Buying Games in Bulk?

[Bodhesatva]

mrstickball said:
In the US, I don't consider Wii Sports a valid argument at all. It's bundled. Wii Play, I'm rather iffy on, because when you buy Wii Play, your not actually buying software. Your buying a bundle pack with basically a free (or near free) game with a Wiimote.

Stop right there! This is very silly, MrStickball. I know several people who bought Wiis recently and just own Wii Sports and Play! If those games didn't exist, obviously they'd buy something else (or not buy a Wii at all, which would also increase the system's attach ratio in this hypothetical world). You absolutely cannot discount it entirely. You say including it gives (in your opinion) a "brutally unfair" advantage to the Wii's attach rate: I say not including it does the same in the opposite direction. I don't think including every sale is warranted, but not including any of them also isn't fair. Perhaps going by the Japanese attach rate is justified -- it's difficult to decide.

Until we decide how to calculate that, all of your other calculations can stay by the wayside.

Edit: At least for the American side of things.

The Japanese are another story. As noted by Famitsu -- and as can easily be verified by simply doing some math -- the Wii actually has an extremely high attach rate in Japan, given its install base and age.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=16697

The relevant text: Despite its penetration pace being slower than that of the PS2 (3,267,000 units sold as of its 30th week mark) or the GBA (3,306,000 units sold as of its 30th week mark) the Wii's total software sales have been far in excess of these other systems' in terms of volume –thanks to its outstanding software-hardware tie ratio.

This is difficult to calculate given relatively weak data pools, but the Wii's attach rate can easily be compared to the current day competitors at their current paces. As noted, the PS3's attach rate is 35 percent lower than the Wii's in Japan. If the Wii's attach rate is just okay in Japan, what's your assessment of the PS3? You can also calculate the 360's attach rate at this point in its lifetime (We are 33 weeks in to the Wii's lifespan in Japan. 360 had been released in Japan for 33 weeks during the week of May 6th, 2006). The attach rate of the 360 at that time in its life was 2.52: approximately 8 percent better than the Wii's rate, which is notable but not drastic, especially considering the sale rates of the systems themselves. 

So, again, the American market we can't agree on until we can solve the Wii Sports/Play conundrum, and the Japanese market is, as far as I can tell, very healthy for the Wii.