Lowest price does not mean most sales.  The PS2 is $100 now, and many would argue has the best and most diverse lineup of any console ever made, and it's being outsold by a $250 Wii, and even the $400 PS3 is outselling it.

The GameCube was the cheapest console of its generation, and came in 3rd place.

Shortages do not create demand.  High demand means a product has a great value-to-cost ratio in the minds of the consumers.  Part of this perceived value comes from the fact that it comes with a free game that you've actually heard of and seen all over TV (Oprah, Ellen, Conan, the Colbert Report, Jon Stewart at the Oscars, Jimmy Fallon, etc.).

This is true.  When a company makes so many great games at once and releases them all so soon, they will sell a lot of software and a lot of hardware.  Now why are you trying to make that look like a bad thing?  Everybody else wishes they had that lineup that fast all to themselves.

Hahaha, no.

We'd be having a ton of 2-D platformers and point-and-click adventure games.  But all we get is cinematic FPS and cinematic RPG.

I'd say that at any point in time, there are a few different types of gaming, and the winning system is the one that caters to all of them.

In the beginning, there were 2 types of games, fast-paced action games of the arcades (Pong, Defender, Pac-Man), and slower strategic games (D&D on paper, Roguelike games on PC, point and click adventures, and others).  Then the NES came along and catered to both of these markets, with fast-paced games like Mario and Mega Man, and slow RPGs and simulation games like Dragon Quest and Nobunaga's Ambition.  It had something for everybody, and even had arcade ports and PC ports and re-releases.

Then the CD-ROM came along and offered full motion video, which created the next type of game, the cinematic game.  These games could be combined with either or both of the previous types of games, and these new games became more like interactive movies (Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto 3, etc.)  The idea had been toyed with earlier, with the awesome cutscenes of Ninja Gaiden and others, but FMVs really let people go wild.  The N64 games had some cutscenes, but couldn't compete with the CD-ROM.  The PS1 and PS2 dominated the cinematic type of game, while still providing fast-paced action games and slower strategy/RPG/simulation games.  So for this phase, Sony was catering to all 3 types of games while everybody else was playing catch-up with this new type of game.  They had something for everybody, and even had arcade ports, PC ports, and re-releases of older NES and SNES games (like Final Fantasy and Mega Man anthologies).

Now the Wii has really exploded community/casual/social gaming.  The idea had been around earlier, with World of WarCraft, Guitar Hero, and Dance Dance Revolution, but Wii Sports blew everything out of the water.  Now Nintendo is catering to all 4 types of games, and still gets arcade ports, PC ports, PS2 ports, and remakes of older games, anthologies of older games, an entire Virtual Console, and it gets new cinematic games and new community/casual/social games.  Everybody else is playing catch-up with this new type of game, while Nintendo has something for everybody.

For somebody to dethrone Nintendo, they need to either cater to all 4 markets more effectively than Nintendo, or popularize a 5th market with a 5th gaming philosophy.

"Lowest price does not mean most sales. The PS2 is $100 now, and many would argue has the best and most diverse lineup of any console ever made, and it's being outsold by a $250 Wii, and even the $400 PS3 is outselling it.

The GameCube was the cheapest console of its generation, and came in 3rd place."

But the PS2 had had its time in the sun and is a last gen console. It is no wonder that current gen consoles outsell it.

The Gamecube wasn't as cheap in comparison to either the PS2 or xbox during its time as was the Wii in comparison to the 360 and PS3 at its launch. There ceratinly wasn't a gap of $350.00 between the price of the Gamecube and original xbox at their launch.


"Shortages do not create demand. High demand means a product has a great value-to-cost ratio in the minds of the consumers. Part of this perceived value comes from the fact that it comes with a free game that you've actually heard of and seen all over TV (Oprah, Ellen, Conan, the Colbert Report, Jon Stewart at the Oscars, Jimmy Fallon, etc.)."

Well, then why were people buying 360's in holiday '05 for $3,000.00 when Microsoft told them that if they waited a few months, they would be able to get them for $399.99?




"This is true. When a company makes so many great games at once and releases them all so soon, they will sell a lot of software and a lot of hardware. Now why are you trying to make that look like a bad thing? Everybody else wishes they had that lineup that fast all to themselves."

Getting them all out when they did has kind of backfired on Nintendo as of late. Look at Japan, even the PS3 is outselling it.



"Hahaha, no.

We'd be having a ton of 2-D platformers and point-and-click adventure games. But all we get is cinematic FPS and cinematic RPG."

Yeah, like all the 2d platformers on the virtual console, Super Mario Galaxy, Zack and Wiki, New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, Super Smash Bros. Brawl which has some 2d platforming elements, games like Sam and Max, Strong Bad, Broken Sword also on Virtual console, more family friendly games on Wii like back in the NES days, and Little Big Planet on PS3 just totally don't exist do they?

Nah, I don't think so...

The Law of Cycles. Our Culture is Cyclical.

http://buzzsawhaircut.com/?p=207

Those people are idiots, and not the majority of buyers.  It didn't make the 360 sell "more."  They would have to manufacture more units for that to happen.  That kind of panic where people pay more than retail happens AFTER something has "sold out."  It doesn't inflate demand.  It inflates eBay resale prices.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here.  Are you implying that the Wii would be selling better if it did not have as many amazing first-party sequels to beloved classics?

Or are you just trying to say "Look at Japan, even the PS3 is outselling it."?  Because the Wii is selling more than the PS3 and 360 combined worldwide.  It can afford to slow down a bit for now in Japan, where it currently has 65.63% of the total userbase.

You conveniently ignored my longer explanation.  The Wii has the best games of every generation on it, and the best games for the new gaming community it helped create.  So it is winning.

I didn't say that 2-D games or point-and-click adventure games don't exist, and I'm glad they're still around.  But 2-D platformers is not the dominant genre anymore.  There was a time where more then 2/3rds of games were 2-D platformers.  Now that's almost the case with FPS games.

I could probably list about 8 billion new shooters if you'd like to get the point I was making.

OMG... Why are you people even responding to this troll? I have already told many mods that this guy is an alt account to Paul_Warren, whose other alt account (BTFeather55) was recently permabanned because I reported him.

I kindly ask all mods to check his post history and writing style and preferences (Hates the Wii, leaves spaces before starting each paragraph, uses the metacritic arguement, etc) and realize that this guy has made yet another alt account after getting permabanned.

I'm gonna report him again.

I'll help! :D

txrattlesnake, consider yourself reported.

"Those people are idiots, and not the majority of buyers. It didn't make the 360 sell "more." They would have to manufacture more units for that to happen. That kind of panic where people pay more than retail happens AFTER something has "sold out." It doesn't inflate demand. It inflates eBay resale prices."

Something had to happen to increase people's demands to the point where they would be willing to pay such staggering prices and it was shortages. The Wii never hit such a price point but many people were buying it for anywhere fro9m $400.00 to $800.00 in bundles which seemed to be the only thing stores where offering for it when its actual retail price Christmas '06 was $250.00.

"I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Are you implying that the Wii would be selling better if it did not have as many amazing first-party sequels to beloved classics?

"Or are you just trying to say "Look at Japan, even the PS3 is outselling it."? Because the Wii is selling more than the PS3 and 360 combined worldwide. It can afford to slow down a bit for now in Japan, where it currently has 65.63% of the total userbase."

If they hadn't felt compelled to push all those games out early, then they wouldn't be having the game drought there having now which is resulting in the Wii not selling quite as well as it was thought that it would be this point in time. Last fall many were saying it would sell 50 million by the end of March '09. Well, we're in May and it has passed 50 million yet.





"You conveniently ignored my longer explanation. The Wii has the best games of every generation on it, and the best games for the new gaming community it helped create. So it is winning.

I didn't say that 2-D games or point-and-click adventure games don't exist, and I'm glad they're still around. But 2-D platformers is not the dominant genre anymore. There was a time where more then 2/3rds of games were 2-D platformers. Now that's almost the case with FPS games.

I could probably list about 8 billion new shooters if you'd like to get the point I was making."

The best selling games on Wii are more family friendly games and those games have outsold all of the fps and or mature games on the system (even though some of those are higher rated than lower selling games on the console)

. Games like Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games and Carnival Games, two of the Wii's best selling games, are two more examples of games that are looking back more on an older era of gaming.

REPORTED! :D

@trestres and Batman...WTF, I'm sorry that trying to have conversations grounded in reality about the Wii upsets you so much.