750 million Nintendo Wiis sold LTD CONFRIMED!!!!!!11

Can Indians really afford 7th gen consoles?

I'm serious. I've heard from people that the place is crap.

Don't take this as an insult.


DS however, may be a different story.

well, its true that the 7th gen consoles have a price tag thats equal to a months salary of average people here, but even the above average salaried people go into a hundred million now due to the massive economic boom in the past decade. The main problem comes with the Software pricing. If people have to pay 2000 INR for every game they buy, that wont be acceptable for many. If nintendo(Sony and MS as well) price the games reasonably, i can see a sizeable market opening up here

I far Ive known alot a people have PS360 iin India. Also they are stored on the shelves in stores. And I do see ads on TV.

Indians are gonna love Wii Sports (especially tennis). Even though the price is high (20k Rupees) there are enough rich people to buy it up. The DS has the price going for it, but I'm pretty sure most of the kids there just see the PSP as a better system (not that it has released, though).

All they need to do is come out with a cricket game (even better if it's Motion+ enabled) for the Wii and I can personally guarantee that India will become the largest market for Nintendo.

Guaranteed 90% of games sold will be pirated games.

India isn't that poor.  I was going to come in here with a "ha ha India.  So they'll appeal to all 1% of the people there with electricity, ha ha."  But then I remembered that India is more than just an over-populated people zoo.  It's also a fairly advanced country.  They are, as I recall, one of that exclusive list of Nuclear nations.  They're not as well off as, say, maybe China or certainly Europe, but at the same time, they're not as primitive and fucked-up as 95% of Africa.  After all, the Xbox360 is in India, as I recall. 

Although, last I heard, MS wasn't doing too well over there with the Xbox360.  No doubt the Wii will garner a lot more attention.  Be interesting what kind of home-grown games appear on the Wii and DS over there given the bizarreness of Bollywood.  If Nintendo keeps branching out in new, previously untargeted regions like India and China and the like, they'll have no real problem ensuring that the Wii and DS not only have long lifespans, but they'll get that all-important status as cultural icons the way the NES is viewed in places where it was most popular.

Their whole goal with the Wii and DS was to reach out to new audiences, so this is no big surprise.  Appealing directly to India and China will no doubt help them combat piracy while totally dominating the industry in areas where Sony and Microsoft are giving minimal, if any, attention.  Hell, China's rampant pirating might end up becoming a boon to Nintendo in the long run as the systems become a popular focus of pirates and modders.

You know, in the long run, this could lead to new companies making consoles again.  Besides just Nintendo, MS, and Sony.  Historically, there were always more players than just three.  No doubt, some industries will form in both China and India that may feel that they can make a better, more inventive, or somewhat improved game machine to put out on the market in their own regions, and potentially, worldwide.  The video game industry started in the US and moved to Japan.  Who says that major players can't suddenly rise out of other places, like India, China, or Europe?

@Resident Hazard: The country as a whole is poor. I do know that there's lots of people who can afford the consoles. But the price is a factor that prevents Wii and DS reaching 1,1 billion people potential. I also know, that Bollywood is the biggest movie maker in the world, but their problem is that they don't have a channel to the west, where the audience would grow bigger and where all the big money would be in.

There's always a possibility that the next big player can come out from any of the mentioned, which makes the markets even more important. You need to tap into the market, before someone takes advantage of the big domestic market in China or India and establish itself there before entering western market.

We Cheer: Bollywood Edition

Oh, I know that the country's average citizens make the middle class in America look independantly wealthy, but the country itself is no stranger to modern "western" civilization, generally modern or advanced technology, or high-level education.  Hell, even my joke remark of "all 1% with electricity will love the Wii" is just fine since that'd still be over 10 million people.  It is funny that they would choose India before China since one would think that China is more "technologically ready" for video games than India--and it has more available customers.

If the Wii and DS find some degree of success, then home-grown game studios will be able to spring up brining fresh new industry to India.  And no doubt that India would have little trouble in making games that not only appeal to their growing audience, but to some of their neighbors who may share some (or somewhat) similar cultural identities and themes.

Anyway, this is all good stuff for gamers.  This generation's biggest plus is that the companies are now more willing to reach out beyond the traditional "Japanese and Western" markets.  This will have the ability to not only keep this generation's steam running longer, but it broadens the ability for the next unique hit game, or bizarre and interesting niche titles to reach new audiences.  Too much stuff comes from just Japan and North America.  It could be a way for Asian media to better reach new audiences in other countries and regions.  Maybe gaming is the next investment Bollywood needs to make to reach out beyond the Indian sub-continent.  Who knows?

If Nintendo is truly successful in spreading video games to India, China, Korea, and the like, it'll only be a matter of time until Nintendo finally place themselves at a financial level better equipped to take on corporate giants like Sony and Microsoft.  Not that Nintendo is doing badly now, but they may no longer be "the little guy trying to stay alive" in a hardware war overly-focused on financial chest-pounding.  It'd be nice if the next companies to develop consoles (perhaps out of China or India) are more focused on gaming like Nintendo (and Sega, Atari, and to an extent, Neo-Geo and NEC before them), rather than corporate technological/computer dominance.

Does anyone know, is this generation in South America?  And if so, is South America listed under "Others" or "America?"