Easily. I only asked him to sum it up.

Here's a thought: I play games, not sales.

I dont know why, but any game involving Mario or the word "Wii" will sell MILLIONS. I dont know what it is, its wierd.

Precisely.  And stated in that way, it's really not up for discussion - it's just a fact.

It is arguable because you cannot prove that perceived value at time of purchase is equivalent to actual value realized after purchase.

Essentially you'd have to prove that no Wii owner was ever dissatisfied with the console to claim that as a fact.

I'll sum it up for you.

The best selling products have great value. Value is benefits, relative to cost. The Wii has the best selling games, which are also the most popular games, and game library is an important part of value, and that's why the Wii is winning. Wii Sports is better than Netflix and Blu-ray. Wii is awesome.

I really hoped this thread went the other way :)

Everything falls apart as soon as foggy concepts such as "value" and "benefits" are clarified.

More sales means higher perceived subjective value by a greater number of people. This is the obvious hypothesis part, as is obvious that many people bought the Wii for Wii Sports and WiiFit and MarioKart.

Then comes the weak logic deriving something from this obviousness. This perceived value does not necessarily translate to real value, nor does it generalize to an "average value" over the whole market, because no such thing makes sense. Value is always specific to the target, thus comparing sales over different target markets makes no logic sense to determine it.

So... sales = value? That's funny, because I own Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Fit, and I have collectively spent less than 10 hours playing them.

It's all about "perception" and quality/price, if i may...

First, the console itself offers incredible value, because it brings on the table something that no other console had: motion controls and Wii Sports in itself...

Then Wii Play was a remote plus a $10 game, Mario Kart included a "free" wheel for the price of a regular game, Wii Fit was a nice package for its $89 price, Guitar Hero/Rock Band benefited from the same kind of perception, even Link's Crossbow Training could be included in these examples, and now Wii Sports Resort is like a WM+ accessory plus a very well done game for $25...

All these may be viewed as "excellent deals" by consumers, compared to any $50 to $70 game out there...

If you add games like Twilight Princess (40 hours minimum), Super Smash Bros Brawl (tens and tens of hours possible), Okami (30 hours), Metroid Prime (20 hours), Little King's Story (30 hours), Mario Kart (see Smash, same thing), Mario Galaxy (30 hours), all these are not only console exclusives, but may be seen as great value as well...

So, the global perception of most consumers will be very positive: Wii offers a great value, plus experiences no other console could offer...

The quality/price of the hardware, and the accessories, and the best Wii games, is simply the best you may find... it's not important at all if these games sell 100.000, 1 million or 10 millions copies, the quality/price will always remain the same, and will always be an important factor in many buyer's shopping decisions...

Alright I'm a long time reader of these posts, but I found this topic so fascinating I had to create a username and add my two cents:

I believe what is causing the biggest disagreement is the fact that the OP is looking at it from a Macro point of view (looking at the market as a whole), whereas most of the replies are looking at it from a Micro point of view (just their opinions).  

That being said I can agree with his logic the Wii is providing the most value (as someone stated earlier, that is perceived value, since sales are an indicator of perceived value, you won't know the true value until you get home and play) to the market as a whole.  If it wasn't, it wouldn't be the biggest seller.  

Personally I own all 3 systems and will say from my Micro point of view the Wii has the least value.  I tend to put in more time with my 360 and PS3 games and the Wii has almost became a dust collector at this point.