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Has the Wii bubble burst?
GnomeTank
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The name of the article says it all:
http://www.edge-online.com/features/has-wii-bubble-burst
We seem to be in a "lets discuss Edge articles" mood lately, and this one interested me. Some of the data they use to support the claim is a bit weak, but the point is interesting.
So I would ask you: Do you think the Wii bubble has burst?
Being the owner of a release Wii, I am very torn on the platform itself. The few games I have that I enjoy (Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Mario Kart) are awesome, but the system seems to have a disproportionately high amount of worst-in-class shovel ware. The game library is incredibly weak, and I wonder if that is starting to catch up to Nintendo. The shiny "Oh wow, I move the controller and stuff on the screen moves" feeling is starting to wear off, and people are starting to demand content that isn't paper thin.
There are other factors as well. Most of the world is in a pretty nasty recession right now, so people don't have the discretionary income to go buy a new system. People who want a Wii may already have one, as the whole demand craze seems to have died down. I remember a year ago 50 year old co-workers of mine were gushing about their Wii or how they were trying to find one, but that seems to have all died down.
As another talking point, I'd be curious what some of you think the Wii's effect on gaming as a whole has been. Has it been good, opening up gaming to the main stream? Has it hurt core gaming a little, with all kinds of shovel ware and diluted tripe that most of us refuse to play?
http://www.edge-online.com/features/has-wii-bubble-burst
We seem to be in a "lets discuss Edge articles" mood lately, and this one interested me. Some of the data they use to support the claim is a bit weak, but the point is interesting.
So I would ask you: Do you think the Wii bubble has burst?
Being the owner of a release Wii, I am very torn on the platform itself. The few games I have that I enjoy (Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Mario Kart) are awesome, but the system seems to have a disproportionately high amount of worst-in-class shovel ware. The game library is incredibly weak, and I wonder if that is starting to catch up to Nintendo. The shiny "Oh wow, I move the controller and stuff on the screen moves" feeling is starting to wear off, and people are starting to demand content that isn't paper thin.
There are other factors as well. Most of the world is in a pretty nasty recession right now, so people don't have the discretionary income to go buy a new system. People who want a Wii may already have one, as the whole demand craze seems to have died down. I remember a year ago 50 year old co-workers of mine were gushing about their Wii or how they were trying to find one, but that seems to have all died down.
As another talking point, I'd be curious what some of you think the Wii's effect on gaming as a whole has been. Has it been good, opening up gaming to the main stream? Has it hurt core gaming a little, with all kinds of shovel ware and diluted tripe that most of us refuse to play?
GnomeTank on
Steam: Brainling, XBL / PSN: GnomeTank, D3: Brainling#1998, NintendoID: BrainlingOh c'mon FyreWulff, no one's gonna pay to visit Uranus.
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It is floundering a bit in Japan, but all of the home consoles are floundering in Japan. I think it's more a matter of Japanese gamer tastes than anything specifically targetted at the Wii.
Again, where does this come from? Wii Fit and Wii Play are routinely at the top of the monthly sales charts.
You can feel free to think whatever you'd like about the Wii and its library, but "unpopular" isn't the right word by any stretch of the imagination.
edit: Sorry, I guess that wasn't so much on topic after all.
I think you're going in with a biased agenda, there.
When I find myself videogame shopping, I tend to lean towards the Wii over the 360, simply because I find that the Wii library is alot more varied than the 360's.
As evidenced by my 15 Wii games to 4 360 games sitting on my shelf.
Edit: People are saying the Wii bubble is burst because frankly people just want to say that.
(As long as they're quality)
It seems like it's going to be a successor to the Xbox for me. There'll only a handful of games I like, but they'll be really good ones.
Welcome to the world on this side.
However, I feel that the Wii has had a net positive on the gaming industry as a whole. The Wii got people interested in videogames who would never be interested in videogames before, and having more people interested in our hobby is most assuredly a good thing. Even if a large portion of those people get turned off by the shovelware, it makes no difference because before this generation they wouldn't have played videogames anyway. Whatever portion chooses to continue buying games for their Wii (which, it seems, is a really large portion) is a positive effect because of the additional money flowing into it.
Now a common view that people seem to have is that the Wii is "dumbing down" gaming and making it open to the dreaded "Casuals". Where's the evidence of this? How many 360/PS3/PC have been "dumbed down" due to the existence of the Wii? Even better, where would these companies be if they couldn't push out shovelware on the Wii to fund their big projects? Would we have gotten Assassin's Creed, or the new Prince of Persia, or Beyond Good & Evil 2 if Ubisoft weren't able to cash in on the success of the Wii?
Imagine a gaming industry where the HD consoles are the only ones that exist. It's not a pretty picture, with budgets running out of control and no way to recoup any losses. Even on the Wii front it's popularity is a good thing. We'd be getting the good games from Nintendo anyway (and some good stuff from a select few third parties). Just because Phoenix Games makes "Safari Adventure 3" for the Wii doesn't mean we won't get Mario Galaxy. We get the shovelware in addition to the good stuff, not in place of it.
So no, I don't think the Wii's bubble has burst, whatever that even means. The bubble has only burst insofar as the bubble for the entire industry has burst.
I didn't write the article, so I am not sure where I have a biased agenda. I found the article interesting and simply brought it up for discussion. I guess whenever someone has a point that differs from your opinion they have a "biased agenda" huh?
No, it's because you supply one article that happens to support your argument and nothing to the contrary.
Maybe strive for a little more balance and a little less defensiveness?
Uhh, I don't have an argument. I don't know if the Wii bubble burst, I was bringing it up for discussion. I am not a reporter, I don't claim to be one. No where did I take a vow of fair and balanced reporting. Maybe next time you should be a little less quick to attack someone as bias when they are simply bringing up a point of discussion. I asked the question, then gave my opinion of the question below. If that opinion bothers you, you are free to not read it next time.
And while shovelware's a problem, it sure hasn't shown up in the sales charts yet.
Edit: Merely calling it a "Wii bubble" shows bias. It implies that it's a passing fad.
edit: if by "the bubble has burst" you mean "the Wii isn't instantly selling out at most retail locations immediately after the shipment arrives", well, perhaps. I'll bet you every company would like to have a "bubble" like that.
-- As you stated, the games library (of A+ titles) is incredibly weak. I only own 4 games for my Wii: Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Corruption, Smash Bro's Brawl, and Twilight Princess.
-- I'm an extremely lazy console gamer. When I play a console, I prefer to lay on a couch, on my bed, or at the least, sit in a comfy chair and relax while I play. The Wii is not a lazy system. I make incredibly precise and small wrist gestures with the remote. I don't flail my arms or any of that nonsense. But even the small wrist gestures are enough to annoy me. Side Note: Anything on PS3 that uses Six-Axis also annoys me.
-- I prefer to play consoles co-op with my friends. Of the 3 systems, the Wii has the fewest cooperative games. Not only that, but the friend code system is the most ill conceived internet matchmaking system ever. Yes, I understand that it helps protect children from the internet. But I'm not a child and I do not need or want that protection.
Now to address your point of discussion:
I do think the Wii has had an incredible effect on the gaming industry. But the effect is one that we might not truly see the results of for many years. The Wii has shown us that thinking "outside the box" can generate some truly unique and joyful gaming experiences.
Additionally, I think the Wii has brought us one step closer to true Virtual Reality. As a person who has been a gamer for most of my life, I would say that my biggest dream is basically to play a video game that's like the Holo Deck of Star Trek. A fully interactive 3-D environment. The simple motion sensing technology of the Wii is one step closer to VR gaming.
I didn't call it a bubble, the article did. Pardon me for quoting the article. Next time I will use a less bias word so as to not rub your sensibilities wrong.
are people buying Wiis and then upgrading them and turning around and selling them for more money?
are people selling Wiis for more than they are worth?
someone please explain to me how a product with a fixed price has a bubble
Obviously it means a sales bubble. Don't be an obtuse jerk just because you don't like the content of the article.
Brawl, Kart, Wii Fit. I play those games very nearly daily.
It just peaked early, that's all.
Also the vast majority of my library of games for the Wii are these really small third party games that are fuck awesome. NMH, Kororinpa, Elebits, Dokapon, Both Trauma Center games, a whole bunch of anime fighting games, Mad World, House of the Dead (Both), RE:UC, Ghost Squad, and some others I can't think of off the top of my head.
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I don't see how if Wii sales slows down, it somehow reduces the marketshare of the Wii and makes a "bubble" pop. There will still be 30 million Wiis no matter if Nintendo sells 40,000 next week or 10,000. The publishers have already chosen their horses for this race. For the record, I don't even own a Wii, only a 360.
edit: sageinarage wins a medal
Also guys nobody cares about your personal experience with the Wii (not in this thread). This question is all about sales / popularity. Answer is in the numbers.
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I am like you though kdrudy, I go through bursts with my Wii. Periods where I play it like mad, and periods where it sits idle, that little yellow light taunting me to play it more.
Personally, I see the Wii primarily as a retro console that lets me play NES, SNES, GC, etc, games and as a sort of bonus, it also plays Wii games.
Ahh, isn't this cute. You can quote and change. Hey, next time they write an article about the 360 bubble bursting, I'll let you post the OP, okay?
No, no it's really not. If by solid you mean "Has a ton of crapware and a precious handful of decent games" then yes.
Yes it is.
I haven't used my Wii or bought a new game on it in months. So much so, that I actually gave it to my parents because I literally had no other use for it.
I am still using my PS2 and my 360 sees regular use.
The other possibility release wise is that Nintendo are stepping back to try and allow third party success after complaints early on that Nintendo's games were dominating sales. Of course a lot of those were shoddy ports or half hearted efforts but now that developers are moving resources away from the 360 and PS3 that will hopefully change. After all, we still have two years in this cycle and that tends to be when you get some of the stellar games on a system.
Sales are still high. Your opinion does not alter reality.
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Yes, but just because something sells doesn't make it any less crap. For that matter, the sales of the system itself are high, but the percentage sales are clustered in to just a few of the top end games. Yes, Wii Fit and Wii Sports sell a ton of copies, as do any Mario or Zelda game. Just because there are 10 games that sell a ton of copies doesn't mean the library is good. It means it has ten REALLY good games.
OMG don't you dare bring your anecdotal bullshit into this thread. Cold, hard FACTS, people.
And millions of people watch American Idol...
High sales of the system itself does not change or excuse the poor quality of the games library.
My parents just play Wiisport with my Wii, nothing else. I own collectively about six or seven games on it. The only really good games on the system I already have and beyond that there is nothing else that interests me. If I was to retrieve my Wii today, I would be looking forward to a mere 3 games: The new Resident Evil lightshooter, Dead Space (another light shooter) and Mad World. But none of these games are "Must haves" to me that I will be genuinely missing out on if I don't get it.
I will state my parents love the system and Wiisports gives them hours of entertainment.
The alternative would be that your parents would not be playing on the Wii at all and would still view games as unplayable for them.
Nah, I'll let you get that one too. And then I'll make fun of it again.
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I'm pretty sure that the poor pacing was on purpose. Third parties complain that their games don't sell because Nintendo always has something releasing that people buy instead. So instead Nintendo chose to release their games in big chunks and leave the several month long dry periods for third parties to take care of and not have to worry about competition from new Nintendo releases. Only the third parties dropped the ball and decided not to take advantage of the window Nintendo left for them.
Then express the opinions in a thread designated for it. This is more or less a spin-off from the Video Games Sales thread. The subject matter is the sales performance. Which happens to be good. There's no detraction from that fact (it's a fact because of sales!).
Every once in a while people want to speculate the Wii / DS sales are going to drop, and they don't and those people end up being wrong. I don't know why they're still at it. When it happens, it happens. Stop trying to predict it for the sake of, "OH CALLED IT!" bragging rights.
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