Console Wars VI

[lord of the mark]

By the way I played the Wii today for the first time.

Wii Golf. I managed to sink the ball in only 8 strokes It was fun. And no, I'm not a golfer. One guy I was playing with said that in Wii Bowling his poor throws gave the same results as in actual bowling.

[Nikolai]

I can assure you that the guy was wrong about the bowling, although the game's not bad. One can easily get strikes all the way through with three adjustments to the position and a somewhat straight throw.

[lord of the mark]

I can assure you that the guy was wrong about the bowling, although the game's not bad. One can easily get strikes all the way through with three adjustments to the position and a somewhat straight throw.

I assume he was telling me the truth about his experience (I give people the benefit of the doubt like that, even if I'm not a Christian ) Perhaps he was not aware of the adjustments, or he didn't throw straight.

[Nikolai]

He probably was in good faith. My sister has played bowling much lately, she has the habit of throwing nearly sideways, which usually means she only get some 3-5 of the pins.

[DrSpike]

Wii bowling has no depth whatsoever. I quite like the Golf though.

[lord of the mark]

top selling console games of 2008

Per Kotaku


01. Wii Play (Wii) - 5,280,000
02. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 5,000,000
03. Wii Fit (Wii) - 4,530,000
04. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 4,170,000
05. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360) - 3,290,000
06. Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360) - 2,750,000
07. Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) - 2,310,000
08. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 1,890,000
09. Madden NFL 09 (XBox 360) - 1,870,000
10. Mario Kart DS (DS) - 1,650,000

[Nikolai]

Wii bowling has no depth whatsoever. I quite like the Golf though.

Golf is good, but tennis is a true winner.

[El_Cid]

Yeah i've heard Wii tennis is a great fun mp game. I got some sales stats trends stuff etc, as usual from gamasutra:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21891

on sales trends(for hardware it looks like) - things seem to be slowing, but i find the numbers for 2008 odd considering the reported sales of Wii? anyway an interesting analysis to sit along other figures.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21885

On record sales last year(08) - so kind of why i'm not sure about the details of the first link??

Anyway, i think it safe to assume that computer gaming(especialy console gaming) is reaching a wider audience than ever before.

[El_Cid]

Well if you have a PS2, that can play PS1 games too. PS3 doesn't have reverse compatibility and it doesn't have a lot of games out yet. Maybe that's the reason?

Yeah for a console it is all about the games, thats why the collecovision died a fast death vs the Atari VCS. PS3 still doesnt have a killer game, a game to really sell it over the 360 and that has got to hurt sales. The Wii just is on a different level - it's not competing for the same market share as the 360 and PS3, clever Nintendo.

[El_Cid]

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22087

Wii's bubble about to burst? this is a pretty bad downturn so i wouldn't be surprised if all areas saw some shrinkage.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Makes sense. Wii's main draw was that it would hit the unplumbed newbie gamer demographic. Once that demographic is all plumbed out, its days of growth are over. As Asher and many others have pointed out, there is a relative lack of must-have titles on the Wii compared to XBox360 (and arguably to PS3 as well) so it won't be winning any points among the gamers who finish games quickly and move onto the next. The casual gamer demographic is much more likely to hang onto Wii's various living room party sports for family play so their demand for a constant flow of high-dev games will be correspondingly lower.

So far, I get the impression that Wii's already been a lot more successful than Nintendo initially hoped. (At least that was what they blamed the US side supply shortages on for the past two years.) So in that regard it's been an unexpected success so far. But in order to keep it relevant in the industry they'll have to pull some good games out of their sleeves before long.

I'd give them until summer 2009, not least because that's when I reckon I'll be done with Zelda and Metroid

[DrSpike]

They must be bringing out a new Zelda this year or next. TP was a release game and that's a while ago.

[El_Cid]

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22154

about game prices dropping, which is a good thing. I just didn't find many console games fell into my 'good value' bracket(although with some of the huge(60hour+) Jrpg's i now have on PS2 i'm feeling i've found a console system that does offer a decent amount of value for money gaming).

I guess i'm just tight by nature when it comes to my gaming, and especialy the current gen of consoles did nothing to change my thinking that i wouldn't often get a good bang for buck return. Maybe this article shows that might be changing?

[DrSpike]

Probably not.

For most of us console gaming already offers great value for money. But given your stated preferences I doubt a few quid off will make a difference for you.

[lord of the mark]

Probably not.

For most of us console gaming already offers great value for money.

Evidently not enough at the margin to keep a number of publishers and developers from financial difficulty. Or to avoid major losses at SONY, and so far to recoup MS's losses on the 360.

or to prevent there being a huge market in second sale console game sales, which the publishers hate, and has become a big point of contention between them and retailers.

Clearly a lot of HD console games sell at $60 (and whatever prices they charge you lesser breeds without the law.) But clearly there are huge numbers of "gamers" who won't pay that, whether they play on PC and pirate, play on Wii, buy HD console games later used, etc, etc.