The Wii is selling like mad without good games or too many games announced for the future .So its evident theres a hype bubble around the machine .Misinformed people just think it will have all the games of the other machines and that the wiimote effectively tracks all your movements .Most people I have spoken to ,even without having played the wii (specially those ,those who have played havent got so good an opinion ) believe those two things as for sure .The only place right now where the extreme scarcity of good games has started to hurt the machine is Japan ,and we dont know even yet if its not a consequence of the slow months of september and october .The Wii is selling like mad in US ,very strongly in EU and its starting to do mediocre in Japan but was selling like mad there too .Maybe the bubble will burst ,but I think in occident that will take some time ...casual gamers are too ignorant and just believes the WIi is very powerful and tracks all your movements here .Once that feeling is gone contradicted by the reality (far less releases and of less techical quality ,wiimote limits for motion sensing becoming more apparent even for casuals ) the bubble can burst .

At least the Wii has a bubble.

Oh snap.

There's no such thing as a Wii bubble. It's just something analists and fanboys made up because they're mad Nintendo's winning.

If I only had a dime everybody said the iPod was a fad and the bubble would burst. Now they say the same thing about the Wii. Oh wait, I do make a dime every time they say it's a fad. Oops, I'm rich and Nintendo has made me enough to buy my next house.

@DmNt

Frankly economists, and analysts do not give a damn. Beyond how accurate their forecasts were. They are paid to use scientific principles to divine the future, and to be unbiased. Were they not unbiased that could lead to stock manipulation, and yes you will go to jail for that. Often these professionals will present information about any such thing that might taint their results. In other words a financial analyst for a television channel will fully disclose that they own a particular stock before advocating a purchase. So your literally calling such people criminals.

Bubbles are poorly understood economic concepts. Often they are not recognized until they have collapsed often sucking companies down with them. They are seriously dangerous especially if a company allocates many funds to a industry or sector that suddenly collapses. That said the sales of the Wii are a familiar trend for bubbles. They are often based on sales that do not align with the market. The system sells at the same level regardless of whether it experiences developments that would decrease the sales of a traditional console.

The Wii does appear to have many hallmarks of a bubble stating so does not make you nefarious. The only person who would say that is a fanboy who has a blind loyalty to a name. Who is so biased that they feel compelled to call others names. Take some time to make yourself somewhat aware of the concepts your griping about.

I, too, invested in Nintendo. Took out a $10k student loan 2 years ago, and put it all on N. It's going to pay for my house.

 What characteristics?  Are people investing vast sums in Wii projects on promises and seeing insignificant returns?  Your confusing consumer interest and irrational investment behavior, if people start putting their retirement funds into buying Wiis to sell later then I will agree with you.  So far the projects have been very restrained and shown sales in line with those investments.  The biggest risks currently are being taken by 3rd parties putting out titles with budgets in the 10s of millions of dollars for one console specifically as for these investments to pay off at a level justifying the investment they must sell to a large percentage of any particular consoles owners.

 You have to look at the whole picture not just one element. When a developer is about to start a project they should look at Current install base of a console + attach rate of games simular to the one they plan to develop + projections of continued sales of that console to determine if its the best match up to maximize sales of their title. Then they ought to compare that to projected developemet costs for that console and make a decision on what will be best for that particular IP. Thats all a guessing game before launch of a system but they can trend it now. 

 I have to say the Wii amazes me. I was sure it was a gimmick that would die off not long after launch but is a juggernaut I don't foresee loosing momentum anytime soon. The install base is already there and theres been nothing but profit for Nin. I'm not sure the majority of 3rd parties will embrace it fully as its difficult to shift your thinking from the way things have been. Although I'm sure many 3rd partys will figure out how to take full advantage of the Wii's target demographic to boost attach rates.   

 I personally don't get it. I've palyed with it a little in the store and don't understand the appeal or why wii sports is fun. My only guess is thay have tapped a truley new market in casual gamers that I just didn't think existed. The only other thing I can think of is its price point and how in my youth and how difficult it was for me to talk my parents into a NES as a christmas gift due to its cost as well as how hard it was to justify the cost of additional titles for the console. I guess I can't get past seeing it see it aimed mostly at youth gaming. Then again my taste in games has gotten progressivly darker and grittier as I have aged. I also have to admit I'm a graphics whore a thing a lot of us PC gamers can't seem to get past.

    Anyway my first post here and I have to say I'm enjoying the site emensly. Lots of intellegent disscussion going on. 

Terms like the "Wii Bubble" are made by analysts trying to objectively make sense of a situation they really don't fully grasp as of yet. That doesn't mean they're ignorant, just that they're handicapped by past trends and the acute dillemma of weighing certain larger factors over the sum of the many smaller ones.

We may think only Wii-hating fanboys cling to the ideology fo the "Wii Bubble", and to a certain extent, yes they do, but this is something we all need to look at and reach our own conclusions on. Not bothering to look at where the Wii is going (whether its talk of bubbles or success) is what truly makes people fanboys, riding a run-a-way success train down a dark tunnel and not bothering to think of what's the other side. So in other words, debate like this is perfectly healthy to furthering one's own understanding of the console and forming their own ideals of why they either support it or not.

If you haven't at least taken something away from this debate during your time in it you should probably ask yourself why are you even here.