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.
Hey guys,
Just to finish off our little Vita debate. I finally understand why Jordan claims what he claims. See, I come to Vita not primarily for AAA, exclusive titles. I can play big titles on my PS3 and I have more than enough of them to last me a very long time. That’s why I don’t want to spend too much time playing PSN titles there if I can play them on the Vita, especially if they are cross-buy. That’s why I play games such as Soundshapes, Zen Pinball, Velocity Ultra or Quell Memento. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy Gravity Rush or Uncharted. I’m trying to Platinum NFS: Most Wanted and I’m also playing Rayman: Origins.
I travel a lot so I use my Vita often when I don’t have access to my PS3 and I’m really rarely bored with it. I agree, however, that if you only want to play big, exclusive titles, you might be disappointed.
P.S. I played the demo for Soul Sacrifice and it seemed neat. What was wrong with the rest of it?
@Android consoles
Meh… I really don’t know who the target for those devices is. If you’re a casual gamer than a 4-5″ smartphone screen is enough to play Fruit Ninja or Angry Birds or some other game. If you want a better experience, get a tablet – at least you will be able to use it for other things as well. I understand that it’s easier to release a game on those platforms than on PS3, Vita or XBox but I don’t think it’s worth it. The install base of the Android boxes won’t be big, people complain about the hardware… I think they’re trying to find a niche where there isn’t any.
@The Walking Dead. Way to spoil the game, guys 😉 I still haven’t played 400 days. I’ll probably get it right before season 2. Anyway, Clementine… I never had any doubt she will be in the second season. I only hope you’re not controlling here and she’s only a supporting character. !!SPOILERS!! It would be nice to come across her and the mysterious figures she saw at the end of the first season. Maybe she reacts according to what Lee taught her int he first season. Maybe she has her hair short, or she tries to shoot you. It’s not a bad idea to bring her back.
@BSG – It was my birthday last weekend and I got the BSG boardgame from my friends. We played it for the first time yesterday and it was a disappointing experience… I’ve heard so much good things about the game so my hopes were really high. I guess we shouldn’t have started playing it at 9pm (the game lasted until after midnight) after a hard day at work with people who have no idea what the game was about. It also probably didn’t help that I was a Cylon and was forced to reveal myself very early in the game. The tension went down rapidly. We’ll give it another go when the circumstances are better.
I never watched the show but I hear it has a significant following so the writer of the series must have done something write. An epic TPP (third-person perspective 😉 ) action-puzzle-RPG game, mixing Uncharted with Mass Effect would be nice.
@QOTW I mentioned FPP last week – I meant first person perspective. I have to stick to the olden goldies. To me, Blood was amazing. The gore, the enemies, the atmosphere. With all those pixels flying around I was able to see past them and immerse myself in the experience. And it was really scary. On top of that, there were tons of easter eggs. I remember one vividly – I was able to get to a room using some ventilation shafts. In the room was a bed stained with blood with air fresheners hanging from the ceiling. On the wall was written the word ‘Sloth’, referencing the movie Se7en. There were many, many more. Based on the immersion and atmosphere of the game, this has to be my favorite.
@First high profile Kickstarter suckage
As nice as budget consoles may sound, I agree with Pavel. No one needs them. It’s better to buy an android phone that plays android
games amongst other things rather than a console that just plays android games. Not to mention that most gamers (i.e. me) believe that
android games are not proper games and are aimed at people who enjoy touching things. Granted that a few android games may be good; most gamers would rather stick to mainstream consoles with their AAA titles.
@To infinity and straight into HD
Never played Star Control. But it sounds pretty good. I would love to play an HD remake. Although I am highly skeptical of HD remakes. The ones I played were pretty crap (God of War HD, Monster Hunter WiiU to name
a few horrible looking HD games). Furthermore, I am not sure how it would go down with modern gamers. An interesting topic to discuss is how games have been simplified over the years. Just compare Elder Scrolls: Morrowind to Skyrim. Or GTA III to GTA 4. I am concerned that a complicated (sounding) game like Star control can’t be released simply as an HD remake without being redone from ground up. On another note, Sega MegaDrive had
an epic Star Trek: Next Generation game which was effectively an Enterprise simulator. Tons of galaxies to explore; you could land on
and explore planets, participate in space battles and tweak every available setting of your ship. A very engrossing game as far as I remember.
@QOTW
I will split this question into two parts. Simply because it is very rare that an FPS has a good single player campaign and multiplayer
component simultaneously. My favourite multiplayer game was Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I have such fond memories of that game. Sunk hours into on-line battles. It’s revolutionary score system could force a group of unrelated people to work together as a team for a common goal. So far it is the only game that I have seen accomplish this. In terms of singleplayer campaign, I will have to go for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. And before I am stoned by angry mums and dads, I would
like to remind everyone that I grew up in the post-soviet Perestroika times and had no access to FPS games until 2005. Modern Warfare 2 was
one of the first games I played on a proper HD TV. The graphics was remarkable beyond words and the story was interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was the first contemporary war shooter I ever played, so the genre was still fresh for me. Multiplayer was crap thou. Never really got into it.