The Hype is over: Wii sales drop 45% in Japan

What the heck is the opposite of that? Shooters? Fighting games? None of those scream out that they deserve some "hardcore" rating. They are a niche market.

 

Hardcore gaming is playing something with a traffic cone lodged up your ass perched on a volcano amirite?

 

Dude seriously, FPS are one of the most played genres, how could that be "niche" at all?

Just check the Xbox consoles: their whole userbase is made of FPS gamers...

If you mean PC hardcore gamers then you may be right since those whackos could buy a $3000 rig just to run Crysis at an extra 12fps.

And is ironic you made such a deal of all this since you're a harcore gamer. Hell, you even have your own site and its all about games!

The point is: when you spend most of your time and money into just one activity that makes you a hardcore/enthusiast of said activity.

A guy who likes to drive is a casual driver, but that other guy who spends most of his paycheck in new accesories for his car, that guy is a hardcore driver and/or car enthusiast.

 

there's a marketable difference in what makes a gamer casual or hardcore. It has little to do with genres, but just a difference in how a consumer behaves towards gaming. Some gamers want simple,easy fun..while others crave the reward of developing skill and logging hours into a game. For example, Mario Kart vs Forza. There's good things about both games, and they appeal to different gamers for different reasons.

Game companies have obviously found that different gamers require different strategies to cater to. Who do you think MS made the achievements and gamescore points for on the xbox 360? The whole argument that Nintendo has been making is that games have become too "hardcore" for many people, and they have a way for people that have never played games to have fun in a simpler way. That's great, although not for everyone.

It's just shocking it's taken so long for more large companies like EA to actually form divisions to go after a wider "casual" market.

 

Lots of Wii's in stock...

this weekend. For the first time ever, the local Target, Best Buy and Circuit City all had a bunch of them for sale just sitting there this morning. Still, I saw several people buying them, so I doubt there has been much of a lull in US sales and I'm sure demand will continue right through the holiday season.

 

Do you know what I find so funny about this thread topic is that the Wii is still pissing on the PS3 sales by a long way. The Wii is here to stay like it or not. I also don't understand why people want it to fail. It's aimed at a different market than the PS3 or X360. If you don't like it then don't buy it, simple as that.

Fore me the Wii is my little special gaming box for something different now and then or as a Game Cube My main gaming isn't done on the Wii since I have many systems as I'm sure many Wii owners do if they aren't in the non gamers category and if they are then they couldn't care less about "hard core" games anyway.

Yakumo

 

it's been explained before that people worry about the wii making more money off gamers that buy one or two games when compared to the ps3 or 360, where more games are sold per console. The numbers used to show that while wii's were never on shelves, the games weren't selling nearly as well. That's changing though.

Some people think that if more companies make more games for the vastly bigger market attracted to the wii, then they will ignore the "hardcore" crowd. I don't see it happening, as many companies are well invested in the ps3 and 360 already.

 

You get hardcore everything. Hardcore Pacman. Hardcore is a state of mind and an obsession to be the best at something. Some games lend themselves more to this than others either by merit of their difficulty, score-based challenge or metric. However, Pacman was never designed to be a hardcore game at all. It's the audience that picks it out.





Editops, typo

 

To nintendo, Hardcore means you've previously purchased a console from the last console generation. Also for the first 6 months nintendo had 2/3-3/4 of the people who bought the wii were hardcore gamers.

Never get why nintendo cares more to pander to that 1/3-1/4 ninch market then the majority that purchased the system.

Anyways Wii will probably always be a huge seller in japan yet I dont think it will ever be a DS. Handhelds are king in japan and I'm bettting money on PSP Slim & FF7CC over taking the wii for the rest of the year.

just my 2 cents.

 

They see the 'niche' market as the biggest market out there. Sony did a similar thing ('casual gamers') and that is why gaming is mainstream again.

 

From what I heard, the reason Wii sales are in decline is because there was a spike in sales beacuse the new Dragon Warrior or Dragon Quest or Dragon something game came out. Still probably the most amusing game for me on Wii would be super monkey ball. Nothing else really catches my interest.

 

Wii is still selling very well, but everyone I know who owns one is at least starting to regret their purchase due to lack of worthwile games. The system is in serious need of some high quality original titles. Its got original ones, and quality ones both coming out, but none that are both. EX:

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Franchise
My Sims - Franchise
Super Mario Galaxies - Franchise
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams - Franchise
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Franchise
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers - Franchise
Soul Calibur Legends - Franchise
Blast Works: Build, Fuse & Destroy - Upgrade PC port

Those are the only games I can think of that anyone seems to be looking forward to, and not a single one is original.

 

Funny how any criticism against the PS3 is completely reasonable yet anything against the Wii is "hate"...

Seriously, I just wanted to show a point: that you cant keep an obsolete and overpriced gimmick on the top of the hype wave forever, people will find out sooner or later and will ditch the thing.

Is like the SegaCD: everybody wanted one becos "it has a CD!" but when the hype went down people realized it was little more than a genesis, and with almost no games.

Will the Wii share the same fate? I doubt so, but sales wont go further than what the ones GC did.

 

Shooters as in Ikaruga.

Second, I still dont consider myself hardcore. I probably play less games then some "casual" gamer. So what, I have a website? Thats a hobby, Im bringing something new to the table. I dont consider myself above the rest of the gaming population because of it.

And the whole Forza vs Mario Kart. Neither is more hardcore then the other. There are people who like arcade games, and there are people that like simulations. What Im asking is DEFINE hardcore? No one has done it yet, because it doesnt exist. There are different genres of games, different styles, but what makes one more hardcore then the rest? A handful of people obsessing over something (Such as 1cc a game, or tuning a car to get that last tenth of a second off their time), doesnt make the game hardcore. Being out quite a bit last year, I noticed that the same people that play Mario can also go and play some really niche or uncommon games. They arent hardcore. They just like to play games and have fun.

 

The Wii will fade away around the same time the PSP outsells the DS.

I.e. Never.

 

The Wii going to be still selling in 2017 then? I think not... If it lasts past 2010 then I would be surprised...

 

Yo, borman, wrong thread...

 

Um no? Dont post things like:

Besides mario galaxy I cant think of other (good) games, and that one isnt exactly "hardcore gamer" stuff either...

If you dont want a response.

 

No matter what it'll be interesting to see what happens to Wii down the line. Eventually people will want more from the Wii than it can provide. Mainly Wii will be in trouble if the price advantage is lost.

 

I was gunna say, I'm pretty sure he meant SHMUPS and stuff, not FPS by shooters.