You left out DMC4 on the PS3 list.

I believe Zen was rattling off the reasons why Nintendo software in general sells well, not why a particular game sells well. So the highlighted point refers to Nintendo targeting diverse genres, underserved genres, genres ready to explode in popularity, or creating new genres altogether.

It's more of a shopping list of ways to successfully create and sell software. Not every game will hit every point, but the more it hits, the bigger it sells. Zen is suggesting that Nintendo is very good at hitting these points.

Are you actually trying to assert that you can, in fact, judge a book by its cover?

Is that what I'm seeing here?

That's your opinion, I happen to love Wii Sports and Wii Play, and Wii Fit is apparently great, ive only clocked around 15 mins on a friends Wii so I can't judge

Mario Party 8 is good at (surprisingly enough) a party. Single Player sucks, but if you're playing single player mario party - get a damn life

I've heard ok things about Mario and Sonic, mediocre is a bit harsh, especially because we're not really the game's target audience

Links xbow training is apparently good, short, but it's a half price game that comes with a peripheral so that's acceptable

I've never played carnival games, but I agree that this is probably shit, even for its target audience and at a budget price

1. And now has nearly 90m...the growing userbase is why sales didn't stop at 10m =P
2. "Casuals" will call any console "a nintendo"...so yeah probably some preference there...
3. that have a fraction of the consumer awareness
4. and still has much more consumer awareness..sometimes less is more (I'd like to see the stats on this actually, link?)
   
5. agreed
6. agreed
7. But it was hyped within the demographic...ie "casuals"...you think "casuals" bashing Halo 3 made a difference to the "hardcore"? Why would the reverse matter?
   
8. Yup
9. Innovation is not invention, it's innovation, you can innovate with an existing invention...sort of like the Wii Remote...it was innovative but the tech and the concept had been around, Nintendo's innovation was building the whole package to make it appealing to the mass market
   
10. Agreed "huh?", not sure wth he was saying.
11. But "Nintendo" does.
12. But was there nevertheless =)

So by my count that is 10 of 12.

Isn't this pretty much the point several people have been making, only promoted in a negative way?

As it seems right now, the average Wii owner purchases a little over 4 games a year. I'm going to ignore the 10% that average 10 games a year here, so say 4 games a year for 90% of the Wii owners (note: the % are just made up, no real sources, just an example).

So tecnically, if the console launches 5 awesome games that you really, really want each year - that's enough. To do this, the console would probably need 5-6 great games, that almost anyone can enjoy, and 2-3 very good games that are also easily enjoable.

This is what the Wii releases, and for 90% of its userbase, this is enough.

For the last 10% of the Wiis userbase, they buy 10 games a year each. Now, one would think these gamers aren't important, but think about the fact that over 5 years, they buy 50 games, while an average of the 90% would only buy 20. So over 5 years, they add up 1/5 of the revenue on the SW sales. That is far higher than something you would want to ignore.

Anyway, those 10% stand for most of the sales on the titles that sell less than 1M (the titles that sell less than 10M only account for 30% of the total SW sales on Wii)

Thus, the Wii becomes a lot more narrow on what sells good, as there is really just 4M that buys the non-million seller games.

Of course, the 360 and Ps3 don't have 25 and 18M each here, they are also split up. Like for instance with the Ps3, perhaps 30% average 10 games, and 70% average 4 games, thus meaning that the people who buy the non-million selling ones are here 6M, which is higher than the Wiis (of course, this is just an example, so that might not be the case).

That's true; I was working with this week's worldwide software charts. Not only did Devil May Cry not make the top 200, it didn't even make the top 50 PS3 games sold this week. I didn't think it would be possible for a game to be a top seller in 2008 and not even chart in the top 50 for that individual platform, but apparently it is. (This doesn't exactly speak well for the game's legs...)

Regarding many of the comments here, I'm not trying to argue one way or another as to whether Wii's software titles are "good", or whether the console's lineup successfully caters to the tastes of the core gamer. What I'm trying to show with this thread is that Wii's success can be entirely explained by high-profile exclusive software sales, as opposed to some phantom explanation like "waggle", "casuals", "marketing", or whatever other buzz word the gaming industry happens to seize upon.

Most of the gaming media seems to believe that this generation is "different from all the others". But it's not. Wii has the most desirable exclusive software, and that's why it's selling so well.

Good thread. I would say the Wii's accessibility and price point are helping as well. It is amazing that Nintendo software sells so well for so long.

Erik is largely correct that casual players are the exact people who do not have brand loyalty to anyone, including Nintendo. The whole idea of being a "casual" is that they don't play many games and aren't obsessively aware of who is making what. Most do not look at the publisher's name on a box, and in my experience as a retail employee, even if they SEE a logo, they don't necessarily know that means who published it. Why would they? That could just mean a licensee or something. "Who published this game" isn't something these people even consider.

As a similar example, I'll assume most of you aren't music enthusiasts. Listeners, sure, but not enthusiasts. Do you know who published your favorite albums? Don't look; just tell me. Was it Starshine? How about AMSI? How about Global Music? What's that, you don't know? How could you be so stupidly ignorant of a product you enjoy?

Nintendo does not have magic dust. People do not buy their products "just because." When speaking of casual users most especially, the reason a product will sell is because they want it, not because of brand recognition or loyalty. Why would someone with little interest in a medium have extensive knowledge of who makes the games they like? That's what enthusiast users understand and care about. Which is funny: the people who actually would be motivated by brand loyalty are the precise people not buying things like Nintendogs.

"Actually I have played Wii Sports and Wii Play and they are indeed mediocre and bad. Even if they were OK to good games is it a reason to celebrate games that clearly had little investment made into them sell so incredibly. "

What an ignorant statement. Wii Sport & Play represent Nintendo's R&D while developing the WiiMote. It can't be for accounted easily because it represents an investment both on the hardware & software side of things. The same is true of Wii Sports Resort. Knowlegde going into creating that (mostly trial $ error) will be used in future titles. For example the fencing game may serve as a basis of the next Zelda.