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.
😛 You can do a flashback for AvP2, it was launched in late 2001.
@Blizzard brags Diablo III will have difficulties that are harder-than-hard:
Hey, as long as the difficulty can be selected, sure, go apeshit.
I used to play games on the highest difficulty, because I liked the challenge, so I can understand people wanting more difficult games.
I will repeat myself: as long as the user can select it, it’s fine.
@Sony passed on Demon’s Souls because it was “crap“:
😀 Erm, I see a pattern here in decision making … Cure: change the decision maker.
@Sony credit rating downgraded:
Congrats to the podcast crew for the selection of news items. It is a true lecture on the principle of cause and effect.
Granted, turning down a game is only one cause that triggered the effect of Sony’s credit rating downgrade.
@Tim Schafer raises $1.6M (and counting) to develop an adventure game:
I think this is also due to the name (thanks for confirming that later in the show).
@Epic’s Sweeney: Lifelike graphics will come in our lifetime
Moore’s law might change. Ok, you can estimate how many penta flops are required in order to generate visuals. These estimates are ok and valid (the human eye won’t change in time, at least not in the next 1000 years).
But to assume that the rate of growth in computers will not change, well, as you already realized, that’s an ASSUMPTION.
If I were Tim I would limit the range (in time) for my predictions.
Regarding the 6 people on the show, well, taking turns/directing the podcast is … meh. I’ll take surprises and improvisation any time.
@QOTW:
Erm … Scrooge McDuck? 🙂
Ok, not quite a prince or hero, but I liked the cartoon. The NES games only made it even more charming.
I think the fact that he was quite determined (in the cartoon at least) in finding what was at the root of the episode’s mystery that made him my favorite.
@Blizzard brags Diablo III will have difficulties that are harder-than-hard: To me, they can make as many ultra-hard difficulties as they want, as long as they make a normal difficulty.
@Tim Schafer raises $1.6M (and counting) to develop an adventure game: This may be good news for Tim Schafer, but it’s not good news for any of the other developers. Like so many other sites highlighted, this only happened because Schafer is well-known and almost universally loved as the underdog of the industry.
@Epic’s Sweeney: Lifelike graphics will come in our lifetime: I’m not much of a graphic whore, but better graphics definitely make me appreciate the game more and maybe even enjoy it more.
@QOTW: I don’t care much for Pixie Dust, but I would guess Paul’s to be Peter Pan?
@sony credit rating downgraded
I don’t really know if sony gets most of its sales from gaming but they sure are failing when it comes to gaming this year
@ lifelike graphics will come in our lifetime
Well I’m mostly appreciating the graphics we have today and besides lifelike graphics is equal to more expensive hardware ,…. At least that’s what I think
@qotw
I would say peter pan coz he’s like immortal and he never grows up and he treats everything childsplay and he could fly whenever he wants to. Maybe I could play pixie hollow and get addicted I dunno but I could use the prize If I ever get addicted or I could just use cheat engine.. 🙂