1) I never said your opinions weren't welcome. I merely stated why I felt your opinion was incorrect, as I've done in this post as well.
2) The information regarding the sales figures was mentioned because articles like this, and many more (google news is your friend) prove that Nintendo's strategy for expanding the gaming market is indeed working. They've sold almost 5 million consoles in only 3 months. That is definitely far beyond the typical Nintendo f*nboy or videogame connoisseur market. They're not just targeting the 18-30yr old male like the 360 and PS3 are. With that said, that bodes well for their stock in the long term. I mentioned one reason why in response to TheChefO.
In a general response on this topic, the news you bring seems to be 'here's a report of the older generation playing Wii. Wii is reaching out to a new audience.' I'm not seeing the connection here between your report and your conclusion. To be sure Wii is reaching more older people than other systems, you'd need different info.
1) The older generation playing computer games isn't entirely new. Last I heard, some 15% or so of gamers are of their 60s or somesuch. That is, you'll already have old gamers who may be buying Wii as par tof their old habits. to reach a new audience, you have to be selling to more older folk than would be expected normally.
2) Part of the story is 'old folk who have never cared to play games in their life are wanting to play Wii.' That's something EyeToy had which I wanted ot remind people of. The open appeal is not unique to Wii. EyeToy is different to light guns and DDR in it's openness and interactivity. It is like Wii in that respect of open, intuitive control, and so is definitely a fair comparison. Also DDR and such didn't get Granny playing games, unlike EyeToy!
3) Though you can argue EyeToy had a lack of games, it seems to me that the interest in Wii is coming from Wii Sports and other mini-game collections. If old folk are buying Wii's for it's new experience, it's these simple games that's attracting them, no? The buy wii for Wii Sports and Wii Play, and not Zelda or Excite Truck. And the minigames is what EyeToy had (has!). The question I ask is why would old folk be willing to buy a £180 Wii console to play Wii minigames yet not willing to buy £180 (or whatever PS2 was then) of console to play EyeToy minigames? If the idea is that they enjoy playing Wii and so become part of the consoles demographic, doesn't that same logic also say older folk who enjoy EyeToy would buy PS2+EyeToy?
4) Old people playing games != old people buying games consoles, which is what really matters. If Nintendo really are reaching a new audience, the news story needed is one that shows how many of the older generation are buying hardware. If they're only playing the game with family on the kids console, the fact they're being reached doesn't help much, beyond the point of it being a community experience. Actually, I'll correct myself on this. Appealing to more people doesn't mean selling to them necessarily, but increasing sales. If a console appeal to just one memeber of the family, and another console appeals to everyone in the family, the latter console will be the one more likely to be bought. If Wii gets Granny playing, it's uptake might be larger as a family games device, which ties in with your fast sale point, although I don't think fast sales is proof positive of reaching new audiences. You'd need a survey of how many Wii buyers haven't bought a previous console. Could just be that Wii is selling to existing gamers on the whole, who share it with their family, but their other family may not be intersted enough to buy their own console.
To me, this news doesn't bring any particular insight into the market. The fact Nintendo are selling lots is important. The fact that some older folk are playing the console doesn't mean much. Old folk played on other machines too, and we also had a previous 'game revolution phenomenum' that was open to all the family if you remember the way the press responded to EyeToy (though it may have been different Stateside. EyeToy hasn't done nearly as well over there as in Europe). Wii's doing great, and I wish Nintendo would get their act together and release their hardware and software effectively, as I'm wanting to try out some multiplayerWiiing but controllers are a pig to come by! However, to show they're reaching a new audience requires actual figures, or at least reasonable testimonials, of people who never bought a console before, or disinterested in conventional consoles, buying a Wii. News of people playing games for the first time has happened before.
, they've also increased Wii production to over 1 Million consoles per month. They've also stated that another ramp up should be occurring soon as well.
