I sure hope it is a fad or else the non kid crowd is doomed. When I say kid of course I don't just mean small children, but adults who still consider themselves small children as seen in their choices. I mean I loved Mario as much as the next guy and played super mario brothers a ton when I was...you know...6. I also liked kool Aid, enjoyed horrible movies like camp nowhere and even once or twice used a blanket near the couch to make a fort. I'm not saying that an adult can't drink Kool Aid while sitting in their blanket fort playing kung fu panda, I'm more saying someone who thinks of that as the pinnacle of the video game experience is only chronologically in their 20s.
My wife has a friend who REALLY likes the wii and when I suggested she try games for adults like Uncharted, Oblivion or Heavenly Sword she told me that I wasn't "nerdy" enough. Somehow when I wasn't looking being childish as an adult became the new avant garde, which explains all the rainbow bright Tshirts I see when I walk past trendy young adult stores (they're usually next to the "old school" NES controller tshirt). Now I'm sure some of you are going to say that I'm being polemic and there are in fact plenty of adult games on the Wii and/or I just don't understand fun. The truth is that there are very very few adult games on the Wii, and most of the adult games there are (Resident Evil 4, Rock Band, Okami) are ports or Playstation games. To say I don't understand fun because my tastes have matured with age is also kind of silly, as if there's something wrong with growing to prefer the Sopranos to the Ninja Turtles over the course of two decades.
The Wii is a sad future for games if it really does end up "winning" which I hope it won't. It started at the sweet spot price (250, which is the same as 200 dollars a few years back when the PS2 dropped to 199 and sold way more then it had before) because it used outdated hardware so yes, it sold more. In terms of dollars the Wii has not sold much more then the PS3. The Wii moved more consoles but the PS3 users were willing to pay more to not be stuck with Carnival Games, Imagine Ponies and the 8th Mario Kart rehash as their only choices.
The Wii is a system that returns games to the realm of children and childlike adults, that pushes obsolete (and thus more profitable) hardware, that cashes in on nostalgia instead of pushing the envelope with new ideas (Wii Fit being the sole exception) and worst of all pushes stagnation instead of real innovation. I salute Sony for putting cutting edge technology out there even at a loss, I would hate to be in the Nintendo only world where console makers change the enclosure of their last generation box, give it a new controller and call it an update.
Remember when Nintendo stuck with cartridges for YEARS after they were a good idea and everyone else had gone to CDs? Remember when Genesis came out and Nintendo kept pushing 8 bit graphics and inferior hardware only updating when they REALLY had to in order to keep market share? A Nintendo dominated world isn't good for anyone but Nintendo's bottom line. I still think that when the PS3 hits somewhere near the magic 250 price point in a year or so it will equal then surpass wii sales. Remember when the gamecube was 99 dollars (which the PS2 still isn't down to) and didn't sell a fraction of what the PS2 is still selling years later? When the PS2 is passed by the Wii (or the PS3 is passed by the next gen wii which is the same as this gens HD consoles in power) then feel free to talk about Nintendomination, but I doubt either of those will happen any time soon.
PSN ID: ChosenOne feel free to add me
