Nintendo Wii: the world's greatest console?

If the Nintendo Wii continues selling at its current lightning rate, it could achieve the exclusive title of the most successful games console ever, according to an industry forecaster. Games analyst Andrew Milgate, from market watcher GfK, made the claim to an Aussie publication following news that 200,000 units of the …

[Anonymous Coward]

Whats a "Ninedo" Wii?

So bloody what.

They made a toy, it sells to kids and nintendo fanboys. Huge market.

Xbox 360, fanboys, not so big.

PS3, fanboys and 20-30 somethings, bigger but still not as big as the toy market.

Its not a bloody race, each console has its place, just shut up with all the sales-figures willy waving.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mario Galaxy

I'm sure anyone who has played Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will have read the subject of this article and said "yes" straight away without reading the content.

I've owned one since I got very lucky in a Game store last Boxing Day and it still impresses me.

I recently hooked it up to a 42in plasma with the component cable and the visuals are fantastic on games like Mario Galaxy and Metroid.

I would have paid £20 more for DVD playback though...

[Martin]

Why?!

The Wii is Wiieally Wubbish.

It's so gimicky, got bored of mine within about 3 days. Only game I bought it for, Metroid Prime 3, is great though.

[An Unwashed Mass]

@Why?!

So let me get this straight... You have only one game which you say is great but the console is no good?

Maybe try another game and see how that is or are you working on a University funded notoriously low sample-base survey?

I'm not a Nintendo fanboy and got a Wii because 'er indoors wanted one... I think it's great and is the only console I've played on more than twice

[Neil]

Greatest? No. Good? Yes.

I've had a Wii for almost a year. After about a week, it hardly got turned on. Nowadays it only really comes on when friends come over. And this is not because I'm sulking because my daughter bowled a 298, honest...

The PS3, in contrast, I've had for a month and still keep turning it on.

So the PS3 ends up as an actual game-playing console and the Wii ends up as more of a party console. There's nothing wrong with that, though.

[Liam]

hmmmmm

wii - good visuals? mannnn you need to see a ps3 or something. the ps2 looked better.

i find my eyes almost crying watching zelda on my 42" toshiba :(

as ive said before the wii is nothing more than a gamecube with a fancy remote. its SO not a next gen console it should be compared to a ps2 or original x-box. it has no HD output and doesnt even support surround sound (the ps2 did that ~6 years ago!)

my ps3 running at 1080p with dolby 5.1/7.1 or DTS on a decent TV blows the wii back into the toilet. and once zelda is finished anyone wanna buy a wii for 300£ for xmas :)

and games like wii tennis seem ok, until you realise that its not really you playing par se. its the COM doing half of it.... not to mention that slices and spins dont even work like a proper racquet!

as soon as sony are allowed to make a controller like the wii (im guessing that neintendo have patented that idea, ruining that concept for anyone else) they will be dead ducks.... the sixaxis is actually very precise for games lke heavenly sword (play that if you want good visuals)

[Anonymous Coward]

I would love to comment on mario galaxy or metroid prime

But i'm not allowing myself those pleasures until i have completed re4.

[N1AK]

Low Price & Wide Market

I'm very happy with my Wii, the complete lack of interesting new games during the summer (with us having no trauma centre or Super Paper Mario) in Europe meant it got used less during that period.

After a year I'm still playing Wii Sports / Play / Raving Rabbids, Zelda was great and having just got Mario Galaxy I'm enjoying a masterclass in how good game design can be.

My partner who hasn't got the time of day for computer games, probably uses it as much as me overall, and the pick up and play nature of the games means we can actually compete / co-op at about the same level.

Yes I still need my Xbox (not 360) for my FPS kicks, and I play RTS's on my PC but the Wii is a wonderful machine.

[Law]

RE: Whats a "Ninedo" Wii?

What, are you like 5 years old...?? My guess is you have a PS2, and wish you had a ps3... but in the mean time want to belittle all the other consoles in the process.... you know, that's called being a playstation-fanboy! :)

There are more than a couple of reasons the Wii is selling so well, some of them being it's cheaper, more family friendly, and nintendo has a parental image of safety... extended by their nazi-logging of played games and time spent on them, with lockout timeouts... got me into trouble a few times with the wife on "work-from-home" days! Another couple of reasons are classic brands like Mario and Zelda are Nintendo only.

The biggest reason I think though, is that all the people I know who have a Wii, also have seperate 360 or ps3. It's basically a partner-console. Doesn't cost double the money, but it means you can have two consoles in the same house. I use my Wii for local party games, puzzles and rpg's, and my 360 for bigger more processor-demanding games like GoW, COD and Halo. Xbox Live is probably the feature I use the most.... and the PS3 and Wii has a long way to go before they get that audience.

Oh... the Wii is the only console that didn't go completely out of the way to block modding this time round... they dont intentionally brick your console or ban you from services like Live if they detect firmware mods... they dont have this cat-and-mouse firmware arms-race going on that the xbox and playstation has with its updated firmwares and mod's to break them. That probably helps too.....

btw, before people bitch about how you can brick your wii, im not saying you can't, im saying they arn't trying to do it on purpose... most of the bricking is from idiots running NTSC firmware updates on PAL consoles.... not really nintendo's fault if modders break the region lock! :)

[Martin K]

Title

I have a WII and played Galaxy and some of the other "super" games. I like the gameplay, but graphics and production value are awful and definitely far from current generation of games on other consoles.

The controller is great, but with the quality of games out right now...they might have just as well released that controller for the gamecube...it would not have made the slightest difference.

Saying that Wii is world's greatest console, is like saying that McDonald is world's greatest restaurant.

[Martin]

@@Why?!

Try reading the comment again... I

I bought it for the game mentioned.. it's not the only game I have.. I have several others.. which all turn out to be quite poor after the the intial "ooo i can wave this about the the cursor moves" thrill.

I AM a Nintendo fanboy, that's why the Wii disappoints me so very much. Give me a joy pad and quality games to play and it would be great, perhaps with an element of joy pad waving would go down well... oh wait venturing into PS3 territory there.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ohh HD game visuals... my I've a big tv...

So the PS3 visuals blow away the Wii... wow.. some of us were HD gaming over a year before the PS3 came out.

I've a 360 which I play my "gamers" games on, Halo 3, Oblivion, Biohazard etc and a Wii which I play Sonic v Mario, Wii Sports, Zelda etc on and the missus and my mates love playing as well. Perfectly compliment each other.

PS3 has not one single "killer" game that would make me want to own one. Wheres its Zelda or Halo?

Take a look on Gamespot, the highest rated PS3 game is STILL Oblivion, a release title which had been out on the XBox 360 for about a year and the PC over 2 years.

Nintento are ruining things by daring to patent an idea they invented? Excuse me?? Honestly the stupidest argument I've ever heard. Is that because Sony couldn't think up anything new themselves apart from how many million polygons they could throw around?

[Carlton Riviera]

To quote Disco Stu...

"Did you know that disco record sales were up 400% for the year ending 1976? If these trends continues... AAY!"

[Chris]

Not my demographic

I play a lot of violent, shooting-type games and I don't need convincing that gaming is a worthwhile expenditure.. so I bought a PS3.

[Christopher Aussant]

Ooooh Shiny!

Why do people keep bitching that the Wii isn't a next gen console becuase the graphics aren't being delivered by a Geforce 99million or an ATI HD26000000? The console is fun, the games are fun and we have access to a large library of classic games. Sega, NES, SNES, N64, TurboGraphix 16, NeoGeo, all these systems have classic old school games that us old timers(and I'm only 25 for crying out loud) remember and want to play again.

The fun of a game comes from the gameplay and the story, not from the shiny graphics, get it through your skulls already. Thats why the Wii is outselling the competition. Not EVERY gamer is a hardcore graphic addict, some of us could care less if our game has 8 bit characters running around if its a game we enjoy.

If you really want super realistic graphics, get off your fat ass and go outside. Very high resolution out there, and it costs less than the PS3.

[EL Vark]

Honestly...

There are grown men and women at the place I work who actually own, or plan to own in the immediate future, a Wii, Xbox, or PSx, but none of them seem to know why, apart from hours spent vegetating in front of the phosphour glow or LCD haze. If I were sixteen (or perhaps a bit younger) I might, and only might, understand any of this. I mean, adults slavering over Guitar Hero, or the latest Xbox Elite for it's "120 Gig (sic) hard drive"... I cut the mid-twenty somethings a small amount of slack since they grew up in the console market, sad and pointless as it is. But thirty and forty year-olds (and beyond) not even pretending that it's for the kiddies... Of course none of these individuals know from hardware; the brightest among them just got a used Gateway because he "had to have a three Gig (sic)" see-pee-you, and five-hundred Gig (again, sic) hard drive. He has no idea why, only that it must be really fast so good so he's cooler than his brother/neighbour/dog. I'm presuming it's an AMD processor of some stripe given what he paid. At least he has an excuse, what with being utterly ign'ant, but reg'lar ElReg readers frothing at the mouth over this tripe is just creepy, unless I've been dramatically overestimating both the age and clue-having average demographic.

Yes, there's a point and that point is thus: Wii this and Wii that. Must have, need to have, will have, just got, etc. Ask why and you're met with slack jaws, blank stares, and nothing short of open hostility for trying to peel away the layers in an attempt to understand.

When we used to play entire seasons of "networked" World Circuit Grand Prix over a 14.4k modem, it appealed to our F1 madness, itself a part of our awe for the bleeding edge engineering of the cars and the nearly super-human qualitites of the drivers (back when ol' Nigel could cork himself into a cockpit), but grown people getting worked up about damned silly games and damned silly hardware is damned silly.

Maybe read a book, this weekend, and leave the console under the sofa.

[Name]

Gaming is for anyone who enjoys it!

@El Vark

I'm in my late 30s (started with playing games on Apple ][s) and enjoy games in moderation (mainly on my PC - we've all got one, we may as well play games on it right! ...and it outsells all the consoles put together!).

I don't have any of the new consoles but it's not just for kids. Anyone who enjoys it should play it - no derision needed.

Everybody knows the pros and cons of each console now so it's time the willy wagging ended and everybody went and had some fun - whatever their preference may be, scrabble, zelda or tennis ball cricket.

[yeah, right.]

not hardcore.

I'm far from a hardcore gamer. I've never liked the "console" games that require me to memorize and spaz out complex key sequences to get my character to do simple tasks. I've tried them for a while, and it just doesn't work for me. Making me fight the user interface rather than enjoying the game just isn't good design.

Then I got the Wii. The interface is pleasant to use and extraordinarily well designed. I can just play the damn game, and not worry about how to use the controller, or what key sequence allows me to do whatever action I want. It's actually intuitive - a much overused term, but one that fits in this case. That's why I still regularly play the games I've got (when I've got time) and will continue to play more as time allows.

So for me, and probably other gamers like me, the Wii is definitely the console of choice. It seems that I'm not alone in that.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Christopher

"If you really want super realistic graphics, get off your fat ass and go outside. Very high resolution out there, and it costs less than the PS3."

But please not if you want to play a FPS :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Real life FPS

Try paintball.

Superb hi-res immersive graphics, full body sensory input, motion sensing control system. Its amazing you can really feel the sun on your back (or the rain running down it) and you'd swear you were competing against real people.

Its only let down by the fact that your victims just go 'ouch' and swear at you and don't disintegrate into a bloody mush.

[Andy Worth]

Wii demographic

Reading all the comments so far, it seems very much like the Wii is so popular because it is essentially a "console for girls" (yes I'm aware how much flaming I'll get for this from people who don't read further). I don't say this because it is particularly effeminate, but more because it opens up console gaming to people who would not typically play console games.

Personally for me, the Wii is fun in small doses but aside from "party style" games to play when I have friends round, it's not enough of a gaming console for me (as I AM a long-time gamer). Now I have the likes of Singstar and Guitar Hero for my PS3, the Wii will very rarely get switched on.

Oh and at the 360 fanboy who didn't want his name showing, this was never supposed to be a 360 vs PS3 thread. I accept that both consoles have their selling points, but on a personal level I couldn't take the "jet engine" sound of my brothers 360, so I bought a PS3 instead. The games are coming too, and lets be fair, Halo 3 is quite a disappointment considering they can't even make it run smoothly without crashing on a CONSOLE (no excuses of incompatibility there). Anyway enough about that, they are two "similar in ability" consoles and miles away from a Wii.

Oh and for Christopher, I have spent a shitload more on "real life" than I ever have on my PS3, so your comment is not really accurate is it? While I'm playing my PS3, I'm not bothering anyone else and not spending money on beer. Oh, and if you want to wave your arms around blindly at something that vaguely resembles something else, try getting drunk instead of playing on a Wii.

[Jeremy Hooks]

@@@Why

>> Only game I bought it for, Metroid Prime 3, is great though.

>> ...

>> Try reading the comment again...

Martin, the sentence you wrote makes no sense, you can hardly blame Unwashed Mass for misreading it as a sentence which does make sense (i.e. 'The only game I bought FOR IT, Metroid Prime 3, is great though'). Perhaps you could try 'THE game I bought it for, ...'.

It's not Unwashed Mass's fault that that you comment only makes sense after the third reading.

BTW, congrats to the original Anon. Coward, you managed to turn a boring story about sales figures into an interesting flame war.

[alistair millington]

Who cares about Ps3 and 360's

The article is about how well it is doing. Next gen doesn't just mean where consoles try to get the same resolutions Pc monuitors give anyway, it means the next generation of consoles. Something which can be measured in a number of ways. Sales, features, build numbers, sizes.

Ps3 and Xbox have the HD... woohoo, the ability to play games on a screen that Pc's have enjoyed for years, 1080. It doesn't mean anything if the games aren't there. So many of the games are clones of previous games. Haloo, that driving thing Ps3 has. The Wii isn't in that race, it is another race, for the family, group of mates and those quirky games you can't otherwise find a niche for (that warez thingy). That is why it is selling well, A different target audience.

Graphically it isn't an 8800 Nvidia like the PS3 and 360, but then again in a year it will still be as it is, family fun. PS3 won't be so hot as more clone games come out or when the Nvidia 9900 comes out and Pc's once again leap frog ahead.

It's a niche that previous games manufacturers didn't go for, a niche that turns out to be huge, girls, groups, kids and short time span games based on particitpation and moving round. PS3 and 360 got caught on the hop and have nothing to compete with it.

Good on 'em. I am saving up for mine (whenever stocks are in) at crimbo.

[Edward Noad]

You thought the console wars were over...

...when Sega stopped produced consoles, but no. It seems there will always be a subset of the gaming community that judges consoles on their technical capabilities alone. And of course, after assessing the situation in the numbers game (which always seems to ignore the current state-of-the-art in PC land) they become extremely vocal in public forums, doing their best to slate anything that isn't their current console-de-chose and force-feed everyone else their opinion. After all, the numbers prove they are right! Right?

1080 versus 480. Obvious which is superior, right? Okay, so the Wii is a little behind in the eye-candy department, but then again so is practically every game on the Virtual Console it hosts and they're selling like hot cakes too. Guess what? Your opinion is just that. Your opinion. Which you probably formed after looking at a 42" display screen in your local video game outlet running some PS3 demo, then sneering at the lil 26" Wii demo station in the corner. Or perhaps you played Wii Sports or Zelda. Once. For a few minutes. Both launch titles, I might add, one of which was developed for a last-gen console.

While you masturbate over your eye-candy and HD support and whizzy-flashy design and billion-dollar budget, the rest of the world (who seem to be the majority) just want something they can have a bit of fun on without breaking the bank, in terms of both time and money.