Report: Wii software growth has peaked, dropping off

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
According to the graph above, it looks like 'casuals' bought an awful lot of games so far (since it's tracking PS2 software sales almost exactly). I guess that just goes to show that it's a myth that casual gamers don't buy software.

If anything I think the chart is probably showing that Nintendo don't have enough software appealing to 'casuals'. If they wanted to keep that chart increasing, they needed another massive hit like Wii Fit and it hasn't happened.

If Wii software sales really start go into decline quickly, it will probably be because Wii casual games start to look old-hat compared to Kinect and Move casual games. (Obviously that only happens if anyone actually buys Kinect/Move, though, so let's wait and see.)

Wii could do with a few more top quality games for 'core' players, that's for sure - Nintendo admittedly release loads, but even they can't make up for the almost total lack of third parties in this area ('this area' being top quality games that score 90+ Metacritic, say). But, if Nintendo had managed a new hit like Wii Fit, that software chart would look very nice thank you.

@xxxsam I'm not saying casuals dont buy games...just that they dont KEEP buying games....I mean my aunt for Example still has Wii Fit and Wii Sports as her 2 only games....been like that since over a year ago.....I mean she isn't the average casual I know, but I'm sure its plenty of people out there like that. I've got like 20 games for the Wii and I'm a gamer, casuals on average arent going to do that.....and as the shelf space gets more flooded chances are they won't be seeing a need to run out and buy "Just Dance 2" or many sequels.... The PS2 did start off with gamers in mind first and pretty much hit the ground running.....I honestly don't think the Wii will be able to keep up the momentum for one reason: its not going to going to be able to survive on the market after the next few years in its current hardware configuration. The people who don't care of hardware capabilities have damn near all bought a Wii already...now that they are start releasing games us gamers want its only a matter of time before we get tired of the limitations and the missing of features that we have gotten use to on the PS3 and 360.

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

They have the hardware out though how many children/grand-children does your aunt have ? and how likely are they to pick up zelda when its released ?

Its got the hardware in enough peoples homes any very good game will cause buying frenzies again I think. I think its too early to proclaim it as all over.. It only needs a few sleeper hits next year and thats it the next gen will be kicking in, this gen is on its last legs, 2012 e3 the next gen consoles will be shown off..

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
I am not a casual gamer, and I only bought 4 wii games since launch. Whereas with the 360 I purchased 12+ games and have owned the 360 for only 2 years. The only software that is really selling on the wii is first party software and monster hunter.

@MicahR

"The only software that is really selling on the wii is first party software and monster hunter."

Just dance says HI, well it doesn't really say it it dances past you and mimes it.

@McDuckScrooged hard ware in enough homes?? nah.....not to mention that even with next gen coming in 2012 that still means that the Wii is pretty much about to topple out.....and unlike the PS2 or even the PSOne the Wii will NOT sell for 3+ years after the next version comes out and I would think most casual gamers will not see a need to "upgrade"

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
Yes - what I'm saying is, Nintendo have really only had two casual megahits - the system itself with Wii Sports, and then Wii Fit. Lots of other games have sold really well (NSMB Wii; Sports Resort) but they're not in the same league in terms of casual mindshare.

In other words, if they had managed to come up with something else for your aunt to buy, the graph wouldn't be trending down. Is my argument. :)

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

Look again, man.
Wii software sales are double that of the PS3, for double the install base.
That means that the Wii and the PS3 have roughly the same attach rate.

Also, just on a side note Wii has a lot of truly hardcore games (moreso than any other current-gen console easily), like No More Heroes, Fire Emblem, and Muramasa. It's not just for casuals.

@MicahR

4 games since launch???
Either you've got a very picky appetite, a limited budget, or you're not advertised to very well.

4 games? You don't like puzzle games? Adventure? Fighting? Shooters? Bleh bleh?

I know if one's into only shooting and racing, the choices for the Wii are limited as heck, but four???

I mean, as heretical as it is to say: I'm not that big of a fan of Mario, Zelda, or Metroid and I still own more Wii games than my 360 and PS3 games combined! (hopes I'm not stoned to death for not worshiping the 3 Nintendo gods... ... I'm more of a Star Fox and Kirby kinda' guy)

I'm sure no one wants this to turn out as a list war, but triple double damn 4 is such a small amount of games!
If you had 12 Wii games and 30 360 games, it'd be understandable. But 4 to 12???
Please at least say Red Steel 2 is in that collection.

@MrAlex By peak I mean increase.

@MrAlex

It should now that the Wii is getting Goldeneye and a new Donkey Kong and Kirby game. Not to mention the new Metroid and Zelda coming out.

All of which are first-party titles. The only third-party title for Wii I'm looking forward to is Epic Mickey. (I guess Goldeneye could be considered second-party).

@Haywire
I know every summer my xbox 360 collection drops to about five games or so and in the fall jumps to 14-16. and then i am broke for a while.

This year is a little different i have 11 games right now. But i am selling my old console so then i will be down to 6 games.

@a falling stone

Wait, you're selling your console and keeping some games? What are you going to do with them? Actually, don't answer that.

@runswithjedi

45 times to be exact

@runswithjedi

There is zero correlation for that assertion. My guess is Sony could be selling *more* software if they weren't constantly killing off their own franchises, and while some of their new IPs this gen have been a hit (Uncharted), many have been middling in terms of sales (good sales, but not blockbusters). Microsoft is in a similar boat, except that Microsoft lacks even the base of IP that Sony has.

Every time Pacheter opens his mouth, theres seems to be "the downfall of Nintendo this gen/the end of Wii dominance", etc. being spewed forth o_ô
Anyway, based off that graph, the PS3 appears to only be doing as good as the the Gamecube and Xbox in terms of sales.

@runswithjedi
As many times as people ask for them.
Besides, the only ones buying into Nintendo seems to be the Nintendo fans and casuals.

Perhaps if people were more supportive to new IPs from Nintendo and Nintendo's 2nd parties, Nintendo might have taken a different route?
Poor Gamecube years... and people wonder why the Wii is this way when most didn't support the GC games until the GC went on sale.

@Lerkero

This doesn't make any sense. The Wii has sold twice as many consoles as the 360, so for your point to make any sense (if Wii owners buy 2 games per year, then 360 gamers only buy 1 per year), the Wii would have to have 4x the software sales of the 360 this year.

The actual number is more like 1.5x, so nowhere near what you're talking about.

@Lerkero

The big deal is that these analysis firms have an agenda. This isn't crazy fanboy conspiracy time, either, but ultimately its the job of these firms to sell stock for certain third party publishers. The third parties want to create an environment that discourages Wii development for many reasons, but they need to convince their investors that Wii development is a lost cause, hence why we see all this "Wii is doomed" stuff coming from analysis firms.

@Hyams
It still is.
Although the PS2-graph is heading downhill, sells are still 3/4s of the PS3s graph. That system is a living legend...

@Vcize because face it the wii has completely destroyed the competition..

The 360 has been plagued with rrod and hardware issues.

The ps3 had a super expensive price tag..

They both are relative failures, regardless of all of the marketing and nonsense.. If Sony wasnt the Audio / Visual hardware master and Microsoft the Software king both would have been bankrupt like Sega and dropping out of the console business this year.

Microsoft regardless of all of the rubbish they try to put on their profits have been haemorrhaging money due to the RROD fiasco, Its wrecked their reputation among many gamers for the next gen as well, I bet most will think twice before buying the nextbox..

Sony has been haemorrhaging money due to stupidity and the cell processor .. They spent far too much money r&ding the cell, the biggest issue would be the memory architecture and the Nvidia GPU, seriously I can only guess the raping they get for the XDR 256MB ram, that probably makes $50 of the cost of the PS3 on its own ..

Nintendo took the biggest risk this gen a gimmicky motion controller only system and its paid off big time.. If it had failed ...

Also we have been in a recession for the majority of the generation and probably next generation thanks to the wankers sorry I mean bankers.

I see the exact same happening next gen, I think Nintendo will lead the pack again..

The console I am most excited for is Nintendo wiiHD or whatever it will be called..

Mario Kart in glorious 1080p with perfected motion controls.

If they release StarFox HD its day 1 purchase for me ..

A Massive zelda game all in glorious HD ..

Those 3 games would be enough for any proper gamer to be salivating and lining up for the next gen Wii ..

I am just hoping Nintendo deliver come next gen, I really hope they pump HD tech, I know they will its a no brainer the price for the hardware is so cheap now compared to the launch of the ps3 or 360 and all of their war chests are overfilled.

Sony will probably be very conservative next gen and this will only hamper their attempts and MIcrosoft will have most thinking twice about their console before they actually purchase it due to failures..

@McDuckScrooged

Seems you want a Move with Nintendo first party support lol.

@Vcize Since the Jaspers, 360's have had got rid of most the hardware issues, though a lot of people will still be putting their's in an enclosed TV cabinet wondering why it gets so hot. installing games saves the disc drive, I've met people who didn't know about installs..

@McDuckScrooged
"Nintendo took the biggest risk this gen a gimmicky motion controller only system and its paid off big time.. If it had failed ... "

If it had failed, they were ready for it.
Ya' think Nintendo spent as much fortune as Microsoft or Sony did in developing their system?
If it had failed, it wouldn't have bankrupted them, but it would've put 'em pretty close.
...they saw the flaw of competing with strong hardware with strong hardware in the XboxVSPlaystation2VSGamecube years, this gamble they made (Wii) may have been crazy - but in all honesty: It was practically one of the safest gambles they could have made.
If anything, it was an obscure tactic, as most wouldn't have gone that route, but it wasn't suicidal.

It not only brought Nintendo back from the heartbreak that was the Gamecube, but it has also given them enough money to try the strong hardware route again if they needed to. Heck, with sales they got they could probably release two types of hardware in the home console field if they wanted to.

@Co

Yeha the PS3 sales are not far off from the GC sales, which everyone claimed was a flop as well.

So does that mean that the current 360/PS3 are "flops", or that actually the Xbox and GC did incredibly well?

(i would say the latter tbh, its only this gen its ignored because the "hardcore" don't like the leader.this time around)

@Co

"(i would say the latter tbh, its only this gen its ignored because the "hardcore" don't like the leader.this time around)"

You nailed it.

Either way both the PS3 and Xbox 360 have outsold the original Xbox, so no matter how you look at it there's more interest in them than there was last gen with the Gamecube and Xbox.

Even if you argue that most of these sales are from destroyed consoles (which is still silly because of Microsoft's 3 year RROD warranty), it still shows that the interest is high because people were willing to rebuy the console.

Was the Xbox a failure? Of course not. It birthed Halo, helped changed the direction of the industry, and led to the Xbox 360.

Was the Gamecube a failure? Of course not. Like nearly every Nintendo system it was profitable, had many great games/franchises, and was succeeded by the Wii.

Wanna know which system did flop last gen? The Dreamcast.

I think Twee was being sarcastic, as in, everyone is always saying the Wii is doomed, nay, wishing it with all their little hearts (bless them), but it just keeps going and going.

@TwEE

Ya see, no matter what the story its always spun into a Nintendo is doomed angle.

Is it a coincidence that Michael Pachters name is always mentioned too?


So once again.. poor poor perpetually doomed Nintendo.

@(Unverified)

Look at the NPD charts for the sales of the Wii over the last few months. The hardware sales are beginning to pick up once again. In the meantime the PS3 and the 360 are not seeing nearly the same level of growth in sales. What drove up demand for Wii hardware from near-nothing last year?

NSMB Wii still charts, and is still selling well. It alone has driven up demand for Wii hardware. And as you can see, DKCReturns and Kirby's Epic Yarn are both platformers to help maintain momentum for the kind of gamers that bought NSMB Wii. Sales for the Wii aren't going to slow down anytime soon. In fact, they're going to pick back up, and accelerate during a time where the rest of the industry is blaming the economy for their problems.

The reality is that Sony and Microsoft have no games that can drive demand for their hardware up to the same level that Nintendo has with the Wii. If they did, the gap in sales between the three consoles would probably be a bit closer.

All they can offer are games that appeal to the same shrinking market of core gamers, whereas Nintendo has games that appeal to as broad an audience as possible, and that has driven up demand for their hardware while PS3s and 360s languish on store shelves collecting dust.

@Mazrael
No Red Steel 2?
Little King's Story?
Rune Factory Frontier?

(3 games that deserve to be at the top of sales for differing reasons)
I'd name more, but honestly the other ones are either just games with unique concepts / (or) obscure titles that wouldn't appeal to most people - or are meh-to-good titles that could be bested by other big titles on the Wii (example: TMNT Smash-Up is ok, but nothing compared to Brawl). ...if I named those I'd be around the 100+ games range.
But those 3? Don't ignore 'em!

And I hope most of those 360 games aren't games that are slightly similar to the other but with different features (certain FPS games and Racing games).
(And please say you have Demon's Souls)

@Mazrael
OH! And don't forget:
Tatsunoko VS Capcom!!!

And before you say "I don't know who Tatsunoko is", answer this:
Did you know any Street Fighter character before you started Street Fighter for the first time? No. It's a fighting game. Whether you know their history or not, they're fun to play as - and if you get curious, you can always look it up.

Seriously, most people didn't even recognize most of the characters in Marvel VS Capcom (most recognized one side more than the other), but they still enjoyed it.

@Mazrael I don't buy yearly sequels if that's what you mean.. I have only Fifa 09 & TW:PGA 09 in the way of sports games.. last Call of Duty was Modern Warfare 1, only music game is Rock Band 2..
I'm think the wrong person to play Demon Souls, although I 'enjoyed' Ninja Gaiden 2.. my PS3 games are Uncharted 1 & 2, LBP, Heavy Rain & Transformers: War for Cybertron (cause my mate wanted co op).. SuperStardust is on my trophy card for some reason, when I only tried the trial version