Feelings aside, the Wii has become something of a phenomenon. Demand is still crazy high for a machine that some hardcore gamers consider obsolete, but kids and kids at heart find the most charming thing this side of anything found on Cute Overload. Business 2.0, via CNN, put together a rather glowing piece on Nintendo and how they have come to dominate the current video game landscape.
Here are some choice quotes:
Today, as anybody within shouting distance of a teenager knows, Nintendo is the comeback kid of the gaming world. Instead of joining Sony and Microsoft in the arms race to pack their consoles with ever-higher-performance graphics chips (to better attract sophisticated gamers), Nintendo built the Wii--a cuddly, low-priced, motion-controlled machine that broke the market wide open by appealing to everyone from grade-schoolers to grandmas.
And my personal favorite:
While the console team worked on the shell, Miyamoto and another team perfected the controller. He was determined that its design be as simple as possible--he insisted on several revisions that enlarged the "A" button to make its importance obvious.
Check out the rest of the piece and give your non-fanboy take.
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I hate CNN and that Maximal Wolf Blitzer. Curse him and his fake name.
How much?
The article does expose the one weak point here. Nintendo seems to not care too much about us gamers. Which is fine for me, I can feed off the VC service for years, but some games that appeal more to everyone would be swell.
Atleast, this is the thought I cry myself to sleep with.
We need Mario.
He's welcome to bring his cart if he wants, but Mario being over a year late to the party is a record now for Nintendo.
Summa, yeah, gotcha, but the Wii is made for everyone. What's Happy Feet made for? Cars? WiiPlay? Where's our Mario/Metroid/anything that made us (y'know, gamers?) buy any previous Nintendo console? We're nearing the halfway point of the year and this summer's release schedule on the Wii is lookin' mighty sparse.
I've experienced this observation on both sides of a career. Enjoy your free time while you have it, guys.
DVD talk to me on Xbox live. I trust Nintendo to do what's right.
Unless your career is in video games. But it does become a rare endeavor to get any multi-player time with friends who have families or jobs.
And as long as people dress up cosplay for videogames, they're is always going to be an audience buying the Power Glove or Virtual Boy.
That is all.
What makes you so sure after making the "appeal to the non gamer" game, that the company will turn around and make the "hardcore" game, especially if its cheaper to make the "everyone" game, it sells more, and gives them a huge profit? What incentive do they have to make the "traditional gamer" game?
Even as a "Wii Fanboy" you only have to check the comments and articles in gaming sites (and digg) to realize the Wii star is already dimming out. Just 3 months ago it was IMPOSSIBLE to post any remotely bad press for the Wii on digg (my personal favorite was a comment reading only "Wii FTW!" that got 220 diggs). Right now you can actually post some bad press on the Wii and it will actually appear on the front page. Same goes for ps3 news. (which is apparently the Wii nemesis or something) The Wii (insane) popularity is declining slowly but steadily.
Here in Mexico the Wii price was cut down (in certain stores) to $280 (instead of the initial $500) in general, nobody cares.
The Wii will reach its 10 million sold status and get mano a mano with the 360 (probably when Mario Brawl hits) but after that( unless Mario Galaxy is beyond good or the Star wars game hits around xmas) sales will slowly go down, and people will FINALLY realize the Wii isnt targetted at them and move to another console (which one? I dont care)
It's a fair trade, IMO. Those who dedicate themselves to game careers may not necessarily have the best family lives. (EA what?)
Yeah, real solid strategy there Nintendo. 1080 snowboarding got my dad to try out N64, yet your attempts to woo him with 'simplified controls' failed miserably. Thank god for console shortages or I would actually own a Wii.
And fuck the VC. I want new games.
You should copy your posts before you post them, that way if there is an error you can just go back and paste.
If the games for the common man become complex, common people will demand more from their games until the games for the average consumer become more and more hardcore until there is no difference. As an example in this trend, note that the Honda Civic of today is LARGER than the Honda Accord of the 1980s... and I wouldn't be surprised if it had more HP too.
Another bit of car comparison would be that everyone should be driving a Honda Accord, but the Mazda Miata (same price, just hardcore) still sells. It's because there will always be a market for hardcore games, so there will always be someone making hardcore games. Maybe it won't be the top seller ever or an industry leader, but they will always exist.
Yeah! What happened to that? It got popular and beat the shit out of the PSP?! No way!
Well, screw that. The Wii is definitely going to fail! History would NEVER repeat itself!
And yes, the wii needs ssmb and mario galaxies.
I'm also of the opinion that anyone who thinks there are no good games imminent for the wii are delusional. Apart from the oft bandied SSBB, mario galaxy and metroid, there's project hammer, disaster: day of crisis, batallion wars 2, fire emblem, umbrella chronicles, sadness, project S, no more heroes, treasure island z, dewy's adventure, opoona, dragon quest swords, mario strikers, nights... and that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head which are exclusive to the wii. Most of them should be good, and most should be released this year.
The article really had nothing most of us didn't know 6 months ago, if a well written account of it. Didn't read anything about the wii hitting the industry's weak points, though.
Yes, thats a much more plausible outcome, and really one that I would agree with, good point. Though I still like thinking about crazy possibilities too though.
Thank you ok, your much better at voicing your opinion than me. I like the wii more or less and im tired of summa writing these dumb articles while sucking a sony CEO's cock. Summa do everyone a favor, take the penis out of your mouth and write a good article for once. And this time do it without contradicting yourself you sony fanboy prick!
Can't you see it? His head just grew 3 times it's normal size..
*rolls eyes*
Summa is upset that the Wii will probably break 10million units by the end of the year. Christmas will probably put them over the top. At least at their current pace. We all know the only reason that the 360 has hit 10mil in sales is because so many have been hit with the red ring of death (the reason I no longer have one). You have to buy a new one (which I didn't). It's 2007, the 360 has been out roughly a year and a half. The wii has been out 5 months, and close the gap by over half.
Oh wait though, the wii sucks, and will fail, and nobody will buy it. yeah thats right.
/propaganda
See if you are going to throw around fanboy propaganda at least do it correctly.
At this point, who gives a flying fuck anymore, All the systems are churning out pure shit now. I don't see ANY decent titles that aren't rehashed concepts with 'eye candy' or improved controls. I want something new ith a nice origional story line.
If it doesn't have games he likes and none are on the horizon for the next year, selling it makes sense. But even if that's the case, notice how he doesn't say it's selling only on hopes and dreams? I've never said the Wii is the best system ever, I've just always said that there are a lot of games that many people are enjoying, even though not everyone is. I would say that the Wii, more than any system so far, is the most subjective system out there. I totally respect people who love AND hate it, depending on each persons reasoning for doing so.
Instead what do I see? An article stating that the Wii was laying waste to the gaming industry sales wise.
Booo you cock-tease.
"Arent you guys Happy I pasted that?"
No.
MandleBaum123:
Sigh.. Look the Wii is popular NOW theres no denying there, will it still be popular in 2 years?. No way. You can use any metric you want, sales, advertising, comments, whatever it pleases you. Sales and popularity is steadily dropping since xmas launch. Why? because most people just want to try the Wiimote since is a new way to play games but once the novelty is over, The Wii wears steadily thin. Deal with it.
Most people are only holding to their Wii's just because they are waiting for either Mario Brawl or Mario Galaxy, Nintendo knows thats and is stretching their top games to kingdom come. Project hammer is probably a 2008 xmas game by now.
Well said. This current myth, the one that suggests outside the world of Wii awaits a promised land of gaming is pure fantasy. I have all three consoles and there is nothig happening at all. Nothing.
In fact, the PS3 is a very expensive dose of deja vu, whereas the 360 has basically stolen Sony's market and swagger, so it's a double deja vu. What does all this mean? It basically means that this so called next generation of gaming is an expensive HD version of the PS2.
And yet the inexpensive Wii gets all the stick. Madness.
Wait... you agree with me? Where's the part where we call each other fanboys and whores? God damn, I'm gonna have to bookmark this page or something just for that NOT happening.
Wow. thank you. seriously, thank you.
What planet are you living on my friend?
The Wii was just named CNETs #1 must have item. Consumer interest in Wii is double and triple that of 360 and PS3 at the same time in their respective launches and it's RISING.
From Next Gen Biz
"The results of PriceGrabbers’ study showed that despite rising by 127% in the six weeks since launch, searches for PlayStation 3 are less rife than they were for Wii and Xbox 360 consoles during their respective post-launch periods. In the same post-launch period, Wii searches increased by 579% while Xbox console searches increased by 250%.."
I think you're the one that needs to face reality. I can't speak to 2 years from now, maybe the Wii will fall flat, but it's certainly not happening now, in fact, it's just the opposite.
As for Mandelbaum123, you have some great observations, don't let haters like azrael tell you otherwise.
@ IMOK,
Thanks for posting that. You've put into words successfully what I attempt to do failingly.
First, Japan is the only territory where we have really accurate software sales so that's nice that you choose not to include them in your comment, but seriously, do you even READ software sales charts? Smooth moves is selling great, so is Super Paper Mario. And it's not just Nintendo software either. Tiger woods is selling well both in the US and in Europe. Speaking of EA, Godfather blackhand is selling well in Europe too. Also, lets talk about PS3 software and I'll even include japan. Where is your comment about that? Exactly.
It seems like Summa is the ONLY staffer that writes about the Wii. Why is that?