MP3 doesn't need an emulator or system, so that is another factor.

Piracy may be an issue here but lets keep things in perspective. There are no core 3rd party titles on the Wii of the caliber of Monster Hunter. I think some people want to take poor games(Madworld, Conduit, etc.) and try to make it sound like they are just as good a game as Bioshock, Borderlands, Dragon Age.

Those games sold wll enough. Sure not into the millions but they do not need to sell millions to make money and they would sell on the HD consoles either. PS3 has 1 million more consoles than the Wii did when NMH launched. Only sold 4k more on PS3 for the opening week. ONe cant be pirated but one can. If what you were trying to claim had any truth to it the PS3 version should be selling more. It isnt though.

Wii has what 80 million sold? It already has something the PS2 never had with 140 million consoles. Games that sold over 20milion copies. NSMBWii is another thing that shows you are wrong.


Fact is you cant take niche titles that would fail on any console and show them as proof that Wii gamers only download their games. It has more to do with the quality of game and advertising than anything else. Notice how MH3 has ads on TV and is selling well

It's simple. Our definition of core is the population that has been described by it for the past 3 gens. This is the gen where core changed. That's why I urge people to use the term "traditional core". The term "core" has become so obfuscated by both sides, that it is necessary to abandon the term in favor of a more detailed one.

The reason why core has been interpreted so wildly is because of the term hardcore. Hardcore has been around forever, so there's no real debate on where the word came from. Hardcore was that kid who always was at home playing vg and always had great math grades. It was labeled onto those people who seemed to be able to do the impossible in a game. "I'm hardcore", was the call of the elite who could beat civilization 2 on deity, double your highest tetris level, etc etc etc. Then, the logical following was that core was more "normal", more average (ie more mainstream). For the next 3 gens, we all knew what core was. It was loosely defined as "a game that another gamer would know". They were simply "known games".

This gen changed all that because the core games from this gen are so radically different from the types of core that we used to know. So while wii sports and wii fit are core, more core in fact than most of the core games we used to play, they do not carry the same underpinnings of the games we associated with core after 10 years of habit.

So, both sides, take it easy. non-nintendo fans, understand that the term core is too broad to continue using, and nintendo fans, stop using the definition of core  as a tool for argument.

It's not hard to imagine that big sellers on the Wii such as NSMB Wii, Smash, and Galaxy could have sold millions more if it weren't for piracy. Just because a game has big sales doesn't mean it couldn't have had even bigger sells.

But it is true there hasn't been a big effort third party game for the Wii besides MH Tri. Even Red Steel 2 was lacking important features that would be standard on the HD consoles like multiplayer.

It is interesting to see how people want will bend the truth to make their point about people bending the law.

Actually, those most likely to pirate are probably the same ones who say they no longer play their Wiis because there are no good games for it.

And if piracy is as bad as some people think, then we are closer to the day that "crimes against the economy" carry a death sentence.

Mike from Morgantown

Piracy sucks!

Squill can you post that link? If it's allowed to do so.

Piracy DOES lead to some lost sales. But nowhere near a 1:1 ratio. If piracy didn't exist, I would DEFINITELY NOT buy (or even rent!) every single thing I pirated. Absolutely not. When you have actual money riding on something, you're going to be more picky about what you check out. I don't even think I've tried half the things I pirated honestly. Heck, I have a significant backlog of legitimately purchased games as it is.

These are my bare minimum standards for each "buy, rent, pirate or don't bother" decision I make

Piracy: It has to at least be marginally interesting. I have to feel that the game may be worth my time and trouble. Especially if it were to cost a lot of bandwidth.
Rental or Dirt Cheap Purchase: Looks like it might be fun. It's dirt cheap anyway (or in case of rental, "there's no commitment so why not? Send that shit back if it sucks"). Let's give it a shot.
$20/$30 Purchase: Has to be a good chance that I may like the game.
$35-60+ Purchase: I have to be really hyped for it.

Bottom line: Money is a limited resouce. And time is an even more limited resource (that's why gamers have backlogs! And if we're talking about pirated backlogs, those are absolutely massive) So the idea that 1 pirated copy = 1 lost sale is absurd. But yeah there is indeed some negative impact on sales. But the impact is much, much more minor than the industry claims.

The hardware sales are almost equal, the games are similar, and the target audience is similar, so why wouldn't the software sales be similar?  I also discounted the first year of software sales for the 360 to account for the head start.  I am assuming that any difference would be due to piracy.

And what is your chart trying to show?  You are showing Europe when I was talking about the Others region, and you are looking at one year, when I was looking at lifetime sales.

Virtually non-existant PSP software sales?  Daxter, GTA, Ratchet and Clank, God of War and Monster Hunter each have sold millions of copies on the PSP.  It just goes to show you that if you make a game people like to play on the PSP, they will buy it. 

The PS3 cannot be pirated, so why aren't it's software sales higher than the Wii's, if piracy has such a dramatic effect?

And just like the music industry, the effects of piracy were highly overstated.