Wii Launches, Sells Out Peacefully

porcupine8 writes "Like the Playstation 3, the Nintendo Wii sold out on launch day this weekend. Unlike the PS3, the launch was a peaceful affair with no reports yet of console-related violence in the US. This may be partially due to the fact that Nintendo promises to have a total of four million units in stores by Christmas, with the bulk of those going to North America. Midnight launch parties on both the east and west coasts ushered the new console in with a bang." Please, if you've managed to snag a Wii yourself, share your opinions below! Update: 11/20 17:25 GMT by Z : A few quick impressions from 24 hours of owning a Wii, and some links on the subject if you Read More.

All I have to say so far is pretty positive. I snagged Rayman Raving Rabbids, Zelda, and (on a lark) Red Steel. I haven't had the heart to play Red Steel yet, but Rayman is a great, quirky mini-game game. I think this format is going to be pretty common for the Wii, and I'm actually looking forward to it. Zelda is ... Zelda. I really, really like it, but if you're getting tired of the same old thing you're going to be disappointed. My big complaint is the glacially slow internet connection. I have never owned a Genesis, and so wanted to snag Sonic for some cheap laughs. Purchasing Wii points took about half an hour, and I never actually managed to download the game (despite having paid for it). I'm hoping that today, with less hammering on the servers, I'll have more luck. Expect a more complete review next week. In the mean time, Chris Kohler at Game|Life has had a Wii since last week, and has some considered opinions on its launch issues, and a bit more specifically on virtual console problems.

That just means...

That Wii gamers are peace-loving pansies, and PS3 users are bad-ass tough guys.

Therefore PS3 games will be cooler.

-PS3 fanboy, loal x 3

Re:That just means...

That Wii gamers are peace-loving pansies, and PS3 users are bad-ass tough guys.

Or that Nintendo made a console that can sell itself and doesn't need to be hyped by limiting supply to increase demand.

you know... whichever you prefer.

Re:That just means...

or PS3 users just don't realize they're getting ripped off -Only spent $250 on his console

Re:That just means...

Hmmm... this system is still very expensive for me...

$250 - console
$49.99 (4) - games
$39.99 (3) - Wii Remotes
$19.99 (1) - nunchuck (still trying to find 2 more)
$19.99 (2) - classic controller (still haven't arrived at our GameStop oddly enough)
$39.99 - 2gb SD card (Haven't ordered quite yet)
$20.00 - Wii Points (to purchase Zelda, and have a few floating around for an impulse purchase)

===

$660 - $740 (if you count the 2 Nunchucks and SD I still need/want to buy)

Of course, I also had this...
~$210 - trade-in for games

Still a lot of money. Though, I'm sure the PS3 will end up even worse when you break it down like above, since their games list price are higher along with the console.

Cheers,
Fozzy

xkcd

This one nailed it: Console Lines [xkcd.com]

console-related violence

No violence? Yeah right. While I was waiting for a Wii someone actually jumped on my head. As if that wasn't enough, he then threw a turtle shell at me.

Re:console-related violence

Hey asshole, I'm the guy who jumped on your head. You want to know what sucked most of all?

When I finally got to the front of the line, there was a sign that said, "We've sold out of Wiis, try another castle."

Re:xkcd == pure genius

I still maintain that VG Cats [vgcats.com] say it best.

Re:xkcd == pure genius

I have been saying exactly this (minus the pics) for months now. It's good to hear it from someone else.

This concept of "console sell-out = good thing", just doesn't ring true with me. My little bro had a pre-ordered 360 for last x-mas, but didn't get it until February. B/c we knew he wouldn't have it, nobody bought him the standard set of accessory gifts (controller, Live subscription, games), so for two months MS lost this potential income as it was spent elsewhere.

I don't know where the pro MS marketers got their ideas, but most people I know, but things in small bursts. Once the console is paid off, they'll buy a controller one month then a game here and a game there. I know very few, if any, people who will hold money in some sort of "personal x-box account" waiting for their next big spend. If there's no x-box accessory, the money just gets spent elsewhere (nice dinner, night at the movies, computer accessory,...)

I'm probably a rare case, but I didn't buy an XBox 360 b/c I couldn't buy one. It was late January, I'd been interested in owning one for 3+ months, but nobody had any in stock. My local outlets were still filling pre-orders taken in November. So I took the money and spent it elsewhere (bunch of Magic cards). I still don't own a 360, but I'm not unhappy playing my Dance Dance and Karaoke Revolutions (given that penchant, I'll probably end up with a Wii).

Point is, MS lots tons of "opportunity buys". The console is the biggest barrier to entry, yet the games/accessories are the largest source of profit. If people can't buy a console (even with money in hand), then you've erected an infinite barrier to entry. Inability to buy a console bottlenecks the whole chain from the very beginning. Nintendo obviously has the right strategy here, they sound like the stock to own.

Re:xkcd

The Best Buy by my house took a full hour after opening to sell out. I'd meant to get there half an hour before opening, but due to an exceptionally crazy saturday night, was in no condition to get up when my alarm went off.

More proof that alcohol is bad, kids: if you drink, you don't get a Wii.

Re:xkcd

More proof that alcohol is bad, kids: if you drink, you don't get a Wii.

To the contrary, I find that the more I drink, the more I Wii.

Long queues reported for a Wii...

And there was me thinking it was just women who suffered from this social problem... :P

Local Gamestore Figures

Wii: 50 units
PS3: 1 unit

The question that's coming in the spring, when the PS3 might actually be available in quantity, is what kind of demand will exist once all the hardcore types already have theirs.

I expected it

I thought it would sell out on day 1, but what I worry about as an English man who hasn't pre-ordered is if we'll see stocks pick up before christmas. Ideally it'd be good to be able to buy one off the self after less than a week... but with hearing that the bulk of their stocks are going to North America I'm left a little worried - I might have to preorder after all.

Of course "day 1" is a sellout...

Of course "day 1" is a sellout...this is one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book.

If they made 1M units available on day 1 and only 50% sold, the headline would be: "Plenty of Product X left after first day (expect discounts soon)"

However, when they make 100K units available on day 1 and all sell in a few hours, the headline is "Product X sells out first day (don't expect a discount soon)"

The whole point is to create a buyers frenzy and match it with artificial supply constraints to ensure everyone pays full price or more, all while getting free press from Slashdot and other media whores with lazy editors...

Re:Of course "day 1" is a sellout...

Maybe that's the geniuses at Sony's marketing but it doesn't seem to be the same for Nintendo. I have a nasty flu bug/cold bug and wasn't about to camp out overnight in sub 40 degree weather. Then to top it off my youngest child decided to wake up at 11PM and stay up until about 4AM so I was in no mood to wander over to the nearest target that was selling at 8AM Sunday morning.

We figured the 36 they told us they'd have would be out of stock shortly, and they were. They told us they had 36 of them and 40 people were camped out front here in Wake Forest, NC.

They also told us that they will be getting bi-weekly shipments of 'at least a dozen' from now until after Christmas. I had my wife call and she said the guy laughed and said 'good luck though if you want a PS3, nothing like that is coming'. It seems to me that Nintendo did a huge build as much as they could, shipped them, and then is going to keep the pipe full from now until the end of the year.

Meanwhile PS3 blew their wad quickly, and is going to take months to recover.

Also speaking as someone who is in product marketing as my day job I can tell you that personally I've never twirled my mustache points thinking 'ooh, let's make one and that'll drive up demand' because people can/do find something 'good enough' to take its place and loosing to THAT kind of a sale sucks more because you've just collapsed your market onto a competitors product. This is my personal opinion at least, maybe there's a secret club of people that do that but not at my level.

Re:Linux

What CPU does it use? Another Power-based from IBM?

Not really related, but I was looking at how the hardware designers came together for the current and last generation of consoles, and it was pretty interesting.

Sixth generation:

PS2: Sony/Toshiba CPU + Sony GPU
GameCube: IBM CPU + ATI GPU
Xbox: Intel CPU + NVIDIA GPU

Seventh generation:

PS3: IBM CPU + NVIDIA GPU
Wii: IBM CPU + ATI GPU
Xbox 360: IBM CPU + ATI GPU

Why a Christmas Launch?

If Nintendo really can have 4 million Wiis in stores by christmas, a late november launch makes sense, but in the case of the PS3, why did they release this late when they know full well they won't even begin to meet demand for christmas?

Christmas buyers aren't your hard core fanboys who will wait in line to buy the thing, so why not launch it in the summer, get the fanboys set, then work hard to produce enough of your system to keep in in stock for christmas buyers (you know, like MS did). Sony made a major error here, in that lots moms and dads buying the system for their kids are going to wait a full year till next christmas to do so. Meanwhile, Nintendo has Wiis in stock, for 1/2 the price, ready to be snatched up by Santa.

Re:Why a Christmas Launch?

It's not like Sony wanted to release the console this late. It was initially delayed because of problems with the Cell processor and the Blu-ray readers. This is also why there aren't that many units available for sale.

Ninentdo vs. Sony/Microsoft

Nintendo's market is VERY different than Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo lost 3rd party support in the N64 era, and only slightly recovered with the Gamecube. They will probably recover more with the Wii, primarily because the system is SO different, companies will make a bunch of interesting puzzle games that take advantage of the different UI.

However, Nintendo can come in third and be very happy in their market. Sony/MS need HUGE 3rd party support, because they only make about $8/game sold by third parties. Nintendo makes most of the top sellers (keeping $42/game), and publishes most of the rest (keeping between $16 and $30/game... publishing games sometimes means that they pay development costs + profits, and then keep the $42/game, but figure that the royalties + costs brings that down a bit).

Also, Nintendo has traditionally sold consoles at a profit (at some points with the Gamecube, they sold at a loss). Supposedly that's only a few dollars a console at launch, losses during heavy cuts, and profits in later parts of the system's life. Microsoft bit a big bullet in the Xbox because they were using customized parts with contracted pricing, they learned their lesson this time. Nintendo uses mostly off-the-shelf components, and sets their contracts to decline over time, which Microsoft is aping).

Nintendo probably makes money if you buy their System + 1-2 games (a Mario game and a Zelda game, for example), and then cleans up if you buy more. Because Nintendo's stop selling games are normally Mario, Zelda, and a few other of their games, they make much more money per console than Sony and Microsoft do with their third party fees.

Remember, profits are in the games, and Nintendo's premier games normally sell in the same quantity (or higher) than Sony and Microsoft's top games do... not sure how Mario Sunshine vs. Halo worked out, but if Microsoft outsold them, it wasn't the HUGE difference that the console sales volumes would indicate.

Sony owns the market of hardcore gamers, but Microsoft looks like they are going to do well in the Xbox 360 arena. However, hardcore gamers that rent a few games a month may not put more money into Sony and Microsoft's pocket than a casual Nintendo customer that buys Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and a few other premier games.

Hell, Animal Forest never had a huge player base, but it used simple N64 era graphics with simple programming, and no doubt turned a nice profit.

As a gamer, I'd love Mario to be the most high-tech game on the market, but I can appreciate that Nintendo can make games that are 80% as high-tech as the MS/Sony games are for less than half the cost, sell the same number of units, and make more money. Nintendo has spent two generations not being the top dog, and still made money, while Sega dropped out of hardware, Microsoft lost $4 billion, and Sony kept going. It's unclear whether Sony made more money off the Playstation as Nintendo did with the N64 (the companies don't break out numbers, and analysts gave mixed estimates), but the fact that the PS outsold the N64 4:1 and we're not sure who made money demonstrates the power of Nintendo's business plan... and the Xbox 360 and PS3 are requiring MUCH larger hardware subsidies as last round... last round, Nintendo turned profits, and Microsoft outsold them 2:1 and lost money. Competition makes things better for consumers (as the MS vs. Sony battle to destroy profit margins demonstrated), but the companies with more monopoly pricing power do better.

Expect Nintendo to keep doing their thing, making innovative new systems, selling in third place, and making gamers happy along the way.

Alex

Re: Nintendo Games out sell the competition...

Nintendo's premier games normally sell in the same quantity (or higher) than Sony and Microsoft's top games do. not sure how Mario Sunshine vs. Halo worked out...

I do. [vgcharts.org] Super Mario Sunshine sold less copies than Halo, however... Nintendogs outsold Halo 2 and almost every entry of Pokemon outsold GTA.

It has its very own

form of violence. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s= &threadid=2183346 [somethingawful.com]

Re:Wii/PS3 numbers

Your numbers are incorrect. (Probably just out of date.)

The PS3 shipped 80,000 units [ign.com] in Japan, and another 200,000 to 400,000 [videogamesblogger.com] to the U.S. (No one is entirely sure of the exact number.) The Wii shipped over a million units [arstechnica.com] to the U.S. with some reports saying it was as high as 1.2 million [gamespot.com].

According to Sony, the PS3 is expected to ship about 2 million units [joystiq.com] worldwide by the end of the year. They admit that their figures are "more of a target" though. According to Nintendo, they are committed to bringing at least 4 million units [gamasutra.com] worldwide by the end of the year.

financial incentives

That's because the robbers make roughly 60% less money for each unit of felonious prison sentence.

No way would I go to jail for 10-25 years just to make $250. But, for $600 it starts to look more attractive.

Two more weeks for Japan

December 2nd can't come too soon. We had massive camping and disappointed pre-orderers at two local gamestores for the PS3 launch (so I'm told -- $600?! No, sorry, not even for White Knight), but the Wii launch is probably going to be smooth as silk. I say this because I walked into a store which wouldn't even take pre-orders for the PS3 and asked if I could pre-order a Wii and Zelda. "Oh, sure, no problem. Do you want us to give you a call on release day to remind you?" Thats like the definition of non-hysteria.

my launch experience

I bought a Wii at launch at 8 am at a local Target. I got there around 1 am, and was 10th in line. The store had said they had 20-30 units earlier that day, but refused to give a full count. We played some frisbee, security yelled at a couple high school kids for shopping cart jousting, Mario Kart DS was played until everyones hands were nearly frozen off (It was around 15 degrees F) and then everyone sat around until 7:30, when they handed out tickets and popcorn and soda (nothing like a cold diet coke after 7 hours in th e cold. They didn't have enough for everyone in the line, but a bunch of people had gotten there around 7 am so they weren't that dissapointed. Bought my unit and a Wiimote + Nunchuck, I'm going to leech Zelda off of one of the 3 people I know that bought it in a couple weeks. I was waiting for more reviews of games, I might actually buy Madden 07 (first madden game in 6 years, finally changed enough to justify it.)

Wii Bowling so far has been the most popular Wii Sport, with Boxing/Golf also being played often. Bowling's Power Shot training mode, where an additional row of pins is added each frame, leading to a final frame of 91 pins, has been played a lot.

First system I've gotten on Opening Day, thus far I think it was worth it.

Wiilief

I'm just glad to see some positive press coverage of gaming for once. In terms of friendliness, camaraderie, and just plain fun, the Wii launch stood in stark contrast to the PS3 debacle. I commented some time ago in a thread that I'm a fairly hardcore PC gamer but the Wii was enough to make me consider a foray into console gaming. This launch has only solidified that temptation.

Good work, Nintendo

Stop calling /. editors Wii fanboys

You don't know what is a fanboy until you read this:

The first buyer, Isaiah Triforce Johnson, had been waiting outside the store for more than a week. He wore a Nintendo Power Glove, a wearable controller that came out in 1989, while shaking hands with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. Johnson said he had legally changed his name to include a reference to Nintendo's "Zelda" series of games.

Technical Specs?

Now that the Wii has been released, has anyone found any more technical details (CPU etc.) about it? I know it's not about the graphics, but I'd like to know a bit more about what it's capable of.

Re:Technical Specs?

Per wii-volution.com:

• 729 MHz IBM PowerPC "Broadway" CPU
• 243 MHz ATI "Hollywood" GPU
• 24MBs "main" 1T-SRAM
• 64MBs other 1T-SRAM
• 512MBs internal flash memory
• 3MBs texture memory on GPU
• Built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi capability
• One SD memory card bay
• AV multi-port: S-video, composite, component Analog (left/right) audio / DPLII
• Four GameCube controller ports Two GameCube Memory Pak slots
• Two USB 2.0 ports Compatible with up to four wireless Wii-motes
• Self-loading media drive
• Accepts 12cm Wii and 8cm GCN discs; no DVD movies

I waited for 10 hours

I waited outside of Best Buy for 10 hours to get my Wii. I've told myself that I'd never stand outside of a stoor waiting to buy anything except food, but I have to admit that I had great fun. Since I just moved into a new town a few months ago, it was a good opportunity to meet some fellow gamers, as well as to build up anticipation for finally getting the system.
Although I waited all night, the line I was in didn't actually fill up until about 6:30 am. At 8 the store handed out vouches to the first 24 people in line, then we all lined up again at 9 (along with quite a lot of people who had no idea that there had been vouchers handed out earlier, and were hoping to get a system).
I got Zelda and Red Steel (although now that I have heard how abysmal the Red Steel seems to be, and since I haven't opened it, I'm considering making an attempt at returning it and getting Monkey Ball instead), and I have to say that so far the system has definitely been worth it.
The only problem I've had so far is that nintendo's servers seem to be having problems, because I keep running into timeout problems when trying to update the console so I can get into Wii Shop and check out the virtual console.

Re:Internet connection issues?

But since it's Nintendo, even connection errors is really FUN, aren't they? ;P

Managed to pick it up

I preordered it a month or so back so my Wii (still looks really strange writing that) was all ready to go when I picked it up on Sunday at 10am. Bestbuy, which was next to the store I bought mine from opened at 8am, so I figured hey why not stop by at 8:15 or so just to see if I can grab zelda and the classic controller.. heh, there must of been 200 people there trying to push they're way into the doors! screw that, i'll wait till 10am and grab it with the system.. Went to the store, no problems at all, grabbed it, played all yesterday, etc..

And ya, now my friggin arms hurt! a good workout hurt, but still. This game system may single handledly change the fat kid playing video games generalization to in shape kids. Popped in wii sports when a few friends came over and I must say, we had a great time and had many laughs (heh, boxing is jokes, not perfect but it still gets the heart rate up and kinda makes you look foolish)

I thought this would be a gimmicky system, but so far everything has run perfectly(controller, setup, virtual console, etc).. I'll see how I feel about it in a few months, but so far it's been an awesome experience. Good work nintendo

MrJynxx

My walmart story!

Got to Walmart @ 2:30pm. Was #17 out of 20 in line. My friend Chip was #13. #8-12 was a family (father, mother, 2 sons and a daughter) all in line. They had done a few days in line earlier this week and gotten three PS3's. They were really really nice people. At 8pm walmart handed out 20 vouchers and once we had them a few of us went to Bob Evans for some dinner. Back to Walmart and at 10 they let us inside to get warm. That was nice of Walmart. At 11:45 these two doofy looking guys come up and offer $500 for a VOUCHER. No Wii, just a VOUCHER. The family in front of us took them up on the offer and also sold the doofy guys a PS3 they had for $1800. Got my Wii, headed home. Also, it is amazing.

Wii Restocking

When I picked up my Wii on Sunday from the local EB, the manager mentioned that he was told to expect more units in store by Wednesday at the latest. If that turns out to be the case, that's a far cry from what we're hearing about PS3 restocks.

WII/PS3 3:1 ratio available

FWIW: I got a WII at a GameStop. They got 15. They had 6 PS3s on release day. I went by a Target yesterday and they had about the same story. They recieved 94 WIIs and said they got 32 PS3s.

Back in the early 90's I worked at an Electronics Boutique with the NES, Sega Master System, SNES, TurboGrafx and Sega Genesis were hot. Sales often came down to availability. If a kid wanted a SNES for Xmas but we only had Genesis in stock, the parent usually ended up getting the Genesis. The reverse also happened often. Both systems were in short supply and high demand for several years around the holidays. They were both comperable and had many of the same games. It looks like the WII will get a much larger system base if they can outsupply Sony 3:1 in the near future. I suspect they could even catch up with the 360.