In little over a month, the Nintendo Wii has sold over 3.19 million units worldwide, according to VG Charts.org. For any console, that is a fantastic number, and Nintendo is deservedly riding on clouds lined with freshly printed Benjamins right now.
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But how could this have happened? I mean, Nintendo is supposed to be dead last in the home console market, right? How can a company become so popular after being the most underrated console maker in the last generation? Am I taking crazy pills or something?
I guess the Wii really is all that and a bag of potato chips. We have reports that moms and sisters have been getting into the action, and people are getting so excited that they’re shattering their TV’s to show how excited they are.
One cannot argue that the Wii isn’t a great time, but you have to be amazed at how fast the thing is selling. Stores get a shipment in, and they’re all gone within a matter of minutes.To put this in perspective, the Xbox 360 has sold 7.74 million consoles in little over a year. If you do the math, the Wii has accumulated 40% of that, but in only one month. Global phenom, anyone?
There are still some naysayers out there stating that the Wii is only doing a good job because the PS3 has had horrible supply issues, making people opt for a Wii instead. As of now though, many PS3’s are patiently waiting to be purchased in many stores around the country.
But how could that have happened? How did the most popular console ever turn into the least popular one? I mean, it’s Sony, the video game behemoth.
I’ll put on my financial forecaster helmet and say price is the biggest factor. Even though the games aren’t that great, most people have to actually play them to see if they do suck or not. What’s stopping them from doing that is the $600 hurdle that they have to overcome. And I don’t see as many people as Sony had hoped doing that. There’s no way in Hell I’m gonna pay $600 for a video game system, and I am as hardcore as they come.
So, is Nintendo merely at the right place at the right time, or does the Wii have what it takes to storm the beaches of video game history?
I think you’re dead on with the price, Sony (and myself), gambled and lost (so far) on this, although I’d still argue they might be ahead of their time in terms of the Blu-Ray/HD DVD tide and may gain back ground then. But the fact is, the Wii has gotten a lot of good press and word of mouth for being "non gamer" friendly, has a great price, and a lot of units available. Plus I bet the mom factor of "at least my fat kid will be waving his arms around instead of just staring at the computer screen" went into the purchase process. At any rate, Nintendo may be gaining amazing market share that is theirs to keep. I just hope the games can keep up with it.
You walk into a target/wal-mart/best buy, the Wii section has every possible game out on the shelf. People crowd around the demo kiosk. You’ve got companies like Sandisk trying to lure suckers with Flash memory labeled as "Wii memory cards". To see a console that’s only a little more than a month old take the electronics market by storm is something we’re used to (and by now expect to see) from Sony. That it is Nintendo in the spotlight again is something gamers haven’t seen in a long, long time. This is going to be an interesting 2007.
Price is probably an issue, but more so is the friendliness of game-play. My friend’s mother – who had never tried a video game before, ever – is buying one for herself to play. I think this will only be more so when games like Brain Training come out.
There may really be something to their idea of expanding the videogame market. I brought my wii down to Louisiana for christmas, and both sides of my family loved it. My uncle is asking for one for his birthday, and my arthritic octagenarian grandmother could even manage to play tennis. For a grandparent who doesn’t even really understand what a video game is to be able to pick it up and play shows very impressive design, although that hinges both on the game and the controller. That, and there were a lot of comments made about people getting exercise while playing video games, which seemed to take away a lot of the social stigma involved in the family gathering around the video game console on christmas eve.
The Wii, while fun is a novelty. I give it 6 months and everyone will be saying, Wii? Oh yeah I got that, but I game on my PS3 or 360 most of the time because they actually have games.