Biggerboat said:
I disagree with a few of your points. First is the, imo, misconception that Wii is predominantly bought by casuals. I simply see no evidence to suggest this.
These are the million+ sellers so far. As you can see there are as many traditional games as casual & taking into account that Wii Sports is a pack-in in most of the world and Wii Play is effectively 5-10 bucks, the sales of Zelda/Paer Mario/Red Steel are significant. We also have DQ:Swords all but gauranteed to be at least Japan's best selling 3rd party game and could potentially join the above list. I would also question whether Wii Sports is a 'casual game'. It is intuitve and easy to pick up but it also offers plenty of depth and demands a lot of skill to unlock all of the medals. Excitetruck, Tiger, Madden & RE:4 have also racked up respecatble sales numbers. Numbers don't support your argument. Also there is the fact that people are still having to queue up for these systems, sometimes for hours at a time. Would you associate this behaviour with die hard gamers or casuals who think it looks a fun way to pass a few hours a week? As for casuals not buying PS3, I also disagree. The guy sitting next to me at work while I type this is about to buy one. On asking what games he played he answered Pro Evolution Soccer. On telling him that the 360 was also getting this game and that at this time it had a better variety of other games he replied that he had just always bought PS and that was that. I also know another person who purchased a PS3 without knowing anything about the games that were on it. I realise this is anecdotal but I'm sure there are plenty of PS owners who coughed up the money just beacause of the brand. I'd say this is more symptomatic of casual behaviour than somebody trying out Wii Sports, liking it and buying a Wii. Casuals who don't have spare cash wont buy PS3 but those that do and worship the PS brand(even though the games they like are probably made by 3rd parties) will.
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Well of course that´s true. There are not that much casual gamers as it seems. But I think these guys who bought Red Steel, Zelda, etc. are the longtime Nintendo Fans. (Of course not all of them but surely a part of them is)
This guy next to you will probably buy a PS3 because it is cool an has it´s brand. But he is not a casual gamer in that way I meant it. Those casual gamers Nintendo is targeting for wouldn´t buy a PS3 because it is cool (as you already mentioned).
In lots of reports about those people queueing up the mothers and fathers, housewifes and busindessmen were mentioned who where complaining because they had been looking for the system for months and finally decided to do this. So yes, I think there are a lot of casuals in Wiis audience (look at Japan: Wii Sports sells with 50% of all systems which is way too high for the core)
Maybe we could meet somewhere in the middle - what you say is partly true and so is what I say
I just don´t think many people would turn from Wii to PS3 because of this price cut - the systems are way too different I think.