| trestres said: Looks like the X360 fanboy dream come true, and the worst nightmare for the Nintendo fanboy. It's suspiciously impossible, but if these numbers are true, I would haste myself and say Wii was indeed a fad. I'm sorry but such a lost in interest has never been seen anywhere but Japan and with the Wii. Wii sucumbing in sales to the 360 and selling just half of it is an indication that Wii is pretty much done there. There's no way it's possible outside it being a fad. |
Now now, lets not jump to calling the Wii a fad.
The fact is that the Wii is supceptible to market trends, despite it's casual appeal, as every other console.
Lets look at it this way:
The Wii caught on with families and casual audiences, and has done very well by them. However, just because a console catches on with a new user group, does not mean that it catches on with every single person in that group, but just caters to more than the prior generations.
We must look at the facts of the Wii:
- It's expensive (compared to the 360)
- It's been the same price with the same features since November 2006 (no real price cut)
- Game selection isn't quite the best available (compared to the slower-selling competitors)
Now, given these negatives, I would say that the Wii is just undergoing a period of time that market factors will dig into the system. It's been on the market for 30 months without a price cut. Do you remember what the Xbox 360 was selling before it got it's first meager pricecut? It was nearly DOA, then began to do better, and better with each extensive pricecut.
With families looking to cut back on their spending on luxury items, the Wii is probably more supceptible than other systems, due to the pricetag, and the people it's going after.
Don't worry about the Wii. It's not a fad. To call it that would be foolish. However, to call it a god-send uber-console that will sell 200,000,000 units this generation is to ignore market realities, too. It's still a game console that's done well, but is still expensive for what it brings to the table. If/When Nintendo drops the price, it'll jump back up, and we'll all be claiming that the Wii is going to head to ~55-60% marketshare. We must also remember that the Wii has dropped ~50-60% in the US and Japan in the same timeframe, pointing to the Wii's drop as not being entirely unique.. The difference is that the Xbox 360 has always been a solid competitor in the UK, whereas it's nonexistent in Japan, and been more supceptible to sales drops in the US just like the Wii.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
