Squilliam said: Its not a perfect piece but it actually does raise some interesting points. Perhaps Malstrom is following his own advice and providing substance rather than fluff, banter and hate?

Squlliam likes it bcoz Malstrom hinted at Nintendo's business failures.

No I liked it because:

A: It wasn't negative towards any party really.

B: It was shorter and more to the point, so it has a better fluff/content ratio.

C: It provides an interesting perspective outside of the recession as to why the Wii sales are thus. It doesn't mean hes right, but it does mean he raises some good points.

I think that (and I hope) That Wii can gain it's momentum back with Tiger Woods 10 to start. If the M+ sports games can pick up the trend I feel like WSR and Red Steel 2, plus a few others can gain that momentum of out selling the competition 2:1 again.

...Theres no doubt that Q4 '08 wasn't the BEST business decision. =/

very good points. it makes one think through. Nintendo better start working.

It have lost it?

When??

I think Malstrom (and many others) has made the mistake of assuming that the Wii could ever manage the consistently high level of sales that the DS has ...

The DS is a handheld system and by Nintendo making it a relevant product to more and more people (gamers and non-gamers alike) it gave them the opportunity to sell to multiple people within a single household in a generation. At the same time, by being a handheld system the DS had (dramatically) higher fail rates due to people dropping it down stairs, washing it in their washing machine, or some other careless act which causes people to buy multiple systems for themself in a generation.

The Wii is a home console and while making it more relevant to gamers and non gamers alike has helped Nintendo sell more hardware, the main benefit that Nintendo has seen is an ability to sell far more software per system. Now I know people are thinking that the Wii's software sales are no better than the HD console software sales, but (from what I have seen) piracy is a much bigger problem for Nintendo this generation than their competition and yet they have still been able to maintain a very high attach rate while having a very large user-base.

Not to mention that, in japan for example, the huge majority of gamers are swtiching to portables due to their life styles. Home console don't fit their lifestyles anymore and that's why they don't sell a lot like former times.

I don't think it had stop selling that much in america, though.

But it's a very interesting read.  So get started!

A doom article? From Malstrom? How delicious!

But seriously, it seems that he's got the right idea about what exactly drives Wii sales. They seem to be driven by a small number of blockbusters, and high software sales are entirely complementary, they are the effect of high Wii sales, not the cause. The burden is on Nintendo to really push the console forward.

I think he is wrong about how much hype exists for Wii Sports Resort, though. I mean, the E3-viewing audience received it very well, and Motion Plus-powered stuff is getting a lot of attention in the main media.