NYTimes looks at Wii's software sales problem

THIS should be fun....

9 games bought for the Wii.
Planning to buy 3 more (including Wii fit) by or before the summer.

No shortage of Wii-Love over here.

Hah! And I explained this to Fernando when he said it was better then 360s! Hah!

As of December 31, 2007:

Wii Software Sales: 113.19 million
Wii Console Sales: 20.13 million

That's a roughly 5.6:1 ratio. But that includes Wii Sports. Taking out the 17.85 million for Wii Sports, you are left with a 4.7:1 ratio.

Remember, these figures are as of December 31 and don't include the spectacular sales of Wii Fit, Brawl, and Mario Kart. Since tie ratios go up over a console's life and not down, I wonder where the New York Times pulled their numbers from.

Though I could've sworn I said this last week... the problem lies with the wide spectrum of Wii owners preferences.

I personally bought one for myself, my brother and my dad since the system's release. My brother and I usually play the more skill-driven Wii titles or VC games we hadn't played since the years circling their original release... nostalgia.

My dad however, usually plays either WiiSPORTS or TIGER WOODS'07(he would've bought 08, but it wasn't online), despite buying GHOST SQUAD and the WiiZAPPER. He used to play arcade games heavily in his day, and even got the VC version of GALAGA... but these days; his reason for not playing anything more "hardcore" is mostly because he plays it casually. Maybe 3-5 hours at most a week. Thankfully, he's not the type of Wii owner out there buying those damned shovelware or half-ass ported titles (NINJABREAD MAN, CARNIVAL GAMES, FAR CRY, etc.)... but I'd be honestly surprised if I visited and saw him playing NO MORE HEROES.

Not really that surprising. Wii is somewhat of an impulse buy for many people in that they pick it up because it's trendy, play it a couple of times, and never use it ever again.

I don't want to even imagine how worse it would be if Wii Sports didn't come free with it and Wii Play didn't come with a controller.

This is simple and a bunch of people have said this in different ways:

A lot of people buying the Wii are doing so because it is a novelty item. Something that is taken out like a board game when people have parties or during family get-togethers. This consumer isn't one that is going to buy more games because what they have is a novelty item that is good for 1-2 things.

The 'gamers' that buy the Wii want Nintendo games and are happy with Mario-anything. Not to mention, lets be honest here... how many Wii games are actually good?

I'd also go on a limb and say that 'gamers' that have the Wii also have a PS3 or Xbox360 and probably buy cross-platform games on those systems instead of the Wii.

I've said this in other places: I thin it is funny that people latch onto Hardware sales figures as the defacto statistic as to who is winning the Console War. To me it is which console is getting their users to interact and buy more games. The more games that are bought, the more the developers want to make games for that system. The more games for the system, the better it is for the consumer and the better it is for the console.

The Wii is a toy, accept that. Maybe 5-6 years from now, when casual gaming really has a foothold in the normal American psyche, will something like the Wii sell a ton of games.

"...Advertising on Joystiq.com, though? Always a great idea!"

Marketing whores! How am I supposed to trust your people's 'unbiased' reviews now?!

=P

"4.7 and 4.6 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively."

I thought the attach rate was higher on the 360. Wasn't it at 6.7:1 at one point?Another myth busted!

360, no place left but 3rd place. *sniff, sniff

But...XBL..but...down loadable movies...but...GTAIV DLC.