@OP

LOL WUT?

I dont believe that "casuals" are buying the wii like Nintendo says. I think their true Nintendo fans. Either Nintendo fans from yesteryear that grew up and got kids on their own, current ds owners, or long time nintendo users. True casuals dont wait out side of stores early in the morning and pop down $250 for a game console. That is ALOT of money. Their not truly expanding the audience, these people have always been there. the same people. Most likely, they are adults that used to play it as kids and wanted their own kids to play with Mario.

That could be a good point, except it's all your opinion...there's likely more facts that support casuals buying the Wii than hardcore gamers.

And yes, casual players can throw down $250 for a Wii...just because they're a casual gamer doesn't mean they're poor...it's often the opposite.

I didnt say casuals were poor. I just dont believe they would pop down $250 for a game system. A true casual is someone that just plays solitare on their computer or free games of some sort. These ARE HARDCORE NINTENDO fans! And yes, nintendo does have that many. They have been in the business the longest and sold hundreds of million consoles, gameboys, and DS's over the years. There even early adopters as they got it in its first year. A true nonchalant casual are those that in year 7 are getting a pS2 and wont buy any game over $10

This comes down to definitions which makes it an argument no one can really win before we have agreed upon definitions (something which will always be difficult with "Casual" and "Hard-Core" gamers) ...

Even according to Nintendo, the Wii has mostly (90%) to people who owned a previous generation console (XBox, Gamecube or PS2); but you should consider that, even by the loosest of definitions, the vast majority of console owners in the previous generation were not "Hard-Core" gamers. Now, the Wii (in a large part because of its price) is the only current generation console which is selling to the more mainstream gaming market which (by many definitions) is far more "Casual" than the elitest gamers who own an XBox 360 or PS3; these gamers are still willing and able to buy a $300 console but they are not likely to buy 12 to 24 games in a single year.

 I thought VGChartz did track Toys R Us sales?!

I don't think I saw this point made ... 664.

That's the approximate profit -- in millions of dollars -- that Nintendo has made so far from the Wii HARDWARE ONLY.

This backs up the point that has been made -- that Nintendo profits from every console sold ($13 in JP, $50 in US, $74 in EU). (The estimate was developed by multiplying the regional sales by these margins). And because of this, it can handle the lower attach rate that is going to happen when you have retirement homes buying your console for Wii Play (and later Wii Fit).

Nintendo says that it is not competing against Sony and Microsoft. The truth is that it is not playing the same game, so to compare their performance using the same indiactors (i.e., attach rate) represents the misapplication of concepts.

Mike from Morgantown

Proud owner of about two dozen Wii games and 300 Saturn games and 500-plus Atari 2600 games (and should I go on about what I do to attach rates).

I just hate how people believe Nintendo is "expanding" the audience when in truth, these people have always loved nintendo and probably have a DS or one version or another of their previous consoles in the last 20 years.

Nintendos competitive advantage and a huge one is that they have been around so freakin long that every gamer has some sort of memory of owning one of their systems. Xbox is clearly the underdog as they are the "new kid on the block" and Sony became synonomous with a VCR. People were not sony fans, they just got it cause it had all the games. There loyalty also switches just as fast.