Tao68

Not bad, but too 360 fanboyish for me: a Microsoft picture at the end of the movie, and no Wii? Pfff...

Maybe Sony killed its brand, but Microsoft never even had one, at least to my eyes: both 360 and PS3 are too expensive, and mostly dedicated to the FPS hardcore crowd... count me out, while i'll have fun with my little unexpensive Wii and my sexy little DS...

Bullshit: most of the adults out there don't care about video games AT ALL... and what could change their mind? Gears of Wars, Resistance, or Wii Sports?

So, Wii Sports is in fact "mature", while most of the bloody-ultra-violent games are for young gore-fans, a very small population, in fact...

I hope Capcom will bring us excellent games on Wii, that's all that matters: it may be Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil or Lost Planet, or even "kiddie" stuff, i don't mind, if the games are really excellent, i buy, otherwise, give me a break...

629 euros... between 800 and 850 dollars...

You, americans, found the PS3 price too high?

I'm sure europeans won't, and the PS3 will be a huge success down here... (sarcasm off)

My 4 Reasons:

Cheap PS2, and hundreds of cheap games (with tens and tens of great classics included...)

Cheap DS, and tens of fun, and cheaper games...

Cheap Wii, and some innovative games (plus cheap Cube games for those who missed them, and let's not forget Virtual Consol games...)

Cheaper X360, and the best next-gen titles out there, some already quite cheap...


Maybe i should get paid to become an analyst, looks like a cool job... (sarcasm off)

And btw: why always buy, and buy, and buy, and buy, and buy, and buy, ad nauseam?

Do we really need to buy our DVDs collection once again on Blue-Ray (or even worse, UMDs)?

And do we really need 95% of the crappy games out there?

Just my two cents...

@38: Nintendo is in fact a very big dev', they're just as big as EA in software sales, and EA is usually considered to be N°1 studio(s)... but EA don't sell hardware...

When you see things like that, the GC was (no doubt!) n°2 in the last gen: because Nintendo made profits on both hardware and software...

And these profits may pay the salaries of hundreds and hundreds of very talented japanese game creators, inspired by a man who's usually considered the greatest game creator of them all, the father of Mario and... the Legend of Zelda...

These guys have experience... and they are now workin' easily on a console with an architecture close to what they've used (quite well) for the last six or seven years, with some nice tools and tricks, so it helps... maybe we'll see a new Zelda on Wii sooner than we imagine... who knows, except the Nintendo folks?

I see the Wii as an "arcade" console for my home sweet home... it's irresistible, and millions of people around the world will agree...

I remember a quote Iwata-san said a few months ago: not his own words, but here's the main idea...

"Consoles nowadays are like bookshops selling only one kind of book, encyclopedias... and not everybody's interested in these... people want to read all kind of books: magazines, novels, poetry, mangas, art books or comic books, whatever..."

Iwata-san is right, diversity is the key: Wii will have many nice games for every taste, every age, every gender, casual or not...

Wii will have encyclopedia-like games too, but not only... and whatever the style, the best of these games will be fun... don't like a particular style of game? Don't buy, it's that simple... it's not for you, and there are so many other games around... on the Wii, the DS, and yes, even the competition, if you're not broke yet...

It will take maybe two years for that diversity to show up and attract many people, but once it will have made the Wii famous, the competition will stay with their "hardcore encyclopedists" only...

@Huricos

I've worked in a shop, and really, i think i know what i'm talkin' about...

When Xbox sales were 25 million WORLDWIDE, i think it means 15 to 20 millions for US and Canada, 200.000 for Japan, 1 or two millions for UK, Australia, N-Z, and the rest (5 millions max) for continental Europe... Germany, France, Benelux, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland: 350 million people, more than US population... if for you, that's a huge success in Europe, you're blind...

Btw, Nintendo hardware sales were nice, and so the Cube was in second place down here... but software sales for the Cube were more important, as Nintendo fans semm to buy more games, when many Xbox fans bought... Halo and Halo 2, sometimes a third game, and that's it...

So, in my shop's incomes, Xbox was really a minor factor... sorry to have to say so...

And about kidney joke, i really hope this was ironic... european salaries are lower than american ones, and we have way more taxes to finance our social security... so what's left in our pockets is maybe half of what an american has, with a totally equivalent job... but we still have a great social security system left...

Of course, Belgium is a rich country, but not everybody's rich: 10% of workless people, up to 25% down here in Brussels... in USA, i think it's globally 5%... we still have our kidneys, but some people struggle for life, i'm sorry to have to say so... for them and many others "working class" people, video games are becoming a luxury, especially with our higher european prices...

Reality check, man!

PS2 has been successful in Europe because Xbox1 hasn't at all... not like in Japan, but not far away... too american, i think...

Nintendo has many fans in Europe, but most bought a PS2 as well, to have all the best japanese games...

Fact is, european tastes are more japanese than american (except UK, of course...). Japanese video games are popular like mangas and animes down here... and we don't give a fuck about Madden and all these US sports games, we're into soccer... FPS are sometimes popular, but not as much as RPG's, racers, adventure or arcade/kiddy stuff...

But now, with the Wii and the 360, things will change... and the arrogant attitude of Sony will blow in their face... you should read forums and comments in french, deutch or german (btw, i'm from Brussels, Belgium, that's how i know): oh my God, you wouldn't believe it... PS3 and Blue-Ray are becoming insults!

Sony did a great job, and they keep goin' and goin'...

Btw, 600 euros, that's 750 fucking dollars for us, and many people down here are not rich like many american people are: add this with stupid PR and this year E3's echoes, and you may start to imagine if europeans are willing to wait... Wii60 FTW!

Spore will be my first (and maybe last) EA game for years...

And it's nice to see Nintendo and Ubisoft hand in hand with mutual respect, as they both are in my top 5 favorite dev's (the others are Capcom, Squarenix and Sega)

But i have to say i don't like it when big companies do hostile takeovers... especially when the big company is american: everytime some europeans are creative and make money, some americans want the benefits for themselves... like with all these f****ing hedge funds stealing our economic juice...

But the french and canadian governments do support Ubisoft quite nicely, and it's also a very healthy company on its own, so i wish them good luck!

I'll buy Red Steel, and maybe Rayman, to give them some support, and show them the Wii "strategic" choice is an excellent one...

:)

Most of you seem to forget that this news is very important:

1) for the shops: x360 gave them a very unhappy '05 holyday season, remember?

Shortages and pre-order total mess, broken consoles, and not enough incomes: a real nightmare for them... and this year, PS3 will have exactly the same kind of problems... at least, thanks to Nintendo and their DS and Wii, they'll be able to do some NORMAL BUSINESS and make money...

Of course, to be honnest, you may add PS2 and 360 to their late 06' incomes, but this holyday season, and in 2007 (and i guess beyond), it's "Thanks Nintendo"...

2) for the 3rd parties: would you prefer to develop a very expensive-budget title for a very small user base, or a normal-budget title for an already successful system? Of course, they still have the PS2 crowd, and the 360 is now really gettin' good fame, but for the ones who believed in Sony's promises, that's a HUGE let-down...

And don't forget the ease of development, btw: 360 seems to be VERY good, but expensive. DS and Wii seem to be QUITE good, but not expensive.

But PS3? A mess... a really pricey mess... and they remember it had been exactly the same during PS2 early life: too complicated, and hard to get used to... that's the reason why 2/3 of the best PS2 titles came out in 2005 and 2006, and not before...

3) for the investors: if you really look at Sony's future with its PS3 and its Blue-Ray, you may not be sure it will be a brandmark "easy winner"... on the other hand, a news like this is butter to their ears: more sales, more incomes... easy to understand, isn't it? Plus the whole gaming world hyped: THAT is the kind of news stock owners want to hear...

So, in a REAL business way, and not in any idiotic fanboy way (yes, even Big N ones): NINTENDO WINS...

And the Wii isn't even out yet...

All the people who REALLY make a living in the gaming world have now a deeper respect for Nintendo and their business model...

More and more of them are now thankful for the fresh air the Wii brings in a saturated business that have: no appeal to non-gamers, small appeal to casual gamers, and only appeal to the hardcore gamers, who usually buy all the systems out there anyway...

More and more people, in the business or as game buyers, may now compare the Wii launch with the 360 and PS3 launches: and they realize how the supposed "big guns" just gave themselves a bad name...

Thanks for reading...