Even if a recession magically wiped out ALL US sales (44% of the world total) of the Wii without affecting PS3 or Xbox 360 sales at all the Wii would *still* be outselling the competition worldwide, based on sales since release.
Realistically a recession/mortgage crisis would only have a slightly greater impact on the Wii than other consoles. Using the authors numbers, 4 million households might be affected. There are slightly over 100 million households in the US, so it's a sm...
Riiiiiight. Financially hard times will hurt the cheapest console with the most room to make price cuts. Game sales for the Wii are "embarrassing," but sales for the PS3--which has sold half as much software--are just fine. NPD data shows an attach rate of 3.86 for the Wii and 4.01 for the PS3, a 4% difference. Even admittedly weak third party sales on the Wii outpace the PS3 by 33%.
This guy is delusional.
In the very near future Wii sales will surpass lifetime sales of the Gamecube. Trying to predict demand for the Wii off what the Gamecube did is ridiculous.
Compare Wii, Nintendo DS, and hardware from launch:
http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunc...
Now look at the Nintendo DS top 10 software list, which has sold nearly as many games as the PS2 top 10 despite a much smaller install base:
You can keep saying nobody is buying Wii software, but it's not true. Wii software is outselling PS3 software by more than 2-1. Even third party software on the Wii is outselling PS3 software by 33% (31m to 23m copies). NPD attach rate shows the Wii attach rate at 3.86 vs. 4.01 for the Wii, so it's not far behind in that area, either. Disagree if you want, but do the research yourself if you don't believe me.
"people don't buy 3rd party games."
Sure they do. People are buying 1/3 more third party games for the Wii than they are for the PS3.
"But please leave out any blood, any monsters, and any guns. Our system is for families"
You're welcome to put as much blood and gore as you want to into Wii games. Witness Manhunt 2.
"FACT: Wii is a FAD."
One that shows no sign of slowing down.
So many people want the Wii to fail, but I don't think most of the arguments hold up.
Myth #1 -- Third party software doesn't sell on the Wii: Nintendo games do dominate the sales chart, but 3rd party software for the Wii is handily outselling 3rd party software for the PS3 (31m to 23m worldwide), despite the number of crap titles released. The Wii also has more third party million+ sellers. Developers can make lots of money on the Wii if they release quality titles and promote...
I did a little bit of research. Best answer I can find is that most games use somewhere between 5-30MB per hour, depending on the game. Even if you assume the high end of that spectrum you could play for several hours every day and have plenty of bandwidth left over for standard web usage even with a 5GB cap.
*Hosting* a game, on the other hand, is a different story. It can eat up several hundred megabytes per hour, which could become a problem very quickly with a low cap.
Claiming this hurts *gaming* is a bit unfair. Gaming is actually pretty low bandwidth. The author uses movies as an example, but just because it can be done on a console doesn't make downloading a movie gaming.
That being said I positively hate the idea of metered service.
The bestselling MGS games sold just over 5.5 million copies with a much larger installed base than MGS:4 will have. You're almost certainly right.
Assuming you liked even 4 of 9 games, that means you paid $2.50 apiece for them. Is that really such a bad bargain? People have expectations that are entirely too high for a $10 game.
There will certainly be a handful of games that sell far more than Halo 3 (15 million+ isn't unheard of), but given the number of Xbox 360s on the market it's extremely impressive. The PS2 only had six games that sold more copies despite having an install base 8x the size.
"CoD 4 on the PS3 probably didn't break 1 million copies."
CoD4 has sold 1.61 million copies on the PS3, about half what it sold on the Xbox 360. One out of every 5.7 PS3 owners bought the game; one out of every 5.1 Xbox 360 owners bought the game (a 12% higher attach rate).
The only conclusions you can draw from more sales on the 360 is that the 360 has a larger install base, particularly in the US which accounted for well over half of CoD4 sales.
"However, I don't know if that will give Wii a recovery in demand and put it back in the place where it was; after all, the PS3 would be now affordable to the masses, and there would be no need for the masses to flock to the Wii"
If you think the only reason people are buying a Wii is price you're kidding yourself. Yes, the price helps (particularly given the target market) but right or wrong people view the Wii as new, fun, and different. The Wii appeals to people th...
I call bulls**t. A 250" screen would require a wall 19 feet long by 11' high to project on. If you're not a liar then you're an idiot. To achieve the THX recommended 36 degree field of view you'd have to sit 28 feet away from the screen. Sit any closer and you diminish the viewing experience and the image quality starts to break down.
The 360 version of Madden NFL 08 outsold the PS2 version 1.78 to 1.58 million according to VGChartz. Even if those numbers are skewed, they're at least in the same ballpark.
It's not all doom and gloom. The 360 has outsold the original Xbox in Japan by 17% after only two years on the market, and that number goes up with every console sold. Of course, that's not saying much.
I would imagine you could play COD4 24/7 for a month and never reach the bandwidth caps they're talking about.
Stations are required to broadcast as of 2009 in digital, *not* necessarily HD. It should also be noted that 90% of the US gets their TV via cable or satellite and won't be affected by the transition at all.
For those that get their television over-the-air, $40 coupons (two per household) will be available from the government to apply towards the purchase of converter boxes which are expected to cost from $50-70. The switch to DTV will undoubtedly prompt some people to upgrade ...