Do You Still Play Your Wii?
Yesterday I noted my slight incredulity that the Wii is still flying off shelves despite a dearth of critically acclaimed games. We certainly know Nintendo's moving hardware, but we also know they're moving considerably less software than Microsoft, slightly less even than Sony, and I have to wonder -- how many of you are still playing your Wii regularly, or for more than the occasional Zelda or Metroid or Mario one-off, or more than a couple times a week with friends and/or family?
According to analyst Nick Williams (GamerMetrics) in a Gamasutra console progress report, the average Wii owner in the U.S. has only purchased 2.8 titles versus 5.5 for the Xbox 360 and 3.0 for the Playstation 3. Translation? People are either playing more of less on the Wii, or playing less in general, i.e. the sort of consumer who'll drop $250 on a treadmill but only use it once or twice a week, even once or twice a month. During a fitness craze, treadmill sales might go up and even stay up for a year plus, but the question is really, how much are people getting on the thing and using it post-purchase?
Analyst David Cole's (DFC) writes Nintendo's mediocre software lineup off as a first year issue, which I'd buy if the Wii wasn't essentially just a GameCube with a motion sensor interface. Granted designing justifiably motion-controlled games is arguably as steep a curve as transitioning a game environment from 2D to 3D, but what no one talks about here -- and it's a key issue -- is the fact that publishers simply weren't banking on the Wii to succeed or tap such a broad new player market. How many announcements in the last few months have we seen from major publishers suddenly rededicating themselves to the Wii? Publishers who either had nothing or only a handful of uninspiring cross-platform ports lined up until recently? Explanation: You don't argue with a console that's surpassed the Xbox 360's worldwide install numbers in less than half the market time.
Cole has this much right: Nintendo's in a fabulous position to close the software sales gap if it can remedy its lineup issues. Whether that can ultimately keep "the little engine that could" in the game beyond 2008 when Sony and Microsoft are pushing second and third stage stuff...I think we're all enjoying the David and Goliath parallels here, but you can only bank on that analogy for so long.
In any event, my question stands: Who's playing, and how much?
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I play Metriod a couple times a week. A friend of mine (not a "hardcore" gamer) brings over Mario Party a couple times a week, and we get a small group to play.
When Smash Brothers comes out, I'll be playing daily. Other games on my radar are:
Capcom: Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
Ubisoft: Rayman 2
Ubisoft: No More Heros
Are you counting virtual console games? I own about a dozen VC games and 5 gamecube games (counting the continued sales of those?) but only 3 actual Wii games. I may be a-typical, who knows, but of the people I know the Wii gets decent use. Maybe only 2 or 3 times a week, but considering that many Wii owners are casual gamers (like myself) I'd say 2 or 3 times a week is excellent.
I play several times a week, especially Metroid Prime 3 most recently and just as I posted on another article of Peckham's, the line-up of games that are coming have numerous quality titles in it - Peckham merely does not know his subject that great at all.
Yes, there are some issues from the third party stand point, but this is mostly because of the fact that they were not expecting the Wii to be such a success. Also, in regards to the software tie-in for PS3 compared to Wii, PS3 has sold a lot less consoles and those consoles that were sold were sold almost universally to the hardcore Sony fans that will buy a large number of games no matter what.