So Wii's about a year old now, and here are the facts:
1. In its first year, Wii has surpassed Xbox 360's WW sales, but not its NA sales.
2. No one doubts anymore that it's an overclocked Gamecube.
3. In one year, only seven Wii titles have a Metacritic rating above 85. 63% of Wii titles rank below 70. This puts Wii as possessing one of the most poorly rated libraries in all of console history, beating out only commercial failures such as Jaguar and Virtual Boy.
4. Nintendo has shown itself completely uninterested in advertising its own games. Mario Galaxy received little press for a flagship title, it practically kept Metroid Prime 3 a secret, it deliberately kept Battalion Wars limited at trade shows and out of the advertising stream, and so on. But as little as Nintendo advertises, 3rd parties advertise even less.
5. After a long period of games with bad controls, Retro finally nailed FPS controls with MP3. EA quickly followed suit with MOH:Heroes 2. Could more Wii FPSes be around the corner?
6. After one year, Wii has already exceeded 13m, more than 50% of either Gamecube or Xbox sales. Yet major game announcements from 3rd parties have been extremely scarce, and there do not appear to be any on the way. Where are the JRPGs, the shooters, the action titles? Third party sales aren't good, but overall, neither are the games. On the other hand, will gamers inevitably gravitate toward buying the games with the flashiest graphics?
7. Manhunt 2 came and went. After all the controversy, it turned out to not be worth playing anyway.
8. It's quite obvious that Nintendo is adamant about preventing online communication, and the overall brokenness of Wii's online gaming is deliberate rather than accidental.
My one-sentence summary: The future is questionable.
1. In its first year, Wii has surpassed Xbox 360's WW sales, but not its NA sales.
2. No one doubts anymore that it's an overclocked Gamecube.
3. In one year, only seven Wii titles have a Metacritic rating above 85. 63% of Wii titles rank below 70. This puts Wii as possessing one of the most poorly rated libraries in all of console history, beating out only commercial failures such as Jaguar and Virtual Boy.
4. Nintendo has shown itself completely uninterested in advertising its own games. Mario Galaxy received little press for a flagship title, it practically kept Metroid Prime 3 a secret, it deliberately kept Battalion Wars limited at trade shows and out of the advertising stream, and so on. But as little as Nintendo advertises, 3rd parties advertise even less.
5. After a long period of games with bad controls, Retro finally nailed FPS controls with MP3. EA quickly followed suit with MOH:Heroes 2. Could more Wii FPSes be around the corner?
6. After one year, Wii has already exceeded 13m, more than 50% of either Gamecube or Xbox sales. Yet major game announcements from 3rd parties have been extremely scarce, and there do not appear to be any on the way. Where are the JRPGs, the shooters, the action titles? Third party sales aren't good, but overall, neither are the games. On the other hand, will gamers inevitably gravitate toward buying the games with the flashiest graphics?
7. Manhunt 2 came and went. After all the controversy, it turned out to not be worth playing anyway.
8. It's quite obvious that Nintendo is adamant about preventing online communication, and the overall brokenness of Wii's online gaming is deliberate rather than accidental.
My one-sentence summary: The future is questionable.
