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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Was the Wii a fad?

 

Was the Wii a fad?

Yes 131 38.76%
 
No 152 44.97%
 
Irrevelant, next-gen is coming 28 8.28%
 
see results 26 7.69%
 
Total:337
d21lewis on 10 May 2012
Mazty said:
d21lewis said:
Mazty said:
d21lewis said:


Zelda has rarely been the absolute best selling game on a Nintendo platform.  It's almost always Mario Kart, Mario, or Smash Bros.  If you don't mind my asking, how did those franchises sell on the Wii?

Mario Kart has sold ~30 million which sounds good, until you realise that a game 4 years old is STILL being bundled with the console. In no other generation has such a thing happened and it shows the lack in improving games on the Wii. The 360 is bundled with Halo Reach nowadays, and COD MW3, not COD 2.

If we look at Mario Galaxy, it sold under 11 million. For a genre leading game, thats not very good performance when the difference in consoles sold is considered. 

What if we look at New Super Mario Bros? 

Also, let me ask another question.  Are we going by percentage of owners, here?  If so, what percentage of PS2 owners bought God of War 1 and God of War 2?  It had a HUGE userbase, right?  That was a "genre leading game" franchies, right?  I'm sure they both sold amazing numbers.  That's going by your rules, of course.


That was a bundled game as well...SSBB which wasn't heavily bundled (but still bundled beyond what is regarded as 'normal') sold 11 million. Again, considering volume of consoles sold, that's not great performance. 

Why are you comparing last gen sales to this gen? Game sales have been greater this generation so your comparison is flawed.

I was just trying to compare the two biggest selling consoles.



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DieAppleDie on 10 May 2012

Mazty really hates Wii for outselling by far his beloved xxxxx console.



Mazty on 10 May 2012
Soriku said:
Mazty said:
Soriku said:
There you have it folks. A game selling 11 million is a bad performance.


There you have it folks. When you have a weak argument, take a quote out of context in order to appear right. 


Aight. Let's take a different perspective.

According to this site, the PS2 sold 153 million units. The highest selling game is GTA: San Andreas, which sold almost 21 mil units. According to your logic, this should mean that since the attach rate is very low in accordance to the number of PS2s sold, the game had a bad performance. After the #5 best selling game, GT4, each game has sold less than 10 mil units.

Would you, in your honest opinion, consider the PS2 a failure? I'm expecting a "yes" by the way.

Why are you comparing consoles from two different generations? Game sales are considerably higher this generation due to a change in marketing. Just compare any modern CoD installment to a Wii game...

 

DieAppleDie said:
Mazty really hates Wii for outselling by far his beloved xxxxx console.

 

I'm a PC gamer so I really, really don't take any interest in having a favourite console. If motion gaming is so big, then why is it not on PCs?

 



dr3b on 10 May 2012

It was a fad among a certain group of the population, older tpically non-gamers. There is however a group of your typical gamers who heve used the system and bought games throughout the time the Wii has been released. So Yes and No.



Mazty on 10 May 2012
Soriku said:
Mazty said:
Soriku said:
Mazty said:
Soriku said:
There you have it folks. A game selling 11 million is a bad performance.


There you have it folks. When you have a weak argument, take a quote out of context in order to appear right. 


Aight. Let's take a different perspective.

According to this site, the PS2 sold 153 million units. The highest selling game is GTA: San Andreas, which sold almost 21 mil units. According to your logic, this should mean that since the attach rate is very low in accordance to the number of PS2s sold, the game had a bad performance. After the #5 best selling game, GT4, each game has sold less than 10 mil units.

Would you, in your honest opinion, consider the PS2 a failure? I'm expecting a "yes" by the way.

Why are you comparing consoles from two different generations? Game sales are considerably higher this generation due to a change in marketing. Just compare any modern CoD installment to a Wii game...


Why does this matter? Last gen the gaming market was still incredibly huge. 153 million PS2s were sold, excluding the GC, Xbox, and GBA. Theoretically the attach rate for lots of games should be very high but outside of 5 games PS2 titles sold less than 10 mil on a 153 mil userbase.

Answer the question. Why are you not using this generation of consoles for a comparison? Not to do so is just creating an incredibly flawed comparison. Compare CoD MW3 to any wii game. How do the sales match up?



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d21lewis on 10 May 2012
Mazty said:

Answer the question. Why are you not using this generation of consoles for a comparison? Not to do so is just creating an incredibly flawed comparison. Compare CoD MW3 to any wii game. How do the sales match up?


Okay.  Let's get one thing straight, dammit.  I ASK THE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS AROUND HERE.

Is Call of Duty the franchise against which all success is measured?  Does the standard of what is/isn't a fad change based entirely on how a game compares to Call of Duty?



d21lewis on 10 May 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Wii_video_games -list of Wii Million sellers.

Not complete but pretty impressive for a fad.



Mazty on 10 May 2012
d21lewis said:
Mazty said:
 

Answer the question. Why are you not using this generation of consoles for a comparison? Not to do so is just creating an incredibly flawed comparison. Compare CoD MW3 to any wii game. How do the sales match up?


Okay.  Let's get one thing straight, dammit.  I ASK THE RHETORICAL QUESTIONS AROUND HERE.

Is Call of Duty the franchise against which all success is measured?  Does the standard of what is/isn't a fad change based entirely on how a game compares to Call of Duty?

CoD isn't the only franchise; just run the database search for the 3 consoles. The wii game sales rely almost entirely on heavily bundled games. The wii has sold ~45% more units then the 360. That is not visible in game sales. 

 

Soriku said:
Mazty said:
Soriku said:
Mazty said:

Why are you comparing consoles from two different generations? Game sales are considerably higher this generation due to a change in marketing. Just compare any modern CoD installment to a Wii game...


Why does this matter? Last gen the gaming market was still incredibly huge. 153 million PS2s were sold, excluding the GC, Xbox, and GBA. Theoretically the attach rate for lots of games should be very high but outside of 5 games PS2 titles sold less than 10 mil on a 153 mil userbase.

Answer the question. Why are you not using this generation of consoles for a comparison? Not to do so is just creating an incredibly flawed comparison. Compare CoD MW3 to any wii game. How do the sales match up?


Because, no matter the gen, it's impossible for the vast, VAST majority of games to line up with the amount of consoles sold? Only very few games do that.

Even if you want me to use this gen, nothing really changes. Only a few key IPs (Call of Duty, Halo, GTA, Gran Turismo) on HD consoles have good attach rates. Otherwise, other games not in the top 10 on the HD consoles have attach rates not unlike SSBB's attach rate on the Wii, for example (while scaling game units sold to units of consoles sold of course.

http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/3/playstation-3/

http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/7/xbox-360/

What are you on about? The Wii has sold ~45% more consoles then the 360, yet the wii game sales do not reflect anything close to 45% greater sales. They are actually almost identical. Fact. Just look at the numbers...



Mummelmann on 10 May 2012

No. Motion controls on HD consoles was a fad though.



sensebringer on 10 May 2012
Mazty said:
superchunk said:
Mazty said:

You're ignoring the audience it's aimed at. A game console should be sold for it's games, not for the controller. To sell on the controller is a fad. You don't buy a car because the seats are nice while ignoring the ride. 

A fad for gamers - a fad aimed at gamers. It's not a complex notion...Short-lived is relative though. Fashion fads last longer then playground fads as it depends on audience. 

Motion controls have been a big part of this gen, but that doesn't mean it isn't a fad. If motion controls are not adopted as the controls of the future, then motion controls are a fad as they are a one-hit (as in this gen) wonder.  The wii is a fad as it's not aimed for gamers. It offers nothing benefical to gaming, and therefore, is a fad. 


That is the craziest logic and biggest load of rubbish I've ever read on VGC... ever.

Motion controls have been copied by both major competitors and will be on all three next gen consoles. (100% for Nintendo/MS)

Wii's game library hit every genre. I know because I've bought one from each. Additionally, it has nothing to do with your skewed definition of a gamer.

Wii is a gaming console and aimed to make people want to play games. It did that very well. Its only fault was its hardware weakness as compared to its competitors and thus losing all AAA 3rd party support.

Furthermore, the motion controls in themselves and the idea that how you play is just as important as what you play is always a great benefit to gaming that is always pioneered by Nintendo.

Kinect sales would suggest it's a fad:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/327350/kinect-sales-pattern-unhealthy-ubisoft/

So what if  the wii had a game for every genre? If they didn't sell well, which they haven't, then it's not a console focused on core gamers. 
If the console is aimed at making people play games, why are game sales so low for non bundled games? 
What's the benefit of an inaccurate, high latency controller for gaming?

New Super Mario Bros. sold more than 20 millions before been bundle. Try harder.