Bizzyb said:
NSMBWii is a once a year, hell once a generation type of game to stir such a sales bump. It's the return of 2d mario on a home console which hasn't been seen in what, 10 years?
Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii fit also seem to fit this category, as might Wii Play, Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus. Including NSMBW, that's between four and seven games in a little over three years. When NSMBW was first revealed, a lot of people had the reaction that this game would not have the selling ability that the prior big games had, for various reasons. It's easy to say in hindsight that 2D Mario would obviously be one of the biggest games of the generation, easily demolishing demographic boundaries (ie, not just the at-the-time Mario fanbase).
There are a few additional games that Nintendo can still pull out of their backside to keep interest going. They'll probably try to time the next Mario Party for optimum effect (releasing just before Black Friday of '10 or '11, for example). Before they need to do that, we'll have to see how long the sustained bump caused by last Half's three big games (WSR, WF+, NSMBW) can keep going. I think it'll help a lot for this coming year that they did the price drop. There were apparently a very large number of people waiting on a lower price and a "value-added" reason to buy when it got there (that being the game we're mainly chatting about).
DO you REALLY think Nintendo can duplicate that and keep sales that high on Galaxy2 or Metroid Other M? People will begin to lose interest in Wii once they realize they can get the accessible motion control games on Sony and MS's system IN HD, with a shit-ton other features. Nintendo is about to lose it's ace-in-the-hole when those two drop and WiiHD is exactly what they need to, at the least, stay on even level playing field, keeping the hardcore's (or what's left of them) and the casuals mindshare, while also keeping things just as interesting and fresh on their side of the fence, esp with 3rd party Devs jumping ship and heading into NATAL and Wand development for greener pastures.
I still know very few people in real life that care about the screen resolution of their gaming system. Most people I know who have 360s are still gaming on SD television sets, and most people I know who had HD sets have a Wii, as well. There has been and will be a gradual shift in interest here, but it's been incredibly slow, because what people were looking for (watching and/or gaming on a shallow but large television) is sort of just coincident with what they've been buying (a television set with 720 or more lines of pixels).
Natal and Sony's thing (is it being called "Gem", or was that just a running gag that I didn't catch in the right mood?) could have a strong effect, but I think it'll depend on the software being offered. It took a few solid titles to raise that mindshare for Nintendo's system, and everything else that was offered was uninteresting crap. Pretty much Wii Sports and Wii Play and to a lesser extent Rabbids, Red Steel and the promise of RE4WE, initially, is what seems to have brought attention around at first.
Natal and Gem are getting Rabbids possibly and the latter is getting RE5AE (aargh aargh, this really makes me want to get a PS3 by the way, after my house payments start and then stabilize). Beyond that, we haven't heard much. Frankly, the demos I remember for Natal were pretty lacking. The painting was not at all precise, and the ball kicking seemed like a very basic PS2 Eyetoy type of game. Both don't seem to have a very lasting fun factor, especially since there's no obvious multiplayer competitive aspect to them. Its best aces in the hole don't seem to be related to specific game titles (the swish to do menu stuff seems pretty attractive, though). Gem had more meat to its gaming demonstrations but not much in the way of full games.
I just don't know. These offerings could explode right out the gate, or they could heavily erode away Nintendo's mindshare, but they don't seem to have anything yet that will really turn the heads of the masses.
Then again, while I thought Nintendo's new gimmick would turn heads and likely bring them to the top of sales, I did not expect anything near the insanity that actually ended up happening.
