Is The Wii Drying Up?
Just perusing the Internet, as you do, and have been reading things about the Nintendo Wii that show that people are starting to realise that the Wii is starting to struggle.
Those views have been acknowledged by Nintendo themselves.
In Japan, the Wii has sold under 20,000 units each week for the past 6 weeks and although this may seem a lot, apparently, it’s bad news in the terms of console wars.
I’m not slating the Wii in any way as I love the Wii and have one myself. – Well, I love the potential of what it can achieve at any rate.
There have been a few big named titles out such as Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart and Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, but a lot of the games that have been released for the Wii:
“allows for more lower-quality games to crowd the shelves, typically from studios looking to make a quick buck on the back of the Wii’s wild success. This dilutes the library.”
It’s true. I find a lot of the games that are released are mainly for kids, or party games and, quite frankly, are the biggest load of *cough* and are a disgrace to the gaming world.
The quote above is from another review talking about how little games for the Wii are rated over 85%, and there aren’t that many. Whereas the Sony PS3 and Xbox 360 seem to bring out big titles almost every month that hit the 90% mark and generate a big buzz around the gaming world. The PS3 and Xbox 360 have their fair share of rubbish too, but it’s seems not as much as the Wii.
The last game I bought for the Wii was Star Wars: Force Unleashed, and this was a multi platform game and wasn’t a absolute classic. Decent game that had the potential for so much more, especially with the use of the Wii Remote and how you could use the force, but just didn’t seem to fully deliver.
Nintendo aren’t useless, just look at the Nintendo DS and DSi. There are some great games available with plenty of exclusive titles that work. But the exclusives on the Wii don’t seem to maintain their early promise. Even with the Gamecube, they knew they had failed but were working on the Wii when the Gamecube was released so didn’t carry on pushing for bigger things with it.
With 2009 looking very strong for PS3 and 360 fans, it fills you with a sympathetic feeling for Nintendo and can’t help but make you feel like they’re falling behind yet again.
The Wii was revolutionary. It changed the way people are going to be playing games forever. But where are all the classics we were promised?
Could the lack of graphical power have something to do with studios not developing the big games? I for one, am a strong believer of graphics aren’t everything. I’d much rather have a game I can really sink my teeth into, with a strong storyline and great controls.
The Wii Motion Plus along with Wii Sports Resort are being released soon. But will this help Nintendo sell more consoles? Probably. But only in the short term perhaps?
Even old Gamecube titles don’t seem to be helping with the new ‘Play Control’ system. Is this Nintendo grasping at straws on their way down?
What are your views? Are Nintendo allowing too many multi platform games be released, and should they be focusing on exclusives?
Do you think the Wii is severely lacking in quality games? Are you happy with the gimmicky games that are available? What do you want to see?
I love Nintendo, and really want to see new and exciting titles for the Wii. This post isn’t about how bad Nintendo are, merely how they are struggling. Let’s hope 2009 will be an exciting and surprising year for Nintendo.
What do you think? Leave your views in the comment section below.
Ender
Via – Edge Online
Related Pages:
- New Wii Classic Pro Controller
- Sony Motion Controller (Arc) Release Date Delayed
- Sony PS3 Motion Sensor Controller
- A New Nintendo Handheld Gaming System In Development?
- Nintendo DSi vs Sony PSP 3000
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Comments: 11
2:46 am 19th April, 2009
The problem doesn’t really lie with the Wii, instead the enthusiast media who produce the opinions and reviews around it. The console targets a broad market spectrum, and yet the people who review and shape the opinions of readers clash with the demograph many of these titles are being made for. Can we really trust a narrow-perspective, “hardcore” gamer to provide opinions about a game designed for a market which they don’t belong to? Well, we should be able to, but unfortunately the methodology for games reviewing favours that of graphically superior, more complex titles for that hardcore gamer market. The majority of these people have the wrong mindset.
The same reasons apply for the criticism that the software attach rates are lower on the Wii. Well of course they are, considering the console is serving a market that consumes games at a slower rate than us long time fans.
As for the Japanese sales, this is a small result of a recent sales boost of the Playstaion 3, and is hardly representative of anything, especially considering the console is still pretty much selling out worldwide. There are almost as many Wii Fit scales as PS3 consoles, there is simply no competition and it will likely stay this way for the next few years.
The good part about all this is that in the end, the Wii consumers have so little connection with the enthusiast media. This audience simply doesn’t care for the PS3/360, let alone know what their names are, so really it’s just a whole bunch of “real” players raging amongst themselves. There’s nothing wrong with the Wii, it’s not dying, the enthusiast player is just as typically myopic as ever.
I could argue this point forever. >_<
Comments: 1
1:18 pm 22nd April, 2009
i think the wii-motion plus will send out a few really great games, apparently people from tiger woods think this will increase sensitivity to an almost 1:1 realistic swing, which could be kind of awesome
Comments: 1
9:28 pm 14th May, 2009
are you guys completely crazy! haven’t you seen the games that are coming out in june? i think each of them will reach 85%!