At E3 Reggie Fils-Aime let the world know he wasn’t satisfied with the sales progress of the Wii or DS in 2007 and hopes Nintendo can do better this year. Perhaps Nintendo is playing the humble card? No doubt they bragged about their 10 million sales of the Wii and 20 million sales of the DS but quickly followed it by saying they’re not satisfied.
Or, is this a threat?
Nintendo has built some steep competition while both Sony and Microsoft scoff at their product and tell everyone its a novelty and it doesn’t really “count” in this next-generation console battle. It doesn’t count… really?
Perhaps Microsoft and Sony are right; maybe every Wii owner that wanted a PlayStation 3 and/or an Xbox 360 purchased their console too. There may be some truth to that as hardcore gamers may purchase a Wii for many reasons:
- They want every console so they have the widest array of game purchases
- They’re hardcore nature forces them to spend money on all products
- They want to get their kids in on gaming early, to grow them up in their image
- Mob mentality, if everyone has a Wii you must as well!
- The technology is cool and you want to be there for its inception
It seems they don’t feel a threat because Wii is a non-gamer console and thus attracts a different crowd… yet they’re both mimicking some of the motion sensing in their own controllers and playing nice towards “casual games” and non-gamers of late. Maybe their not threatened, but impressed?
Fils-Aime isn’t impressed with their sales figures, perhaps because he expected a higher degree of Wii sales by now, but the fact that people cannot purchase them two years into production has hurt sales figures. Although 10 million units sold is an impressive figure, knowing you had such higher potential if the product was actually on the shelves has to hurt a bit of your pride.
The DS sales were impressive considering the product has been in the market for awhile and is easier to find (minus the holiday rush). We’re not sure why he’s not satisfied with the figures, but inspiring a higher degree of DS sales will require some work. Perhaps this is why they’ve gone with the GTA Chinatown approach; using the GTA name to grow their DS sales figures?
It will be interesting to see how Wii does through the next few quarters and if sales slow down now that we’re a few years into the product. What was the last home console Nintendo owned to get this high of a demand?
Perhaps none.
@Diablo III I also think they will be selling more than those numbers tell, but I think that the goal of the “buy one year of WoW, get D3 free” is to get more money into Wow rather than more sales in D3.
@QOFTW – I’m thinking about backing up Xenonauts, which is X-Com: Enemy Unkown kinda remake. The approach seems different from the official remake, where in Xenonauts they’re trying to keep it closer to the original.
Meaning there will be two different games based on the original X-Com, and I hope I’ll enjoy both.
PS:
@What I meant with Korean Carebear fest (about Tera) – Carebear is what PvP-driven MMO players call to people who don’t like open PvP, full loot and overall activities that involve risking your virtual goodies.
I didn’t mean it as an offense, its just at first it looked like Tera was bringing a lot of PvP action and a somewhat sandboxy experience, but the comunity started to realize that in fact it is more of a WoW kind of thing with some light sandbox tweaks.
So for the community that has been waiting for a good game (pvp and sandbox wise) since Ultima Online, it was a bit of a disappointment.
As for the Korean part, I was talking about the graphics.
Sorry it was late guys, I was stuck with a sick MySQL server at work (yes, I do have a day job) and couldn’t make it then I guess the other guys had some kind of recording difficulty. C’est la vie… Hope the exams went well for everyone!
@EA deals with Rock Band iOS debacle
Oh man :)) Now it makes sense why EA won the award as the worst company …
As for what Harmonix would do, well, you’re quire optimistic Jonah. What I foresee is a small update made to the game, then selling it, regardless if you had the old game or not.
@Microsoft “banned” in Germany
Oh man … welcome, global players, to a world that does not have a global legal system.
@Diablo 3
The minimum specs for Diablo 3 is within my reach. Yet I don’t have broadband, because we live in a remote area; we only have a 3G modem, but that’s not broadband.
@ Next Xbox already in production:
Ha! So they might launch it in the holiday season this year.
As for concentration camps justifying a country to have stricter ratings, then Russia should impose the same rules for their game market. Oh wait, they won the war … nevermind …
@QOTW
Hmm … none, so far. I don’t bother visiting the site, so I have absolutely no idea what projects are there.
I know that all type of ideas get presented there, from games to devices, but still, the site didn’t catch on me.
“In Soviet Union, TV watches you!” 😉
Wow Paul, you get whiny when you are discussing the new generation of consoles. 😛
Almost finished with my exams, only 8 left.
@QOTW: Currently, none. As a 15 year old, I barely have any money for indie games which I don’t know much about yet.
The list I left you wasn’t a list of kickstarters I was excited for, but a list of successful video game kickstarters since Double Fine Adventure. I just thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss if there isn’t much news. I’m still surprised about how many kickstarters actually reached their goals.
Here is a list of the links just to make it easier. I picked the ones which have earned at least $100,000 to make the list shorter:
http://kck.st/xBJJ0N
http://kck.st/HiG1V7
http://kck.st/sRf3LL
http://kck.st/yAfgj2
http://kck.st/HYQbcy
http://kck.st/I1vU2N
http://kck.st/GTp0kn
http://kck.st/HqymGE
http://kck.st/HE8nZJ
http://kck.st/HEHrEK
http://kck.st/HujJPy
Hey guys missed you last week, glad that you’re back!
@Next box, although I don’t see it coming out for a while, I agree with Jonah. The sooner this next generation of systems comes out the better it is for gaming in general. Progression is one of the most important factors in the game industry. The better and newer the hardware, the better and newer the games and the opportunity for developers to really do some new amazing things with it. I hate to see the state of gaming stuck at the current peak of what the current gen systems hardware can do.
The major companies trying to prolong the life of the systems with movement controls was stale and gimmicky before it even started, with a few exceptions. I think we all want some innovation and new things in console gaming, and I feel like we’ve run out of room the the current systems. And hope to see them revealed as soon as possible without hurting current developers of course.
What does it mean if a comment is awaiting moderation? Is Jonah the moderator? If for some reason you can’t read my comment here it is again without links:
Wow Paul, you get whiny when you are discussing the new generation of consoles.
Almost finished with my exams, only 8 left.
@QOTW: Currently, none. As a 15 year old, I barely have any money for indie games which I don’t know much about yet.
The list I left you wasn’t a list of kickstarters I was excited for, but a list of successful video game kickstarters since Double Fine Adventure. I just thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss if there isn’t much news. I’m still surprised about how many kickstarters actually reached their goals.
@EA and RockBand
With all the mess ups EA is having lately I am surprised it didn’t shut down yet. Seriously, it’s starting to look like a continious marketing stunt to keep EA in the news. No one can screw the pooch at such a consistent rate.
@Microsoft banned in Germany
Corporations trying to skim each others profits. Move along. Nothing to see here. Capitalism at its finest.
@Next gen Xbox rumours
Remember the days when we would find out about new consoles AFTER developers began working on the concepts? Yeah, me neither. I am indifferent to when a new generation arrives. I am satisfied with things as they are now but wouldn’t mind if they changed. Since I am quite young and come from the poverty stricken Eastern Europe, if I ever run out of contemporary games to play, I can fall back on the extensive PSX or N64 libraries for new (if rather dated) experiences. It was lovely to hear how you were all arguing about it thou. It was starting to get so heated up, I thought Paul will eventually get FALCO PUNCHED (verbally).
@QOTW
Never bothered with Kickstarter. It sounds like a good idea but as a student I have more important things to invest my money into. Although I would join in if they had something like Shenmue III or a sequal to XIII (the comics FPS). I would love to see Kickstarter revive some franchises that were consoidered dead. Oddworld anyone?