are for Wii games.

PS3 owners don't buy games either.

Xbox 360 owners are lemmings pure and simple who mass buy a few games.

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

For instance, take the Super Smash Brothers Brawl 90% drop fear mongering.

Halo 3 dropped 95.5% in the same time period. I guess the XBox360 is a failure too then huh?

JoseJX

dumptruck

reptile168

Captain Impulse

I agree however. The Wii lacks games for me. It's loaded with games for my mom but my mom doesn't buy games I do. I have 15 Ps3 titles, 8 Wii ones, and 2 360 titles (I just got it). 5 of those 8 wii games were presents other people bought me assuming i'd play them and assuming I would have already bought anything I would have wanted for the 360. The only ones I bought for myself were Fire Emblem, RE4, and RE:UC.
@Fnor: don't kid yourself, they took a gamble and it paid off. MS and Sony didn't gamble much and didn't have it pay off as well. The relative sales positions has more to do with the economy as a whole rather then any key thing Nintendo did. their reading of the economy was better more so then their business acumen. Neither Ms nor Sony took big hits on the 360 and Ps3. MS learned their lesson from the xbox and took steps to hedge their losses. Sony has extremely good vertical integration with the PS3 and any calculations of a loss were based on random "pulled out their ass" figures from analysts. The machines themselves were likely sold near cost to retailers and the only losses were sunk costs due to R&D and fabrication facilities. No one except Sega (DC) and MS (xbox) has ever been confirmed to have sold at a per unit loss.

kingmanic

I_Hate_This_Place

Wolfers

valhum

Wii game sales are very high Nintendo keeps upping the production numbers of wii games in their financial reports by tens of millions each year.

As for minigame fests someone needs to actually look at the wii game offerings. I doubt you can name five wii games.

Also don't look at damn brick and mortar offerings go online. Brick and mortar stores only stock about 1% of a console lineup of games. 1% remember that.

PS2 and PS1 99% of the library was absolete shit and bringing up gamerankings when if you bothered to read the reviews you would realize the scores do not reflect the reviews of wii games.

Like with Okami Wii the reviewers didn't bother to read the effing manual because they would have known that quick brush strokes you use a button. SSX Blur, Fire Emblem Review, Gamespot Twilight Princess review all show that numerous reviewers should be fired and the games rerated because the reviewers didn't review the game. Often a wii game reviewer will admit to only playing an hour. An hour is really an acceptable amount of time to review a game?

Yetanotheruninspiredscreename

okenny :)

I'm definitely going to trade in my Madden '08 and Battalion Wars 2 games because Madden '08 is buggy and BW2 is just too easy.

I don't many games to begin with...I don't really have many parties/friends to play with (most friends don't like playing games like I do :p) so I usually rent games, beat them and then return them. It's not worth buying games when I just do that....for example, I bought Super Paper Mario because I thought I'd really like the game. So I got the game and I did enjoy it....for 18 hours....after I beat the game (didn't get all the hidden/secret stuff though) I never played it again....sure the game is great/fun/cute/etc but....I am now out 30-40 bucks.

And again: Metroid Prime 3, I rented this game (wasn't sure I'd like the control scheme) and I enjoyed the game (controls weren't perfect but were pretty darn good) but I beat the game in 20 or so hours (got 100% as well)....so paying 8 bucks to rent it, beat it and return it and now I've saved 40 or so bucks.

Only other game I'm going to actually buy is Mario Kart Wii....and maybe Madden '09. I'm hesitant about the Madden game but...I do like me some football...just hope it's not as buggy as '08 is :(

smd31

QuasarSquirrel

Waka in Japan

chris_wing

Ehetyz

Foxstar Sixtail

valhum

SAKY

Just wait. We're still due for a lot of blockbuster titles in the future.

Also, it can't hurt to mention that the 360's had a year advantage, and that they've also got the Platinum Hits $20 price point that Nintendo hasn't matched yet. Given that the Wii's been out for a year and a half and it's STILL almost impossible to find the console, I'm not concerned yet.

spiderweb1986

shouryuuken

I_Hate_This_Place

Nintendo decided to make a profit on hardware sold because it's a responsible business. Sony and Microsoft dug gigantic holes for themselves by selling at a (initially large) loss. If "gamers" demand their new consoles to incorporate hardware that is 2 years away from affordability, we are not going to have a games industry (at least as we recognize it) for all that long. Microsoft's shareholders will not stand by throwing money after bad money (games division), and to a certain extent the same goes for Sony.

So, if the industry is really driven by graphics obsessives, and they will flat-out refuse to support a lower-tech console, we're all going to be doomed. Not only will making the console become astronomically prohibitive, but (as we saw earlier today. Or yesterday, I forget.) As companies are pushed to shove their technology past affordability, the cost of developing games will continue to skyrocket, leading to higher prices, likely beyond what the market would bear.

So, yeah. Nintendo is really the only one of the three that approached this generation from a methodical, businesslike standpoint, rather than trying to show how totally cool they are to all the kids (Microsoft, Rein, I'm looking at you). I'm glad they did, because I sure as hell can't afford to live in Sony or Microsoft's world.

Fnor

I used to yell "Wii60", but looking back I wish I would have put that money towards a "PS360" instead. And not that people who genuinely enjoy their wii don't exist, but amongst people I know(anecdotal as hell here) the only ones truly happy with their wii are ones that don't own any of the other consoles.

I'm getting Mario Kart to play with the wife, but I don't see anything in the near future worth purchasing after that.

I_Hate_This_Place

KypFox

These are the games I love on Wii -- I'm sick of the same old shit and the easy, movie-like games on the big platforms.

GhaleonUnlimited

Y'know, kinda like those 'game consoles' which have 3 or 4 games built in like Pacman or Pinball.

Ryumeka

What people are lamenting about is that they may never have the NES/SNES Nintendo back. I'm not talking about management wise but in variety of software titles. Most major gaming titles have their roots in Nintendo platforms and most gamers (except those on blogs it seems) remember that.

Tepoz

jsf49

munniec

rocklee111

Anto103

I wanted to support Nintendo mainly because I didn't want them to go the way of the Dreamcast, but it's obvious that I am no longer their demographic, so I spend my money in games with better stories and where developers aren't shy to involve the player in moral, mature, or political situations.

Being a digital artist, I am also a sucker for good graphics.

Just my 2 cents.

qbix

theTOMSTA666

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

The Wreckard

ban_hammer

ajay42

Foxstar Sixtail

GusherKid

Now on the topic at hand..

"Wii owners don't buy games. They look at the issue from a variety of angles, including the facts (Wii owners buy one game less per year than their 360/PS3 counterparts)"

What? Buying one less game a year means people aren't buying games? Also what are they basing this on? Are they just following Wii titles or are they following VC ones too?

Foxstar Sixtail

rumblpak

The soccer mom that bought her kids a wii last Christmas is not checking kotaku religiously looking for that new IP to wow the kids.

RichMeisterMan

Sloopydrew

Nintendo is the new PS2 software wise. For every 1 game worth buying theres 20 more you'd avoid like a drunk girl with open sores at on her lips.

Nabsta

I have nine nonbundled Wii games now, but I don't play them, so I've stopped buying new ones. I plan to get Okami though. Still, most of what I've bought is GOOD, but not good enough to choose to play, so I'm in a conundrum. Do I sell them? Well, I still like them and hope to play more some day, but other systems keep beating it - all my other systems actually.

The Wii confuses me. I like it, just not enough to play I guess... I guess most of my games for it feel superficial, which isn't always bad, but it's not very inspiring either.

@SAKY:
I have a couple of those.
RE4 - awesome. I have it on GameCube but it was good enough to get again - then get stuck really early on and stop. I don't know why but it's 10x harder on Wii.

SMG - Felt really neat for a week or two. Never really felt like coming back to it though. I guess with the nasty camera that can only be changed when you don't need it it reminded me too much of other 3D platformers. That's just a rationalization though, to be honest I just got bored.

It seems I mostly use the Wii for a quick run in Ghost Squad or Warioware now...

fuchikoma

Let's look at it this way; if Nintendo's casual audience is only buying "one less game per year" than the 360's "core" demographic, then I think Nintendo's competitors have a bit more to worry about than we thought.

Oh, and how fast did Halo 3's sales diminish? Sometimes quickly diminishing sales is just a sign of a successful launch period.

KypFox

Six months from launch Wii is still selling out in droves and Nintendo is laughing all the way to the bank. The excuses are "still a fad" and " you can't base DS success on the presumed Wii success.." Even though 360 sales stalled and Sony and MS still weren't making and profit on their hardware.

A year later...Wii is STILL outselling the PS3 and the 360. Now Sony and MS are working on similar wiimote attachments or so rumor says. Nintendo records record profits and becomes the second most profitable company in Japan. 3rd parties? Still believe the Wii is a fad and a toy and won't dedicate resources to quality software. As a result, the store walls are lined with shit. Nintendo games are still some of the best games for the hardware, which comes as no surprise because it's always been that way from NES to SNES to 64, to GB, GBA, etc

analysts and developers and gamers (my self included) bitch about the lack of quality software but Nintendo can't do it all by themselves. When they do release a title that sells like gangbusters, people bitch that Nintendo games are the only games to play on the console. Damned if you do damned if you don't.

Look at from Nintendo's perspective. Nintendo got shitted on for 10 years straight from the core user demograph. The fault in large part was their's but when a truly great game came out on 64 or Gamecube, the core audience ignored it for the most part. So Nintendo decided to say ... to hell with the core audience because they aren't trying to see us anyway. We'll sell to these people over here who have never played games.

Now the core gamers are crying because Nintendo isn't giving them any love. From a business perspective, I say kudos to Nintendo, they made a necessary change and made billions on it and continue to do so. From a gamer's perspective, I'm not feeling it because Nintendo has the potential to make Wii really great, for all gamers, not just the casual. Simple changes here and there could easily make Wii more attractive even with the limited hardware. But they won't do it. All this does is reinforce the belief that Wii isn't a serious platform...thereby inspiring no confidence in 3rd party support...which in turn, causes a poor attach rate.

This is nothing new and so many of us here at Kotaku claim to be core gamers from years back but reaading some of these comments, I can see that either many are lying or have some damn short memories. i can accept that, but when the development community has the opportunity to make kick ass software for the dominating platform at a fraction of the cost of the competition, but REFUSES to do it regardless of profit to be made....this industry turns into a joke.

shitstorm

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

A casual gamer will by definition be a casual purchaser of games. Hopefully publishers aren't expecting every person that owns a Wii to suddenly become "hardcore".

niledeltadisco

GoodBoyNYC

The only possible explanation is that people are buying a huge number of consoles across the board without games after the holiday season, which is diluting the attach rate ratios.

Tepoz

Or was that only for the month of December or something like that?

keiichimorisato

Didn't bother reading the NYT article, as I don't need someone to tell me something I already know, but I think it's pretty telling how mainstream the Wii has gotten when it gets random articles like this from the NYT instead of the typical internet fanboy.

KirbyMorph

Kayeliminal Antithesis

Remember that list of the 100 top selling games of the last 12 months? There were 13 Wii EXCLUSIVE games on it. There are definitely some Wii owners buying games. PS3 and 360 didn't have as many exclusive games on the list but that's mostly because a majority of the games are multiplatform.

LeChuck

dan13l

FP ph15h

Zantagor

Jun581 won't give you tree fiddy!!

But I actually find this whole console generation kinda lacking minus a few.

I play handhelds older games like PSX and SNES more then games now.

syrantking