CNET - Will the Wii be a set-top box?
Channels:
Last week being their biggest sales week ever, surpassing the previous week, is impressive, but I suppose expected given the demand for Wii, SMG and DS, and the time of year. Still, it bodes well for November's NPD numbers.
Channels:
Dev Costs:The company has created a service in Japan that lets consumers get TV listings via the Wii, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, said at the Dow Jones Consumer Technology Innovations Conference taking place here this week.
Nintendo went forward with the project because a TV Guide Network-like service similar to what Nintendo is offering didn't exist. (TV in Japan is notoriously weird: in the past, PCs and TVs had to be fitted with an array of tuners to get all channels).
There are no plans to bring something like this to the United States at the moment, he said, but Nintendo is always looking around. "There are other channel opportunities," he said. "They may look like games. They may not look like games."
Biggest sales week ever:Nintendo also spends less on its games than its competitors do.
Developing a game for the DS costs a few hundred thousand dollars. Thus, Nintendo has to sell 100,000 only copies of a game to make money on it.
Wii games cost a little more. Developing a game for Wii might cost $5 million to $10 million, including all of the marketing costs.
By contrast, developing a game for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 can cost $20 million to $50 million, Fils-Aime asserted. As a result, a developer needs to sell 1.3 million to 1.5 million copies of a game to turn a profit, he argued.
The idea of Wii becoming a set top box is interesting, especially considering Nintendo's pro-gaming stance before the system launched. Wii's channels are more appealing than I thought they would be, and the Wii Fit one is a nice addition, but the system really needs a HDD for any further development as an all-in-one box. Also, I don't think this direction is one which Wii owners would be that interested in, still, Nintendo does seem to be adopting a 'throw anything and see what sticks' approach.Two weeks ago, the company had its biggest sales week ever. Last week, it surpassed that record, he noted. As a result, the console is tough to find for a second holiday season in a row.
Last week being their biggest sales week ever, surpassing the previous week, is impressive, but I suppose expected given the demand for Wii, SMG and DS, and the time of year. Still, it bodes well for November's NPD numbers.