Wii Sales: Less Than Meets the Eye

[Shifty Geezer]

Just an observation, in GAME today I noticed Wii's shelfspace was smaller than XB360s, and I think about the same as PS3's (only caught PS3 a galnce leaving the store). It was a very small selection, which I find a little odd if the platform is a hotbed for software sales. Surely the store would give it more presence? I can't see a reason not to. Are Wii owners more likely to buy software online?

 

[Rainbow Man]

Just an observation, in GAME today I noticed Wii's shelfspace was smaller than XB360s

Did you compare to how large/small 360's shelf space was around this time last year? Probably no bigger because there just wasn't all that many games out ofor it.

The 360 drought lasted quite long into first half of 2006 as you might recall. Which is completely normal for new consoles of course I might add. I can't recall a single platform that had an abundance of softwaree out for it from the get-og..

Peace.

 

[Nesh]

Just an observation, in GAME today I noticed Wii's shelfspace was smaller than XB360s, and I think about the same as PS3's (only caught PS3 a galnce leaving the store). It was a very small selection, which I find a little odd if the platform is a hotbed for software sales. Surely the store would give it more presence? I can't see a reason not to. Are Wii owners more likely to buy software online?

Yeah I ve noticed that too. But even more surprising to me was the selection of games available.

If we exclude a game or two. stores dont seem to have enough games or good enough games. Its a selection of good, mediocre or the usual just with the expected use of the controller. Which makes me wonder what kind of games are the millions of people buying for their Wii's or what specific games have sold Wii to them?

For something that sells so much you usually expect that stores have the appropriate library avialable in terms of size and interest, taking ofcourse into account the timeframe in which the console was released

 

[Cheezdoodles]

For something that sells so much you usually expect that stores have the appropriate library avialable in terms of size and interest, taking ofcourse into account the timeframe in which the console was released

I think the problem is that except for Zelda, does the Wii really have any proper games except for short party games, short "fun" games, or rushed ubisoft products?

 

[Hezz]

Perhaps the greater disparity in power between the the Wii and the X360 and PS3 for this generation of consoles will adversely effect third party game ports that will come to the Wii. My guess is that the Wii will never have a large collection of good 3rd party games for serious gamers. 3rd party developers should concentrate on the Wii market. Good games for kids, Wii sports type games for adults and the mini games for casual gamers.

The Wii console will never be good for emmersive virtual worlds.

 

[PatrickL]

If you think that wii is at least as powerful that PS2 was, your sentence is a non sense.

 

[Rolf N]

I think the problem is that except for Zelda, does the Wii really have any proper games except for short party games, short "fun" games, or rushed ubisoft products?

Yes.
Super Paper Mario should count, the sports games, as much as I loathe them personally, should count, Trauma Center may or may not count, but Marvel Ultimate Alliance definitely counts. Proper games. And there'll be at least two most essential first party titles before the end of the year that will count as proper games.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Did you compare to how large/small 360's shelf space was around this time last year? Probably no bigger because there just wasn't all that many games out ofor it.

That makes sense - you can't fill shelves up with absent game boxes! Though the game situation is better than XB360, isn't it? Here's a list of what Play has available (in stock or awaiting stock, and no preorders)

Avatar: The Legend of Aang
The Ant Bully
Barnyard
Blazing Angels: Squadrons Of WWII
Call Of Duty 3
Cars: The Movie
Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Eledees
Excite Truck
Far Cry: Vengeance
Gottlieb Pinball Classics
The Godfather: Blackhand Edition
The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy
Happy Feet
Heatseeker
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Kororinpa
The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Disney's Meet The Robinsons
Madden NFL 2007
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Medal of Honor: Vanguard
Metal Slug Anthology
Need For Speed: Carbon
Open Season
Prince Of Persia: Rival Swords
Rampage: Total Destruction
Rapala: Tournament Fishing
Rayman: Raving Rabbids
Red Steel
SSX Blur
Sonic and the Secret Rings
Spider-Man 3
SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature From The Krusty Krab
Super Fruitfall
TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Limited Collector's Edition (Wii)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Wing Island
World Series Of Poker: Tournament Champions

There's more than just party games in there, which is what many asociate with Wii. It's a good question if these non-motion-heavy titles are getting the sales though. Do Wii owners want anything other than the simpler games?

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I want, and I'm sure alot of Wii owners want that too. I dont see why every game should have heavy motion sense controlls. In most cases they probably hurt the game more than they help. I want to controller to be used like in Godfather, thats usefull and fun and not overdone unlike spiderman wich just is impossible to play.

 

[PatrickL]

Not sure if Nintendo wants to have the same situation with wii games than with DS games on shelves in Japan

Nintendo DS and Japan's Dwindling Shelf Space

"Our marketing people are telling me that less and less shelf space is available today (due to the increased titles.) Before, all software packages were placed so that the front sides were facing visitors to the outlets. Now, almost all the software for Nintendo platforms are displayed so only the spine of the packages can be seen by customers, and it is becoming hard for our marketers to visually demonstrate the strong appeal of these titles at the outlets." -- Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo
And it's totally true. This is what the Nintendo DS section looks like in typical Tokyo game stores right now. There are so many titles that even as they continue to expand the DS section, they have to put games on the shelves spine-out except for a select few.

While for wii owners more choice is always better, I suppose that retailers will have to make choices. And with GAME monopoly in UK, negociations could be hard.

 

[Rolf N]

There's more than just party games in there, which is what many asociate with Wii. It's a good question if these non-motion-heavy titles are getting the sales though. Do Wii owners want anything other than the simpler games?

That's a loaded question
I'm sure the movie-license shovelware will live a healthy life on the Wii. I see half-assed mini-game collections tapering off rather soon, but good puzzles, party-games, trivia, educational stuff should be viable for many years. Yes, the "casuals" are here, and they'll buy whatever it is they find attractive.
OTOH there are people like me who want more substantial games, but that's still a little thin right now. I love the Virtual Console, so that's okay, and the games are starting to come out now.

There is not one Wii demographic. There may be such a thing as "the average Wii owner", but that's a theoretical construct. Mind the standard deviation!
When you look at Nintendo 1st party software you'll clearly see that a wide range of gamer types are addressed (from Wii Play to Metroid), and it'll be interesting to compare those sales figures. I currently half-hope, half-believe that Metroid and Smash Brothers sales will send a strong signal of "hardcore" gamer presence on the system, and motivate 3rd parties to widen up the spectrum of their offerings. Well except for Capcom, they already got it right.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That's been the case with PS2 for years. Just something you have to live with. How many sales are attributed to cover-art pickups anyhow? These days I'd guess most people either know exactly what they want to buy from reading reviews, or check title names for interest in particular IPs. A Spongebob Squarepants cover is obviously going to attract some sales if clearly visible where it might go overlooked when visitors to a store have to skim game box spines.

 

[Nesh]

Yes.
Super Paper Mario should count, the sports games, as much as I loathe them personally, should count, Trauma Center may or may not count, but Marvel Ultimate Alliance definitely counts. Proper games. And there'll be at least two most essential first party titles before the end of the year that will count as proper games.

But these are few and the rest of sports games racings etc it has are mostly mediocre to bad.

And the casuals who are sports fans are very picky with their games. Especially football fans. By no means they would have sacrificed a "good" version of Fifa or PES and the original controls with motion sensors and a limited port.

I know of some who would prefer to pay a backetload for PS3 or 360 just for PES or FIFA than pay for Wii. Also includes racing fans.

The majority of games Wii has that are easilly found are bad, mediocre or are also released on PS3 or 360. And casuals are in many occasions bigger suckers for graphics and popular games

edit: also what raises even more questions, would have the few party games on Wii increase PS3's and 360's sales very much if they were released there as well? Would such genres pull so much the interest of gamers towards these consoles too? Do the very cheap fun and simple arcade games in XBL and PS3 store increase their hardware sales just as significantly?

 

[Nesh]

What the?

I went to check VGcharts to see what gems sell on Wii and noticed this

http://videogamecharts.com/Gallery/albums/album01/YearlyWorldShipmentChart_002.gif

Is it me or did shipment numbers change significantly for Wii and PS3?

edit: Oops noticed I went to a different site.

edit2: And vgchartz doesnt have enough info for the games

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Is it me or did shipment numbers change significantly for Wii and PS3?

You do realize those are yearly numbers right? Its amount of Wii\PS3's shipped in 2006

 

[Nesh]

You do realize those are yearly numbers right? Its amount of Wii\PS3's shipped in 2006

yeah I noticed. I thought I entered www.vgchartz.com while it was actually www.vgcharts.com.

I was confused since vgchartz has the "current" numbers. And I thought that they changed their site's layout when I saw the different looks

 

[fearsomepirate]

I may have been a little overly negative. The Wii version of Madden sold 350K...while that's nowhere near the 1.6m it's sold on 360, if I recall correctly, Maddon 06 sold only around 100K (less, I think) on the Gamecube.

 

[Rolf N]

But these are few and the rest of sports games racings etc it has are mostly mediocre to bad.

And the casuals who are sports fans are very picky with their games. Especially football fans. By no means they would have sacrificed a "good" version of Fifa or PES and the original controls with motion sensors and a limited port.

I know of some who would prefer to pay a backetload for PS3 or 360 just for PES or FIFA than pay for Wii. Also includes racing fans.

If a person has multiple consoles, there's of course that whole dynamic with per-game platform choice, and I agree that the Wii versions will generally not be as attractive (even though several reviewers have stated that Madden controls best on the Wii). I'll be getting most of my multiplat games for a different console myself (exception: of Rayman Ravin Rabbids I want the Wii version, once it's reaaaaly cheap).
But the thing is that Wiis have sold a gazillion units, and there are many households now that have just that one console (and mayba a PS2). These people will feel compelled to just pick up whatever sports/movie game for the platform they already have, avoiding the cost of another console. I'm not saying everyone will do that. Racing fans in particular will just bite the bullet and pay up for the definitive version. I'm just saying for many households the Wii is the games console they have, and they'll like to keep it that way. Someone will sell games to that demographic.

The majority of games Wii has that are easilly found are bad, mediocre or are also released on PS3 or 360. And casuals are in many occasions bigger suckers for graphics and popular games

The majority of profitable games anywhere work because they are cheaply made, low-risk yet-another-installments of a franchise with budget equally distributed between marketing and development. In other words bad or maybe mediocre multiplat shovelware traps.
If the world wasn't full of people who never read a review, games like FIFA would be selling approximately zero copies at this point. They don't. I hate it too but that's reality.

edit: also what raises even more questions, would have the few party games on Wii increase PS3's and 360's sales very much if they were released there as well? Would such genres pull so much the interest of gamers towards these consoles too? Do the very cheap fun and simple arcade games in XBL and PS3 store increase their hardware sales just as significantly?

I'd like to see some statistics on that, but I think lumping cheap online-distributed games together with party games doesn't compute. One gives you a single-player experience with low barrier of entry, the other lets you gather with a couch full of other people and pass controllers around for a full price and potentially extra hardware expenses.

Cheap, single-player <======> expensive, social

 

[Nesh]

If a person has multiple consoles, there's of course that whole dynamic with per-game platform choice, and I agree that the Wii versions will generally not be as attractive (even though several reviewers have stated that Madden controls best on the Wii). I'll be getting most of my multiplat games for a different console myself (exception: of Rayman Ravin Rabbids I want the Wii version, once it's reaaaaly cheap).
But the thing is that Wiis have sold a gazillion units, and there are many households now that have just that one console (and mayba a PS2). These people will feel compelled to just pick up whatever sports/movie game for the platform they already have, avoiding the cost of another console. I'm not saying everyone will do that. Racing fans in particular will just bite the bullet and pay up for the definitive version. I'm just saying for many households the Wii is the games console they have, and they'll like to keep it that way. Someone will sell games to that demographic.
The majority of profitable games anywhere work because they are cheaply made, low-risk yet-another-installments of a franchise with budget equally distributed between marketing and development. In other words bad or maybe mediocre multiplat shovelware traps.
If the world wasn't full of people who never read a review, games like FIFA would be selling approximately zero copies at this point. They don't. I hate it too but that's reality.
I'd like to see some statistics on that, but I think lumping cheap online-distributed games together with party games doesn't compute. One gives you a single-player experience with low barrier of entry, the other lets you gather with a couch full of other people and pass controllers around for a full price and potentially extra hardware expenses.

Cheap, single-player <======> expensive, social

I agree with everything you said. My question is though were the games that initially sold Wii or is Wii starting to sell so many games because of the initial huge hardware salesgenerated due to the excitement the media created?

It seems that unlike 360 or PS3 games, the majority of Wii owners are totally new to the scene and dont have expectations other than the expected usage of the controller. I think its casuals arent even the same as the ones we knew before. It can get away easier than the other two with worse games.

GameCube last gen kind of had everything the Wii has minus the controller. It was extremely cheap, it was easy to develp for, it concentrated on games only, it focised on fun and multiplayer games, it had more quality titles, but unlike Wii it was very powerful too. Yet it didnt do so well.

What I am trying to understand is what kind of people Wii actually pulled except from the common casuals and hardcore gamers we are familiar with and how many these are? I am talking about demographics of kids, women, and people who were never into gaming.

Wii seems to have even more people who dont read reviews than other platforms and are willing to buy anything for it no matter how crap it is while PS3 and 360 are battling each other for exclusives and AAA titles.

And I kind of feel this is the case because in almost every gaming forum I enter there arent many Wii owners or as many as PS3 or 360 owners which shows that a huge deal of Wii owners are newcomers into gaming who dont visit forums or sites for their gaming needs. So indeed they are the kind of people you described. Only worse probably

We can see this in the polls too of this site.
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=41013

PS3 and 360 get a higher percentage. Even the "low" selling PS3 gets almost double the percentage of that of Wii. And its hard to make out someone who only owns Wii and not two consoles

The majority of Wii owners are.....well...easy buying consumers?
I think we need extensive software sales info to see what games sell on Wii. I wonder if they are indeed the party games

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Maybe 99% of the wii games are sold based on how cute the cover picture is, rather than the quality of the game?

Because it certainly seems that, considering the amount of sub-par games that must be selling well based on the software attachment ratio's we are getting (there is what, 1 game with a 90+ score, Zelda, and until recently, there was 1 game with a 80+ score, going by gamerrankings).

I'm not sure if my memory is correct, but didn't Red Steel sell close to 1 million??