article: wii about to be #1 in market share any day

[swlovinist]

Operation Hammer got canned offically. As for the debate, I like the 360 and the Wii for totally different reasons. The Wii is kicking ass sales wise. Software wise...it doesnt really matter. Why? Nintendo is making money off the hardware....something the other folks need to try!

Both the Wii and the 360 will be the large percentage of the market...as for the PS3...can they screw up any more?

[theMot]

The Wii has been an almost total disapointment as far as im concerned, and will continue to be into the foreseeable future. Besides the Nintendo exclusives (of which i have only a mild interestin mario galaxy, the rest are just rehashs, meh) i just dont see anything much in the pipeline that is going to make me interested again.

Thank god for the 360 and it's excellent line up on the way!

[Daria]

Why?

Because I want a game good enough to justify my $250 purchase?

Super Paper Mario? I own two Wii titles... and this one was worth it alone.

[ubersaurus]

Please. It's been nine months already. Aside from the three big Nintendo titles (SSBM, Metroid Prime 3, and Mario Galaxy), can you name ONE major 3rd party title coming for the Wii in the fourth quarter? I'm sick of people making excuses for the Wii's lackluster library. "They underestimated how well it would sell!" "Making games for the Wiimote takes time!" I've heard so many, I've lost count. Where are the high profile 3rd party games?

Nights Journey into Dreams.

[boatofcar]

Besides, looking at attach rate without considering the time the consoles has been on the market is assinine anyway.

Again, it's been nine months. I don't think its "assinine" at all.

[koster]

There are a few Wii games I'm looking forward to before the end of the year:

Endless Ocean
Godzilla: Unleashed
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Zack & Wiki

Not to mention "No More Heroes", whenever that one is released...

[Family Computer]

I don't own any next-gen consoles, however I would like a 360 for Halo 3 + Xbox Live Arcade.

If you already own a PC Engine/Megadrive/Famicom/Super Famicom the Virtual Console is pretty much worthless, while XBox Live Arcade has some exclusives not available anywhere else. I only hope that they will release 4-Player Simpson's Arcade & some other Konami games.

For someone who doesn't own the old consoles, a Wii is a pretty good system to have.

What you have to remember is that Japan matters the most to people who like Japanese developed games. The 360 will be great for FPS and games by Western developers. But, sooner or later, PS3 WILL have the best games in my opinion. Once that happens & the price drops, people WILL start buying them in heaps.

At the moment out of the 3 I would rank them in the order (360, Wii, PS3). After a year I have a feeling it will be more like (PS3, 360, Wii).

At the end of the day, the Wii will be about first party games. It always is with Nintendo.

Super Smash Bros / Metroid / Mother are the series that I would want a Wii for. It would be cool to have a Metal Gear game that utilizes the Wii Mote though.

The 360 will utterly fail in Japan, so you know the games have to be coming for the PS3.

[Bronty-2]

Again, it's been nine months. I don't think its "assinine" at all.

maybe you don't understand my point. The 360 has been out over twice as long. OF COURSE it will have a higher attach rate. Let's say you have two consoles - one you've had for a year, the other for two. Which one do you think you're going to own more games for? Divide the 360's attach rate in half and you have a fairer comparison.

[alxbly]

Let's say you have two consoles - one you've had for a year, the other for two. Which one do you think you're going to own more games for? Divide the 360's attach rate in half and you have a fairer comparison.

I see the logic in what you're saying. However, I've owned a Wii since last December (it was first next gen console) and a 360 since my birthday in April. In 8 months I've owned the Wii I've got 8 games, and in the four months I've owned a 360 I've got 14 games. There's only been two Wii titles so far that have really held my attention; Twilight Princess and RE4. Super Paper Mario should change that, but it's not released in the UK until Sept 14th.

[Stone_Protector_101]

well i have seen them here in maryland the gamecrazy here just got 15 in stock on friday.. but that about it they sell as soon as they hit any retail store all becuz people hear its great which it 75% true im still waiting on the games that make me say Oh my F*%$ing God

[ubersaurus]

I only have 3 wii games and like, 6 360 games...but this is a function of price, rather than quality software. I can't justify shelling out full price for most games, but there are a number of wii games I want to pick up, vs 360 games(most of which I got for christmas).

[WanganRunner]

See Previous Entry:

Wii Sports, Zelda, Excite Truck, Elebits, Red Steel, Strikers, Metroid next week...)

See also:

Rayman Raving Rabbids, Metal Slug Anthology (With GC controller), Big Brain Academy, Super Paper Mario....

And oh....half the virtual console....

But then I didn't care for Gears of War, so what do I know?

This man speaks the truth. People poo-pooing Wii software probably haven't played very much of it. Rayman is a HOOT, Super Mario Mario is a fantastic game, Zelda is Zelda, etc....

Oh, and I thought GoW was brilliant, so does that make me unbiased?

[Melf]

Nights Journey into Dreams.

Hardly high profile. I'm talking major franchises. The only one announced (I'll go with "announced" to be fair, since the Wii hasn't been around as long) for the Wii has been Guitar Hero III, which is coming over to the other consoles as well. Were are the big name franchises? 3rd party exclusives?

maybe you don't understand my point. The 360 has been out over twice as long. OF COURSE it will have a higher attach rate. Let's say you have two consoles - one you've had for a year, the other for two. Which one do you think you're going to own more games for? Divide the 360's attach rate in half and you have a fairer comparison.

You can't have it both ways though. If the Wii's library is so great, then why aren't more people buying the games? If it's been around half as long as you say, then how can there be so many great games? The reality is that the Wii's hardware sales =/= its software sales. People are buying the consoles, not the games, otherwise there'd be a higher attach rate. There are practically as many Wiis sold as 360s, so the attach rate should be much higher, regardless of how long it's been out.

[ubersaurus]

You're telling me Nights 2 isn't high profile? What the hell IS high profile then, Madden 08?

Anyone the least bit familiar with video games knows of Nights, at the least. The first is pretty well known and regarded. And given all the coverage it's been getting, honestly if that's not high profile I don't know what is.

[diskoboy]

NiGHTS 2 and Metroid 3 are the only titles I can honestly say I'm looking forward too, in the remote future. Super Metroid for the VC...

After seeing so much Mario Galaxy stuff, I'm beginning to think it's looking a little like Mario 64 (which I loathe). I may rent it. But it'll have to really wow me to make a purchase. I've been pretty bored with the Mario franchise since Super Mario World on the SNES

[Melf]

Nights 2 is getting press because it's the sequel to a game whose creator always said would never get one. It's not a big franchise in the normal sense. When I say high profile, I mean in the same vein as GTA, Metal Gear Solid, and yes, even Madden. Like it or not, those are games that receive massive amounts of advertising and will sell millions of copies. Considering that Sonic & the Secret Rings didn't set the world on fire, I doubt that Nights will sell much better than Sega's mascot. And don't give me the old "Sonic is played out/outdated/his games suck" excuse, because we're talking notoriety and hype, not game quality.

Nights 2 may be a great game when it comes out, but I don't think you're going to see it push big numbers, which I agree is a sad thing. If more games like it sold well, we'd get more than endless FPS titles and derivative crap.

[boatofcar]

Prediction:

Software sales for the Wii will improve when Nintendo and other developers stop trying to fit in motion control in all their games. DS software sales, while always good, really took off when more games came out for it that weren't dependent on gimmicky stylus and microphone features.


Of course, I predict this optimistically, as I hate all three things mentioned. Just give me buttons, d-pads, and sticks, please. Or at least make an optional control scheme where no waving of limbs is required.

[WanganRunner]

I finally scored my very own Wii today! 9 long months of waiting!

[Icarus Moonsight]

Software developers only care about three things; marketshare, marketshare and most importantly... marketshare. That's it in a nutshell.

I'll agree people are buying Wii's for Wii Sports, in the US. It was planned that way by Nintendo. They knew they needed an extra push here in the states because the competition is more fierce. Playstation and Xbox sell well here and that leaves less market for them. Unlike Japan where the Xbox brand is scoffed at and nearly non-existant in comparison. In time Wii software sales will pick up especially if they can manage to hold #1 marketshare. Even the folks who bought a Wii exclusively for Wii Sports will wander into purchasing other software eventually.

The arguement that the success of the Wii was unforseen is valid. The console was surrounded by skepticism from the get go. We can all remember the responce that the Wii gathered at E306. Even after that awesome showing, devs were on the wait and see side of things. In the case it was a fluke or when the Wii was actually brought to market it turned out to be nothing more than a passing fad or just a gimmick. Hell, alot of devs still feel that way although some have changed their tune by now. A hilarious and ironic Wii as #1 marketshare scenario would be if devs started focusing on games for the Wii and ported those titles to the PS3 and 360 like all those PS2 focused and developed games were ported to the more hardware impressive GC and Xbox. Usually with little or none in the way of hardware specific improvements. It rendered the extra power of the other consoles inert and it was all due to marketshare. Add in a substantially higher price and it makes it even more ludicris.

Look at the DS. The game library sucked for nearly a solid year before games started comming out that made the system a compelling purchase. I feel the Wii will more than likely be no different. Excepting that the Wii's first year of releases are alot better than the DS's were. Slightly lackluster yes but, definately better. The PS3 library is worse currently and the 360's wasn't any better than the Wii's 9 months in.