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Oct 12 / Ozymandias

Article: Wii ‘Popularity Bubble’ to Burst?

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Saw a link over on Slashdot to a Japanese article arguing that Wii’s popularity may be a bubble. To quote:

“The report goes on to discuss the likelihood that many Wiis are gathering dust in owners’ cupboards, citing one software house president as saying, ‘People bought it out of curiosity, and it’s likely a lot of them haven’t used it.’ Given that September saw Wii sales fall sharply in Japan for the second consecutive month, it seems reasonable to speculate that the bubble inflated by the novelty factor is starting to deflate, but writing Nintendo off at any stage is a perilous course to steer.”

I only point to this because it’s similar to my personal opinion. I like the Wii, but I just don’t play it – haven’t turned it on in months. I’d argue that’s just my taste, but I know a lot of people who are in the same boat. Doesn’t matter to Nintendo since they appear to be making money on every box sold, but I do wonder if demand will hold up past this holiday.

Just to be clear – I do think that Nintendo has changed the face of the market permanently with their focus on approachability and innovative controls. Not trying to take anything away from them there. I just suspect the platform is going to slow in the coming year… but I guess we’ll see.

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  • Chemical O

    Hey you’re back.  I liked the editorials.  

  • Kevin

    Completely agree.  I bought a Wii in February, played it non stop for maybe a month then it just sat in my house and collected dust.  I sold it a month later.

  • Ed

    I’m in the exact same boat as Kevin and Ozymandias.  Mine has been idle for the past few months, completely unused.

    The games are very overpriced at $50 for what are mostly just DS/PS1 games and collections of minigames.  

  • Sean

    I would argue that part of the reason people are letting their Wiis collect dust is that these very software developers aren’t developing anything good for it! There are only so many party games you can make before it’s saturated. I understand that it’s tough to compete with Nintendo’s first party titles, but is the Wii just going to become the party game console like the original Xbox was considered the FPS console?

  • Xwar

    Wii may be getting dust but unlike 360s it is a playable console. 360 should sort out their reliability issues and shut their mouth up before talking about what others do. PS3 should shut up as well before getting their games sorted.

  • MeeToo

    I love X360… but please fix the reliability issue of it ! BEFORE spreading another FUD of your competition.

  • Xwar

    I’ve been calling this for what, 8 months now? It couldn’t work. Nintendo is stuck in a fantasy world where they lead the market and everyone else follows. The Internet acts as an echo chamber for this, including a powerful bury brigade that instantly buries any comments perceived as anti-Nintendo, and promotes numbers that frankly don’t seem realistic.

    (Apparently, according to Nintendo Wii software outsold 360 software by a good 33%, not including Live Arcade games. This is patently absurd.)

    Unfortunately Nintendo hasn’t been on top of things since the days of the 16 bit consoles. Though I do admit they finally figured out that advertisment isn’t for "others" only (i.e. they’re spending any money at all on it).

    As for "changing the face of the market", I also strongly disagree. PSX and PS2 have done more to change the face of the market than anything Nintendo has published so far. A few dozen anecdotes of older/non-gaming buyers of the Wii don’t a sweeping change of demographics make.

    And seriously, how can people claim that Nintendo innovates when all they’ve done in the last eight months is regurgitate the same crap they’ve fed players for a decade now?

    Now, like with the N64′s analog stick, there might be something to motion control – but it won’t be until someone comes in, fixes it, and shows that there’s something that can be really done with motion control that it’ll take off (if at all). And like analog control, good chances are that it won’t replace joypads as we know it – and most certainly it won’t be Nintendo to be reaping the rewards of what remains so far no more than a gimmick.

  • SW

    Metroid Prime 3 was a good play thru, but not much replayability.  My wife, kids and I still play wii sports.  And you it for Animal Crossing.  My opinion is that Nintendo needs to get third parties more involved with games and not just with the virtual console.  It’s great if they can make money off of already hit games but there is a severe drought of must play third party games.  Nintendo themselves must start mass producing some hits themselves.  New Animal Crossing, new Wii Sports that they have spent some more time on than the original.  More online functionality in game "cough cough".  And new Mega Man from Capcom.

  • http://www.alimaggs.com Ali

    I agree with that.  For me, the Wii is a "toy" or a "craze" whereas the Xbox 360 (and the PS3 for that matter) is a games console.  I don’t mean that to take anything away from Nintendo, they’re obviously doing very well from the Wii and it’s a great system.

    But the difference, as I see it, is this:

    If I’m having a house party or a social get together, the Wii comes out, along with Rayman on the 360 (playing it with the Live Vision Camera is great fun).

    If I want to sit down and play a decent game with some depth, then it’s the 360 for me.  Or if I want a decent co-op social play – Gears, Halo…

    The Wii is great at what it does – short, fun, party games.  But it doesn’t hold up, for me at least, as a serious gaming device, but that’s fine – it’s not their target market, and they’re doing very well with bringing both the youngest, and the oldest gamers into the gaming market, fair play to them.

  • Porktree

    yup, the only time I turn it on anymore is on Sunday afternoon so I can use the web browser to track my fantasy football progress.  I have 2 friends that both bought wii’s and both of them are considering selling them.  It’s not that it doesn’t have fun games, it’s more that with the limited gaming time I have, I spend it where I get the most fun.  Forza2, Bioshock, Gears, Halo3, and now Orange Box, with Mass Effect and CoD4 coming soon (and PGR4), there’s nothing on any other system that competes now or in the last 6 months.

  • RomeoDude

    Agreed.  The Wii is good, but mine is collecting dust.  I’ll probably play it as soon as some good games come out, such has Super Mario Galaxy, I can’t even describe how disappointed I am at the delay of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  That was the Wii game that I was anticipating the most.  I think having Brawl out for the holidays would have been a big sales booster.

  • de Menace

    You know, it is interesting to speculate how well off the 360 would be right now, if Microsoft had got the "quality" issue right.  The 360 has the best LIVE experience and the best games.  The Wii is innovative and priced well and selling well, but has no "real" games.  It really looks like your right and the Wii will run its course quickly.  

    The PS3 isn’t priced well and is off to a very slow start considering the PS2 base to draw from.  I understand it is hard to develop on the PS3 too.  

    All of this would have put the 360 in wonderful shape if it was not for it’s own quality problems

    too bad.

  • Matthew S

    I definatly find my wii collecting dust like everyone else.  To me the wii is more of a rentalsystem for me.  I can’t find myself wanting to play any game for more than a few days and then return it.  That being said all of the wii games are at the very bottom of my gamefly list.  I just find the 360 and its achievemnts much more fun and interesting.

  • Xwar

    Mmmh, from all the talk of selling I wonder how big the secondhand market for the Wii is going to become in the next 18 months.

    If the ultimate failure is half as big as I think it’s going to be, Nintendo will soon find that there’s so many used Wiis around that they just can’t sell anymore. With the GameCube, things got so bad that they suspended production over 18 months before the (un)official date of death. They simply had too much unsold stock.

    We’ll know if any Ninty head honcho complains about secondhand sales. Or through some douchebaggy lawyer threat.

  • Matthew S

    Xwar, I don’t think we will experience the same effect gamecubes had with the used sales.  Even if I don’t play mine often I still want to keep it around for the occasional wii sports games, and I think that parents will still buy their kids a wii so they know the games are family friendly (minus manhunt 2) and they get some form of exercise.

  • ThinkSteveZ

    Happy to have you back!

    I sold my Wii three months after launch. It sat and collected dust. At least my PS3 can let me watch Blu-ray movies.

    I can’t complain about quality issues as I’m still using my launch day console.

  • vittala

    I think Nintendo Wii will get a second wind when games like Mario & Sonic Olympics, Mario, Smash Bro’s, and especially Wii Fit all come out along with some interesting 3rd party games like Resident Evil etc. not to mention it is unfair comparing 2nd generation 360 titles with 1st generation Wii titles especially with the newness of the Wii’s controls.

  • http://www.skibit.org/ Skibit

    Mine is not being used much at all, save for when my parents stop by and we go bowling.  Does anyone know what the attachment rate of the Wii is compared to the 360?  I buy lots of stuff for the 360, but haven’t bought anything for the Wii since the week I bought it.

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