"Remember, when Nintendo fails to deliver new Wii features, it won’t be because they aren’t trying. It’ll be because they’ve killed their chances from the start."
So what? They've outsold the X-box 3 to 1 and the PS3 7 to 1, and unlike either of them, they're making a significant profit rather than subsidizing the hardware. The Wii has already won its generation hands down and has generated enough profit to fund a more powerful successor.
Exactly my feeling while reading this. Who cares? Not Nintendo. They didn't set out to build a platform that would please console geeks. They did the opposite. They set out to build a console that everyone else would love and buy, and which would make a solid profit for Nintendo. And they succeeded, big time.
Turns out nobody but console geeks cares about the architecture. And at a couple of hundred quid a pop, I'm sure most Wii owners will be more than willing to upgrade to a new version when the hardware is upgraded. They're not upgrading a small computer, they're upgrading a console.
PS3/XBox, on the other hand, have take the road of literally building a whole, powerful computer in a box. The market has shown that this is a less successful way to build consoles - whatever console geeks may have to say about it.
> They didn't set out to build a platform that would please console geeks.
They could still have built it on a better technical basis. That's like saying MS is excused from having had a crappy security model for WinXP (and only slightly less crappy for WinVista) because they set to "build an operating system for everyone." In the end, if you build something on a better technical basis, everyone profits.
I dont think its completely fair to compare the wii and the other consoles. They both have different customer bases who value different things, although there is some overlap.
I've got a wii and an xbox and havnt bought a new game for my wii since I purchased it. Wii sports, and wii play, which come with the hardware have been enough to fill my gimicky urges. So while it outsells on hardware, I'd hypothesise that it doesn't do so well on games sales, if I'm representative.
The content, and services (xbox live) on the other consoles far outweighs anything the wii has offered me.
I know the wii has sold a lot of hardware and has been a success reaching the masses, but I think for a substantial number of people, it doesn't offer anything with real depth. Thats not to say I don't enjoy it, but if all that was available to me was a Wii, I would feel disapointed with this generation of hardware. Most of all I'd miss playing in HD (wii looks terrible on my tele), and xbox live. Theres also been a number of fantastic games that simply wouldn't have been possible on the wii.
The problem is you may be right, and Wii still makes a healthy profit margin. For xbox/ps3 the console is sold at a loss to be made up for in games yes? But the bulk of the top selling games are not made by sony/microsoft. The profits get slimmer and slimmer.
For Wii, the hardware makes profit (owned by nintendo) and NEARLY ALL of the top selling games on wii are made exclusively by nintendo. So even if, as you say, you only ever bought 2 games ... Nintendo is not complaining! I don't have the figures to claim nintendo makes more money than anybody else, but i think its clear their margins and business model is much healthier/sound.
Source: (a reputable business magazine that i cant remember)
Your estimate on software sales is correct. The 360 currently clearly beats the Wii on attachment rate (games sold divided by consoles sold). I'm not sure where the PS3 figures into all of this; in any case, Sony are the big losers of this console generation so far. Hardware that failed to live up to expectations (and the fiasco with IBM licensing some of the expensive tech to Microsoft, who then made it to market before Sony) generally relatively poor sales, etc.
Like Windows, the've outsold every OS out there, so what? well the wii is overrated, I got a wii two years ago and its full of dust now, I enjoyed wii sports the first month, after that I got tired of waiting for another good game, but nothing came, now I got a xbox 360 and it kicks the wii in the balls.
So what? They've outsold the X-box 3 to 1 and the PS3 7 to 1, and unlike either of them, they're making a significant profit rather than subsidizing the hardware. The Wii has already won its generation hands down and has generated enough profit to fund a more powerful successor.