American Wii Dream

[Bodhesatva]

RolStoppable said:

Bodhesatva said:

Your casual dismissal of Mass Effect, Forza 2, Bio Shock, Shadowrun, GTA IV (unmentioned) and Blue Dragon is pretty impressive. Those games will sell systems, just as Metroid Prime, SM Galaxy, and SSBB will.

How about, instead of saying: "My system has great games and your system doesn't and my system will beat you all," we all admit that each system has some powerful and compelling exclusive titles for the Christmas season? I absolutely agre, Rolstoppable, that the Wii is very likely to sell the most systems this Christmas. I'd add that I'm likely to pick one up (and I haven't owned a console in almost 10 years). I'm not arguing with that. But this isn't black and white: it isn't as if Nintendo "wins" and everyone else completely "loses." Wii will probably sell best, and Xbox360 and PS3 will sell some, too, and all three systems will have great games. I know it's not as exciting when phrased that way, but it's also true.

I added GTA IV to my first post as edit.

My post wasn't meant to downplay the quality of the 360 lineup. I stated my opinion why I think that all these games are probably not the big system sellers many people hope for. The 360 will see a small boost here and there (and a some bigger ones for Halo 3, GTA IV and a pricecut), but I see those games sustain the current sales rate of the 360 and not significantly improving them.

See it this way: would another Zelda and/or another Wii sports installment on the Wii boost sales numbers? The people who wanted these kind of games already got a Wii. That's why it is important that Nintendo tries to release games that cater to different audiences. The Wii doesn't have a Metroid, Smash Bros., Mario Galaxy etc. game yet.

All these games will boost sales significant because there isn't such a game available at the moment and people are holding back. That's what I wanted to point out in my first post. You won't get new people to buy your console if you only (or for the most part) release games that are similar to the ones you already have. You will make your existing users happy, but you won't get many new ones.

 Yeah, actually, I think another Zelda would sell more consoles (if there were more consoles to sell, that is).

I think people rarely buy a system for one, specific title. Meaning, quite literally, that they would pay 460 dollars to play Bioshock (400 for the system, 60 for the game. And I chose Bioshock only as an example). Instead, people usually have 3-5 (or more) titles that sound really good to them, and buy the system to play them collectively. Rather than say: "Mass Effect will convince people to buy an Xbox360 on the its strength alone," I would say something  more like: "These people were considering buying an Xbox360, and Mass Effect put them over the edge."

I'd agree that the absolute strongest sellers are probably games that break new ground for the system in question. But games in genres already fleshed out have historically had an important impact, too, and I wouldn't understate it.