There's a fundamental difference between third party support and third party sales. You can't make the blanket statement that the Wii has poor third party sales, yet neglect to include shovelware in the mix.
That's what I was arguing in regards to shovelware on the Wii. I was not trying to pioneer shovelware as any sort of pro for the Wii, I was merely correcting a common theory that Wii's third party sales are low, when they are not.
Not to poop your party but even shovelware aren't selling like they use to, the days of luring people with your shovelware when the Wii was selling 700k a month are over. This holiday is the best lineup for Wii in terms of "proper" third party support.
onipex said:
Meh, even when the Wii was selling the most software it was all Nintendo titles.
I doubt it. And far be it from me to call it a fad - that's for Pokemon - but anecdotally, with my family, they played Wii Sports for a day during the launch and then like one or two times after that throughout the months and then never picked it up again. They're not game enthusiasts. They didn't play it because they wanted to be gamers, they played it because it was a novelty... a quick diversion before they returned to what they actually like.
It's very rare you can turn a non-gamer/game hater - someone who has ALWAYS hated games - into someone who suddenly likes them. That's simply the net result. You need a firmer foundation to continue the strength, you cannot only rely on non-gamers for your big titles
I think of it this way. Nintendo's "mission" to convert a non gamer into a gamer, like you and me is quite frankly rediculous. Kinda like Avatar breaking sales records left and right, isn't gonna make that audience film buffs and the like. They are satisfied with few software over a period of time. Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Sports Resort, Just Dance and a few others, and DS with Brain Age, Nintendogs and other touch generation titles in a lesser scale. It's a challenge to provide appealing software, and get the word out there, and regardless of your family example, they've done a great job to keep a steady stream of releases.
But the other side is the one that worries me most, the hardcore games. Even Nintendo titles can't sell. Stuff like Metroid S&P, Wario Land and others. They've done a horrible job at raising awareness and and setting up partnerships, and constructed a horrible hardware for these types of games (even though it can make stuff like Galaxy).
I agree that you can't just rely on non gamers to drive your gaming machine, since it's a much harder task to keep them aware, and consists of always thinking outside the box and enormous marketing budgets, but it pays well. But the regular gaming market is still huge and they need that. They need that Twilight Princess to show off that Wii Sports. I'm guessing their next hardware will be more developer friendly, but they have an uphill battle into changing people's perception.
But the other side is the one that worries me most, the hardcore games. Even Nintendo titles can't sell. Stuff like Metroid S&P, Wario Land and others. They've done a horrible job at raising awareness and and setting up partnerships, and constructed a horrible hardware for these types of games (even though it can make stuff like Galaxy).
I don't understand these sentiments. Metroid: Other M charted which certainly surprised me. Wario Land was reported to have been a solid slow-burn. S&P....did anyone really expect this to sell?
It is sad to see wii sales drop so much. This has been the strongest year for the platform, and the best is yet to come.
I don't understand these sentiments. Metroid: Other M charted which certainly surprised me. Wario Land was reported to have been a solid slow-burn. S&P....did anyone really expect this to sell?
It is sad to see wii sales drop so much. This has been the strongest year for the platform, and the best is yet to come.
Other M has a target sales for 1.5 - 2 million units worldwide. I seriously doubt it'll reach anywhere close.
As for Wario Land, it doubled it's LTD the month NSMBWii came out, and I may have read on Anihawk hinting a sub 250k total. Could be wrong, but that's what I remember.
And there are plenty of other titles like this. My biggest surprise is actually Punch Out doing great numbers last year. But most of the time B and C type software behaves like C and D and even E.
Pachter did mention that "WiiHD is a missed oppertunity"
Still, people arguing that the Wii still can be around due to shovelware need to re-adjust their priorities: I'd rather have a Nintendo console with only Nintendo support than a Nintendo console with horrible shovelware.
Other M has a target sales for 2 - 2.5 million units worldwide. I seriously doubt it'll reach anywhere close.
As for Wario Land, it doubled it's LTD the month NSMBWii came out, and I may have read on Anihawk hinting a sub 250k total. Could be wrong, but that's what I remember.
And there are plenty of other titles like this. My biggest surprise is actually Punch Out doing great numbers last year. But most of the time B and C type software behaves like C and D and even E.
It doesn't drive hardware though, and even the shovelware is selling in much lower quantities now or did you miss the fact Wii software is down a massive 38% yoy?
Things are only going to get worse and that's the problem, if they could maintain sales at their current level then it might not be an issue but since the Wii has been in decline for multiple years now, that's just not going to happen. Wii hardware and software sales will be far behind the competition this time next year and even worse the year after that. At some point Nintendo have to step in and do something about that and the only solution is the launch of new hardware, the sooner the better.
I'll be surprised (and happy for Metroid) if the Other M can hit a million in a year.
Seriously Nintendo needs to start playing hard-ball and they can afford to do it. Drop the wii price, introduce new colours, introduce a player's choice line-up and maybe even a 'hidden gems' line-up (for overlooked games that reviewed well, Zak and Wiki, Red Steel 2, etc).
They can still get another kick for 2011 but they need some sort of quasi-PS3-like 'rebrand'.
I think that if Other M released on 2007 instead of Prime, we could've seen better results from the series. Even better than Prime 3 maybe. (reviews might've been different in that time period and the Wii honey moon wasn't over). It's not just the product, but the context as well...
Personally I'd love to keep it in style of Other M with one less focus on narrative, or give the localisation team more freedom. But it's obvious we're get a Metroid 2 remake next (yeah baby).
lol, how can the worst prime be better than other m
So Bioware is going to look at Hell's Kitchen selling 500k copies over 3 years and decide to change their strategy? Shovelware doesn't influence good development studios even if it increases the " total software sold" statistics.
1. It's not like it's on life support like some other consoles.
2. 3DS will be able to pick up some of the slack. Nintendo will have 3 consoles on the market then.
3. I'd argue Nintendo are in the best position right now of the big 3 to release a new console. Nintendo are the sort of people who can foresee a dip in sales and are clever enough to rectify it with new hardware (evidenced in the 3DS). Both MS and Sony are beating their chests over their own motion solutions and 10 year cycles, while Nintendo can really do whatever they want since they transcended the console war many years ago.
Absolutely, Q2 2012 at the latest. They need to stop the PS3's (and Move's) momentum and release a console while the Wii brand isn't devalued too much. The longer they leave it the harder it will be to have a successful launch.
That's the big if though, right? There's always the worse case scenario of turning into the next Dreamcast by launching too early. Not saying that Nintendo would go the way of Sega though...
That's the big if though, right? There's always the worse case scenario of turning into the next Dreamcast by launching too early. Not saying that Nintendo would go the way of Sega though...
