I am not a hater, but Wii is not moving software

[tuoyo]

DirtyP2002 said:

Okay guys,

First of all: I like Nintendo. I had a N64 and had a great time with it. I love Zelda-games, but the Wii is not my type of console. I just don't like the controlls.

I know, the Wii is selling an insane amount of hardware and I am happy for Big N, but software is a whole other story.

Talking about software, the Wii sold 3million units, the PS3 2.4 million and the Xbox360 4.4 million.

Okay, this week is not that representitive, because Gears was a great success for MS and the Xbox 360.

So checking Wii Software: Wii Sports sold 500k, that game is bundled with every sold Wii from the very first beginning. So you can't say Big N sold this software. Same for Wii Play, which "sold" 200k and is buindled with every controller. So the "real" amount of software sold is 2.3 million. That is less than the PS3 sold on a far lower Userbase. I know Mari Kart and Wii Fit are selling like crazy, but thats another point. Almost every successfull Wii game comes with hardware. The first Wii game that is just a game and NOT bundled with any kind of hardware is Wii Music and it is at 38... Always keep in my mind what amount of Software PS3 or even better Xbox360 would have sold an such a great Userbase.

Things are not looking great for other publishers except Nintendo. Besides GH:WT (bundled with hardware) there is one (!!!) other game in the top 50, that is not published by Nintendo, ranked 50th.

Animal Crossing will sell like crazy, but mostly in Japan I guess. And just one game for a holiday-season is not that great. The hardware will keep on selling, but software is really behind my expectations. So this is not a "Wii is doomed thread!"

 

 

Wow talk about going way off topic in your own opening post.  Makes me wonder whether you aren't really a Wii Hater.

On topic I agree with you that Wii is struggling to move software which isn't off a certain type (party games, Mario, Zelda, etc).  A game like Metroid Prime 3 would probably have sold like 5 million on 360 but on Wii just manages decent sales.  And that is one of Nintendo's flagship titles.   If it was made by a 3rd party its sales would have been even worse than they are. 

However, it might be too early to judge and there is the possibility that we would never even get the chance to make a decent assessment as to whether Wii can move software (ignoring party games and the huge Nintendo franchises).  If you look at PS360 they regularly get games which get very good sales.  But this is because they regularly get big games from 3rd parties.  Wii on the other hand only seems to get PS2 ports and/or shovelware or gimped versions of games on PS360.  Look at the sales of Bioshock on PS3.  It's sales are shockingly bad yet it's one of the most highly regarded games this gen.  But that is excused by PS3 fans as being due to the fact that it is a yr old bad port of a 360 game.  Yet the same people point to Okami Wii sales as evidence that 3rd party games don't sell on Wii.  At least the Wii sales are close to if not in excess of the PS2 sales.  Bioshock PS3 sales will end up like a tenth of 360 sales.  Is that evidence that there is no hope for 3rd parties on the PS3? 

I think Conduit will be a very good litmus test for whether there is huge profits available on the Wii available to 3rd parties outside party games (e.g. Game Party, Smarty Pants) or niche cheap to make games (e.g. No More Heroes, Zak & Wiki -  games that haven't achieved gang buster sales but have clearly made their developers a tidy profit).  If it gets very good reviews and doesn't sell well then I think we might as well give up on 3rd parties bringing their big guns to the Wii.