Wii - what is keeping the demand so high?

[Dogg Thang]

/yawn

Insightful. As always.

[angelox]

for a lot of people (non-gamers) I can see the Wii ultimately being like the many kitchen utensils my mum used to buy (all the tosh you see on the shopping channels) ... its a fad that people will buy, use for a short time and then tuck out of the way in cupboards. I already know quite a few people who have bought Wii's on the back of all the hype and now never play them and I wouldn't put this down to lack of games available either, since they have no interest in buying any more now

Two to three years from now every carboot sale will be over-run with Wii's in pristine condition ...

I have to agree with that to an extent. I've found that uni friends of mine still keep playing the game because they are always playing multiplayer games. Those who bought it under the hype or those who have it with other machines simply play it when they are in the mood for a quick play - or their machines are simply gathering dust under their TV's. I think for most owners though, they just dont care. They have it, when people are over they play a quick game and thats the end of it. Like John says, you can expect a the second hand market in a few years to be flooded.

[Ady]

Insightful. As always.

Coming from the man who often follows other people's posts with smart-arsed swipes...

[elkatas]

for a lot of people (non-gamers) I can see the Wii ultimately being like the many kitchen utensils my mum used to buy (all the tosh you see on the shopping channels) ....

Sure, that's probably main reason why Wii's attach rate (without Wii Sports) is five games per system, rivalling fabled X360 on this category. Not to mention that according to Nintendo's own statistics, only around 10 percent Wii's userbase are non-gamers, those mysterious boogeymens that rape everything that is holy and sacred in gaming. Seriously, no matter what's your personal perception of the console, it is here to stay. Nothing is going to stop it.

[John Beaulieu]

ah - you are going from the Kotaku article that included Virtual Console games in the total 'attach rate'....

see that would be the same as me saying the 360 is the greatest console ever since by the end of 2007 it will 45 million XBLA downloads alongside its 'real' attach rate of 5.3

[elkatas]

ah - you are going from the Kotaku article that included Virtual Console games in the total 'attach rate'....

I'm not. I'm going for Nintendo's own fiscal report, and this attach rate doesn't contain VC-games*. If we would add VC-games to attach rate, it would be around 6.3 or so. Try again.

* It is clearly stated on the report. Not to mention Nintendo has sold only 7 million VC-games, and 9 million consoles. Even if VC-games would be added to attach rate, their effect would be calculated in decimals (less sold VC-games than consoles).

[saif]

Where is the report mate? Sounds interesting.

[Concept]

I'm interested myself in Nintendo's statistical evidence on breaking down audience demographics.

[elkatas]

Where is the report mate? Sounds interesting.

I can't find the more recent report with last attach rate*, but link below has all fiscal reports, etc. Latest numbers can be found at files "Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2007 (538KB)" and "First Quarter of Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2008 (74KB)".

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/kessan/english.html

* I'm not even sure that was it report or just dick waving press release sent to biggest business sites.

[Dogg Thang]

While Nintendo's success here is blindingly obvious, the figure of five games per console sounds crazily high given the current selection. I'd be curious to see software figures for the titles that aren't Zelda or RE.

[elkatas]

I'd be curious to see software figures for the titles that aren't Zelda or RE.

It is unfortunately hard to give precise numbers , because NPD doesn't give sales numbers for titles that aren't in TOP-10. But I know following numbers:

- Big Brain Academy (less than 200 000, but I don't have European numbers)
- Super Paper Mario (around 800 000)
- Wii Play (around 4 million)
- Resident Evil 4 (400 000 copies or so)
- Madden 07 (over 300 000)
- Tiger Woods (over 400 000 or so)
- Red Steel (over million)
- Elebits (150 000 or so)
- Dragon Quest: Swords (480 000, decent numbers for DQ spin-off)
- Rayman: Raving Rabbids (over 800 000)
- Dewy's Adventure (10 000 copies, pretty bad)
- Gundam G (30 000 copies, pretty bad)
- Cooking Mama (over 200 000 copies, considered success story thanks to its low budget)
- Power Pro 15 (180 000 copies)
- Trauma Center (over 300 000, Atlus USA's best selling title ever).
- Godfather: Don's Edition (bombed, I guess around 80 000 copies worldwide)
- Scarface (bombed, 40 000 copies or so)
- Donkey Kong: Bongo Blast (80 000 or so)
- Mario Party 8 (around 800 000)
- Eternal Blue (around 40 000)
- WarioWare (over million)

As we can see from these numbers, there has been some great success stories, but also some awful flops.

[Strider]

I think i am right in syaing that the lead console out of the gates has always won that console war.

no you're not, the dreamcast had a year's head start on the PS2 and look at that. There's just one example for you. I'm sure there are others.

[Dogg Thang]

Some of those figures are pretty impressive. Given that it's still early days, if you know the number of Wiis sold and have figures for the main selling games, I reckon you'd be able to work out if there are five games sold per console or not. How many bazillion Wiis have sold so far?

[Lyris]

- Dewy's Adventure (10 000 copies, pretty bad)

Did Dewy's Adventure come out anywhere yet? Are those preorder sales?

[elkatas]

How many bazillion Wiis have sold so far?

9.3 or so. But it is impossible to get any numbers from many European countries, so the actual number is probably lil' bit higher. Same goes for software numbers.