HappySqurriel said: *bleu-ocelot* said: The wii may not seem like a fad right now, but what happens to sales hypothetically, when the next gaming console aimed at casuals is released by a brand like Apple? I can see Apple's console challenging the wii's dominance, as the majority of the wii's consumers gravitate toward the new hip thing. Does it become a fad then? You won't get this type of problem with the Playstation or the Xbox because they're both geared toward the hardcore gamers; People who actually buy consoles for the games.   How many developers (besides Nintendo) have been wildly successful at producing games that appeal to "Casual" gamers enough to get them to buy a peice of hardware? Beyond that, the main reasons I am doubtful Apple can (successfully) enter into the market as a console manufacturer: They are not known for being able to produce high quality hardware at affordable prices; many Apple products get by being so expensive for the features they contain because they're (essentially) fashion accessories. They have no game developers and have no experience with game development; not only would they have to create/buy several high quality development studios, they would have to learn to market to third party publishers and consumers in a way that they never have before.

Well, how do you know people aren't just buying a wii for wii sports or wii fit? The majority of people aren't necessarily buying the wii for Mario or Zelda but buying it because its the "hip" thing right now, imo. Also, Apple's already getting quite a few developers/publisher on board for their iphone games. Who's to say that they're not just testing the waters alittle before the leap in? I can't really comment on what their strategies would be, but if the next Nintendo console is not successful, people will say it was a fad. That's the biggest proof that it is a fad.

Question: If 50% of Wii owners only bought it for Wii Sports/Fit etc, wouldn't that mean there are still more traditional gamers on Wii than there are PS3 owners total?

Impulsivity said:   Shrinking? Find one report from the last 10 years that show any kind of decline. The PS2 had many games that sold well over 10 million copies as did the PS1, the PS2 sold even more then the PS1 and there were far more high sales PS2 games then PS1 games. In no way did Nintendo "save" anything, gaming was doing just fine with it on the sidelines for the N64 and Gamecube years. They have provided a nice outlet to crap games like Imagine babies and bloom box, but thats about it; I was more then fine with gaming without a lot of those types of games myself. Using old hardware with old style games is in no way original.

 

OBJECTION!

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/30356/Core-gamer-market-is-saturated

In particular, may I point you to one part of the article:

"The claims are backed up by IDG figures which reveal that the last few years of industry expansion have been driven almost exclusively by Nintendo formats. Without Wii and DS hardware and software sales, the overall international market actually declined by seven per cent last year."

its going to be a fad until 2011 or even 2012.

Kenny said: OBJECTION! http://www.mcvuk.com/news/30356/Core-gamer-market-is-saturated In particular, may I point you to one part of the article: "The claims are backed up by IDG figures which reveal that the last few years of industry expansion have been driven almost exclusively by Nintendo formats. Without Wii and DS hardware and software sales, the overall international market actually declined by seven per cent last year."

 

Wow, that is.. amazing. It says that so far consoles have sold on par with previous generation and if you remove wii from it, console sales would be declining! Well if they removed ps2 from last gen... it would not be declining! If there was no wii, 360/Ps3 sales would be naturally a lot higher. Propably some diehard nintendo-fans would not be buying either and stick with the GC.

But there is no denying it, the expansion (to new market) is done by nintendo. Those who buy carnival games and stuff would not have bought 360/ps3. ;)

 

*bleu-ocelot* said:   Well, how do you know people aren't just buying a wii for wii sports or wii fit? The majority of people aren't necessarily buying the wii for Mario or Zelda but buying it because its the "hip" thing right now, imo. Also, Apple's already getting quite a few developers/publisher on board for their iphone games. Who's to say that they're not just testing the waters alittle before the leap in? I can't really comment on what their strategies would be, but if the next Nintendo console is not successful, people will say it was a fad. That's the biggest proof that it is a fad.

Even though the total console months owned for the Wii is still smaller than the XBox 360, the total ammount of software sold on both platforms is similar; on top of that the number of Million selling games on the Wii is fairly high, and most of these titles have sold noticeably more than their Gamecube counterparts (in a fraction of the time) and are still selling well. The arguement that the Wii isn't selling software to most of its consumers is heavily flawed ...

The question isn't whether Apple can get some third party developers to support their platforms, after all Nokia did have quite a bit of support from third party developers for the nGage. The question is whether Apple can even obtain the level of quality first party development as Microsoft did on the XBox (Microsoft had several game developers for many years, and were a very large game publisher before they decided to make the XBox), and whether they can get the necessary high quality third party support needed to launch a platform. The assumption that they can pull "Casual" gamers away from the Wii requires Apple is able to develop superior games (for "Casual" gamers) than Nintendo is, and being that no one has consistently achieved this I think it is a moronic assumption.

HappySqurriel said: The assumption that they can pull "Casual" gamers away from the Wii requires Apple is able to develop superior games (for "Casual" gamers) than Nintendo is, and being that no one has consistently achieved this I think it is a moronic assumption.

Apple is way "cooler" than nintendo, both of them sell mostly by image. It could be that Apple would take their share from casual market.

 

I'm going to reference the most accurate source imaginable

Wikipedia: A fad is something that is very popular with a small group of people for a short period of time.

1. small group of people - 30million and counting is not a small group of people, and if it is, then 360 and ps3 fit more into this category than wii

2. short period of time - This is relative to the product in question, for a video game console which usually have lives around 5-6 years, 2 years of record breaking sales means that its been an unstoppable 'hit' for at least 2 years.. that is one third of an average lifetime of a console, and by no means a short period of time

 

In conclusion: No, the wii is not a fad

Half of you people have absolutely no clue what a fad is or worse you're stretching the definition just enough so you can include the Wii as a means to debase it as a console. Absolutely pathetic.

You're being children. Intentionally demeriting a successful product or idea to compensate for your own inferiority complex.

I think it's a fad, mostly based on the fact that pretty much everyone I know is buying one just to say they have it, and will only really pull it out to play some wii sports bowling, or mario kart when a group gets together.