I've always thought it has, but I have begun questoning this recently.

According to NPD, 19% of Ps2 owners in USA also own a Wii. This is roughly 8M. That means there are only 3.4M Wii owners who didn't own a Ps2.

There are sold roughly 25M GC + XB in USA, and a little more than 40M Ps2s. This means that by the same rate, more than the amount of Wiis would have been sold.

So a lower upgrade rate from GC + XB to Wii than from Ps2 would be needed. As a matter of fact, and about equal rate from GC, and a low rate from XB would still lead to only ~ 500K new purchasers.

So am I missing something? Or...?

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/post.php?id=1128743

The wii has expanded every market on the planet. Saying it hasnt is just asking for trouble

Cammie said core gamers were buying the Wii, but the important thing is WHO is playing it. Once in the house, family members who didn't play before are playing it... well, that's happening according to Nintendo.

The other week I went to a party hosted by a 30 year old couple. They had a large screen TV set up in the back yard to play Mario Kart Wii/Mario and Sonic and Wii sports boxing.

It was the first system they ever owned.

My 38 year old sister wants to buy a Wii for Wii fit.

yeah, it's expanded.

people in the 'expanded' market are the people who dident own a console last gen, or ever.

If one person plays a console that didn't play a console before or with in recent history, than that console expanded the market.

Have more people who haven't played a console in recent history played the Wii than most consoles?

Just look at who is buying Wii's middle aged non-gamers for them selves or for their kids.

Either way that is expanding the market. More so than SNES or PS2 I would be willing to bet.

Wii and DS have both expanded the market.

When I used to work at McDonald's, sometimes there would be moms who looked to be in there late 30's playing Brain Age or Sudoku while their kids ran around the playplace.

I have even heard adults talking about Wii Fit right around when it was released.

Here's your problem. I believe that the NPD report where that number comes from was a study on install base, seperate from their retail tracking. Obviously a lot of people who have bought a PS2 since 2001 no longer own or use it. So the total number of PS2 "owners" is probably 20-30M, not the whole 40+M retail sales they have tracked.

(Incidently, this is also the reason for the infamous "reverse sales" chart in some analyst's Wii sales prediction.)

Check and see if they list install base estimates somewhere else in the report.

Anyways, in regard to whether they've expanded the market, 1.) their monthly sales are higher than anything seen before, so the market is bigger month to month than it was in the PS2 years, and 2.) more people within a household use the Wii compared to past consoles, so not all of the customer expansion will be seen in raw sales numbers.

Can you clarify your argument?  I can't seem to follow your reasoning (when you talk about GC + XB).

Like the others said though, even if most Wii owners have had a console before, I'd bet more in the house are using the console.  It just isn't as obvious as the DS is (using these numbers), since the Wii has been out for less time, and one Wii is enough per household so not all of the new audience (girls / adults) have to buy their own (if their brothers/sons are gamers).

Yep, the cruise ship I am going on has a Wii hooked up to a big ass tv in a game room.