Comments on: Why Microsoft and Sony should be scared of the Wii

Don Reisinger thinks Microsoft and Sony need to wake up and realize that the Wii is a major competitor. If not, they'll be destined to fail.

[sahilk]

still has childish games, if you are 11 years old get a nintendo wii lol

[Clockpuppet]

Comparing the Wii to the other systems is ALMOST the same as comparing the DS to them. It as well is on the same wall at game stop. It is also cheaper and has sold more units than All consoles combined at 70 million.

You wouldn't compare it though, because it isn't in the same league. Don't get me wrong, it is a great idea, and some of the games are inventive, but you can count the really good ones on one hand, maybe two.

Yes Nintendo is making profits, but so would the other two if they had implemented last-gen technology with next-gen concepts. That with a brilliant marketing strategy of "we'll make enough units just so people can't have one, so they'll want it even more." They won't even build the new Motionplus tech [see google] into the console because it would up cost for them, but unlike the other systems they don't want to take the hit to the wallet.

Personally, I want cutting edge graphics ALONG with good ideas. The Wii doesn't deliver that. The ONLY reason I want one at all is for Smash Bros., and that's just not reason enough yet.

Anyway, the people I know that have the Wii ALSO have one or both of the other systems. Add in the under 13 crowd and you have their numbers. This is just my personal experiance, but I've seen many a Wii just collect dust, though not all of them.

What it boils down to for me is: You get what you pay for.
With the economy how it is and our supposed recession, people want cheap and easy, and Nintendo gives 'em that. I wanted more, and I paid a premium for it, no regrets.

Rather than get a Wii, I'll just play a friends.

[revtarded]

considering the wii targets a larger demographic than the playstation, i'd say that the PS3 is the "overpriced, niche gaming device," not the other way around.

sony needs to give stringer his walking papers before he buries SCE into the ground. denying the existence of your number 1 competitor doesnt move you p int he standings no matter how much you try to spin it. and even so, they still manage to be number 2 to microsoft in a market Sony had controlled since the late 90's.

[hnavp66]

Nintendo is a competitor in the same way Mercedes competes with Hyundai. They may sell "cars," but they're different types of the same thing that vie to sell to completely different customers. I've played all 3 systems, but the Wii the least. It's just not interesting for a gamer. It's more of an amusing diversion. There's nothing wrong with the Wii, it's just not going for the traditional gamer nor is Nintendo aspiring to, and the strategy is paying off for them. Nintendo is doing just fine (with the Wii, DS and Gameboy) after stumbling briefly with the Gamecube. Nothing wrong with the Wii, but you likely won't see any of its games as part of the Championship Gaming Series (pro gaming tour).

[paranoya6]

what i think is so funny is all of the HARDCORE GAMERS haha makes it sound so tough are arguing against the system that is OUTSELLING theirs....i have a 360 only and i would consider myself a gamer...i think that the wii is fun as hell, and i think that SSB is a wicked game that has sold a ton and i dont think its a KIDS game, I also think that Zelda is great and not a kids game, metroid sure as hell isnt a kids game, and i dont care what company is making it...in fact its better for nintendo that they are part of all of the best selling games. because they are making more money...the best part about nintendos money too...they are making PROFIT...which none of the other systems will make for probably 3 or 4 years. what people forget to think about is the future is something that im sure nintendo is already looking for BIG time...they are growing the audience for the next system they decide to make which will probably be a very powerful wii with pretty graphics and blah blah blah. lastly everyone that is talking about the media center thing, everyone has a dvd player already...blu ray is not a huge format or anything
and wont be for another 5 years or more, and by then downloadable content will e here and will have taken over. ok thats my 2 cents

[Adrian100%]

Wow, just wow.....
I don't even know where to start.
Le me tell you that the only console I own right now is a Wii, and..... I HATE it.
Why? Because I feel riped off by Nintendo. Since I bought it, 1 year ago, there were only 3 games I enjoyed. Only 3!!! Mario Galaxy, Brawl, and I rented Metroid. I'm not playing my wii at all. In fact, I haven't played on my WIi during the last 3-4 months.
So, you said that the wii sold the most consoles, and therefore, its an actual competitor. Well guess what? Most people who bought wii s aren't actually using them. There are simply no games for it.
Until Nintendo gets a few third party games for "hardcore gamers" (seriously, most games for this console are for 8 year olds) the wii will suck.
Right now the wii is still out of stock because lots of people were impressed by the nintendo adds, and what to try it out. But after they get it, what will happen? Play some wii sports for a week or two, and then never touch it again.
Im not the only one who thinks this...
I seriously hope Nintendo starts making some actual games for this thing, since I have one, but I dont think its going to happen anytime soon.

[whosellsthemost]

You guys are missing the point--who is making $$$$$? My kids live and die for the Wii and the DS. Nintendo is recruiting and creating the next generation of gamers--What is Sony and Microsoft doing? Losing market share and proftis?

[jbozzo]

I agree totally with most people on this board. the wii will not last the years microsoft and sony are thinking of. a 10 year lifecycle. you need extensive library and many uses for your console now to get 10 years out of it....xbox has a great gaminng and online system, sony has blu ray for movies and somewhat of an online system. and they will both have a much more extensive library over the upcoming years

[mattjumbo]

"The Wii is a fairly novel, non-gamer niche toy. For children/groups/old people, 80% of it's games are for E audiences with very little acknowledgment of the normal gamer market."

So many people say this and it is *so* wrong it's almost laughable. When video games went mainstream in the late 70s, *everyone* played. Home consoles, home computers, and tons of arcades. Everyone was a gamer. That was the point.

As we approached the mid-to-late 80s, innovation died and so did the arcades, so did home computers (computers costing 500 or less), and so did consoles. But for Nintendo, there would be no home consoles during that period.

Video games were *dying* prior to the Wii. Now everyone will scream "But they made more money than the movie industry!" Yes, because the kids that started on videogames grew up, became adults, and spent tons of money on gaming. But the audience was *shrinking*. This is exactly the same thing that happened to the comic book industry...they had huge years in 80s but they became more and more adult in nature, more and more dark, and spent more and more time trying to wrench money out of the "hard core" comics readers and left great stories, innovation, and the general public behind.

If anyone thinks Nintendo isn't appealing to the "normal gamer market" or the "serious gamer market" or the "hard core gamer market" they have it completely backwards. Nintendo is appealing to everyone and everyone *is* the normal gamer market.

The idea that appealing entirely, or even mainly, to some tiny niche of obsessive gamers is somehow the right way to do things is *insane*. It's like saying, "Disney, Universal, and Paramount are "niche" studios because they don't make exclusively rated R films.

Furthermore, let's look at the word "niche". I wonder if some people even understand what the word means. A "niche" is "a position particularly well suited to the person who occupies; a small concavity."

The Wii has sold right at 30 million units. The 360, a year older, has sold around 20 million, and the PS3 has sold less than 15. The DS has sold in the neighborhood of 75 million units compared to the PSP's 36 million. Currently Wii and DS games are 14 out of the top 20 best selling software titles. The 360 and PS3, combined, have four.

Now who was the "niche" company again?

[jbozzo]

lets review this article agin in 3 years.....people will be saying " lol you owned the wii". sony and microsoft are taking much adavnatge of two things. people love all forms of media beiung internet, movies, social networking etc etc. sony and microsoft have targeted all aspects giving people much more of a choice for more things to do. i cant say how many times i go to the movie store and rent bu ray movies and watch them on my ps3. plus microsft and sony will both have online movies very soon. the wii's console sales are doing well but will drop off very soon....like is aid review this article in three years.

[mattjumbo]

"The Wii is totally a niche system. It is a console built for everyone..."

In other news, white is black, George Bush just bought a Prius, and Howard Stern is now a Sunday school teacher.

My God, do you even know what "niche" means?

[blank964]

To be fair , Nintendo has said they are not directly competing with 360/PS3 previously but that seems like it was damage control for if the Wii tanked. I got a Wii today and its ridiculous that almost two years after its release that I had to hunt for a Wii. Seriously like someone pointed out its essentially a glorified Gamecube.

This is probably the system that I'm least excited that I got mainly because its staying at my parents' house and I doubt I'm going to buy many games for it. E3 has come and gone and most of the games shown for the Wii disappointed their hardcore fans.

It just seems like Nintendo is bragging about the Wii now that its a hit but they wouldn't be if it was a bust.

[sonymaster101]

i hate people like you who make stupid comments. they included a bluray drive in the ps3 for both practical and strategic reasons.

1-makes a convenient and cheap and good quality blu ray player
2-has much more storage capacity than Any other format in Any other console many times over, and a potential theroretical capacity of 400 gb, 16 layers that is.
3-also an easy way to sell blu ray player and increase the formats dominance in the market, which proved a successful strategy.
4-helps lower cost of blu ray manufacturing, since more media is being purchased by consumers.

Now why the H*** would blu ray player manufacturers have to include a ps3 in a blu ray player?

the ps2 had a dvd player and you dont see a ps2 in every dvd player do you?

evidently you are too shallow to realize that both Sony and Microsoft are moving towards Media centers, not just video game consoles. by the end of the current console gen the ps3 and x360 will have so much multimedia functionality it will be unbelievable. compared to the wii maybe being able to play an Mp3 and view a jpeg.

BTW- the only reason the wii is so inexpensive and making so much money for nintendo is b/c they decided to use technology that has been readily available for ~3 years before its release. they could have easily made that system much more powerful and still kept the same cost. if the wii was fully modern such as what sony/microsoft offer they would be in the red too.

-pong isn't a video game system... its a program/game with no depth other than moving a paddle

the wii could only ever be a system for a hardcore gamer if you are a hardcore nintendo fanboy. because just like the gamecube and the 64 all the good games worth playing are first party. 95% of everything else offered by third parties is garbage ports of ps2/ps3/x360 games with tacked on wiimote controls, and of course the quite frequent occurence of "family friendly games" i.e. wii carnival games, wii sports imitators ect. ask a lot of people and a surprising number become bored with their wii after about the first 3 months, because after you've played all the mario and zelda games, there is nothing left.

[RRosal]

E3 has come and gone, and to be perfectly honest the Wii just proved itself to be just as Sir Howard Stringer said, a niche game device. I didn't see anything new from Nintendo at this E3 other than more 1-week-playtime games that will take advantage of the gimmickery that Nintendo has managed to pull with the Wiimote. I bought Wii Fit when it came out, and guess what-after 2 weeks of use-the Wii Fit pad has gone into the closet never to see use again. The only thing that Nintendo had going for it when the Wii launched was the cheaper price tag, the constant excuse of "limited availability" and the attention-grabbing Wiimote fad. And before the fanboy rhetoric hits, yes, I have both the Nintendo Wii and the Sony Playstation 3. At last count, the Wii had 5 games and the PS3 had 20.

Yes, the Nintendo Wii has outsold both the 360 and PS3 hands down but what has that system REALLY brought to the next gen market other than a cute gimmick and the instant-sell stable of Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon? If the 360 or PS3 were to be sold at the same price point as the Wii, how would the number tally be then?

[cmpbllman9]

Sony and microsoft should not worry about the wii. The wii is just another little toy for little kids. The PS3 and Xbox are fine. We dont need more systems like the wii, one is enough. I hope Sony and Microsoft stay for medium to hardcore gamers. STAY AWAY FROM THAT GAY MOTION CRAP THE WII HAS, ITS USELESS.

[JordyKun]

I can understand a lot of people's opinions on how the Wii sucks, but think about it. Gaming would not be nearly as far as it would be today if it weren't for Nintendo. Back then, and even sometimes today, gaming was considered as something stupid or useless, but with the launch of the NES, gaming took off. What was there besides a Nintendo system in the old days, nothing really worth mentioning. I mean yeah, Xbox and PS3 cater to a more hardcore audience where that is "where the true gaming is", they also are a media center, and everyone is saying how the Wii doesn't have any of that stuff, well compare the sizes of the consoles. Simple enough, the Wii is the smallest out of the three and therefore has the least capacity for add-ons and other features, which would then probably lead to separate accessories or attachments in the future.

It also depends on who you are, if you are an only child, or that sort of thing, you probably will have more of a tendency towards Xbox or PS3, but if you have a large family or have frequent visitors, the Wii is more suited for you. Also the innovative technology of the Wii is appealing to the masses, with motion control and all that, seeing as how the Xbox and PS3 have none of that. So it all evens out in the end, in my opinion at least.

So next time before you say that the Wii sucks, think about how gaming, no technology in general would be nowhere near as advanced today if it weren't for NIntendo, become mainstream, and a part of our daily lives. So in my opinion, Nintendo is definitely a competitor for the new year. It just sucks that Final Fantasy won't come to the Wii, and is now moving from PS2/PS3 to Xbox, that just sucks.

[JordyKun]

I can understand a lot of people's opinions on how the Wii sucks, but think about it. Gaming would not be nearly as far as it would be today if it weren't for Nintendo. Back then, and even sometimes today, gaming was considered as something stupid or useless, but with the launch of the NES, gaming took off. What was there besides a Nintendo system in the old days, nothing really worth mentioning. I mean yeah, Xbox and PS3 cater to a more hardcore audience where that is "where the true gaming is", they also are a media center, and everyone is saying how the Wii doesn't have any of that stuff, well compare the sizes of the consoles. Simple enough, the Wii is the smallest out of the three and therefore has the least capacity for add-ons and other features, which would then probably lead to separate accessories or attachments in the future.

It also depends on who you are, if you are an only child, or that sort of thing, you probably will have more of a tendency towards Xbox or PS3, but if you have a large family or have frequent visitors, the Wii is more suited for you. Also the innovative technology of the Wii is appealing to the masses, with motion control and all that, seeing as how the Xbox and PS3 have none of that. So it all evens out in the end, in my opinion at least.

So next time before you say that the Wii sucks, think about how gaming, no technology in general would be nowhere near as advanced today if it weren't for NIntendo, become mainstream, and a part of our daily lives. So in my opinion, Nintendo is definitely a competitor for the new year. It just sucks that Final Fantasy won't come to the Wii, and is now moving from PS2/PS3 to Xbox, that just sucks. Because if the Wii had Final Fantasy added to their collection, like it did back on the NES and SNES, i think it would only be for the better.

[Akiba]

It's a little ironic but the author is basically making the same argument that Sony and MS are making. He never said the Wii has better games or that it is a better system. He talked about PR and how the gaming was different. Basically saying the Wii has a strong novelty effect. He touts sales and being different with no mention of quality. Basically he isn't telling everyone to improve their products, he is telling them to improve their marketing strategy.

[ferno1188]

I have noticed in reading a lot of these comments that people thinkthe wii is sold out and still extremely hard to get your hands on. Well, just a few days ago I walked into a best buy, asked if they had one, and walked out 5 minutes later with one in hand. So, that argument doesn't hold up.

[PenelopeChin]

I honestly don't think they are competitors, I believe most people who buy the wii will either get another system to fill their intensive gamer needs or not buy another system because it did not interest them in the first place. I don't think people who were going to buy a playstation 3 or xbox360 were going to settle for pokemon and animal crossing...