Wii-ing all over the competition

[Vroomfunkel]

Just in case it wasn't already patently obvious, the Financial Times gives the lowdown:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/58c00a80-c1a9-11db-ae23-000b5df10621.html

[heybtbm]

I read this news on Gamespot.com yesterday. What was even more interesting (to me) was the fact that the PS3 sold only ~50,000 units less than the 360 during those 5 weeks. Regardless of how many PS3's seem to be stacking up at stores...apparently they are selling.

[cyberfluxor]

Yeah yeah! Wii FTW!!!!! GO WHEEE! err. I really don't care. Good for Nintendo but either way I'll still kick back and wait a few years for those price drops. :)

[jajaja]

I read it earlier today and i must say im actually more impressed by the PS3 salenumbers than the Wii salenumber. Considering the much negative stuff about PS3 in the media, the high price and the lack on big titles i was suprised that Sony sold nearly 250k PS3s in 1 month. This is for January when not even Motor Storm and Virtua Fighter 5 was out, still nearly 250k units sold. I also find it funny that the article says "only" when it comes to the PS3 sales, like its nothing. 250k units is alot considering the factors i mentioned earlier.

Also amazing that PS2 thats nearly a 7 year old console is still selling so well :)

[jcalder8]

Are people really surprised? I mean just look at the price of course its going to sell more. If I was 10 that would be the one I would have asked for because its the only one my parents could afford.

Also the 360 has stood the test of time, its more popular now then when it was released over a year ago, and I'm sure that the PS3 will gain momentum over time but what will the Wii be like in a year, or 3? I don't doubt that it will be the most owned system but how many of them will still be being played, or how often will they be being played.

[-hellvin-]

It makes sense, but sooner or later, it's downhill momentum will slow down and level out with the other systems. Each one has it's strengths right now. 360 has amazing online support and a LARGE slew of great games coming out very soon. PS3 has blu-ray at almost half the price, and as well a slew of good games finally coming through. Wii's got great games, ingenuity and heavy targeting on family gameplay.

With all their success, it still surprises me how SLOW they have been on manufacturing. We ran out of DS' for almost the entire month on January because of their focus on the Wii. We finally got them back in at the beginning of this month and were out for almost another two weeks. I honestly did not think it would be almost March and they'd still be unable to keep them readily stocked with retailers.

[chicnstu]

Are people really surprised? I mean just look at the price of course its going to sell more. If I was 10 that would be the one I would have asked for because its the only one my parents could afford.

Also the 360 has stood the test of time, its more popular now then when it was released over a year ago, and I'm sure that the PS3 will gain momentum over time ut what will the Wii be like in a year, or 3? I don't doubt that it will be the most owned system but how many of them will still be being played, or how often will they be being played.

I think you could say the same thing about the PS2. I think a lot of them aren't being played much anymore (last year, year before, or now). I know that many adults (including my parents) bought it because it was something that was talked about often as being the "hot new item". My parents bought it then later on couldn't find anything they enjoyed playing. The only thing my parents play is the Stacked poker game (and that's only my dad). They tried Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, Devil May Cry 3, Cars (this is actually good), CastleVania SoTN, baseball games, etc. They did really enjoy the Ratchet and Clank series though.

They also played GC games and enjoyed many of them. Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Harvest Moon.

They both would often say "Why are there so many damn buttons?" "I can't remember all of this shit."

[RadiantSvgun]

I think it will continue to hold strong. The Wii has grabbed the attention of gamers, and non-gamers alike. I've had to find one for my mom, uncle, aunts, and my one crazy uncle (he was #1 on my list, cause he is crazy.) But when I buy these things, I run into tons of soccer moms and such wanting to buy them off me before I get in the car. "You want it for your son?" "No, he has one, I want one for me."

[Bronty-2]

I read it earlier today and i must say im actually more impressed by the PS3 salenumbers than the Wii salenumber. Considering the much negative stuff about PS3 in the media, the high price and the lack on big titles i was suprised that Sony sold nearly 250k PS3s in 1 month. This is for January when not even Motor Storm and Virtua Fighter 5 was out, still nearly 250k units sold. I also find it funny that the article says "only" when it comes to the PS3 sales, like its nothing. 250k units is alot considering the factors i mentioned earlier.

Also amazing that PS2 thats nearly a 7 year old console is still selling so well :)

*Shipped* not sold. Never forget that sony's #s are always given that spin. Every unit sitting in retail inventory on the planet counts as "sold" in their #s.

[udisi]

*Shipped* not sold. Never forget that sony's #s are always given that spin. Every unit sitting in retail inventory on the planet counts as "sold" in their #s.


Hense why they want retailer shelves filed with ps3 by their own words :)

[lendelin]

Here are the NPD sales numbers for January according to GameInformer: (units SOLD, not shipped) Very interesting is the comparison to the similar January data of the previous consoles:

"According to the latest NPD TRST data, the Wii sold through 70% more systems than any other system in its first January in the past decade.

In the month of January Nintendo sold 435,000 Wii's, Microsoft sold 294,000 Xbox 360s, and Sony sold 243,000 PlayStation 3s.

The January's following launches are always odd selling periods considering that console manufacturers are most likely just trying to replenish stock in the month. Historically, the PS2 sold 254,000 units during that same period in 2001. Here are how the past few consoles have stacked up in January sales over the years:

Wii: 435,000
PS2, 2001: 254,000
PS3: 243,000
Xbox, 2002: 128,000
Xbox 360, 2006: 115,000
GCN, 2002: 62,000."


The clear winner is certainly the Wii on all fronts: in exceeded expectations, in total numbers, and in particular striking is the dramatic difference to the GC sales. While the GameCube sold 62,000 in January 2002, the Wii sold 435,000 the January after launch.

The Xbox360 is certainly the expected established competitor to the PS3, no surprises there. The PS3 didn't sell too badly compared to the XBox 360 and achieved the same sales level as the PS2 in January 2001. However, as we all know, in January 2001 the PS2 was hurt by shortages while this January the PS3 was readily available. DVD was exciting back then, Blue-Ray fails to deliver the same kind of enthusiasm as a motor for hardware sales.

For me there are two aspects remarkable and still puzzling:

1) The numbers for the big two (PS3 and 360) are not overwhelmingly good. The enthusiasm for gamers voting with their pocket book seem to be limited. While the biggest hurdle for the PS3 is certainly the price tag and hampers sales, the 360 didn't profit neither from PS3-shortages in November and December as an alternative buy, nor did it profit from the outstanding sales (over a million) of the excellent Gears of War. (So much for a great game selling a system - you need a number of very attractive games to sell a system nowadays, the days when a Street Fighter 2 and Donkey Kong Country alone won the race for the SNES over the Genesis are over.)

I don't know what these sales numbers mean exactly. On the one hand they might indicate the beginning of a slow-down of the industry we already experience in Japan for three years now; in the last five/six years we might have been overfed with good and expensive games and experience a general tiredness; on the other hand the combined sales of 970,000 game units for one month isn't too shabby at all in particular immediately after the Christmas season.

2) I can't explain the great sales numbers for the Wii. While it is pretty safe to assume that the high price tag of the PS3 made the Wii and not the Xbox360 THE alternative to the PS3, the big gap between limited gameplay value and sales remains.

I still regard the Wii as a gimmicky system, it didn't fulfill the promises of the new control sheme at all on all fronts, and it is a second-rate system from a hardware standpoint tailored towards party games and will shine for WarioWare, Mario Party, Cooking Mama and the likes. How long its appeal will last for gamers - hardcore and casual gamers alike - might be similar to its typical Wii-games a la Wii Tennis - nice fun for a short period of time, but after a couple of hours it gets boring and won't be played very often. Certainly not the future of gaming, certainly not the challenge for game designers to solve the most unanswered problems of game design today, and certainly the highest hurdles lay ahead for the system: big attractive AAA titles on both systems that will outshine the Wii games and make it seem very outdated.

On the other hand N might have found a spot in the market which is more than the niche I always assumed it restricted themselves. Maybe the trend goes towards simpler, easier, less epic, shorter games attarctive for hardcore and casual gamers alike. N might have correctly anticipated that the Japanese trend of gamers spending less time for an individual game and more time on the Internet for recreation will catch up with the most important market, the US. In this case the Wii is more than a niche system, still gimmicky, not on the forefront of gaming, but tailored towards a wide range of gamers who find the Wii attractive; the appeal is based upon an undeserved but successful image as a revolutionary game system.

[tom]

Sony's not worried, combined PS2/PS3 sales are looking good.
PS3 will be released in Europe this month, so overall figures weren't accurate.

But good for Nintendo, after all the failures (N64, Game Cube, Virtual Boy) that had to think of something, and a worldwide release (incl Europe) of the Wii certainly helped.

[Anthony1]

I still regard the Wii as a gimmicky system, it didn't fulfill the promises of the new control sheme at all on all fronts, and it is a second-rate system from a hardware standpoint tailored towards party games and will shine for WarioWare, Mario Party, Cooking Mama and the likes. How long its appeal will last for gamers - hardcore and casual gamers alike - might be similar to its typical Wii-games a la Wii Tennis - nice fun for a short period of time, but after a couple of hours it gets boring and won't be played very often. Certainly not the future of gaming, certainly not the challenge for game designers to solve the most unanswered problems of game design today, and certainly the highest hurdles lay ahead for the system: big attractive AAA titles on both systems that will outshine the Wii games and make it seem very outdated.

On the other hand N might have found a spot in the market which is more than the niche I always assumed it restricted themselves. Maybe the trend goes towards simpler, easier, less epic, shorter games attarctive for hardcore and casual gamers alike. N might have correctly anticipated that the Japanese trend of gamers spending less time for an individual game and more time on the Internet for recreation will catch up with the most important market, the US. In this case the Wii is more than a niche system, still gimmicky, not on the forefront of gaming, but tailored towards a wide range of gamers who find the Wii attractive; the appeal is based upon an undeserved but successful image as a revolutionary game system.



Interesting take regarding the Wii. I honestly don't know what the hell to think about the Wii. It's a total mystery to me. When I first got it, and started playing with it, I loved it. But now, it seems boring as hell. In the beginning, when I was really excited about it, and playing Wii Sports and Zelda, I basically forgave Nintendo for the horrible graphics and lack of technology. But now that the initial honeymoon phase is over, I'm back to being critical. Since the release of Wii Sports and Zelda, which both came on day 1, there hasn't been a single compelling game for me. I wouldn't mind renting Warioware and Sonic and SSX Blur, but I still don't find any of those 3 games to be compelling. The next compelling release for me will be Super Paper Mario, and after that it appears that I'm going to have a very long wait ahead of me for something with some meat on it's bones. Party games and Mini games just don't interest me much. They are a nice entertaining diversion for a half hour here or there, but that isn't the type of gaming that I'm looking for.

I wonder if all these millions of people that have been buying Wii's are going to continue to be entertained by them? Or will their Honeymoon period fade too? How many mini games and party games can one person take? After the initial excitement in the Wii fades, will the horrible graphics start to turn people off? Will the Nintendo Wii have the worst attach rate in History? When I'm talking about attach rate I'm talking about games, not wii-motes or nunchucks or component cables or extra sensor bars or things like that. I can see a large percentage of these million gamers buying a Wii, along with Zelda, and then a few more games, getting burnt a few times on some horrible quickie PS2 or PSP or Cube ports with tacked on Wii-mote controls and then never buying another Wii game again. Sure, Nintendo could have a 5 million installed base very fast, but what if half of those 5 million people have a Wii sitting in their closet, not being used, cause the excitement and hype of playing it have dissipated?


And it's very possible that I'm completely off my rocker and the Wii is going to absolutely dominate this generation, and people will be more than happy to play Party games and Mini games with horrible graphics over and over and over, and the 360 and PS3 will go down in flames.

[Garry Silljo]

But now that the initial honeymoon phase is over, I'm back to being critical.

Back to being critical? When were you anything but critical?

You may not be impressed but you were already a gamer and would have bought it anyway. My wife and most of my extended family who wouldn't even look at a game system but now own Wiis and still love playing them are a testament that this was more than hype. They have exposed themselves to customers who would have liked Nintendo products but wouldn't give them a chance, but now have and so now know they like what Nintendo offers.

[jajaja]

Back to being critical? When were you anything but critical?

Here:


In the beginning, when I was really excited about it, and playing Wii Sports and Zelda, I basically forgave Nintendo for the horrible graphics and lack of technology.

[lendelin]

Sony's not worried, combined PS2/PS3 sales are looking good.
PS3 will be released in Europe this month, so overall figures weren't accurate.


I don't get this. The sales numbers are for the US only for all three systems. A European release might only affect PS3 sales numbers in the US if Sony couldn't manufacture enough PS3s for the American market because they shift emphasis on manufacturing for the European launch, but that's not the case. There aren't shortages in America.

[lendelin]

And it's very possible that I'm completely off my rocker and the Wii is going to absolutely dominate this generation, and people will be more than happy to play Party games and Mini games with horrible graphics over and over and over, and the 360 and PS3 will go down in flames.

The Wii will neither dominate nor will the big two go down in flames. We are talking interesting shifts in marketshares, nothing more and nothing less. The market can handle a two-and-a-half-game-system, meaning two big ones and a smaller distant third.

My estimation about the gameplay value of the Wii is like yours, we completely agree on this one.

I stick to my prediction that the next years will see a head-to-head competition between the 360 and the PS3. Neither of them will dominate, and the Wii will be a distant third. (Market analysts are almost like good journalists these days -- they change their opinion from week to week going with the obvious flow.) The appeal of the Wii will wear off. There will be a gap between systems sold and games sold (which also means reduced third-party support), and the next ten months will be decisive for all three systems.

I go even so far to say that a dominating(!) Wii would be tragic for the game industry and game design -- as much as I rooted for Nintendo and as much I think we need a Nintendo; but if this downgraded machine five years behind its time with controls tailored towards short party-like games which even messed up Metal Slug Anthology would dominate at the cash register, important unresolved development trends would be put on backfire by an industry which (like always) follows the money trail.

Stories incorporated into gameplay and not merely told in movie sequences would be neglected; and except for party games and very simple short ones the Wii didn't deliver so far -- Zelda was designed for the GC and should be played on it; and like in the case of the upcoming Metroid I hear more often than not the hope that the Wii controls don't mess up the game. So much for the revolutionary gameplay which was hyped in trailers by paid actors enthusiastically jumping up and down on couches slashing with imagined light sabers and swords (harsh reality: Link and Red Steel), swinging golf clubs (harsh reality: Wii Golf), and swinging rackets (harsh reality: Wii Tennis) -- and for the conductor game I'm still waiting.

Does anyone on this board seriously argue that Wii Tennis has more and richer gameplay value than Top Spin 2, Table Tennis, or the upcoming Virtua Tennis 3? These games won't be on the Wii at all for good reason although the Wiimote can be swung like a tennis racket and will revolutionize how we play games - - supposedly.

However, I think that a moderately successful Wii without any doubt will give game designers some new ideas regarding simpler controls, slimline gameplay, and incentives for new gamedesign in many other areas.

Sometimes we fall for the PR-babble of corporations and become unintentionally warriors for them only recognizing the big 'race;' gamers should never become spokespersons for them; instead we should focus on games on all systems and see how important it is for the industry AND in particular for game design to look at the industry as a whole. Frontiers between systems do not exist for the development of game design; designers learn from each other, from other games, and are constantly influenced by them, picking up some new good ideas, no matter who publishes the games and on which system they are.

The Wii has an important function for this generation of consoles -- but God forbid it will ever dominate. :)