Why Wii is Winning: Dominant Software Sales

[Bodhesatva]

On the flipside, I do understand what Zenfolder is saying about the "right genre," but I think it's explained in a confusing fashion. Instead of right genre, I'd say Nintendogs has the right audience. Which is to say, any demographic other than males age 16-35 remains almost entirely untapped, even to this day.

As a similar example, consider a toy store that has 10,000 G.I. Joes and exactly one Barbie. Assuming there has been no apocalypse and there are still just as many girls who want to play with toys as there are boys, what is going to happen in that Toy Store? Obviously, the one Barbie will sell like hot cakes, and the G.I. Joes will collectively sell as well, but each individual one will sell much less.

Now, apply that to video games. How many video games fit this description:

1) Are well made, quality products
2) Appeal to girls and young women

I assume you'll agree the list is astonishingly small. The few I can think of are: Nintendogs, The Sims, Spore, Wii Fit, and Bejeweled. Probably a few more I'm not thinking of, but that's about it. And whaddya know? All of the games I've just listed are monster sellers, with each selling well over 10 Million copies each (We don't know for a fact that Bejeweled has, but trust that it has. It's likely in excess of 20 Million now). This is because, despite the fact that there are as many women in the world as men, virtually every game with solid production values is made for men.

Now, apply this general concept to the adults (age 40+) and the elderly, both of which are demographics that are also hugely underserved. Any quality game that appeals to these demographics will sell extremely well, because it has virtually zero competition.