f13.net

SO Nintendo decided they don't want my money.  :uhrr:

There's been a WII shortage since LAST Christmas... and there still is one. I was thinking of getting one for my wife so her and her friends could play with it when they are drinking... seem'd like a good idea. But there are no WII's... anywhere. A friend of mine somehow got ahold of Bestbuys flier for Sunday before it was printed. They were going to have 21 units when they opened at 8am. I drove by at 6am (on my way to work) and there were already over 50 people outside the doors waiting. Wow...

The $250 WII is selling for $400 + $38 shipping on Ebay... Wow

Nintendo really screwed the pooch on this one.

I wouldn't go that far. They were definitely overly conservative at first, but they've already released enough product to pass the 360's install base (worldwide) in about half the time... They are going to lose a bunch of sales this holiday though, due to their lack of units.

Or yeah, they are incompetent bastards that hate you. That could work.

Shopping for a wii without using iTrackr.com or something similar is just asking to be frustrated.

Thank you, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Christmas always leads to a shortage of something. Just depends what's on the "hot" list. You should of been smart and bought one a month or two ago. I could of walked into any Best Buy in Ontario and bought one about a month ago. Doing this 9 days before Christmas is just.. stupid.

Yeah, I'm sure they're crying their eyes out as they haul bag after bag of money to the bank.  Most companies could only dream of a product so popular that they can't build them fast enough.  You and millions of other people will still buy one months from now when there are more in stock anyways.

Nintendo was probably a little gunshy with production lines considering both how badly the gamecube did and the fact that the Wii was a massive gamble.  They bet everything on a cheaper, simpler machine with lesser graphics/capabilities, and they actually won.

Nintendo did not have to have a shortage though. Their management said that in order to improve production they would need to build another plant. An investment they did not want to make. In my case, not getting my wife one for Christmas means we aren't getting one ever. I'll take her on vacation instead or something. Point being, having a shortage is one thing... having a shortage during Christmas is just plain dumb.


I've been looking for at least a month and a half.

 :roll:

All summer, up to October or so, they've been on shelves everywhere around here. Should've expected to get burnt, waiting til Nov to get one.

Either you live in the middle of nowhere or you should be blaming your local retailer for not allocating your stores enough. I live in a small(ish) town in Ontario and I know my Best Buy gets at least 30-40 every, or every other, Monday. Pre-christmas of course.

I'm torn on this one.

On one hand if you know your machine that makes more money when software is sold is a megahit and won't stay on shelves you should increase production as much as possible.

On the other, what happens if raving Sony fanboys take over and then you have all this unsold stock? 
(Of course with this kind of popularity I doubr they have much to worry about.)

But for the record, the only time I have ever seen a Wii for sale was release day when I froze my ass off outside a Best Buy from 9pm-9am.
And PS3s have been on shelves pretty much since the week after Christmas.  :awesome_for_real:

Do you have any kids?  The reason I ask is that every Christmas for the past decade (since I've been paying attention), there's a shortage of whatever the hotseller for the kids is.

There also seems to be always be a Nintendo shortage around the holidays if Nintendo is particularly successful that year - and my experience with this goes back 20+ years. 

I have read that Nintendo launched the Wii with the capability to make 1 million per month, and have ramped it up to being able to make 1.8 million per month.  The Wii's been out for a year, and selling out for a year.  Ramping up production is not a trivial matter - it costs a lot of money, and Nintendo has to gamble that that demand will stay high in order to pay off those costs.

I'm sure Nintendo would love to be able to sell more Wiis but it's hard to gauge demand when it continues to climb, particularly after all the naysaying that surrounded the Wii at launch.

In the Hampton Roads it has been sold out the entire year- friends at work had issues finding them 6 months ago. 




edit.  Also note- this is not from lack of inventory.  My buddy called a bunch of stores back in June looking for one; they received 20 every 3 days and it was first come first serve.  Took him about 10 days.

Where I live in NJ, unless we were FORCED to hold Wii systems for a sale (ie - Black Friday), only once have we had a system stay in the store overnight.

Once. Since the system launched, we've had a single system not sell in the same day it was received (discounting particular sales, of course). And, we've been getting more systems in over the last 6 months or so; they just sell out almost instantly.




ALso, this CharlieMopps fellow is a fucking moron. L2Shop, newb.

    Some retailers are finally limiting the number of Wii's you can buy. Somethng about 25-40+ units coming in a week and not one resident getting one, including the wait list. Meanwhile units galore are available on Ebay for $550 or more...lol. That new corvette in the parking lot belongs to Bob in electronics, on his $5/$8 an hour salary...LoL.
    No worries after Winter Solstice there will be Wii's a-plenty back in stock.

Yeah, that's what I said last year...

I was wrong.

Nobody expected the system to do this well. 
I am not sure ANY videogame system has done this well.
Even when PS2s were hot, I got one a couple months after release.  Walked in on a day I had just got my Income Tax return, and there was the PS2 and SW Starfighter begging me to buy it.
360s were buyable around the same timeframe.

Its just INSANE how well the Wii is doing.

Yeah, they're doing it on purpose to keep the buzz going.  Convinces the consumer that it's still the hotness if they walk in to buy one and can't find it.  Plus, they saved themselves a BUNDLE of cash by not building a new production facility.  And as a result, they'll have a steady revenue stream for a long time to come instead of drying up once everyone has their system.  Smart business on their part, even if it irritates a few of you.

That's a bit harsh. Unless the two of you are good mates and you're just having a rib.

I've only ever heard of them being available in small towns that are two hours or so out of the way. Here (Oklahoma City) I've heard the same story from retailers all year long. "Yeah, we got in 30 this morning but they were gone in 20 minutes." All year.

Around here is the same story. Get 20 in, they are either already spoken for when they reach the store, or gone shortly thereafter. They don't collect dust.

Now, it may be an intenional shortage on Nintendo's part (douchey but smart) or a lack of foresight (not smart but less douchey), but the upside is Nintendo knows that every unit they produce is going to make them money. It's a win for everyone involved except the people who can't get one.

Perhaps if this continues, many of these asshead game developers who look down their noses at the Wii will realize they can actually make money by making GOOD games on the system instead of circle-jerk-half-assed ports and wasted waggle.

That is spot on.

Having some clue about modern electronics manufacturing, I bet they have their pipe-line fully open right now.  Expanding the pipe-line can be expensive especially for non-commodity parts.  A company like Nintendo isn't going sacrifice profitability to install a fire hose, so we are stuck with the garden hose.

Mrs. Naum broke the sensor cord on my Wii.

Wonder if I'll be able to replace this in a timely fashion (either on-line or physical retail merchant…)…

You probably will...

Or, you can just play with candles on, in the same position as the lightbar's LEDs.

I've heard candles actually work better, but I have no actual experience with it.


I'm only slightly sorry. You have no idea what caliber of crap I've had t deal with concerning this system since it has released...TONS of boo-hooing over a damn game console, especially from the people who just figured out in late Nov. that they must have one NOWNOWNOW.

I mean, FFS, we've had people camping outside the store on average weekdays now, asking if we have any systems in. This is after I personally tell every single person who asks about the system that we never have any to hold overnight, and that we don't know when we're getting them until UPS shows up, and that UPS shows up around 11am.

Ok, so that second part was a lie, but can you imagine the shitstorm of suck that would occur if eople knew that we could SOMETIMES see Wii shipments a day or two ahead of time?  :ye_gods:

This is terrible business and it's going to cost Nintendo.

Is that a joke?

This is one of those problems you hope to have. I'm pretty sure that this "terrible business" is a lot less terrible than selling at 360 or PS3 numbers.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26100677&sid=6184030&om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;6

I guess Nintendo could intentionally be screwing themselves out of a billion in sales in order to alienate their customers.. but somehow I don't think so...
I think the more likely answer is that Nintendo is a much smaller company than either MS or Sony, and they just can't keep up with the crazy-insane demand.

I bought a Wii on a whim a few days after it launched in 2006, by asking at a store if they had any, when it was "sold out everywhere". For A$388 (US$334). Amazing that I could sell it now at a profit.

In what world is it good business to leave money on the table? If tons of people want to pay you whatever you want for your product and you can't supply them, you are losing out on money regardless of profits and that money goes to your competitors making substitute goods.

Business 101 people. Jesus.

Yep, most stores like game stop (in the Hampton roads area) get 2, and then they are first come first serve.


Also.  :tinfoil: I still say this whole thing is intentional.

The problem with business 101 is that it's only 101.  Nintendo would have to double their production lines to actually meet the demand there is right now costing them an incredible amount of money.  Then another year from now they would have to idle half of the production lines they just built up because most of the demand would already have been met.  They are basically a monopoly right now so they aren't losing money to competitors, they are the only ones on the block with a system like this.  They will get their money when the same people who can't find one now buy it in June and they won't have to spend a billion dollars doubling their production capability to do it.

I'm sure that in hindsight they wished they had built more initial production but it wasn't worth the risk back then.  If the wii had flopped (which it could have easily done) and they had that much invested in manufacturing Nintendo itself could have gone bust, pulled a sega and announced they will now be making Mario titles for the xbox.

If Nintendo doubled their production lines, they'd be doublefucked when the fad died. And they know it.

To reiterate my earlier comment, Nintendo is also increasing demand for their product simply because of its scarcity.  It's "rare".  It also helps pull the wool over people's eyes as to how mediocre most of the system is.

This is exactly how Redbull got popular as well, and the marketing department later admitted it was intentional.

It also seems that it's common knowledge nowadays that DeBeers does this with diamonds.

Except you won't lose that money because there isn't a substitute for the Wii. If you want Wii Sports or other Wii-zy mini-game things, no one else is making games like that on the other systems. It has carved its own special niche away from what Microsoft and Sony are doing, so they really don't have to be that concerned with people buying the other systems because of a Wii shortage.

That's why it was a brilliant move to go after the casual market instead of trying to "Me-Too!" with Sony and Microsoft.

But its not mediocre.  Its fucking awesome.  Its just missing the graphics whore OMG TOUGH GUY GANGSTER AND FPS shit I utterly despise.

It's missing a whole lot more than graphics, hombre.

...

The system has tons of potential, sure.  The problem is that so far it's failed to live up to most of it.  There are a handful of truly fun games and a whole bunch of awful ones that were forced to use the motion controls before anyone really figured out HOW to utilize them in a game.  There's a reason that (nearly) all the fun games for the system are first party.

Also, Super Mario Galaxy sucks.  Yeah.  Sometimes you walk up to a cliff and you're supposed to blindly jump off of it to experience awesome, gravity-defying action.  And other times, it's just a cliff.

Except you're wrong.

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/wii-shortages-could-cost-nintendo-1-billion-this-holiday-ndash-analyst/18858/?biz=1

Business fucking 101 people.

It's not relevant, Fab.

Sure, if they built more production capacity, they'd sell a ton more systems...

And then, as others have said, the demand will die off, and they'll have to run their lines below max capacity. It's similar to how fuel companies just will not build more refineries, instead preferring to run their existing refineries at max; it's not worth running something as expensive as a refinery or production line much below max capacity.

Only thing is, the Wii situation is worse than with fuel, because once you have a Wii, you don't need to buy another. The fact that Nintendo could supposedly sell $1.3b worth of systems this year is a completely moot point in the grand scheme of things.

Better to sell 1.3B in systems now. If you know what I'm saying.

Hehe. /evil

I also agree with Schild's earlier sentiments that the system is missing a lot more than simply nice graphics.

Such as quality 3rd party games.

Aside from the XBox 360 and PS2, who else has a good number of quality 3rd party games? I thought both the Wii and the PS3 were lacking in this department.

You say that as if it's not a big deal.

And to a certain extent it's not, depending on your tastes.

It is a big deal. Then again, both the Wii and the PS3 offer new avenues for game developers to explore, so you had to figure that it would take some time for the games to ramp up with the technology, no?

Not being fully acclimated to the new technology does not excuse shit like Wing Island or fucking Chicken Shoot (http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/chickenshoot/index.html).

FFS, it's a flash game some 3rd year college student could make over the weekend.

EDIT: Fixed code.

Yours for only $29.95.  Visit your nearest Best Buy today!

Heh, I've added 50% to my Wii library over the past two weeks.













...bringing my total number of discs to six.

I had more games for my 360 before I had my 360...

Are you counting Wii Play? I mean, really?

The games on the Wii are a strangely mixed bag.  On one hand, we've got Chicken Shoot and ancient games that should have stayed buried (http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/chinawarrior/review.html?sid=6173645).  On the other hand, we have our Metroid Prime 3 and re-release of Super Mario World.

The wildcard is the motion remote.  Sometimes it's unnecessarily clunky (http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/redsteel/review.html) and other times it's indespensible to a game concept (http://www.gamespot.com/wii/puzzle/wariowaresmoothmoves/review.html?sid=6164180), but one thing's for sure: it's going to fish in a lot more people to try it that would never have touched a console before.

Wii Virtual Console is full of games, much like the 360.
I have around 15 VC titles and about 30 XBLA.

In both cases they outnumber full price retail SKUs by a 3 to 1 ratio.

Shit, its why I bought a Wii, and I know a few Microsoft haters that grabbed a 360 for Pac Man CE alone.

Isnt this whole YOU DONT OWN SHIT BITCH!  online sales thing something everyone spooges over anyhow?

What's the difference?

I know to people who buy a couple games a week this aint shit, but most people are lucky to buy 4-6 games a YEAR.

Nintendo charges as much for NES and SNES games as Sony charges for PS1 games and original titles. Instant fail.

Why?

R to the O to the M to the S. Fo' rizzle.

Ooh $5! Think of the children!

NES game != PS1 game.

Your concept of fail is fundamentally broken.  All you're missing in life is an I Am Legend PS3 port.

Not really. Sure, I get that they're milking the most out of people. But if the VC were reasonably priced, I'd buy more games than... well, probably anyone.

AND My Wii wouldn't have been unplugged for more than a full year.

Yes, a game for 2 cups of coffee is really back-breaking. It's like to afford a few games you might have to do something radical like shovel a driveway.

It's about cost to quality. I can play NES games on my PC plugged into my TV using an original NES pad or a superior Saturn USB pad or something for uhhhh oh

free.

Rich people like myself don't care about value, only absolute quality.

Didn't Sony try charging the same amount for fucking Q*Bert as they did the PS1 games?  And even with a 25 year old game, the PS3 still managed to get a half-assed port.

So, you found one game that was badly priced vs say... all of the virtual console games short of Sin & Punishment. wtg.

Seriously though, that just show you how much awesome the price point on the PS1 games are. And god help the 360 the moment Sony starts letting PS2 games be downloaded/dropped on the HDD. It's inevitable.

1) Wii Sports (packin)
2) Wii Play ($10 more than the 2nd controller alone)
3) Rayman Raving Rabbids
4) Super Monkey Ball

additions:

5) Big Brain Academy (another controller for the Fake Bowling tourneys over summer) (was discounted slightly)
6) Mario Party 8 (wanted it regardless, but discounted at less than half price)

tomorrow (Maybe)

7) That Wii Zapper/Link Crossbow thing (which costs less than half the price of a new Wii game)


I disagree with you on the System Hate, but agree with you on the lack of softwares.

Actually, I find price for most of the PS1 games to be complete rip-offs because there's only about two games currently available that I'd ever want to play again, and given that you can play PS1 games on PS2's and PS3's, I'd rather just track down the actual disk anyway.  Plus it took them the better part of the year to even get the downloadable games working on the PS3 instead of just the PSP.  This really isn't the example you want to use when trying to prove PS3's superiority to the Wii.

While I don't disagree with Velorath's post, I feel the same way about downloading huge XBox games onto that 20gb HDD. I'd rather just buy the discs.

Seems almost like a way to push some 120gb HDD sales...

Azazel, the Wii does not have a lot of AAA titles but FFS buy a few of what it does have.

Mario Galaxy
Metroid Prime 3
Twilight Princess
RE 4 (if you haven't played through it already)

I've also played a bit of Zack and Wiki and it seems very enjoyable. Mario Strikers is also good. Super Paper Mario (whatever it was called) was neat also. Then there are the Trauma Center games and that game I forget the name of which is like a 3D Herzog Zwei meets Advance Wars. (Sequel to GC game)

The lineup is not stellar but there are games to play other than party games.

Same with a PS1 emulator.  Additionally, it's also about game library - the Wii has as many downloadable games as the PS3 and 360 combined.  It's also 100% compatible with GC games, while the PS3 started with issues and is only getting *more* issues as they remove hardware support.  XBox is even worse, but not sure anyone actually cares about the original XBox (well, besides that one guy).

I think the PS3 and Wii have an equal number of quality exclusives. The PS3 has a fuckload better 3rd party stuff and general features though.


Ummm... Not sure why I'm posting this. Just saying.

Evidently, there are so many up on Ebay that they're going for $325 to $500, depending on your package, almost every minute.  The ones with  high reserves aren't even selling.  I was reading on another board about someone's kid who had been told he couldn't have one until his birthday next year has made a game out of refreshing the bidding screen and calling out what they finally sell for.  I wonder if he becomes so annoying, he'll get one.  Right now his mum still thinks it's funny.  That won't last, I'm sure.

Right. But you just love to hate the Wii.

Let's face it, not everybody has a PC to plug into their TV to play old NES roms on. Hell, some people can barely check their email let alone figure out how to run ROMs on a PC. This includes some console game owners. They will pay for the convenience of playing NES games on the Wii. It's just good business for Nintendo to offer them at any price.

You aren't ANYBODY else.

Question is how many of those would enjoy NES games? I think most people who would by NES games would do it for the retro feeling, that is they've been gamers for a very long time and chances are they know how to handle a PC better than your average guy.

I know at least 5 people who have always bought consoles, but have never had or are incredibly inept with computers. After all, consoles are meant to be dedicated gaming computers and some people use them as such.

I don't have good statistics on the number of people who own consoles and computers and what their levels of expertise are with computers, so I can't say whether or not long-time console gamers are more adept with a PC than others. I do know that as a PC gamer primarily, I know very little in terms of overall console titles.

Mario Galaxy - I go on holidays after tomorrow, so I'll have time to rent it and check it out. I'm not big on 3-D Pure Platformers, though.
Metroid Prime 3 - I don't do console FPS games. Mouse and KB for me.
Twilight Princess - I tried it a year ago, but grew very impatient with the game talking at me with shitty cutscenes for ages before letting me play and stupid NPCs giving me training quests before letting me do anything. I got as far as meeting my new horse and then being disallowed to leave town because I hadn't gotten some foozle for some npc or some similar bullshit. If there's a great game in there, hook me when I turn the game on. Don't make me wait 15 minutes to get to the gameplay, because I won't do it anymore.
RE4 - Got it on PS2

Mario Strikers - I'm interested in this, but not for the au$100 they want at present.
Paper Mario - Not into platformers, particularly old-school SMB style ones.
Trauma Centre - Not released here, which means I'd have to import it from the UK at a huge premium.
Zack and Wiki - will check it out. Possibly not released here yet though.
3-D HZ meets AW - Probably not released here either, but if you or anyone else can think of what its called I will check it out

Metroid Prime is more action adventure slash fps. Don't even fuck yourself here. Possibly the only damn Nintendo franchise worth playing these days if it really came down to it.

Action Adventure/FPS?

Please to be explaining more.

> Metroid Prime 3 - I don't do console FPS games. Mouse and KB for me.
You are really screwing yourself here.

No, he's not. Time Splitters is the only thing he'll be really *missing.*

Prices on ebay will plummet once it gets close enough to Christmas that shipping won't make it in time. Luckily, I got mine in late November. A friend went to the Nintendo store in Manhattan for me and brought it to the office. That store gets about 200/day. This week, there is a line in front of that store starting at 2am and all 200 are gone an hour after the doors open.

I haven't played the new one all the way through, but generally speaking, if you're worried about targetting, it's a bit more simplified than that. You can lock on to things (or not, if you wish). A lot of combat isn't based on fragging the shit out of the things. Samus is a very physical character, so that's how you gain advantages in combat. It also transitions to 3rd person with ball morphing and the like. There's weapons that aren't in fps's, like the grapple beam. Plenty of boss battle scenarios (unlike shooters), exploration, puzzles, platforming, etc.. There are FPS like moments, but that isn't the whole story, or even half of it.

[edit] Just to further add...

Myst. With guns. Or guns. With Myst. Either/or.

Don't be scared.

The Sonic the Hedgeihog game for wii is also *really damn fun*. So was that one samurai sword arcade game they ported. Call of Duty looks fun, esp. with the new Time Crisis-esque mode. Smash Brothers Brawl is the killer app, just as S.B. Melee was for GC.

What is it killing besides my childhood?

Resident Evil 4 sold more Gamecubes than Smash Bros.

Granted a used Gamecube was $50 and everyone had traded them in.

After Smash bros got boring.


 :grin:

As always, the Wii hate is amusing- success is evidence of failure now?  Selling more copies is just proof it sucks (since they have to move so many before people find it sucks)?

Some of you could wake up and find a dead pig on your doorstep, and would consider it proof that the Wii sucks.

Its spoiled eggs.  The same people who helped kill the Dreamcast by ignoring it for goddamned Sony are now mad they have this generation's failure machine.
Except they aren't as mildly amusing as Resistance UK can be from time to time.

As an owner of many failed systems (Turboduo, N Gage, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Saturn, Dreamcast), its hilarious watching all the screeching pain the Sony faithful seem to have.
Considering Sony helped kill off 2 of those systems, turnabout is fair play!

Except all those failed systems have a handful of absolute classics.  PS3 doesn't have anything I even care about.  (Given MGS 3 and Disgaea 2, their follow ups aren't system sellers to me at all.  Budget purchases on the Wii or 360 if they were coming out for those platforms at best.)

Not caring about Uncharted just means you don't like fun.

I don't care about the ads and find that a terrible excuse for not playing something.

Uncharted looks spectacular. Unfortunately, that one game is not going to make the PS3 franchise. It has potential to get some exclusive sequels, but even so, it will just take time for developers to get moving on the platform, and when they do, Sony will ensure that lots of games will get made. Of course, fun games like Katamari can still play just fine on the PS2, so there's that.

Ratchet & Clank was pretty damned awesome, too.  So was Resistance.  Heavenly Sword and Folklore deserve points for almost being awesome.

Lol, wtf is this screeching pain I'm hearing about?

Also, most of you are mmo retards. Just shut the fuck up. Seriously, you suck. Stop commenting on what's good for gaming or not.

There I said it (although I am drunk..and will probably regret it, and you will HAVE to forgive me).

You have offended me deeply in a way that is totally not forgiveable.

Bring on the bloodshed!

wiialerts.com

it works.

Sadly, so do bots.

I'd tend to agree with you. I treat them as fundamentally different systems, though. The 360 takes care of most of the 3rd party part for traditional console gaming for the moment, though.

The Wii hate is pretty retarded, though.

Absolutely agree.

Folklore is really a sleeper masterpiece.

People who rage about the Wii shortage are the same who gleefully predicted Nintendo's downfall, who have all of their emotional chits on the 360/PS3 horserace, and now can only feebly summon up half-hearted diatribes about how Nintendo has undone itself through its own great success. 

Hmm... Yeah, OK. Makes me wonder why the guy who started this thread did it because he WANTED one then.

Metroid Prime 3 is NOT an FPS. It is at heart a fantastic puzzle game, masquerading as a shooter. Seriously, outside of the boss fights, most of the FPS styel shooting is pretty superfluous. It is a game you really should not miss.

Also, shooters are fun on the Wii, provided they aren't rehashed warmed-over ass like Far Cry.

Kinda.  It came across more like "Despite it being the hot toy this year, and it being very close to Christmas now, I made one half-hearted attempt at getting a wii (for the wife, not for myself), and since I couldn't get one that day, I'm never going to get one, ever, ever, EVER!".

Far Cry sucks ass on the 360 too.  What an awful FPS. 

I don't care about the Wii or the PS3. At some point I will get an Xbox 360.

The Wii is still the only console that really exists within that magic US $200 - $300 range that consoles really start selling at. It was a smart move for Nintendo to sacrfice some short term premiums to place itself right in the middle of the price point that the majority of consumers can accept paying for. However, I'm still yet to see much information that says Wii owners go out and buy games like (i.e. with the same frequency that) the owners of other consoles do. The Wii also lacks a good range of quality 3rd party games, which is what helped relegate other Nintendo consoles into last place in the console wars previously.

For Sony, the PS2 is still selling okay. Not evey dollar they have is (yet) leveraged on the success of the PS3.

MS has made XBL a cornerstone of its console offering and it appears to be working. I don't know how much extra they pull in through XBL, but it has to be a nice chunk of change.

Final point: this generation of console wars are a long way from over. The PS3 may recover. The Wii may not be the success it currently appears to be if demand slackens when owners find they don't have a good range of games to play. The Xbox 360 may recover from its awful 30% failure rate reputation and stop taking that financial hit.

Or not. Only time is going to tell. What is popular at Xmas isn't the benchmark of measuring how the overall console industry is doing over the long term.

Exac.

Even if Wii sales drop off dramatically it's still a success.

The 360 guys were smart when they adopted the strategy of saying everyone could get a 360 and a Wii. That's how I see things shaking out. The Wii is cheap, it has some fun games for the wife/girlfriend, some great 1st party titles and some offbeat gems here and there. The 360 has the hardcore racing games and stealth FPS games and WW2 shooters and all that shit.

What MS realized is that the 360 and Wii can co-exist in the same household. They serve different needs. But the PS3 and the 360 serve the same needs. In the thread on Gamespy's top games of the year I pointed out that they have many of the same games, there is a huge overlap between the two systems.

I think if MS had not had the reliability problems they would have KO'd Sony. I know a lot of people who want a 360 who are still holding out because they fear it will brick, and that is giving Sony a chance to pull itself up off the mat. MS has the head start and the stronger lineup (IMO), as well as the superior online strategy. It's almost tragic that they stumbled over a purely engineering problem.

Back in the days of SNES vs. Genesis each system had a unique identity. That is not the case with the 360 and the PS3, they are far more similar and Nintendo is really off doing it's own thing rather than directly competing.

RIght now, minus the bricking problem, it still looks like an easy call to me. The 360 and the PS3 have largely the same games but the 360 also has the larger variety and the better exclusives. It's still a mystery to me why anyone would pick up a PS3 before the 360 other than fear of bricking, and I'm a lifelong MS hater.

A local promotion that's started a week or so here in Australia - if you buy a specific Sony Bravia TV (not sure which) you get a free PS3.

Personally speaking, it was a pretty easy choice. It replaced my dead PS2; merely one PS3 exclusive at the time appealed more to me than everything on the Xbox; I was looking forward more to Sony's exclusives (and still do); the hardware isn't designed in such a half-assed way like the 360 is -- y'know things like having a hard drive option on both skus from the getgo, having a much better disc medium, better audio capabilities, and generally just being able to work correctly; it was a cheap blu-ray player.

You know, I hear all these "brick" fears with the 360 but I bought mine about 3 months after release and have never had a single problem with it. Even with multiple power outages in my neighborhood and shit. Maybe I'm just amazingly lucky...

Maybe.

I think the thing to remember is that by the time the PS3 is a reasonable price (sub $300 range), there will likely be a new Wii/Nintendo console either released or on the very near horizon. There may even be a new Microsoft console (THE 720 YO!). The *LOLZ* 10-year PS3 lifecycle will ensure that it will be competing with a Hi-Def Wii and a new Microsoft console, forcing Sony to either blanket the market with a shitton of new games or make a new shinier console.

This Christmas is going to be hugely important for the PS3. If it doesn't start moving boxes soon, it's going to be hurting for games by 2010.

Yay, sales thread. OF THE FUTURE.

Really, if you don't like discussing the sales of the Wii, PS3 or 360, STOP READING AND POSTING IN THREADS THAT ARE OBVIOUSLY ABOUT THE SALES OF THESE CONSOLES.

I just updated the other one, for Stray (and myself and Velorath).

This shit was about supplies... Possibly the merits of systems. But fuck a damn 2010 sales thread.

I can't wait for the Wii to come out with an HD version. Then everyone who bought a wii will pay another $250-$400 to upgrade to HD.

It's like Next-Gen Layaway. Layawii. Lollapawiiza.

One day Schild, your great-great-grandchildren will visit a museum of early 21st-century technology and the Wii will be on a pedestal as the greatest gaming system of our generation.

People in the future are stupid.

(http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyimages/1048.gif)

Dude.  Wii won.  PS3 lost.

Fucking get over it.

Get over what? I'm still going to get Uncharted 2, Final Fantasy XIII, MGS4, God of War 3, Echochrome, Resident Evil 5 etc. etc. etc.

The Wii is going to get?

hmmm

Smash Bros....

and then uhhhh

traded into Gamestop for $75.

Keep telling yourself that.

Enjoy your Sony Dreamcast, except without any of the spirit or charm the Dreamcast had while failing miserably.

And am sure to enjoy RE 5 on the 360 if its like RE4.  The rest of the listed games don't matter to me anyhow. 

Fucking spirit and charm. How about we just talk about games from now on? Hmm?

So... the Dreamcast was haunted?

Haunted by Blue Stinger.

How does it feel to be so bitter?

Once again, not bitter, just flabbergasted by the ridiculousness.

How can I be bitter? I got and finished Uncharted. You can't be bitter after an experience like that.

Mate, just give the Wii Hate  a rest. Let it fail on it's own if that's the eventual fate, then gloat all you like. But let it fail, first.

Right now (and for the last pile of months) you're/you've been coming across like a fucking 14 year old from the Amiga vs Atari ST days, or the SNES vs MegaDriveGenesis days. Grow out of it, FFS.

Grats on post 2000.

lol

I think Schild has the least hate out of most people in these disputes. At least the dude actually plays most of the games on these platforms, and makes specific complaints. That's better than vague criticisms like "spirit and charm", "grandma doesn't like it", or just making stupid predictions like the PS3 being so bad that it will fail against 2 future consoles that aren't even fucking made yet.

Uh, he's said for himself he hasn't turned the damn thing on in a year. How would he know how MP3 or Strikers Charged, or Zak & Wiki are like. Maybe the games are ass, maybe they just aren't his genres or play-styles. Or maybe he's just a nut. I mean, I know the 360 and PS3 have good/great games for them. So does the DS and the PSP. Oh yeah, and the Wii has good games too.

Regardless, concerning the Wii, until he says he's turned it back on, he's talking out his ass.

If that's the case, my bad then.  :oh_i_see: I've just started picking up again on these console discussions recently. He had some legitimate (imo) criticisms further in the past.


What you said about good games being everywhere though is more of what I'd like to see. I don't know why any self respecting gamer would hate any of these new platforms really. There's at least some value in all of them for everyone, and if you've got nothing but bullshit fanboi reasons to trash one of them, you're fucking yourself in the end. If you even like games, that is.

I play new Wii Games at Gamestop.

My Wii will get turned on when a game comes out where it deserves to get turned on. Probably No More Heroes.

Especially now that I found out the sword is not waggle controlled but rather, you hold the Wiimote up for one stance and down for another - you press A to attack! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, NO POINTLESS WAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGLE. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Would still prefer it on a regular controller, but at least they didn't shoehorn it in and ruin sword combat.

I don't think there really is a shortage at all.  I think bajillions of people just bought out the stores so they could sell them on ebay.  People aren't even bidding on the ones that are too over-priced.  Anyone who wants one, can have one, I think.

uh, not to say you're wrong again, but you're wrong.

I recall Nintendo stating themselves that they planned on using the Wii platform for 7+ years.

That doesn't mean that they can't rejig it for 1080p and HDMI later on when it suits them.

 

But otherwise keeping the same hardware? I'm not sure what you mean. If they're going to "rejig" to 1080p, that means new gpu, more memory, getting developers on board to scale resources accordingly, etc.. Basically, it would be a new platform.

Platform being the operative word there. Playstation is Sony's "platform", and we aren't stuck with the PS1. They made the PS2 and now the PS3. So while the overall "platform" may stay the same, I think the word is being used loosely.

That's not a very useful term in the world of consoles, I think. Probably best to use "brand" or something. The hardware is just too varied at a fundamental level from one "generation" to the next to consider an entire product line to be a "platform".

Err.. Except, ironically, in the Wii's case. Not to make a disparaging comment, but it really is just a suped up Gamecube at the moment. It'd be pretty disappointing if it resembled anything of the sort the next time around though.

I agree with you that platform is the wrong word. I was pointing out that that is how Nintendo is using it. Incorrect or misleading though it may be. I expect we will see many hardware iterations of the Gamecu... Wii.

How do you know this?

Speculation on both sides here are likely wrong to a degree.

I intuit it. Yes, speculation to be sure, but I see no reason for Nintendo to stick with the Wii hardware as is for the next 7 years. That's just bad business unless they have some other super-powered console up their sleeves that they intend to target another audience with. Just my thoughts, but I really think that the Wii name will stick around and the hardware will get revisions, i.e. Wii Deux, Wii Thrii, etc.

Wow! This threads still going? I gave up trying to get a WII a while ago... Got my wife an exercycle instead. I was in Gamestop on friday and BAM! they had a WII... but I was so pissed about the whole driving around looking thing... I just laughed. She's almost done with NWN2 so I picked up the expansion instead. I figure if I can somehow get the mouse and keyboard up on the handlebars of the Exercycle it will be nearly the same damn thing.

Except he's proud of not having turned his Wii on in months. Which means he DOESN'T PLAY ANY WII GAMES, yet still bags on them anyway. He hasn't even played Metroid for fuck's sake, which is an epic fail. It's fine if you hate the system for what it is, but stop talking shit about it when you refuse to even play the best games on the system.


The only reason I've hated on any of the new platforms is because they were and are too goddamn expensive for the things they offer. I want the PS3 to fail because they had the arrogance to tell me (and other gamers) that if I was a serious gamer, I'd spend $600 on a Blu-Ray player that plays 5 games, 4 of which I gave no shits about. I had the same complaints about the 360 when it came out, because I think $400 for a console is too much, especially when it bricks as much as the 360 has. The only reason I want a 360 is because there are now TONS of good games on the system. The PS3... not so much. There still aren't even 100 games on the system, AND they've removed backwards compatibility to make the price more palatable. That makes the price more reasonable, but it diminishes the value even more.

I hate arrogance from companies like Sony and Microsoft, especially when it translates into overpriced shit. It's the same arrogance that makes EA Sports charge $50/$60 for a new version of Madden that is last year's engine with this year's roster. Unfortunately, it's the same arrogance that has relegated the Wii's online multiplay to friend's code bullshit and some barely there functionality.