Close-up of the Nintendo Wii

[thetieger]

And you can blame thetiger for the (supposed) derailing (I think it's completely on topic). He claimed the Wii has reached "children's toy" status, yet he hasn't seen or touched the thing.

I have seen it and read many articles, it appeals to children, and not even that? I Have a lot of little cousins, and none are asking for the WIII This Christmas, they all want the 360 and the dreamers are asking for a PS3, but none are asking for a WIII.

true this doesn't represent America but I really don't see the appeal for the WIII what's so great about it? can't even output in HD which is quite sad, its max output is 480P, which the PS2 and Xbox1 can both do lol. The only real appeal is the price point, which I admit is pretty sweet at $250, but it doesn't mean I'm going to run out and buy it just because its cheap.

seems like it'll be more of a kiddie gimic rather than a real hardcore system... for 250 bucks how much power could it really have? idk, that wiimote scares me...

I completely agree with this statement

-Thetieger

[Toma]

If the whole controller philosophy doesn't fly, then they're going to find themselves at the bottom of this race again. Though they do seem to be content staying at that position; you'd think they'd want to pull out the stops, but aparrently not.

[xiaNaix]

Hey, Tieger, here's a good article for ya...

http://www.aeropause.com/archives/20...profits_do.php

[Z-Saber]

If the whole controller philosophy doesn't fly, then they're going to find themselves at the bottom of this race again. Though they do seem to be content staying at that position; you'd think they'd want to pull out the stops, but aparrently not.

Here's what's awesome even about that scenario. If the 360 or PS3 tank, both companies are very screwed. They lose substantial amounts of money per console sold, so how much do they lose if they don't sell?

With the Wii, however, Nintendo profits. They will not lose a dime and in fact will make money for every Wii sold. No one knows how much, exactly, but the guesses are between $50 to $100 a console. Even if the Wii tanks, Nintendo is not in a bad position. They can simply start over with their profit and emulate the success of their competitors.

Hehe, I have to laugh at the last statement though.

[thetieger]

Hey, Tieger, here's a good article for ya...

http://www.aeropause.com/archives/20...profits_do.php

yea because sony was making so much money the only place they had to go was down, and Vice Versa with nintendo it's not all about the $ Xia, it's about the console to.

-Thetieger

[Toma]

Here's what's awesome even about that scenario. If the 360 or PS3 tank, both companies are very screwed. They lose substantial amounts of money per console sold, so how much do they lose if they don't sell?

With the Wii, however, Nintendo profits. They will not lose a dime and in fact will make money for every Wii sold. No one knows how much, exactly, but the guesses are between $50 to $100 a console. Even if the Wii tanks, Nintendo is not in a bad position. They can simply start over with their profit and emulate the success of their competitors.

Ah, but if only it were that easy. I don't know if you noticed, but the Gamecube's game selection isn't exactly swimming with third-party support; the Wii may not garner that kind of support either and I don't care what anyone says, you can't live off of first-party titles forever.

Granted, the Wii has a little bit more to offer than the Gamecube, but as I said before, if the machine's key selling point fails to win over gamers, you have to admit that they're going to be in a precarious position. Don't forget that this is a popularity contest; it's common knowledge that companies lose money out on hardware sales in order to make money off of software royalties later down the road. Of course this practice only works if you've got software that you can unload on the consumer en masse; God help you if you don't.

In order for the Wii to be competitive, the controller gimmick must fly; it can't be some luxury feature because it's clear that the machine is loaded with antiquated hardware and it will not be a threat in the least without that "I'm innovative!" appeal. Nintendo has everybody's attention now, but the challenge is for them to keep all eyes focused on their product. Obviously they've lost the visual edge, so I'm really interested to see how the Wii pans out. There's always room for innovation in this industry, but I still think it was foolhardy for them to base a console around a gimmick; it's just never worked for them in the past.

[Z-Saber]

There's always room for innovation in this industry, but I still think it was foolhardy for them to base a console around a gimmick; it's just never worked for them in the past.

I know the DS isn't a console, but I still double-taked at that statement. Reading it trashed my brain. And what other consoles (and I do mean consoles, not handhelds) based their entire being on a gimmick?

[xiaNaix]

yea because sony was making so much money the only place they had to go was down, and Vice Versa with nintendo it's not all about the $ Xia, it's about the console to.

-Thetieger

Uninformed again. Ninendo hasn't been losing money all these years. You need to branch out from those fanboy sites you read and get into reading some factual data.

By the way, Nintendo's new forecast is 4 million Wii's by the end of the year and 6 million worldwide by March 31. Sony will be lucky to ship 2 million PS3's by next March.

[Toma]

I know the DS isn't a console, but I still double-taked at that statement. Reading it trashed my brain. And what other consoles (and I do mean consoles, not handhelds) based their entire being on a gimmick?

Ever heard of the Virtual Boy? The brainchild of the father of the Gameboy and it still failed miserably. And to some extent the Phantom game console which really doesn't count since it's pretty much vaporware, but still based on a huge gimmick (play all of your old and current PC games without disks or carts!).

[xiaNaix]

People said the DS and it's touch screen were just another "gimmick" and they've sold 26.8 million worldwide in two years.