Wii After a Year

[archangelmorph]

Its safe to say you make far too many assumptions based on zero fact. I mean where do you get off talking about the majority of Wii gamers being this and the few being that, honestly, stop with the silly claims that you just can't back up.

BTW did you know that the majority of PS3 owners have blonde hair?.. I think that's a safe bet, because everyone I know who owns a PS3 has blonde hair and someone also said it was a fact on a website somewhere that I can't remember the link to, but its definitely a safe bet, honest...

Why is this proposition still being disputed??

You have industry analysts, executive producers, publisher & developer CEOs & infinitely many more respected industry professionals (including members of Nintendo themselves, all of which who are "in the know"...) all stating publicly on numberous occasions that a large proponent (if not most wii buyers) aren't your usual hardcore gamers..

If your so adamant that they're all wrong and you're right then please provide some credible evidence (& not the anecdotal-kind you seem so averse to..) to prove that this is the case?

 

[Arwin]

I usually make a list of games I'd like to play before I get a console. Sometimes, it only takes one.

The Wii just got the first game (ok, now in Europe) that I genuinely like, at least from the review:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=88551

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Yes and no. Take your standard supply/demand curve, and draw a straight line at the supply-constrained quantity, and you'll have 2 price intersections. One is the $250 for which Nintendo is manufacturing, and the other is the ~$500 that auctions are fetching. For some lucky few, it is not a lot of money. For others, they are willing to pay much more.

That's not what I'm saying though. I'm saying that over the normal course of the year $250 is not much for someone to pay for a Wii. The vast majority of people purchased their Wii for standard retail price.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I usually make a list of games I'd like to play before I get a console. Sometimes, it only takes one.

The Wii just got the first game (ok, now in Europe) that I genuinely like, at least from the review:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=88551

Yes, the Wii is beginning to look more attractive now. At some point I'd like to pick one up for Mario Galaxy, MP3, Zelda, and Zack & Wiki. I don't much care for Wii Sports. I also don't want to pay more than $199 for a Wii, which is probably about 18 months away, given the demand.

 

[Nesh]

Its safe to say you make far too many assumptions based on zero fact. I mean where do you get off talking about the majority of Wii gamers being this and the few being that, honestly, stop with the silly claims that you just can't back up.

BTW did you know that the majority of PS3 owners have blonde hair?.. I think that's a safe bet, because everyone I know who owns a PS3 has blonde hair and someone also said it was a fact on a website somewhere that I can't remember the link to, but its definitely a safe bet, honest...

The sample is large. I have much more facts that are consisted of an article with statements done by Nintendo themselves, sales figures, the sum of people I know and of people others know (see this forum), developers etc etc than your creative example.

 

[seebs]

I usually make a list of games I'd like to play before I get a console. Sometimes, it only takes one.

The Wii just got the first game (ok, now in Europe) that I genuinely like, at least from the review:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=88551

Zack & Wiki is the most frustrating, aggravating, game ever.

Not the gameplay; no, the gameplay is awesome. The puzzles are brilliant, with enough meat in them to satisfy even people who sit around chewing through Infocom games without hints.

No, the frustrating part is that I keep meeting people who haven't bought it. And I'm thinking "what are you people DOING?"

It is a truly excellent game. I have spent an hour or two sitting around playing it with two or three people kibitzing, and sometimes I'm still stumped on a puzzle for a bit. That's fine by me! It's fun, it's challenging, and it's full of interesting ideas.

 

[ninzel]

I think many of the so called analysts trying to pigeon hole the Wii and put it into a box are quite frankly wrong. Just look at the third party sales.If third parties had it "figured out" the sales would be much better. Most of the causal games are doing poorly and many of the traditional games are doing well.
I think when the Wii was first announced alot of people made assumptions about it and continue to do so,especially so called hardcore gamers. And it's been a case that once a thing starts being said over and over it sticks. It happens all the time and once something sticks people start following.
I really think most people from analysts to gamers to publishers to developers have yet to accurately gauge the Wii .

 

[seebs]

I love it, and I don't know whether I'm considered "hardcore" or "casual". "Wrote and maintained local patches to WINE to add support for additional function keys to map to buttons in WoW" strikes me as fairly hardcore, but "doesn't like shooters much" probably doesn't.

I note that, at $DAYJOB (embedded Linux), there's a lot of Wii owners, but I don't know of any 360 or PS3 owners except me. (And I got it for linux, of course...)

 

[MulciberXP]

Just look at the third party sales.If third parties had it "figured out" the sales would be much better. Most of the causal games are doing poorly and many of the traditional games are doing well. .

I think this has more to do with the fact that the majority of the so called "casual" 3rd party games coming out for the Wii simply suck. They're cheap, poorly written and one dimensional, crap. This just means that the developers thought they could release crap rather than good games and people would still buy it.

 

[ninzel]

I think this has more to do with the fact that the majority of the so called "casual" 3rd party games coming out for the Wii simply suck. They're cheap, poorly written and one dimensional, crap. This just means that the developers thought they could release crap rather than good games and people would still buy it.

And who has the higher standards,hardcore or casuals?Who is more willing to regect low quality games? Quality,traitional games are doing well on the Wii,the kind of games that hardcore/avid/traditional(call them what you want)gamers buy IMO.

 

[Turok]

And who has the higher standards,hardcore or casuals?Who is more willing to regect low quality games? Quality,traitional games are doing well on the Wii,the kind of games that hardcore/avid/traditional(call them what you want)gamers buy IMO.

Red Steel did really well and Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is doing terrible.

 

[22psi]

Wii is like an uncontrollable wildfire! Simply amazing the amount of sales it puts up... it's so perfect for the mass consumer. Congrats to Ninty they completely hit the J6P nail on the head.

Watchout Wii^2 in HD will sell like crazy as well. I really think Sony and MS will battle it out for 2nd place this gen but that's okay. Someone has to cater to the hardcore in all of us

 

[Teasy]

Why is this proposition still being disputed??

You have industry analysts, executive producers, publisher & developer CEOs & infinitely many more respected industry professionals (including members of Nintendo themselves, all of which who are "in the know"...) all stating publicly on numberous occasions that a large proponent (if not most wii buyers) aren't your usual hardcore gamers..

If your so adamant that they're all wrong and you're right then please provide some credible evidence (& not the anecdotal-kind you seem so averse to..) to prove that this is the case?

I disagree with Nesh's comment, I don't know which analyst, developer or publishers words your talking about but I didn't comment on those people's opinions. So why even bother posting this? Seriously, deal with the posts at hand. Don't put words into my mouth or imagine that I'm replying to the CEO of a publishing house when the only person my comment was aimed at was Nesh..

 

[Teasy]

The sample is large. I have much more facts that are consisted of an article with statements done by Nintendo themselves, sales figures, the sum of people I know and of people others know (see this forum), developers etc etc than your creative example.

Well then why don't you share this info and your analysis and conclusions with the world Nesh? I'd love to see what this large sample you speak of actually is..

 

[Nesh]

Well then why don't you share this info and your analysis and conclusions with the world Nesh? I'd love to see what this large sample you speak of actually is..

Search the Economist Octomber 28th 2006 issue for Nintendo's reference to their marketing strategy and target marget (as well as their conferences).
As for everything else it is in front of your eyes. Developers' statements were posted in these very forums, the software sales figures are posted frequently, and unlike your personal anecdotal and imaginary reference to "blond" PS3 owners, there are too many people in these forums and not only talking about the Wii consumers they know/met, and the games they play. Actual real life experiences. You may choose to ignore it but thats fine. The HW sales figures are not corelated to the number of quality games released on it either. And it is no rocket science that the Wii's gaming experience is not a substitute to the other kinds of gaming experiences

 

[ninzel]

Red Steel did really well and Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is doing terrible.

Red Steel was actually a decent game on par with MOH:2,the only advantage being that MOH:2 really did controls well. And Red Steel was better in some ways,I would say that quality difference is negligible.
Red Steel also released under much different circumstances than MOH,which explains different sales performance.
I think a better comparison would be to look at Red Steel vs Rayman. Red Steel did better.
Or look at Zak and Wiki vs RE:UC, RE is doing better.

As far as the marketing from Nintendo and who they and others are targeting,that's who they are targeting. It doesn't necessarily mean that that is what has materialized today. If we have this conversation a year from now it's quite possible that Nintendo and others will have been successful at attracting more casuals and non gamers and that shift might continue as more time passes.IMO though at this point that bulk of Wii owners are traditional and Nintendo gamers.

 

[Teasy]

Search the Economist Octomber 28th 2006 issue for Nintendo's reference to their marketing strategy and target marget (as well as their conferences).
As for everything else it is in front of your eyes. Developers' statements were posted in these very forums, the software sales figures are posted frequently, and unlike your personal anecdotal and imaginary reference to "blond" PS3 owners, there are too many people in these forums and not only talking about the Wii consumers they know/met, and the games they play. Actual real life experiences. You may choose to ignore it but thats fine. The HW sales figures are not corelated to the number of quality games released on it either. And it is no rocket science that the Wii's gaming experience is not a substitute to the other kinds of gaming experiences

So you're large sample of reference is things you've heard people say on this forum and in your own personal life and some comments from certain developers.. If you really believe you can be sure about the specifics of a 13-14 million userbase to the point where you can claim "obviously the majority are extremely like this and only a few are like that, and this amount of them will also do this" based on little more then personal experience then fine. But I'm certainly not going to take your claims seriously and I doubt many others will either.

Might I suggest you try to be a bit less specific and a little less certain in your claims in the future?

 

[Nesh]

You're large sample of reference is things you've heard people say on this forum and some comments from certain developers. Once again, if you want to keep making such specific and solid claims then you should actually put all of this info you think you have into a post. Otherwise nobody with any sense is going to take the claim seriously.

Mentioning anecdotes and vague references to comments you've read isn't going to cut it. Its personal experiences added to a smattering of data (seamingly only the data that fits your argument). If you really believe you can be sure about the specifics of a 13-14 million userbase to the point where you can claim "obviously the majority are extremely like this and only a few are like that, and this amount of them will also do this" based on little more then personal experience then fine. But I'm certainly not going to take your claims seriouslys and I doubt many others will either.

Might I suggest you try to be a bit less specific and a little less certain in your claims in the future?

Read the Economist, watch the available data. I have nothing more to say.

 

[Teasy]

I see the available data. I saw the EA sales which showed that Wii owners were buying more games per user then PS3 owners. Something that flys in the face of your whole argument. Reading Nintendo's comments about its target market or marketing stratergy isn't going to tell us anything concrete about the userbase either.

I know from personal experience that Wii sells to a lot of people who wouldn't normally buy a console. I also know it sells to a lot of real gamers. Its apeal is incredibly broad. But I would never try to make very specific claims about how many casual gamers own one, and how many hardcore and how many none gamers ect. Because I don't have the data to back it up, all I have is personal experience and some conflicting software sales data, just as same as you.

 

[ninzel]

I see what Nesh is saying and I agree that Nintendo is more aggressively pursuing a new crowd of non gamers and casuals. That has been clear from day one and their target mix of gamers is clear. I'm just saying that I don't think it's clear that's it's been successful yet.
The software sales on Wii seem to be trending much like that of Gamecube. Lot's of traditional Nintendo games with some other traditional 3rd party games at the top.
Which makes sense,when you are trying to attract a new audience it's takes more time than it would to attract your base.