Nintendo's Sale Dominance Gets Noticed

Via Kotaku, a Wall Street Journal report on Nintendo's continued dominance of the game charts. The piece rehashes the February NPD numbers and discusses the role the Wii and DS have had in revitalizing a company the WSJ refers to as an 'also-ran'. "To take better advantage of the Wii's growth, EA moved quickly to ramp up game production for the system, acquiring Headgate Studios, a developer in Utah focused entirely on making titles for Nintendo hardware, and shifting resources in other EA development groups to Nintendo projects. The company released four titles for the Wii in March, including a version of its Tiger Woods golf game in which players swing the Wii controller like a club. EA is also working on a line of consumer guides for the Nintendo DS that will be aimed at older players in Japan."

Saw it coming...

[bynary]

Sony's hubris was palpable. I'm not quite sure why Microsoft hasn't garnered more of a lead here though.

Re:This is starting to get old - and I'm a fanboy.

[DDLKermit007]

EA is suffering already by not making nearly as much as they could be (that kinda stuff gets people replaced). Theres a good reason Nintendo has been the top developer for their system who rakes in the most cash. EA, and others write them off, and shortly after the Wii launch they were bitching about how they won't ever be as big as Nintendo on their own console vs MS & Sony who have fairly weak #s in their own offerings on their own systems. Could have something to do with Nintendo being fully behind their own console, and the quality involved, but who knows. I'd personally be happy if EA had nothing to do with Nintendo consoles. They just shovel out shitty sports games, rehashes, and half-assed ports.

Re:Final Fantasy XIII May Be Coming to the Wii

[Gothic_Walrus]

Um...no. That article doesn't confirm jack squat.

The number one reason? The complete and utter lack of sources. No quotes, no press releases, no anything - just their assertion that he said it, which, given that "ps3center" isn't exactly a reliable news source, is definitely not enough to base these kinds of assertions off of.

Consider it complete and utter bullshit until we see it verified by someone who's more reputable.

Re:NPD stats show that Wii production is decreasin

[stratjakt]

Huh? Those are sales numbers.

They stockpiled an assload before the launch at christmas, and those have trickled out onto the market. The lowering numbers mean the supply sitting in the warehouses in japan is running out.

I'm sure if anything production has increased, just not enough to meet the demand.

Re:NPD stats show that Wii production is decreasin

[Akaihiryuu]

My guess would be the fact that it's launched in Japan and Europe during that time period. Those numbers are too low to be worldwide.

Re: EA is getting better....

[trdrstv]

I'd personally be happy if EA had nothing to do with Nintendo consoles. They just shovel out shitty sports games, rehashes, and half-assed ports.

Saddly then you would be missing some great Wii games. Madden 07 (for the Wii) is exceptional, and both the Godfather and Tiger Woods are eating up lots of my free time. In fact, I suggest getting Tiger and the Godfather at the same time. I'm stuck on Jim Furyk in the Tiger Challenge, and each time I lose to him I throw in the Godfather so I can throttle someone with Full Motion controls.

If only I could import him into the Godfather game directly... It would be much more satisfying, and I wouldn't mind losing as much.

Yes, these are North American numbers

[jchenx]

Ahh yes, I probably should have mentioned in my post, that NPD is only North America.

People have made many good points about regions. The numbers would make a lot of sense, if it's just a matter of Nintendo shifting production capacity from region to region. If someone could pull worldwide numbers of the Wii, that would help.

That said, it is disconcerting that, at the very least, North America seems to be getting fewer and fewer units. I'm speaking from the point of a North American consumer, who just wants to be able to buy the console. From a business perspective, Nintendo may be doing the right thing, if it thinks that supplying Europe and/or Japan is more important than North America at the moment.

Canadian Football League?

[tepples]

There's a lot of new features we most likely would have by now in NFL games if this were not the case.

Then developers with compelling new features should look for a universe other than NFL. For example, Midway makes Blitz: The League. But where are the CFL games?

And don't even get me started on their recent releases for PC. The local landfill has less bugs than most EA fare does these days.

Are all the bugs necessarily EA's fault, vs. the video driver publisher's fault?

Re:Canadian Football League?

[Endo13]

Then developers with compelling new features should look for a universe other than NFL. For example, Midway makes Blitz: The League. But where are the CFL games?

Right, because everyone knows that any old football game based on no league at all or some minor/international league will sell as well as one based on the NFL. Most developers don't waste their time on these for good reason.

Are all the bugs necessarily EA's fault, vs. the video driver publisher's fault?

Yes they are. Most of the bugs have nothing to do with video at all. We're talking things like bugs in multiplayer netcode that other companies had working great since Windows 98 days and game exploits just for starters. And when the games you're releasing are primarily (if not exclusively) multiplayer, having bugs so severe in the netcode that multiplayer is broken at release is downright ridiculous.

EA hasn't released a game worth the full retail price for at least a good 5 years.

Re:Yes, these are North American numbers

[snuf23]

Keep in mind also that Wiis are available for purchase from some online retailers. The thing is places like Walmart.com are still only offering the $650 bundled setup. I would imagine these bundles don't sell as quickly so there is some stock just sitting for now.

Re: EA is getting better....

[Chris Burke]

Which has everything to do with the Wii's unique controller and very little to do with EA or Madden.

No, no... It's because of EA's implementation of controls using the Wii's unique controller. The Wiimote, awesome as it is, is not a magic wand. It does not turn shit into gold, and it's perfectly possible for a game to implement shitty controls for the Wii. In fact, seeing how hard it seemed for some game studios to get simple analog stick + binary buttons controls working reasonably, I think the potential of shitty controls for the Wii is very high, and some of the games that are out there bear this out.

I'm not a fan of EA or Madden (nor have I played it on the Wii) but the reason people keep talking about Madden for the Wii is because EA did a good job of implementing the controls and creating a unique experience. Never would have happened without the Wii there in the first place, but hey that's the whole point of Nintendo's strategy, breaking game developers out of their old habits and getting them to do something new.

I give up.

[LWATCDR]

I can not make up anything as stupid as reality.