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Businesses Entertainment Games

Wii, DS Dominate February Hardware Sales 149

Posted by Zonk from the nintendo-built-this-city-on-mario-and-link dept.
Gamasutra has the NPD numbers for last month, which shows a continuation of Nintendo's sales dominance. Overall the new consoles have again meant that industry sales were up, some 28% over last year's same-month figures. Hardware sales were up some 98%, with much of that performance attributable to the DS and Wii. Here's the breakdown: "Turning to hardware, the DS headed overall hardware sell-through with an impressive 485,000 units, followed by Nintendo's Wii, which sold 335,000 units despite continued issues with shortages. The Xbox 360 sold through a reasonable, if not spectacular 228,000 copies, and the PlayStation 3 slumped to a disappointing 127,000 units, despite no apparent shortages. Elsewhere, the PlayStation 2 moved a still impressive 295,000 at its relatively cheap current price, and the PlayStation Portable sold 176,000, markedly behind the DS. Finally, the various varieties of the Game Boy Advance sold a not unreasonable 136,000 units."
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Wii, DS Dominate February Hardware Sales More

Wii, DS Dominate February Hardware Sales

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  • That was a heroic effort (Score:5, Funny)

    by voice_of_all_reason ( 926702 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @10:44AM (#18375769)
    PlayStation 3 slumped to a disappointing 127,000 units
    the various varieties of the Game Boy Advance sold a not unreasonable 136,000 units.

     I've not seen such bravery.

    • Re:That was a heroic effort (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pipatron ( 966506 ) <pipatron@gmail.com> on Friday March 16, 2007 @10:55AM (#18375939) Homepage
      Well, the Game Boy Advance is 6 years old.
    • The price is right, the new screen is excellent, good selection of games, and the form factor is perfect.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
      Well, the GBA is obsolete for years now (since the DS plays GBA games and more). The PS3 is a new console. While it's reasonable that the PS2 would outsell the PS3 at this point (mostly due to price) the GBA should have died a year ago because the DS is juat a better choice (unless you want to play GBC and GB games but is that really something that people will buy a GBA for NOW?).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by JMZero ( 449047 )
        We have a DS that we've really enjoyed (lately we've been playing Hotel Dusk while driving on road trips) - but I bought a GBA Micro as a Christmas present for my wife. It was $30, it's ridiculously tiny, and cute as a button. Great buy. We already had her favorite games on the GBA (Bust-A-Move, Klax) - but our "original" GBA seems like a dark, bulky monstrosity now. Even a DS Lite seems like a tank next to a GBA Micro.

        Anyways, with the prices (and form factor) they can produce these at I'm not surprise

    • Re:That was a heroic effort (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Chris Burke ( 6130 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @01:34PM (#18378347) Homepage
      127,000 units sold of your brand new console is dissapointing.

      136,000 units sold of your extremely old, obsolete console is not unreasonable.

      295,000 units sold of your old, obsolete console is impressive.

      Where is the bravery? Recognizing context? Understanding that different numbers mean different things for different situations?

      Here's another example of how similar numbers could be either impressive or dissapointing, depending on context.

      "Florence Joyner ran a dissapointing 11.4s 100m dash in a 1997 time trial..."

      "Stephen Hawking ran a truly incredible 12s 100m dash yesterday..."

    • Considering that one of those is supposedly the latest and greatest console and has quite a bit of marketing dollars behind it while the other one is a last-generation handheld that has zero marketing going on with it right now, I'd say that their choice of adjectives is not too bad.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @10:46AM (#18375805)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by voice_of_all_reason ( 926702 )
      Nintendo should have charged nothing extra and threw in 5-10 of the hard drive emulation games (nes and SNES). It wouldn't "cost" them much in lost sales, cost almost nothing in implementation, but come off to the market as "10 free games omg hax!!111"

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
        They can still do that later when needed, right now Wii Sports seems to work well enough for selling these.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by xtracto ( 837672 )
        I recently got pissed off by the Wii NES games... I have been reluctant to buy Wii points as I think the games are terribly overpriced. Finally I bought 1000 (the least you can buy) and I got the Super Maril Bros (NES) game.

        The game has a lot of glitches, darn, it just does not compare to what you can achieve with nesticle + romhustler . The control is a bit awkward and worst of all the 99 lives trick at world 3-1 can not be done (yeah I know how to do it, I do it every time I play SMB in the NES).

        Everythin
        • I can't testify as to Europe as I don't live there, and I can't testify as to the rest of the United States as I am only one person, but my experience with the Virtual Console has been flawless including Super Mario Bros.

        • Re:Nintendo must be kicking themselves (Score:5, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16, 2007 @02:40PM (#18379297)
          The control is a bit awkward and worst of all the 99 lives trick at world 3-1 can not be done (yeah I know how to do it, I do it every time I play SMB in the NES).

          You don't know how to do it very well then. It works - I've done it.

          I figured they'd have fixed the Minus World in the SMB download. Even *that* is still there. I couldn't do that myself, but I got a friend of mine to come over and he was there in five minutes.

          Sorry that you suck.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Svenheim ( 723925 )
          The Virtual Console in Europe is a disaster. All the games except the Turbografx games run in 50 Hz mode, and almost all of them are UNOPTIMIZED pal, which means 17% slower gameplay, and a picture that is squeezed, so the proportions are wrong, and there are black borders above and below the picture.

          All new Wii games run perfectly in 60 Hz on the PAL console, but for some reason Nintendo are fucking retards when it comes to their Virtual Console, so the PAL games have exactly the same flaws they had _20 YEA
          • Have you taken the time to tell Nintendo of Europe about this?

            Additionally, are there any video game companies that don't treat Europe this way? I seem to remember hearing complaints about Europe's "second class" position in reference to Sony and Microsoft's game divisions in the past.

            I'm not saying its right, but given the complaints it seems industry-wide.
            • I've told them like a million times. they never respond.
              • Did you call them or e-mail them?

                As nifty as letters and e-mail are, it's been my experience stateside that there's nothing that beats a good phone call. It may not always be more effectively, but at least you know some human had to listen to you.

                Outside of that, I can't think of anything else to do that you haven't already done. :(

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by saboola ( 655522 )
        They would be kicking themselves if they DID do that. They are not having a hard time selling this console. Giving away 10 free games makes no sense from a business standpoint.

    • Perhaps it's Nintendo that should have charged $5-600 for their console, and Sony who should have tried to sell their's for $250...

      Except then instead of trying for more than three months to buy one (finally succeeded last week), I would have felt insulted and ignored the system entirely. I might buy a PS3 at $250, though... :-P

  • I STILL cant buy a Wii!

    • Hang in there, man. It's worth the wait.

      (Just got mine a week ago :-P)

    • Keep checking http://www.xpbargains.com/wii_locator.php [xpbargains.com]

      Eventually I managed to order one during a 6 minute period when it was in stock at Toys"R"Us. It was a bundle, but bundled with 2 games I was planning to get anyway.

      Other than the console, Wii hardware seems to be available now. I picked up a spare remote and nunchuck at Target the other day.

      Oh, and while you're waiting, skim Craiglist every day and flag the fucking scalpers.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by c_forq ( 924234 )
      I just got one less than a week ago, after trying since they come out. Keep track of the locator one of the previous responses posted, that is what I used to get mine.

  • not completely surprised ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Frag-A-Muffin ( 5490 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @10:52AM (#18375903)
    ... although all i have is anecdotal evidence.

    Every time I take my Wii to a friend's house, not only do they love it, but their (female!) spouse love it! It goes beyond that too. Often times, the parents will join in, and they love it too!

    The only people I know that don't really like it are the uber-hardcore gamers. I know plenty of "hardcore" gamers that love it fine, but complement it with a dose of the 360/PS3.

    So let's think about their target market now. The uber-hardcore don't like it. Fine. But the hardcore like it and ... <drumroll> ... the rest of the world loves it :) That's a big market. Much bigger than the old target market. When sales data like this comes out, it just reinforces the notion that Nintendo got something right this round.

    Congrats Nintendo!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Mizled ( 1000175 )

      The only people I know that don't really like it are the uber-hardcore gamers

      I consider myself a pretty hardcore gamer. I spend most of my free time playing games. I'm not a fan of consoles, I'm a PC gamer. However, I own a Wii and love it. When I'm bored of my PC games (mostly FPS, I play a little EVE too) etc it's nice to relax playing some Twilight Princess or Rayman (As much as you can relax while playing Rayman =p).

      The Wii remote makes the console what it is. Most console controllers are clunky an


      • I consider myself a pretty hardcore gamer. I spend most of my free time playing games. I'm not a fan of consoles, I'm a PC gamer. However, I own a Wii and love it. When I'm bored of my PC games (mostly FPS, I play a little EVE too) etc it's nice to relax playing some Twilight Princess or Rayman (As much as you can relax while playing Rayman =p).

        The Wii remote makes the console what it is. Most console controllers are clunky and hard to move your character or AIM but the Wii-mote makes it simple and easy.
        I s

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by kennedy ( 18142 )
      I would classify myself as a "hardcore gamer", and i actually REALLY love the Wii. IMO the system's control scheme is refreshing and most of all any of my friends and family can join in. I also own a ps3, and while the system is a beast in terms of power, the software just isn't there yet[except say motorstorm] (so it hasn't been used nearly as much as the Wii).

      a side note - i also own both a DS and a PSP, and honestly my PSP has been getting far more playtime than the DS since Jan 06 (when i got the PSP).
    • Every time I take my Wii to a friend's house, not only do they love it, but their (female!) spouse love it! It goes beyond that too. Often times, the parents will join in, and they love it too!

      Same story here. I queued on launch night to get my Wii. I was there for Zelda, so was damn near everyone in the queue. That's what sold Wii to the fanboys.

      Since then, it's been Wii Sports all the way. Those fanboys went home and played Tennis and Bowling with family and friends. That's what sold it to them. Wii S

      • It's definitely Tennis and Bowling.

        Those are what had my family enjoying themselves. The other three, they were okay. I think the Baseball, Golf and Boxing could have used some more polish.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by trdrstv ( 986999 )
        Wii Sports might actually be the most important game since... Doom? Tetris? Because that's what's driving the endless Wii shortage - viral marketing courtesy of the Wii Tennis 'we have got to get one of these' effect.

        I would agree in reguard to WiiSports being the most important game since Tetris (on Gameboy). Both were pack-ins that drew in new gamers, and drove sales of many units beyond the traditional market.

    • Re:not completely surprised ... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Konowl ( 223655 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @11:53AM (#18376965)
      I took it to my parents house, where my 78 year old GRANDMOTHER was playing Wii Tennis.

      My grandmother walked into the living room, saw us playing tennis and started laughing - I told her to grab the controller. She said "I can never play videogames". "Grandma, it's easy" I said.

      She proceeded to play... to even jump to make smash shots. Most comical.

      Also, my mom phones me once every couple of weeks to bring over the Wii.

      It may not be the most powerful system, but it's definately opening Nintendo up to new demographics.

    • Every time I take my Wii to a friend's house, not only do they love it, but their (female!) spouse love it! It goes beyond that too. Often times, the parents will join in, and they love it too!

      Yeah, I have that experience too. One note: make sure to draw the blinds before whipping out your Wii, or you may get busted for indecent exposure. Especially if you're sharing it with an entire family.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by saboola ( 655522 )
      I got my Wii at launch, and it's spread like a virus among all of my non-gaming friends and relatives (95% of who I know). Nintendo hit one out of the park this time. Jimmy Numbnuts might not like it because it's not Gears of War (I own that too, and it is great) but the rest of the market is gobbling it up. It is in my mind the return of the NES.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by 7Prime ( 871679 )
      It's not so much a question of magnitude of "hardcore-ness", as much as the interpretation of the word "hardcore". There are two distinctly different popular definitions surrounding the word hardcore, and they seem to be getting confused here.

      1. Referring to anything that attempts to portray a high volume of extroverted masculinity (machismo) via adrenaline-producing properties: "hardcore porn", "hardcore violence", "hardcore action", "hardcore sports", "hardcore music".

      2. Referring to a high level of dedic

  • Ratios (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Applekid ( 993327 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @10:57AM (#18375973)
    "The Xbox 360 sold through a reasonable, if not spectacular 228,000 copies, and the PlayStation 3 slumped to a disappointing 127,000 units, "

    They're really not talking up this point. That's 360 outselling PS3 by almost 2:1. Even with it including a BluRay player and SIXAXIS. 228,000 isn't "spectacular", but considering Christmas was only two months earlier, I certainly agree it's reasonable.

    Anyone still have the old Dreamcast sales figures? I'd like to see how current events mirror those.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by AvitarX ( 172628 )
      DC vs 360 [vgcharts.org]
      DC cs PS3 [vgcharts.org]

      Looks bad for Sony.

      • Err... actually, it seems to me that those charts just rub in that with only four months of data, it's impossible to say how these consoles will do in the long run. If you chopped off the 360 chart at 4 months, it wouldn't look nearly as favorable compared to the Dreamcast, and only marginally above the PS3, yet it appears to be doing fine now. The PS3 may mature and stabilize and do quite well given another 6-8 months.

        Damn. Now look, your unsupported extrapolation made me actually defend Sony... I need t

      • The PS3 launch more or less coincides with the annual Christmas bump.

        My question is, in which markets were the DC and PS3 launched in the first 6 months?

        I would _assume_ that both were launched in Japan first. Did the DC make it to NA in the first few months? How about Europe?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 )
      And the Wii by almost 3:1.
      As far as shortages go I can get a PS3 at any local WalMart. I still can not buy a Will :( My wife really wants one.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mgblst ( 80109 )
        Dreamcast sold 0 units, which while a low number, shows consistency with the last 50 months of activity. Sega was unavailable for comment.

        I think, by these figures, that things will be quite different this time. I can't see Sony getting out of the business, nor can I see Microsoft leaving (they are doing well enough), and with Nintendos figures, even though they are the underdog, they will stay the course. While there has always been room for 2 big players (percentage sales wise), maybe there is now room fo

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LWATCDR ( 28044 )
          There is room for as many that are willing to loose money at it.

          I think both Microsoft and Sony have decided that they really don't care that much about games.
          What they are after is the new TV. Apple, Sony, and Microsoft see TV dieing. Why pay for cable if you can cherry pick the shows you want to see and have them delivered to your TV for you? Tivo has changed the way that most people watch TV. There is no Prime time because you can grab what you want and watch it when you want. The 360 and PS3 will let y
    • The Dreamcast's demise and sales figures can not be directly compared to the PS3 sales figures. The Dreamcast died because it was utterly and completely hacked. No mods needed. No opening up, no voiding warrenty, no soddering, nothing. Just simply copy the contents of the CD to a folder, and run a utility against it which created the ISO image. Burn the image, done. Perfect working pirated game. Due to this, game sales plummeted since people were simply renting the game and burning their own copy.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by lucabrasi999 ( 585141 )
        Perfect working pirated game. Due to this, game sales plummeted since people were simply renting the game and burning their own copy

        Nice theory, not necessarily a complete picture. The Dreamcast died because: 1) Sega never really got over the way they clumsily 'killed' the Saturn. 2) EA announced that they were not creating games for the Dreamcast and instead through all of their development effort behind PS2. As such, the PS2 had a larger variety of games available. 3) Sony announced that PS2 would


    • So Nintendo is on track to sell 4 million Wii's this year, Microsoft is going strong with 3 million sales in the Xbox 360's second year, and Sony might hit 1.5 million PlayStation 3's sold.

      The analysts would never have predicted it from the relative sales of the GameCube, Xbox, and PS2. Which goes to show that analysts who use past performance as an indicator of future performance are often idiots.

  • Ps2 (Score:2)

    by Taulin ( 569009 )
    I think it is incredible the PS2 is selling so well. I think this is due to the shortage of Wii, over price of PS3, and the 360 already being out a year and not considered 'new'. I love seeing the 360 still selling so well. I really do think the Wii and 360/Ps3 are for a different sets of people that can overlap, but do not contend. The 360 will also continue to outsell the Ps3 until it gets more unique titles that makes the price worthwhile. GTA4, Stranglehold, etc, are all coming out for the 360 also
    • Ps2, at least in europe, contends both against Wii and 360/Ps3. It's harcore enough for the harcore crowd, it's not expensive and caters to the casual crowd with party games (singstar, buzz, eye toy, guitar hero,...).

      If Sony wants to make the transition to Ps3 too fast it'll start to lose market. Few people are goint to pay 600$ for a gloryfied karaoke machine.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by BarneyL ( 578636 )
      I'm not suprised by the PS2 sales at all.


      The PS2 never really appealed to me (I'm more of a PC gamer) but at the price it is now and with the vast range of cheap games to be had on e-bay I could get a whole lot of gaming for a very small price right now.


      Perhaps the true winners of the current console wars are us people picking up all the PS2, GC and Xbox games we never quite got around to playing that the early adopters are selling off.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by moexu ( 555075 )
      Until this week I didn't have any consoles from the last generation (I'm Wii360 this generation). On Tuesday I got a PS2. I had been debating getting one - I really didn't want to give Sony any money but the system is cheap and there's a large library of games for it I've never played (and most of them are cheap now too). Wanting to play the games finally won out.

      Oh, and God of War completely kicks ass. :)

  • Japan's Hardware sales (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MeanderingMind ( 884641 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @11:38AM (#18376649) Homepage Journal
    I've totaled up the Japan numbers for as close to the same time period as I could (Feb 5th through March 4th). Here are the results:

    NDS: 581,483
    PSP: 233,046
    GBA: 7,305
     
    Wii: 278,646
    PS3: 107,422
    360: 17,583
    PS2: 62,553
    Sources:
    http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7480 [gamesarefun.com]
    http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7499 [gamesarefun.com]
    http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7518 [gamesarefun.com]
    http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7553 [gamesarefun.com]

  • Its all about Blu-Ray (Score:4, Interesting)

    by runenfool ( 503 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @11:39AM (#18376673)
    If you think of Sony as just a console maker, then the PS3 isn't doing all that well, but if you think of it as a device to push Blu-Ray its doing great. I don't think Sony is as dumb as everyone else thinks they are. They just sold another 100k plus Blu-Ray players. In the end they will drop the PS3 price to something sort of reasonable and sell plenty of them. They can make it through the first year or so by reputation alone pushing game developers to create for the platform.

    Of course if they do too poorly in sales then eventually the games will dry up and they will have won the next gen format war at the cost of their gaming platform. I wonder how much they care?

    • If you think of Sony as just a console maker, then the PS3 isn't doing all that well, but if you think of it as a device to push Blu-Ray its doing great. I don't think Sony is as dumb as everyone else thinks they are. They just sold another 100k plus Blu-Ray players.

      Do we have any stats yet on how many PS3 owners have a HDTV? I would assume it's a larger percentage than any other console, but we will still need to know how many in order to determine whether Sony's Blu-Ray strategy has any hope at all.

      And

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 )

      In the end they will drop the PS3 price to something sort of reasonable and sell plenty of them. They can make it through the first year or so by reputation alone pushing game developers to create for the platform.

      It doesn't work that way though ...

      Consider Sega, they have released Virtual Fighter 5 for the PS3 which has recieved respectable reviews (88% on Gamerankings.com) and its sales are awful on the PS3; from the looks of the American and Japaneese sales, it will sell (approximately) 15% as many copie

    • I thought that Sony was using the PS3 as a Blu-ray Trojan horse too, until I read that they were releasing a $600 stand-alone player [ecommercetimes.com] due out this summer. Really, I don't think we or anyone else really know the reasoning behind Sony's decisions, we can speculate but thats about it. After reading about this new player, I certainly no longer think I understand what Sony is trying to do, so I'm going to just sit back and wait to see what happens. Oh and enjoy my Wii in the meantime, too.
    • IIRC, the gaming division at Sony is by FAR the most profitable part of Sony.

      OK, I decided to check my facts, here is a summary that Sony put out for the year ending March 2006:
      http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/ar/2006/ qfhh7c00000aksvu-att/qfhh7c00000aksx9.pdf [sony.net]

      Glancing at the operating profits, the gaming division is far more profitable than any of the other divisions -- plus, I'm not entirely sure what the other high profit division, "financial", means in this context, I suspect that it's the equiv

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by SethraLavode ( 910814 )

        You might want to re-check your facts, as the document you linked to shows the opposite of what you are claiming. Sony's gaming divisions were the least profitable (of the sectors where they were profitable). The general electronics divisions obviously took a huge hit, but even if you take their banking and insurance products out of the equation, Sony Pictures and Sony Music have a higher income and higher margin. The gaming divisions had higher sales, true, but revenue is not the same as profit.

        • Depends on the year... (Score:3, Interesting)

          by WoTG ( 610710 )
          I realized I was looking at the 2004 values, just after posting. :(

          (I'm not used to seeing year over year comparisons in an IR release in that order... probably different in Japan... but that's another matter)

          2006 is a bit of an aberration for the gaming group. They're spending a LOT on PS3 development by that time. But in 2004 and 2005, PS profits are very large relative to movies and electronics.

  • Nintendo is winning (Score:3, Insightful)

    by paladinwannabe2 ( 889776 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @11:48AM (#18376869)
    Even if they never get at much marketshare as Sony/Microsoft, they are certainly making the most profits. Who cares if your revenue is (relatively) low when your profits are so much higher?
    • I was discussing this last night. I have no idea how many VC titles have been sold so far, but they must be swimming in the profits.

  • Can Nintendo satisfy the core gamer? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by spirit of reason ( 989882 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @11:50AM (#18376907)
    And will it have to do so... by itself?

    So I was feeling really happy that Nintendo was doing well, given their maxim (all about gameplay and fun, not graphics). But has anyone else been a little disappointed with the lineup of games? I'm excluding a few Nintendo titles here, but it feels like the vast majority of the games have been less-than-stellar ports or mini-game compilations. While mini-games can be really fun, I also want a rich experience from more complex games.

    In Perrin Kaplan's recent GameDaily interview [gamedaily.com], she was asked about Nintendo's anemic Q1 lineup, a question which she simply responded that the 27 products they have going from January to June are awesome. She insists that Nintendo is competing for a different market, and I'm starting to believe her.

    Something else that bugs me... the Wiimote isn't quite what is was hyped up to be. There is a little lag (at least in Wii Sports and Wii Play) between my movements and the response on screen; it's very small, but it felt a little annoying when the tennis racket only began swinging a little after I began. Also, it would be nice if the Wiimote actually pointed on screen where you pointed -- this would require some level of calibration, I suppose, since television sizes vary. I imagine this is even more difficult to deal with since the Wiimote only has two reference points for its calculations -- not the three that are necessary to yield the three coordinates in space. But this is why they market they Wiimote as detecting motion in 3D space, rather than position. It then probably gets the relative position by integration. I wonder if the lag would be reduced further by having a third point and eliminating the integration calculation (though I guess games would still be interested in your projected position anyway, so perhaps it wouldn't actually eliminate it).

    Anyway, kudos to Nintendo for the sales, but I hope there is more in store for the core gamer soon.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ADRA ( 37398 )
      As a large TV owner the calibration problem does have an impact, but by in large it hasn't degraded my play enough to ever stop playing. As for the lineups, you can accept the fact that Nintendo doesn't have a one-big-xbox-live type system out of the box, but I would've hoped that they had the basic networking stuff taken care of. This 'after-thought' will be the largest barrier to fully accepting the Wii as a regular gamer rig. Even casual players would love to see this done right. Imagine playing animal f

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Edward Kmett ( 123105 )
        If you want to calibrate to a large TV just build a simple rig with a couple of IR LEDs and a battery. You can then set the LEDs as far apart as you want to scale up the 'virtual' screen size.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by timster ( 32400 )
      I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but it does bear repeating. If you think the Wii launch is bad, take a look at what games were available for the PS2 a few months after launch. I was there, and I have a copy of Fantavision to prove it.

      Or, like the sibling poster pointed out, consider the DS. I have a copy of Ridge Racer DS and the Mario 64 port (which is borderline unplayable). Against that kind of history, ZeldaTP, WarioWare, and Trauma Center seem like a flood of greatness.

    • Also, it would be nice if the Wiimote actually pointed on screen where you pointed -- this would require some level of calibration, I suppose, since television sizes vary. I imagine this is even more difficult to deal with since the Wiimote only has two reference points for its calculations -- not the three that are necessary to yield the three coordinates in space.

      There does seem to be calibration, but it's strangely implemented by the game instead of a system-wide thing. In Twilight Princess, there's a s

      • I don't have any direct experience with implementing such a system, but I'd imagine that there are a lot of issues in terms of calibration that made Nintendo decide against implementing it system wide. The biggest one being that you'd likely have to recalibrate so often that it wouldn't really work anyways. If I'm playing Zelda while sitting on the couch one day, and then the next day play it sitting on the floor, closer to the TV, would I have to recalibrate? What if then I play a multiplayer game with a f
    • The "Lag" isn't caused by the technology it is caused by the use in game ... In Wii Sports: Tennis there is a tiny ammount of lag as it begins the swing action after it recieves a swing input; in comparison Wii Sports Bowling (since there is no triggered input) has no lag ... From what I have seen, you adjust to this lag reasonably quickly and start swining the 1/10th of a second earlier in order to get the action triggered when you want it.

    • Blame developers and hardcore gamers (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @03:23PM (#18379907)
      If theres anyone to blame for the glut of mini-games being passed off as full games, blame third-party developers and anti-Nintendo zealots. Don't forget, during/after the Gamecube's lifetime you had developers whining about rising costs and greater risks, then choosing to jump onto the PS3 bandwagon because the 360 looked weak and the Wii looked risky. Then you had gamers trashing on the Wii all over the internet mocking everything from the graphics, to the name, to the motion sensor, to the hardware weaknesses, to the radical features announced, etc.

      When it finally looked like the Wii was going to smash through the video game market, developers were caught with their pants down being raped by PS3 development costs, blind-sided by Xbox Live Arcade's runaway success and the Wii's "we're Nintendo, we will ALWAYS have a profit" guarantee. What you see is simply the net result of such behavior.

      • Actually:
        Wii Sports,
        Wii Games
        Rayman Raving Rabbits
        Wario Ware Smooth moves

        that is all on mini game collections out of around 40 games out now for the Wii, a lot of games have mini games added (Sonic for instance) but I would not call them minigames.
        Having a wii and knowing the linup I think lots of people have the misconception that the wii only has minigames while the real mini game collections only are at 10% of what is there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by miro f ( 944325 )
      if you have the distance from three points then you can position an object in 3d space.

      However, if you can get the position you only need two points, to position an object in 3d space. That's the way your eyes work =)

  • Butbutbut (Score:2, Funny)

    by iainl ( 136759 )
    But Sony told me that being outsold at a ratio of 2:1 for a month meant the losing platform was dead and buried!

    Or does that only apply to the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD fight?
  • Next week will be a key week for the PS3 with the European launch.

    It's not looking good for Sony; while the Wii is still sold out most highstreet shops are still advertising that if you pre-order you will get your PS3 on launch day.

    Of course it could be there are millions of pre-orders and all that US/Japanese stock has been diverted over here.

    Interestingly in terms of desireability amongst the class of 9 year olds I teach the PS3 outranks the Wii by about 2:1. If this is representative then if Sony coul

    • in terms of desireability amongst the class of 9 year olds I teach the PS3 outranks the Wii by about 2:1. If this is representative then if Sony could just get the price right they would probably catch up pretty fast.

      9-year-olds traditionally do not have much discretionary income. I somehow doubt that Sony can get the PS3 price down to the magical "eighteen bucks and a pack of baseball cards" that the market deems affordable.

  • I have still never seen a Wii (Score:3)

    by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @02:47PM (#18379397) Journal
    I will admit I'm not in the market per se, but I like to browse through the electronics section of stores Just In Case, and since the Wii's release, I've added checking to see if they have a Wii to the sweep for bargain games.

    I have still never seen a Wii. From Best Buy to Wal-Mart, its local competition, K-Mart, and several other places I've been to in passing, I have never yet seen a Wii.

    Everybody has PS3s now.

    Anecdotal evidence? Sure, but wow, and this is across many stores in many samples.

    I could probably get one if I were trying, but you still have to be trying.

    Nexgenwars and VGCharts have the Wii's penetration at around 50% of the XBox 360's, in four months. At any time supply could finally catch up to demand, but until then, the limiting factor on the Wii's sales has been manufacturing rate for four months now.

  • No PS3 shortages - anecdotal proof (Score:3, Interesting)

    by freeweed ( 309734 ) on Friday March 16, 2007 @10:33PM (#18383013)
    Every story in the past few months has people saying "why is everyone claiming there are PS3s sitting around? I didn't see any at the one store I checked!".

    I've posted this before, and I'll post it again [imageshack.us].

    Middle of the week, towards closing time. Busy local Costco. Those babies sat for weeks...

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