Wii: A failure

[MrHealthy]

Your missing the point. Success of a console has nothing to do with what games you prefer and what you could care less about. Its not how the industry works, and it never will work like that. Why? Because there are other people who do care about the offerings of the wii (or in your example, the PSX).

Success is measured by the wallets of buyers. So far this gen all three consoles are successful, the wii being the most successful and the PS3 being the least with 360 right in the middle. (if you count handhelds DS is king and PSP, well, lets not talk about PSP).

The thread was created to discuss whether the wii is a success. It is a success. This is fact.
Whether or not you enjoy the wii or think its has fun engaging software is a subject for a completely different thread.

[the7k]

Sure, the Wii is a financial success. I don't think most people give a shit about that though. All they care about is whether the system entertains them.

When people say "The Wii is a Failure", it's pretty damn obvious they aren't talking about it from a "My stocks are falling" perspective, but from a "Where the hell are the games?" perspective.

Not everything that sells like hot cakes is worthy of keeping around. Remember POGs?

[lwcook]

I partly agree with what the7k says.

The terms "success" and "failure" are subjective. Especially once you get out of the whole financial/units sold definition of the terms.

I think the Wii is a success gaming wise...just not to most of US. The hardcore-ish gamers. The thing with the Wii is it has redefined gaming for the casual market, which is something we haven't seen before to the current scale.

Therefore, you almost have to treat it as a totally new concept as a gaming platform. I don't think it it's fair to put it in the same exact category as the 360/PS3 because, as most of you know, that hasn't been Nintendo's strategy at all.

It's alright for someone to see it as a failure for them. It might be a failure to you in terms of entertaining you personally....and that's okay.

[MrHealthy]

Sure, the Wii is a financial success. I don't think most people give a shit about that though. All they care about is whether the system entertains them.

When people say "The Wii is a Failure", it's pretty damn obvious they aren't talking about it from a "My stocks are falling" perspective, but from a "Where the hell are the games?" perspective.

Not everything that sells like hot cakes is worthy of keeping around. Remember POGs?

But the wii wouldn't be successful if there were not games that people were willing to buy. So this "Where the hell are the games?" perspective should be "I don't like the tons of good games on wii." perspective. Which is fine, like lwcook said, "It might be a failure to you in terms of entertaining you personally".

Do you think that the majority of people buying wiis and games for it care about the 360 and Ps3? Nope. But they are still successful too.

Also, the worth of something in the future shouldn't be a factor because you don't go out to buy a game or system thinking, will I like this 20 years from now, or even 10? Again, subject for a different thread. Also, I still have my POGS.

successful /səks'esfʊl/
Something that is successful achieves what it was intended to achieve.

For consumers, the Wii is supposed to bring fun. Millions of people agree that it does this. Mission accomplished.
For Nintendo it makes them money. It makes millions. Mission accomplished.

Unless there is some other attribute of success that you are measuring then there is no denying it is successful. No one cares if you are one of the people who like it. Just like how you don't care if I don't like any other console.

[the7k]

All I know is this: I haven't seen a quality-to-crap ratio this unbalanced since the Atari 2600. Certainly, there are always more crap games than quality games, but it hasn't been this bad before in a long time.

I don't see this boding well for Nintendo. In between the mountains of shovelware so vast that there were more low-budget titles released for the Wii this year than there were days this year, and Nintendo's extremely slow response to it by trying to balance it out with quality titles like NSMB - eventually, people are going to drop the system like a rock when they realize that Game #247 is exactly like Game # 1038, just with a new coat of paint.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if I lived in Japan. I hear Nintendo actually takes risks there. Nintendo of America, on the other hand, seems wholly unwilling to do anything new. While NoJ tries to make enough money to make more games, NoA only makes enough games to make more money. And I won't feel any differently until I see games like Captain Rainbow, Fatal Frame IV, Trace Memory 2, Disaster: Day of Crisis and all the other great gems that NoA said "Oh, hell HELL NO!" to make their way over.

[RadarScope1]

This analysis of 2009 and holiday NPD sales from Wired's Chris Kohler is worth a read.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/01/n ... -wii-game/

Interesting to note that Ubisoft and some other publishers are going back to the core gamer well with in-depth games and sequels. As Kohler points out here, that doesn't work on the Wii. New IP, done right the first time and not designed as the first in a chain of sequels, is the only way to go.

[MrHealthy]

All I know is this: I haven't seen a quality-to-crap ratio this unbalanced since the Atari 2600. Certainly, there are always more crap games than quality games, but it hasn't been this bad before in a long time.

I agree with you there.

I don't see this boding well for Nintendo. In between the mountains of shovelware so vast that there were more low-budget titles released for the Wii this year than there were days this year, and Nintendo's extremely slow response to it by trying to balance it out with quality titles like NSMB - eventually, people are going to drop the system like a rock when they realize that Game #247 is exactly like Game # 1038, just with a new coat of paint.

I could see this happening. Well, I thought I could until Nintendo sold over 3.8 million wiis during December this year -_-

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if I lived in Japan. I hear Nintendo actually takes risks there. Nintendo of America, on the other hand, seems wholly unwilling to do anything new. While NoJ tries to make enough money to make more games, NoA only makes enough games to make more money. And I won't feel any differently until I see games like Captain Rainbow, Fatal Frame IV, Trace Memory 2, Disaster: Day of Crisis and all the other great gems that NoA said "Oh, hell HELL NO!" to make their way over.

NOA has done a few experiments. As of recent, Excite Bots: Trick Racing, the sequel to Excite Truck. Its a bloody fantastic arcade racer, but it bombed at retail.

Really though, the reasons for the amounts of shovelware on wii are four pronged. Nintendo - Tries to kill anything that would hurt Mario / Zelda sales and encourages developers to make shovelware. Developers - When they do make a good game they give it piss poor marketing and call it a day saying that core games can't sell on wii. Media - They don't give as much attention to good wii games (looking at the likes of Little Kings Story) because they assume it will just be more shovelware. Core Gamers - Many don't do the leg work that Nintendo, Developers and Media force use to use to find the good games.

So in conclusion, yes, Wii could be a f*** ton better if we lived in a perfect world. And I hope every day that it does get better.

[Flake]

Have we yet come up with a unified (and unanimous) definition for 'failure' in this case? Wii DOES have some good software and it has sold profitably. Where in that does the label of 'failure' still apply?

And I mean no sarcasm, folks. I'm just trying to grasp what the complaint is that has given this thread 19 pages of longevity.

[MrHealthy]

Have we yet come up with a unified (and unanimous) definition for 'failure' in this case? Wii DOES have some good software and it has sold profitably. Where in that does the label of 'failure' still apply?

And I mean no sarcasm, folks. I'm just trying to grasp what the complaint is that has given this thread 19 pages of longevity.

I think we have agreed that its a personal failure to live up to expectations.

[Niode]

Like the7k, I couldn't give a shit whether or not all the shite games (IE the shovelware and minigame compilations) are selling like hotcakes or that everyone and their dog has a Wii in their house. It's a phenomenal success in that regard and it's made more inroads into making gaming a more general entertainment pastime, like watching TV or a film etc than any other system in the past. The problem I have, is that there is no games that interest me on the Wii, aside from a couple of choice titles, it is completely useless to me. It showed such promise at first, a lot of the titles interested me, but it just seems like there is very little that is on the horizon apart from the new mario game and the new zelda.

The low amount of great games coming out for the system just makes it look poor in comparison to all the great titles being released for the 360/PS3. I don't see how you can discount my multiplatform statement. The multiplatform games on Wii, unless they offer something that is impossible on other platforms just aren't worth bothering with, the graphics are better and the control system is almost always better, if you have all three systems, like myself, why would I bother with a downgraded version? It seems that the 360/PS3 have just started to hit their stride, the developers are very confident with the system, and the tools are quite mature now, whilst the Wii is being abandoned by third party devs since their original IP sells abysmally on the system.