Topic: Could the Wii TRULY be a success?

[Requiem]

S_B: I like that angle.

However, I don't think Nintendo needs any help this holiday season. They are going to sell out. Next holiday season is a different story.

[JonLeung]

Quote
Originally posted by: Requiem
S_B: I like that angle.

However, I don't think Nintendo needs any help this holiday season. They are going to sell out. Next holiday season is a different story.

If the strength of the DS came from snowballing word-of-mouth, and considering that there are a lot of people still on the fence about the Wii, I would think that if the good games continue throughout next year, the Wii will still be pretty hot next Christmas.  It won't have the newness that a totally new product would have, but it'll still sell well.

Not that I'm saying Nintendo doesn't need to advertise.  They do and they will.  It's just that word-of-mouth can go pretty far - I got two non-gamers at work to get a DS Lite just for Brain Age, for example.  Really, advertising is just to reach out to the uninformed friendless hermits who may not yet know about the Wii.

[Smash_Brother]

Look, mom, I'm Nostradamus! (yeah, it's been up a while, but I didn't see it until today).

Yup, they're playing up the parent/child activity angle already.

There's nothing quite like a father and son enjoying a game of baseball together without ever leaving their livingroom...

Also, here's a Japanese FAMILY enjoying bowling.

[JonLeung]

Screw that, I'm just going to watch the hot Asian-American woman make cute expressions while playing Wii Sports: Tennis (for the umpteenth time).  That should convince any male to get one.

[Smash_Brother]

Not going to suggest you don't, but I was saying that Nintendo will play up the family angle for the Wii and, lo and behold, they are.

[WalkingTheCow]

Some info I've been holding onto from work which I've gotten further confirmation of:

The store I work for (Fred Meyers, a department store owned by Kroger) is sending the store I work at between 70 to 100 Wiis for midnight launch. 82 of the 130 or so stores with an electronics department will be doing the midnight launch while those that aren't are getting a much smaller shipment between 10 and 20. A store-wide memo I says to tell customers that more will arrive by 11/28 at the latest (which is great for the day after thanksgiving madness). After that date we will recieve more units every tuesday through the end of the year. Also of note is that the electronics department is going to be replacing the normal DVD that plays through all the televisions (showing music videos, movie trailers and video game advertisements) with a disc that has nothing but Wii game and system videos and previews for the entire week leading to launch (11/12 - 11/19). During that same time all employees in the electronics department are urged to wear Wii t-shirts that are to be shipped to us ( we got to order our sizes ). I think this is particularly interesting considering the PS3 is launching in the same week.

Regarding the Wii's launch neighbor, the entire chain is forgoing PS3 midnight launches because of the much lower number of units. Our store will recieve between 6-12 (I'd guess more to the twelve end of thing as mine is one of the bigger locations). The PS3 sheet said to give customers a different line than the Wii regarding when additional shipment will come in. It says to expect the next shipment in mid-December, missing the day after Thanksgiving.

No t-shirts, no demo disc.

The Wii really is getting a break with Sony's low launch numbers. . . I'm curious to see how much of an effect Nintendo's default initial lead will have on developers.  

[couchmonkey]

Woah, 12 versus 70?  That's unbelievable.  Sony must be distributing more to other retailers, because the actual proportions are supposed to be 400,000 to 1,000,000, this is more like 175,000 to 1,000,000.

I think Nintendo is going to grab up a lot of developers/publishers but I think it will have at least as much to do with low development costs as the lead Wii gets this year.  Right now they can say, "oh well PS3 is only failing because of shortages, it will come back".  I guess if the problem keeps going well into next year they'll have to start asking themselves if there will be enough PS3 customers to justify the cost of development.