How the Wii is creaming the competition

By SilentMage
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SilentMage

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By John Gaudiosi, Business 2.0 Magazine

Business 2.0 Magazine tells the inside story of how Nintendo outfoxed Sony and Microsoft and got itself back in the game.

A year ago it looked like game over for Nintendo's storied console business. The Kyoto-based gamemaker--whose Nintendo Entertainment System ushered in the modern age of videogames--was bleeding market share to newer, more powerful systems from Sony and Microsoft.

Even as the videogame business grew into a $30 billion global industry, Nintendo saw its U.S. hardware sales shrink to almost half of what they had been nearly 20 years earlier.

Today, as anybody within shouting distance of a teenager knows, Nintendo is the comeback kid of the gaming world. Instead of joining Sony and Microsoft in the arms race to pack their consoles with ever-higher-performance graphics chips (to better attract sophisticated gamers), Nintendo built the Wii--a cuddly, low-priced, motion-controlled machine that broke the market wide open by appealing to everyone from grade-schoolers to grandmas.

Unorthodox? Maybe. Effective? You bet.

The Wii is a pop culture smash of such dimensions that Nintendo still can't make consoles fast enough. Even so, it's outselling Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360--at least since January. (The Xbox had blowout pre-Christmas sales.) And while its competitors lose money on every console they build, expecting to make it back selling high-margin games, the Wii was designed to sell for a profit from the get-go.

Read the full article here - CNN Money.com

~SilentMage

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Grand Master

gigapixels Veteran

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I seem to remember posting in a thread last year and I stated "The Wii will dominate, mark my words..." and many people thought I was stupid... Hmmm...

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Grand Master

MadFerIt

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I seem to remember posting in a thread last year and I stated "The Wii will dominate, mark my words..." and many people thought I was stupid... Hmmm...

I thought the same thing. Even though I still prefer the 360. Although I will say I didn't expect the utter insanity it's success has been, or the fact that 6 months after launch you can't find one anywhere. I mean it's that successful with very few games worth owning (Twilight Princess, Warioware, Super Paper Mario, um and ports?). Imagine what will happen when they come out with a bunch of great games (well I hope it happens anyway :p).

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nid~vaeda

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"Instead of joining Sony and Microsoft in the arms race to pack their consoles with ever-higher-performance graphics chips (to better attract sophisticated gamers)"

What exactly to they mean by 'sophisticated gamers'? I keep hearing people say that microsoft and sony use graphics to appeal to sophisticated gamers yet I dont think that is true at all....I believe that Nintendo is appealing to sophisticated gamers because they can look past the weaker graphics and see the fun that the game holds.

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Grand Master

gigapixels Veteran

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"Instead of joining Sony and Microsoft in the arms race to pack their consoles with ever-higher-performance graphics chips (to better attract sophisticated gamers)"

What exactly to they mean by 'sophisticated gamers'? I keep hearing people say that microsoft and sony use graphics to appeal to sophisticated gamers yet I dont think that is true at all....I believe that Nintendo is appealing to sophisticated gamers because they can look past the weaker graphics and see the fun that the game holds.

Yeah, not the best wording there, but the idea of the article is spot on.

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Grand Master

jackwanders

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I thought the same thing. Even though I still prefer the 360. Although I will say I didn't expect the utter insanity it's success has been, or the fact that 6 months after launch you can't find one anywhere. I mean it's that successful with very few games worth owning (Twilight Princess, Warioware, Super Paper Mario, um and ports?). Imagine what will happen when they come out with a bunch of great games (well I hope it happens anyway :p).

That's the thing. You've got the regular games, like Zelda, Mario, etc., but then you've got the Virtual Console. Since buying mine this past Sunday, I've played as much Gradius III as I have Zelda and Mario. Then there's Wii Sports, which is just plain addictive. There are plenty of people who own the Wii and have yet to even buy a game, simply because they're so content playing bowling or tennis.

And as for upcoming games, you've got Spider-Man 3, Mario Party 8, Sonic & Mario at the Olympics, Guitar Hero 3, NiGHTS, Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers, Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros. Brawl, and more, not to mention more additions to the virtual console.

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Grand Master

goji

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IMO, the real issue with the Wii will be its longevity. Right now I beleive most people are purchasing the Wii for its novelty approach to gaming. It is simple and extremely straightforward. However, once all three consoles pass a reasonable threshold for an install base, software sales will determine who is truly outfoxing who.

If its not the Wii, I think its going to be the DS for sure. Who seriously thought Nintendo still had it in them.

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Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

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I didn't expect the Wii to be as successful as it was, but I had confidence in Nintendo and the direction they were going. That being said, I don't think the games are doing it any justice. I've barely played my Wii since January purely because the games suck so bad. Everyone has their tastes, but I've played a lot of the games on other systems or even the DS. I'm really sick of the ports from last generation with tacked on controls and minigames.

I'm a huge supporter of Nintendo and the only reason I haven't sold my Wii is for games like Super Paper Mario, SSBB, Metroid and Mario Galaxy. For now though it's collecting dust :(.

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gentoogod123

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At least sony users are happy, wii users cant find a wii anywhere but ps3 users can find a ps3 by the thousands at any store lol.

I never got into the gamecube or ds craze but i gotta admit the wii is definitly being used just as much as my 360 and alot more then my dust ridden ps3

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Grand Master

macrosslover

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i'm tired of people thinking that because the 360/ps3 games are more graphically pretty, somehow it means that they aren't fun either. ALL games are fun, no matter the system.

that said the Wii is a different kind of system, so it's good for it that it sold what it has. the ds however, is very very good. I have to admit that I thought it was going to get blown away by the PSP when they first came out, but Sony royally screwed over the psp with poor software, and the ds lite came out and great fun different games for the ds. that combination makes the ds lite a damn great system. I'd even venture to say that it's a much better system IMO than the Wii, I love that little thing now.

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Grand Master

morficus

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I love my Wii like no other, but the one thing I feel that Nintendo is missing is on-line game play.

maybe I just spend too much time on the internet, or maybe I just spent too many hours playing COD3 and GOW on xbox-live - what what ever the reason is...I would love to see on-line games for the Wii.

I've had this conversation with a few other people, and we agreed that if they released a patch to make Wii Sports an on-line game... it would be pretty awesome. Same goes for Metroid 3, Super Smash Brawl and any other party game they come out with.

I'm pretty convident at saying... that if Nintendo had an on-line gaming community... it would just wipe out the competition all together. :yes:

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Grand Master

Danrarbc

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i just hated the 'kiddy' factor with n64 and gamecube. hope this changes with future wii game releases.

N64 wasn't really all that kiddy IMO, but hey chalk that up to successful marketing from Sony and Sega. GameCube was impacted by that image though, no matter how deserved/undeserved. The constant stream of PS2 ports of Nickelodeon games were a plague (even though they never sold they still came to the system for god knows what reason), and a lack of things like Mercenaries getting ported.

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Xerus

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N64 wasn't really all that kiddy IMO, but hey chalk that up to successful marketing from Sony and Sega. GameCube was impacted by that image though, no matter how deserved/undeserved. The constant stream of PS2 ports of Nickelodeon games were a plague (even though they never sold they still came to the system for god knows what reason), and a lack of things like Mercenaries getting ported.

Nintendo consoles just usually lack the Sci Fi Epic Super Badass Space Marine from the Post Apocalyptic Future Shooting Aliens/Monsters/Zombies/Nazi/Ninjas games, so people say they're too kiddy. ;D

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Jazket

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i just hated the 'kiddy' factor with n64 and gamecube. hope this changes with future wii game releases.

N64 had no kiddie factor other than Mario games themselves... Remember Killer Instinct Gold and Ocarina of Times?

Anyways well I always thought the day would come when Nintendo would reclaim what is bein theirs since the beggining. Go Nintendo... one of the reasons why I got myself a Wii and not a PS3 is because I knew how much joy I was going to get by playing A Link To The Past and Donkey Kong Country again :) oh man... those were the days :')

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Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

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N64 wasn't really all that kiddy IMO, but hey chalk that up to successful marketing from Sony and Sega. GameCube was impacted by that image though, no matter how deserved/undeserved. The constant stream of PS2 ports of Nickelodeon games were a plague (even though they never sold they still came to the system for god knows what reason), and a lack of things like Mercenaries getting ported.

It's true that the Gamecube was worst affected from the "kiddy" image, but it has always lurked around in Nintendo's past. Censored versions of Mortal Kombat back in the SNES days etc etc

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Grand Master

Chicane-UK Veteran

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I'm thrilled that Nintendo are doing so well.. as a former SNES owner from "back in the day", its made me pretty happy to see them come back out on top for this generation.

But I must confess I did buy a Wii back in January (and I didn't struggle to find one either - guess I was lucky!) but have since sold it because of lack of interesting games, and the novelty wearing off. I came to realise that the sorts of games I like are stuff like Test Drive Unlimited, shooters, etc and that the Wii just doesn't do those as well as other consoles. I probably should buy an Xbox360 but i'm not sure I can bring myself to do it :D ;)

It was a wonderful console though and it felt almost like an Apple product as you opened up that box and had all the nice, immaculately wrapped accessories and stuff.. very cool.. and we had some absolute blasts playing Wii Tennis!

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Jimmy0

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N64 had no kiddie factor other than Mario games themselves... Remember Killer Instinct Gold and Ocarina of Times?

Not to mention Goldeneye!

Man that was a good game.

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Septimus

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Turned on my Wii for the first time in ages... to play Final Fight.

The games and the future line up sucks, I don't know how they are keeping the secret from people still wanting to buy one.

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Grand Master

gigapixels Veteran

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Turned on my Wii for the first time in ages... to play Final Fight.

The games and the future line up sucks, I don't know how they are keeping the secret from people still wanting to buy one.

There is no secret. Your taste is not that of everybody else. Sorry if that's a surprise to you :rolleyes:

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