Wii could top record-holding PS2: Nintendo

I think he could be right!!!!

Wii could top record-holding PS2: Nintendo

Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:51AM EDT




By Kiyoshi Takenaka
SANTA MONICA, California (Reuters) - Sales of Nintendo's quirky Wii video game machine could top the legendary PlayStation 2, making it the biggest hit in the industry's history, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said on Thursday.
Nintendo Co. Ltd. (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) sped past Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) in market capitalization last month to become one of the 10 most valuable companies in Japan.
Iwata in an interview also played down the threat to Nintendo's (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) business of a price cut in Sony's PlayStation 3 and the introduction of a thinner PlayStation Portable.
The Wii has outsold Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 monthly since its November launch, helped by its relatively affordable $250 price tag and a motion-sensing controller that can be swung like a bat, for instance.
Instead of offering lifelike graphics to appeal to hard-core gamers, who are mostly men, Nintendo has appealed to an audience including women and the elderly with innovative but easy-to-play games.
"Sony's PS2 sales of 100 million units is an extraordinary number that our home game console business has not achieved," Iwata said.
"But if we can make our bid to expand the gaming population a continued success, we could exceed that," he told Reuters.
Sony has shipped more than 120 million units of the PS2, helping the Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment conglomerate dominate the $30 billion global video game industry over the past decade.
Nintendo's strategy to entice new players into the video game market has so far proved a smashing success: its DS portable and the Wii console are flying off store shelves.
Nintendo sold 5.8 million units of the Wii by March 2007, and aims to sell another 14 million during the current business year to March 2008.
In an effort to revive sales of its console and better compete with Nintendo, Sony on Monday cut the price of its PlayStation 3 by $100 in the United States. The company also unveiled a slimmer model of the PSP handheld this week.
Those steps, however, are unlikely to have substantial effects on Nintendo's operations, Iwata said.
"I wouldn't say there is no overlap between the group of customers Sony is targeting and the group of users that Nintendo is targeting. But that overlap is quite small," said Iwata, who is in Santa Monica, California, for the E3 game industry show.
Iwata also said the hardware side of its Wii game console business has already turned profitable.
It is not uncommon for a game maker to sustain prolonged losses in its hardware business while making money from software sales.


http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1232602520070713?pageNumber=2&sp=true

 

And do you know what the funny part is? If Nintendo do out sell the PS2 it will be to a wider user base as well since at least a quarter of PS2 sales were to the same people buying hardware again after theirs had died :lol:

Yakumo

 

That's an amazing proposition. It'll be a long road ahead, and I can't even say it'll happen myself, but it's a possibility.

Actually, it's more of a possibility to me that it sells over 50 million in all regions. Better than the last two... three? Nintendo generations. Anyhow, I'm conservative like that.

I do foresee a magical price cut of a certain device to 99USD, which would most likely end up happening around the world to whatever monetary unit as well. Hotcakes. Hotcakes, man.

 

I'll have what ever Satoru Iwata is smoking if he thinks the Nintendo Wii will outsell the PS2. If the Wii is still selling in great numbers in 4 years time then I'll eat my PS2, if the Wii is still selling at all in 4 years time then I will be surprised.

All they need to do is embed Wii Sports on the System and they won't have to bother adding a drive to the machine...

If you took the number of games sold against the number of machines then it makes for interesting reading...

Wii 2.76 Games per console (this excludes Wii Sports as it's a pack in and not sold... as well as Wii Play as it's a pack in game for the controller).
360 5.95 Games per console
PS3 3.46 Games per console

(Source : 'Magicbox' and a calculator...).

So there you have it, the PS3 is doing better then the Wii in terms of games sold.

 

The Wii is the new iPod, everyone wants one, but nobody knows why. There aint piss-all worth playing on it anyway.

 

Sorry, i cant agree.

I dont want one and i know many people who dont want it too.

After i saw the comparison between this Wii-Tennis and Virtua Tennis 2 DC i know that Nintendo will never become the Money from me.

I think its for casual-gamer... not for me...
maybe for my little brother.

I´m pretty sure that on christmas 2008 many people think "why the hell did i bought this Wii for about 250€... i want a 360 or PS3 now!"

 

Exactly, just like anyone "into music" would buy something other than an iPod, because it's better built, has better sound quality and you aren't paying a premium just for the name. You don't buy an iPod because it's "the best" you buy it because everyone "cool" has one. I have seen people in my office buying them without even having a PC. They apparently knew they had to have one, but didn't have a bloody clue what to do with it.

 

The device being cut to 99USD I referred to was not the Wii, but the DS.

Seriously, with the units that hardware is moving, the magical TWO-DIGIT price is music to consumers' ears.

 

Hmmm I'm not sure at all I got the PS2 because it had the games I wanted MGS2, GTA etc but also had games for younger viewers. The Wii doesn't have this and I reckon it might come close but wont beat it. Its who ever breaks Japan and at the moment Japan wants the DS. We will have to give it at least another year before we see whos winning because the Xbox 360 has had a 2 year head start and the Wii and the PS3 are still new really.

 

Whilst I agree with the idea that at least part of the Wii's popularity is driven by fashion/cool/cuteness, some of it is that the thing is actually entertaining to play with. I got one for my significant other for Xmas & whilst she's a Nintendo fan-girl, I personally wasn't thinking it would be much more than a GC with arm-waving added on. However, I have to say that I found it way more fun than I'd have previously have given it credit for. I've been getting my money's worth out of it on Wii Sports alone (esp. the bowling). It may be the current fad, but it's not as without substance as most fads.

That is where Nintendo seem to have succeeded this time IMO - they appear to have managed to make their product visable & attractive to folks who wouldn't normally be interested in such things.

Having said all that - I think that overtaking the PS2 juggernaught is going to be a much harder prospect. As ever, time will tell...

[For the record, I don't have an Ipod - I use an Archos, instead. :110: ]

 

I think one thing that is being slightly overlooked here is that Nintendo are grabbing the attention of and turning people who were NOT gamers onto their hardware.

We are looking at this from the point-of-view of hardcore gamers and thinking "not for me as it doesn't do x, y or z" whilst in reality there are a damn sight more non-gamers out there who don't know, care or even consider those aspects when looking at what is being described as the "iPod of the gaming market".

Nintendo did something remarkable. Instead of trying to go head-to-head with the capabilities of the 360 or PS3, they thought "what do new gamers, women & youngsters want from a games machine?" and they delivered it on a plate!

At Christmas you'll see these little damned things flying as parents are invariably looking for a neat, tidy, cute & user friendly gaming device for their children as well as something that will engage the entire family. The Wii actually reminds me of the Atari 2600 in terms of the "family" interest and novelty. I honestly have not heard so much female interest in a games console in all my life! The price, the size and the exercise aspect really seems to have caught certain people's imagination.

Good on them, they've got a long way to go, yet there was a time not so long ago that I thought Nintendo might be going the way of Sega. Thank god they haven't.

One thing Sony & Microsoft could really learn from Nintendo is build quality. Anyway, it's a LONG way to 120million units......

 

The fashion will probably change before it passes the NES or GB.

 

it may pass the ps2, but it will be from people who still play solitare or freecell on windows, and only care about dirt ass cheap games. Nintendo is leaving behind the higher amount of cash hardcore gamers drop on a console and games (I own 21 xbox 360 games) to sell a $250 party machine gimmick to people who will only buy one or two games.

But in the end, why would nintendo care if wii owners only average owning 2.5 games for their console as long as they keep making money?

 

There's 2 things

1. Try to FIND A WII
2. The DS will probably do it before the Wii does.

 

No, if...

1 - Nintendo are quite happy to sell the machine with people buying say 1 game a year.
2 - Nintendo are working on the Wii 2 - Which will probably be called cuum or something...

Most people I know that have the Wii, which does feature more casual gamers then hardcored gamers have a total of 1 game for the Wii and yes it is Wii Sports.... On the other hand PS3 and 360 owners I know have at least 4 games for the system...

 

The spotlight is on casual games on the wii , no doubt, but let's not get carried away here gentlemen. Nintendo makes its own special games and has a breed of its own hardcore players. I am one of those, as I don't like the new-age casual games to be honest, all that much.

Super Smash Bros Brawl is what's selling me the Wii at the moment, and I m certain that just like every generation we ll get what we expect,and a bit more from nintendo. Ignore the casual games!

 

Smash Bros. sold me on the Cube last gen and it sold me on the Wii this gen as well. (I'd relive the Cube days for that game if I had to.) Add to that all the typical Nintendo franchises and expected quality... Yeap.

 

I just snorted soda over my keyboard because of line 2...

If Nintendo are indeed making some amount of money on each Wii sold, then they can probably live with the relatively low additional game sell-thru, especially since the 'party' games are bound to do well, anyway.

Are any specs floating around on the, er, Wii 2.0? Is it more than DVD play & different colour cases?

 

I can mostly agree with this statement! :dance: Well actually, fully agree. There isnt anything worth playing on it really "as of now." :crying:

I have owned tons of iPods and never knew why I kept getting them. Hell, I have a super strong urge to get an iPhone, but I know I could easily get a phone way better....

 

I doubt Nintendo has a new console in the works (or handheld for that matter). The Wii is probably going to wind up being just as successful as the DS, and both machines have such an insane install base DESPITE completely ignoring the graphical jump of the competition that it would be rather pointless for Nintendo to make updates... unless they thought up a new gimmick anyways.