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[gofreak]

Some people insist "year of the ps3" referred to content.

Some people insist "year of the ps3" referred to sales-related conquests.

I doubt they'll ever agree

As a PS3 owner, I'm happier with the former. And I'm sure the millions who're enjoying those games agree - even if there aren't further millions on top also enjoying those games.

PS3 needn't worry about going under appreciated. It's not like every system must have the attention of everyone in the market. PS3 has 'enough' attention, I think, for its content to be appreciated.

 

[Thunder Monkey]

A shame those games didn't register as well with the public.

He's rewriting history of course.

"Year of the PS3" was to signal a resurgence in hardware sales spurred on by GTA (the majority of GTA fans are also PlayStation fans you know?), MGS4, and LBP.

That didn't happen, so what it really meant was great software.

 

[manueldelalas]

Tabris should be eating massive amounts of crow by now.


Should WiiFit be taken off as well?

Obviously:
MK Wii sells because of the Wii Wheel.
Zelda Training sold because of the Wii Zapper.
Wii Play sold because of the controller.
Wii Fit sold because of the balance board.
Guitar Hero 3 sold because of the guitars.
Rock Band sold because it had drums.
Wii Sports sold because of the Wii.
Animal Crossing sold because of the Wii Speak device.
All of these games shouldn't count.

That's the problem with other Wii games; had Mario Galaxy included a Mario hat, Smash Bros. a sword, Wii Music a flute, Fire Emblem a fire emblem, etc etc; all of the games would have sold the double.

 

[Nocebo]

Obviously:
MK Wii sells because of the Wii Wheel.
Zelda Training sold because of the Wii Zapper.
Wii Play sold because of the controller.
Wii Fit sold because of the balance board.
Guitar Hero 3 sold because of the guitars.
Rock Band sold because it had drums.
Wii Sports sold because of the Wii.
Animal Crossing sold because of the Wii Speak device.
All of these games shouldn't count.

That's the problem with other Wii games; had Mario Galaxy included a Mario hat, Smash Bros. a sword, Wii Music a flute, Fire Emblem a fire emblem, etc etc; all of the games would have sold the double.

Totally agree! Further more I propose we take the PS3 off the videogame hardware list since it's being sold as a Bluray player and not a videogame system. Looking at the Top 10 only a handful of people use it to play games (next to the bluraying).
Since the x360 is basically a gimped pc and PC hardware/software shouldn't be represented on a conole sales list we should take x360 off as well.

 

[Kuroyume]

Yeah, I'm sure 5.28 million North Americans purchased Wii Play because they were clamoring for the content.

 

[Nocebo]

Yeah, I'm sure 5.28 million North Americans purchased Wii Play because they were clamoring for the content.

Just because you don't like it doesn't mean other people don't. Why would anyone pay $10 extra to get something they don't want?

 

[Taurus]

Why would anyone pay $10 extra to get something they don't want?

Don't ask questions that make sense, this is GAF ffs!

 

[Yes Boss!]

Just because you don't like it doesn't mean other people don't. Why would anyone pay $10 extra to get something they don't want?

Not only that, I reckon buyers tend to see Wii Play as even split between a game and a controller...that is to say that they might view the controller as discounted to $25 packed in with an inexpensive $25 game. I don't think you can just look at it as an extra $10.

Besides, Wii Play is an excellent game, haters be damned. Folks are obviously buying it through word-of-mouth and after playing it at other peoples houses. Games like this with little to no advertising don't sell by themselves.

 

[Rolf NB]

He's rewriting history of course.

"Year of the PS3" was to signal a resurgence in hardware sales spurred on by GTA

No no, GTA was actually part of Peter Moore's perfect storm in the fall of 2007.

 

[XMonkey]

Does the thread where the Wiimote was revealed (at TGS iirc) still exist? A quick look through the forum archive reveals nothing.

 

[YoungHav]

"Year of the PS3" is one of the greatest memes in recent history :lol . Though I wish EGM's "Revenge of the PS3" would've stuck also.

 

[Taurus]

Does the thread where the Wiimote was revealed (at TGS iirc) still exist? A quick look through the forum archive reveals nothing.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63251

This one?

 

[Lince]

impressive, I'd really love to contribute to Wii software sales, so far my collection is only comprised of Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Zelda TTP and Resident Evil 4. I believe it's been a long long time since I last turned it on.

 

[gofreak]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63251

This one?

It's kind of sad reading my own posts there, and seeing where we are now :|

 

[farnham]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63251

This one?

so sad that we cant post in that thread anymore..

seriously:lol :lol :lol

 

[dejan]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63251

From page 1:

Bye-Bye Nintendo.

They went too far and they just became a novelty toy.

 

[gofreak]

From page 1:

He's arguably right.

They just went bye-bye to a whole new market.

Lots of folks have said 'bye bye' to Nintendo this generation :| Lots have said 'hello!' too.

I'm still not totally sure why people said that because of the controller, however.

 

[CTLance]

impressive, I'd really love to contribute to Wii software sales, so far my collection is only comprised of Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Zelda TTP and Resident Evil 4. I believe it's been a long long time since I last turned it on.

And thus, tradition was upheld.
Could you mention the amount of dust it has gathered to date?

 

[Darklord]

Wow I just saw. 3 million! That's insane.

 

[HylianTom]

impressive, I'd really love to contribute to Wii software sales, so far my collection is only comprised of Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Zelda TTP and Resident Evil 4. I believe it's been a long long time since I last turned it on.

World of Goo. Now.

 

[ReiGun]

From page 1:

It's so weird going back, reading all these old threads, and seeing just how wrong everyone was.:lol

Wow, they really lost their fucking minds. Virtual Boy 2006.

Just...wow.

 

[Kill Your Masters]

It's so weird going back, reading all these old threads, and seeing just how wrong everyone was.

All this happened before, and it will happen again.

Rise of the PS3 - 2009.

 

[Alcibiades]

Who the heck bought Smash Brothers Brawl?

The Wii is mostly casual gamers and Brawl is too complicated for small kiddies and probably unintersting to soccer moms and elderly people. It likely takes an somewhat game-fluent person to purchase this game (especially if playing it correctly w/ GCN controller) since it's not approachable to non-gamers like Wii Sports it.

I guess the 12-25 yr. male demographic would be into it but almost everything I read says this crowd doesn't own Wiis and said goodbye to Nintendo in favor of the other systems.

 

[Stink]

Brawl is too complicated for small kiddies

:lol

 

[Lince]

And thus, tradition was upheld.
Could you mention the amount of dust it has gathered to date?

why so bitter? if you were asking that seriously, well, my girlfriend borrowed it last summer and played a lot of bowling / tennis / Wiiplay with her sister, she kept it very clean and tidy.

 

[Jocchan]

impressive, I'd really love to contribute to Wii software sales, so far my collection is only comprised of Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Zelda TTP and Resident Evil 4. I believe it's been a long long time since I last turned it on.

I find your lack of No More Heroes disturbing.

 

[Darklord]

It's so weird going back, reading all these old threads, and seeing just how wrong everyone was.:lol


Just...wow.

To be fair it was a huge risk and could have backfired and been the VB of 06. Good marketing focused at an untapped group(non-gamers ect) was what saved it.

 

[timetokill]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63251

This one?

My god, that thread is hilarious :lol

I remember when the controller was revealed, I thought it was awesome. Had no idea there was such a strong negative reaction to it :lol

Well, good thing that despite the economy, the market for crow is as strong as ever.

 

[Alcibiades]

:lol

I'm talking about the ones playing Imaginez and Dogz titles with their parents, not the kid gamers Nintendo has held a grasp on since the NES. Those kids (like my middle school cousins) were part the of GCN demographic and can play complex games as I did as a kid.

As people have mentioned in this thread, Nintendo said good-bye to this crowd (enthusiast gamers of any age) in favor of casuals. So who, if Nintendo has given up on these gamers and these gamers have said bye-bye to Nintendo, is buying stuff like Smash Bros. (and for that matter anything more complicated than Wii Sports and Wii Play)?

 

[Arde5643]

To be fair it was a huge risk and could have backfired and been the VB of 06. Good marketing focused at an untapped group(non-gamers ect) was what saved it.

I don't think it was saved; rather that Nintendo predicted the market correctly and benefited greatly from that prediction.

 

[Arde5643]

I'm talking about the ones playing Imaginez and Dogz titles with their parents, not the kid gamers Nintendo has held a grasp on since the NES. Those kids (like my middle school cousins) were part the of GCN demographic and can play complex games as I did as a kid.

As people have mentioned in this thread, Nintendo said good-bye to this crowd (enthusiast gamers of any age) in favor of casuals. So who, if Nintendo has given up on these gamers and these gamers have said bye-bye to Nintendo, is buying stuff like Smash Bros. (and for that matter anything more complicated than Wii Sports and Wii Play)?

Don't forget to put a in a spoiler tag - some people might take you seriously. :lol

 

[ReiGun]

To be fair it was a huge risk and could have backfired and been the VB of 06. Good marketing focused at an untapped group(non-gamers ect) was what saved it.

Well, of course. Totally agree. I didnt mean it from a sense of "ha ha. we were so dumb", but rather, it's mind blowing to think just how differently this whole console cycle ended up from what everyone was predicting.

Really, it just fascinates me.

 

[Jocchan]

To be fair it was a huge risk and could have backfired and been the VB of 06.

This is probably the main reason why the Wii is so underpowered, and why it was priced to maximize profit per unit sold. This way, had it failed, Nintendo would have minimized their losses too. It was a risky move from the very beginning, but it ended up paying off.

 

[Tempy]

I'm talking about the ones playing Imaginez and Dogz titles with their parents, not the kid gamers Nintendo has held a grasp on since the NES. Those kids (like my middle school cousins) were part the of GCN demographic and can play complex games as I did as a kid.

As people have mentioned in this thread, Nintendo said good-bye to this crowd (enthusiast gamers of any age) in favor of casuals. So who, if Nintendo has given up on these gamers and these gamers have said bye-bye to Nintendo, is buying stuff like Smash Bros. (and for that matter anything more complicated than Wii Sports and Wii Play)?

Uh, I think you're exaggerating if you think Nintendo has abandoned "enthusiast" gamers and vice versa.

I bought Mario Kart, Smash Brosh, Mario Galaxy, ResEvil4, Fire Emblem (no worthy collection should be without it), No More Heroes, etc.

 

[timetokill]

This is probably the main reason why the Wii is so underpowered, and why it was priced to maximize profit per unit sold. This way, had it failed, Nintendo would have minimized their losses too. It was a risky move from the very beginning, but it ended up paying off.

No, it was a planned decision, not a straight-out "risk-reducing" measure.

If you go by Blue Ocean Strategy, which Nintendo did, the name of the game is increasing value to the consumer while simultaneously reducing costs. They did this by identifying that most consumers do not care for cutting-edge graphics and sound -- these are high-cost items that provide very little value to the end consumer. So Nintendo broke the mold and put very little emphasis on these features.

It's all in the book guys, Nintendo followed it to a "T". I can either keep explaining these concepts or you can all read the book

 

[John Dunbar]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63251

This one?

Are you out of your mind? Non-gamers being interested in this?

Time to grow a clue: Non-gamers aren't going to care about games, it doesn't matter what you throw at them. Either they are inclined to play or they aren't. And if they ever do get involved, it will be with what is popular, not with what is gimmicky. You want the market to grow? Enjoy your PS3.

:lol

 

[-viper-]

HARDWARE:
DS - Amazing. There is no need to introduce the DSi into the american market anytime soon.
Wii - A bit less than I expected. IMO looks like Nintendo didn´t really tried to ramp up production/shipping, due to the current Yen-Dollar-conversion rate.
PSP - Out of left field. Not bad for a "dead system" :lol !
360 - Looks like the pricecut came at the right time. Nice numbers, setting a high goal to repeat this in 2009.
PS3 - YOY decrease as expected. I´m a bit surprised it even did 700k+. Let´s wait for Jan. 29th to see whats in store. I´m not too optimistic if it can break out of the YOY slide shortterm.
PS2 - *salutes* While its sad to see the old warhorse slowly die, its still an accomplishment to sell as many of them in the point of the lifetime cycle its in.

SOFTWARE:
Nintendo is a beast. Of course, the bestselling platforms sell the most software. After this numbers saying "3rd party doesn´t sell on Wii" should be bannable trolling.
Seeing no MGS4 in the 2008 top10, and seeing Gears2 outselling GTA4 on PS3, R2 and LBP MIA, Sony should be happy the 360 exists - otherwise 3rd party support would dry up like morning mist in the desert, as everyone and their mother would switch to the Wii.

These are just figures for the US.

USA does not equal the entire populous.

 

[Taurus]

I'm talking about the ones playing Imaginez and Dogz titles with their parents, not the kid gamers Nintendo has held a grasp on since the NES. Those kids (like my middle school cousins) were part the of GCN demographic and can play complex games as I did as a kid.

As people have mentioned in this thread, Nintendo said good-bye to this crowd (enthusiast gamers of any age) in favor of casuals. So who, if Nintendo has given up on these gamers and these gamers have said bye-bye to Nintendo, is buying stuff like Smash Bros. (and for that matter anything more complicated than Wii Sports and Wii Play)?

Someone made a comparison earlier where there was GC core games* and Wii core games* against each other. And guess what, the Wii has actually had more core games than GC did in similar time frame. Mindblowing, huh? Try searching for it if you don't believe.

*from Nintendo, not counting 3rd party here

 

[The Faceless Master]

These are just figures for the US.

USA does not equal the entire populous.

it's an NPD thread.

NPD = US Sales.

 

[Jocchan]

No, it was a planned decision, not a straight-out "risk-reducing" measure.

If you go by Blue Ocean Strategy, which Nintendo did, the name of the game is increasing value to the consumer while simultaneously reducing costs. They did this by identifying that most consumers do not care for cutting-edge graphics and sound -- these are high-cost items that provide very little value to the end consumer. So Nintendo broke the mold and put very little emphasis on these features.

It's all in the book guys, Nintendo followed it to a "T". I can either keep explaining these concepts or you can all read the book

I wouldn't be so sure. Remember Nintendo is still a very conservative company, and they don't have other divisions to tamper overall losses. So yes, they did follow that strategy, but it doesn't mean every single choice was made because of it.

 

[CTLance]

why so bitter? if you were asking that seriously, well, my girlfriend borrowed it last summer and played a lot of bowling / tennis / Wiiplay with her sister, she kept it very clean and tidy.

Nah, I'm not bitter. It's just that it's not a sales thread if someone doesn't question the reason of tracking sales, mentions he hasn't played console X, or that it collects dust because there are only n-1 games that (s)he likes. It's sales-age tradition by now.

 

[Alcibiades]

Uh, I think you're exaggerating if you think Nintendo has abandoned "enthusiast" gamers and vice versa.

I bought Mario Kart, Smash Brosh, Mario Galaxy, ResEvil4, Fire Emblem (no worthy collection should be without it), No More Heroes, etc.

As a personal perspective I think it's ridiculous to assert Nintendo has abandoned the crowd it catered to in the past since I own a Wii and am happy enough with Nintendo's output.

I'm just supposing a question in light of the assertions here that Nintendo has abandoned gamers in favor of casuals. Supposing that statement was true, then I'd like to know who really is buying Smash Bros. and anything else not aimed at housewives, non-gamers, etc...

I know plenty of hardcore gamers that own Wiis (many had owned GCNs and Melee) and these types of games (Smash, Okami, Mario Kart, Metroid etc...). But my personal experience of hardcore gamers owning Wiis seems to fly in the face of what many posters in this thread suppose.

In light of that, I'm interested in what people who believe the Wii base not to have a significant amount of traditional enthusiast gamers think about the audience for games like Brawl on the system. Approachable compared to true hardcore stuff like Castle of Shikigami, but much too complicated for this "new market" Nintendo has gone after while abandoning their traditional base.

If it's their opinion that not only has Nintendo abandoned it's old audience but that the housewife audience that bought Wii Fit also "graduated" to Brawl I wouldn't believe it but at least it would provide an explanation for the success of "core" gamer titles on a system that they've supposedly shunned completely.

 

[gofreak]

Well, my 34 year old brother brought Brawl and Mario Kart with his Wii, just because it seemed to be what the shop pushed and suggested to him.

He's definitely not one of 'Nintendo's faithful' or hardcore.

Those games are fairly casual friendly..particularly Kart.. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to consider the Wii's halo effect extending to encompass those types of games also.

If people want something new for their Wii, they'll probably look initially at who made Wii Sports (i.e. Nintendo), then they see that these are the games Nintendo's pushing hard. So they probably figure they are the ones to get.

They probably don't overthink whether a game will "suit my casual sensibilities" in the way we overanalyse them They just go with what people generally are going with!

Obviously I've no hard data or anything but it's just my hunch.

 

[Plinko]

I think a lot of "hardcore" gamers are offended by the fact that they see so many casual games being played on a system and that, in turn, results in them "feeling abandoned" by the company.

It's like they only focus on the casual/shovelware stuff and ignore that more traditional games that come out for the system.

I really think the mindset is "Hey, if they weren't making all these casual games they'd be making more traditional games instead" and I really think that mindset is screwed up for two reasons:

1. The market was heading in that direction anyway. Look at the rise of casual PC play over the last 10 years and the statistics about how many women it has brought into the video game fold and it makes perfect sense as to why it's happening on consoles.

2. We have no idea what actually would be happening if the casual market hadn't hit so well. Would it equal more traditional games? Would it result in traditional games of higher quality? Would it result in more traditional games of horrendous quality (like PS2, NES, etc)?

Nobody knows, but I tend to agree with the latter. We see so many casual/shovelware games hitting the market because they're easy to make. Think about how long a game like Mario Galaxy is in development and compare it to something like Bejeweled. Which takes longer to make? Which costs less to make? I think the answer is clear. I'm not a huge fan of it myself, but at least I understand why its happening and I'm not, by any means, "feeling abandoned."

 

[Alcibiades]

Someone made a comparison earlier where there was GC core games* and Wii core games* against each other. And guess what, the Wii has actually had more core games than GC did in similar time frame. Mindblowing, huh? Try searching for it if you don't believe.

*from Nintendo, not counting 3rd party here

Naw I believe you. I consider myself a "core" gamer and with Wii and DS can barely keep up with 1st party titles (then again I'm a busy college student) - same situation happened with GCN and GBA.

I'm crazy mad about some decisions (like no GCN-controller support in Twilight Princess and re-releases like Pikmin and Jungle Beat), but on the whole Nintendo has delivered for the Wii just fine.

My question is, if as people say here Nintendo is all about casuals this generation, who is buying their "core" product.

My own guess is Nintendo owns a big piece of the enthusiast, hardcore crowd, but their non-hardcore output has given them an audience much wider than this and so they have a diverse crowd that buys anything from Wii Fit to Metroid Prime.

That said, many on here don't believe the Wii is catering to the enthusiast crowd and that Nintendo abandoned their audience, so I'm just trying to understand that perspective.

 

[Sadist]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63251

This one?

That's tonns of awesome. :lol

 

[truly101]

Good numbers all around. The PS3 though really needs a price drop in this economy though. Before the bottom fell out, I thought if the PS3 could finish this year over 7.5 million NA, they would be roughly on pace with the 360, having a chance to hit 10 million during the the 1st half of its 3rd year. Now its right under 7 million and I have a feeling its going to take at least 10 months to hit 10 million. I guess it depends on how well KZ2 does, and later Infamous and Uncharted 2.

 

[Jocchan]

What people (and executives) seem unable to understand is that you can't categorize the Wii demographics. The console sells to everyone, and everyone has different tastes.
It's not "casuals", it's not "hardcore gamers", it's not soccer moms, it's not 7 y.o. kids, it's not nerds and it's not seniors. It's all of them at the same time.
But yeah, generalizations are easier to understand, so Wii owners are dumb casuals, PS360 owners like bald space marines and PC owners have a wooden leg (and a parrot).

 

[Rolf NB]

it's an NPD thread.

NPD = US Sales.

When the notion of drying up 3rd party support is thrown around, it's perfectly valid to bring up the rest of the market that these 3rd parties operate in.

 

[gofreak]

That said, many on here don't believe the Wii is catering to the enthusiast crowd and that Nintendo abandoned their audience, so I'm just trying to understand that perspective.

Well, speaking for myself as someone who was a hardcore Nintendo fanboy through N64 and Gamecube, I've been pretty deperately disappointed with Wii this year.

I haven't played anything on Wii since Galaxy really.

And I own a Wii. I own Brawl. I own a number of games for it. So market wise, my 'support' is registered..but don't mistake that for me thinking that they're catering to me well or "own" me as a user. I'm sure I'm not alone as one such disappointed Wii owner. As far as the sales numbers are concerned, I'm 'there', I show up (or at least I did), but that doesn't mean I'm a happily catered hardcore Wii owner.

This may, however, be because I have now so many other choices, more than I had when I was that gamecube/n64 nintendo fanboy. I can look across games for 3 or 4 systems, and the stuff that appeals to be is now more often than not, not on Nintendo's home console.