I don’t know how they do it, but Nintendo continues to sell Wiis like they’re vaccinations and we’re all travelling abroad to the Congo. Somehow, someway, Wii Fit, Wii Music, and various other Wii games gamers don’t care about are pushing the system harder than any console before it. It certainly can’t be the commercials, either, because those are awful.
How they did it doesn’t matter (but if you figure it out you’d be a rich man). What matters is that during Thanksgiving week in the US (which includes Black Friday) Nintendo sold 800,000 Wiis are retail. Last year? 350,000. I’m no mathematician, but that’s quite the dramatic jump.
So how can Nintendo more than double the Wiis sold during an economic crisis? "When the economy is strong, people tend to buy three things from the top of their wish list. But when things are bad, people often buy only the first thing on their list," said Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. "Fortunately for us a lot of shoppers put our products at the top of their list."
As for why they’re at the top of that list… I didn’t know last year, I didn’t know the year before that, and I still don’t know now. Like I said, it’s a mystery.
December 8th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Maybe it's the fact their products appeal to a wide audience that even the most (self proclaimed) hardcore gamer can't stand against when bad mouthing what Nintendo stand for? It doesn't take much to realise why they're sucessful, if only one looks past the vocal online minorities that hate on the Wii as if it had killed their mother. Unless we can just be content by calling this two-year old console, which keeps selling out after all these millions of sales, a passing fad
December 8th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Oh, I KNOW their stuff appeals to a wide audience. I just don't know HOW. Of all the "regular" people I know who have never touched a game outside of the occasional bout of Mario or Tetris in the 80s, none of them thing Wii Fit or Wii Music look fun or worthwhile. But somehow, they're selling like hotcakes.
And I refuse to stop calling the Wii a fad! It's just a very long-term, successful fad that will last for years and years before it starts to dwindle...
December 8th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Well, of course gamers don't care about the games you mention, that's their whole point. But one shouldn't ignore the sales of games gamers obviously do care about, like Mario Kart, Resident Evil 4, Twilight Princess, and other succesful releases. In the case of Nintendo's titles, even if they're not their best efforts yet, they can still raise above most other companies' similar titles, and thus win customers over. Not to the numbers of the non-gamer games usually, but still to very high numbers, showing that audience is still there.
Your description is like, the opposite of a fad. Unless we can call Sony winning audience over from the likes of Sega and Nintendo back then a fad also. You know, they were the casual mainstream brand back then, I don't know why they (and now Microsoft) are suddenly the super-hardcores and Nintendo an abomination. But hey, then I guess the industry runs on fads and therefor there's nothing to dislike about the Wii or Nintendo as they simply carry on with the tradition. Rock on, and kudos for shaping the industry once more Ninty
December 8th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
(That was sarcasm, Alex ;).)
December 8th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Well still, some people think like that seriously, so I'll leave my comment for those