Nintendo Wii Impressions (Got it , played it)

**SWVA-Football** · December 4th, 2006, 04:57 PM

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The worst part about that is, to show how big of a moron people are is that you shouldn't let the racket go when actually playing tennis, much less a video game. Same goes for baseball if your playing home run derby or something. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/arcadefreak.gif[/img]

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LOL, good point.. never thought about putting it that way.

You're definitely right though.. how many people do you see throwing tennis rackets through the air!? [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Some of these people DESERVE to have broken TV's! [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

**starbuck** · January 31st, 2007, 07:16 PM

I read something talking about how the consumer, so far, has declared the Wii the winner of the Wii vs. PS3 holiday seaaon.
I think Sony priced them selves out of the range of the every day person

**burton2019** · January 31st, 2007, 07:41 PM

In the long run the PS3 will own all.

**R0cketer** · January 31st, 2007, 08:37 PM

I think that long term thats possible.

One thing I guess I am not fond of on the Wi is that they are being very slow in providing games both in the stores and/or to download.

**SWVA-Football** · January 31st, 2007, 08:52 PM

Yes, as of now the Wii is sorely lacking in games - but it's still beating the living crap out of the PS3 in terms of GOOD software.

The Playstation 3 doesn't have a single game that even comes close to touching the beauty of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The game is simply amazing - it has a great flow and the gameplay/difficulty balance is near perfect.

WarioWare Smooth Moves is one of the best Wii titles for sure. It's absolutely AWESOME. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] If you aren't familiar with it, it's basically a huge collection of mini games in which you must hold the "Wii remote" in many different positions in order to accomplish certain goal and progress from one mini-game to the next - and the mini-games are outright weird, but it's a blast!

Metal Slug: Anthology is also a really good game, which comes with pretty much every Metal Slug game made.

Also, they've been releasing plenty of downloadable "Virtual Console" games - some of which I've already tried.

Here are some notable ones that are available as we speak:
- Super Mario Bros. (NES)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (GEN)
- Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
- Gunstar Heroes (GEN)
- Super Mario 64 (N64)
- Mario Kart 64 (N64)

There are currently 46 "Virtual Console" titles available for download - plenty of games if you ask me!

I think that both the Wii and the PS3 are neat systems, but thus far, the Wii is clearly the better, "fresher" choice.

Now if you were to compare the Wii to the XBOX 360, I'd have to pick the XBOX 360 because the 360's games are nearly impossible to beat. Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas, Viva Pinata, and the list goes on and on!

**burton2019** · January 31st, 2007, 10:21 PM

I'm in agreeance that the Wii is a very impressive console. However the goal of this third gen "race" is to be the best in the long run. And I can say, with total confidence, that in the end the PS3 will be the best followed by the Wii.

February 1st, 2007, 08:06 AM

This time next year the PS3 will be miles ahead of the competition.

**imported_Counts** · February 1st, 2007, 10:34 AM

No clue who the "Winner" will end up being But Like I said before either system was released that there is not way in heck that the PS3 will sell well for $600+ And now that the crazy people have theres via the Christmas rush sell have been what sony has called "disapointing". The Build in Blueray player is starting to look like it will NOT be the industry standard (As strange as it sounds the porn industry killed Beta when it chose VHS during that format war and now the porn industry has picked HDDVD over Blueray and do not think that others in the industry have not noticed that)

The PS3's saveing grace could be 3rd party support which could drive up sells. However I THINK the PS3 would have to shave $200 off its price before I would think very hard about getting one.

**starbuck** · February 1st, 2007, 04:41 PM

No wee debut for Nintendo's Wii
The video-game console lacks the processing power of competitors and is really only suited for one thing: playing games. But unlike its rivals, the Wii is profitable.

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata and top execs at the gaming company's headquarters in Kyoto, Japan, have every reason to be shouting the congratulatory cheer of "banzai" these days. For one thing, Nintendo's DS and DS Lite portable gaming system is enjoying light-speed growth.

On top of that, Nintendo's Wii console has blown away Sony's (SNE, news, msgs) PlayStation 3 in the early stages of the hotly contested battle for next-generation gaming consoles.

Aided by a shortfall of PlayStation 3 consoles in the critical U.S. market, Nintendo (NTDOY, news, msgs) has sold 1.1 million units of the Wii since the product's launch date in November, versus 687,000 PS3s during roughly the same period. Sales of popular Nintendo game titles such as "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" and "New Super Mario Brothers" are also quick.

The Wii has outperformed the initial rollout phase of Microsoft's (MSFT, news, msgs) high-powered Xbox 360, which was released in November 2005. Microsoft sold only 607,000 units in the United States by the end of 2005. (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

As a result, says Standard & Poor's equity analyst Clyde Montevirgen, "Nintendo Wii won the launch phase."

Video: CNET reviews the Wii
Of course, Nintendo still has a ways to go before it can claim industry dominance. Sony's PlayStation 2 holds the all-time sales record, with more than 100 million sold. Also, in the next-gen console category, the leader in terms of units sold is the Xbox 360, with 10.4 million units sold as of the end of 2006.

Still, Nintendo executives and some game analysts believe the Wii's mass-market potential could make it a breakthrough product for the $30 billion video-game industry. Worldwide, Nintendo has sold 3 million units and is confident that figure will double by the end of March.

A profit on every Wii
Sony has set a similar global sales goal for PS3 by the end of the first quarter and has set a March 23 launch date for Europe, where the rollout of its game console was delayed late last year because of a parts shortage.

Unlike Sony and Microsoft, which spent lavishly on blisteringly fast chips, graphics and cutting-edge disk technology, Iwata insisted Nintendo designers use energy-saving chips and a standard optical disk player to lower product costs. That enabled Nintendo to set the Wii's retail price around $250, several hundred dollars less than the Xbox 360 and PS3.

What's more, unlike Sony and Microsoft with their new consoles, Nintendo makes a profit on every Wii sold.

But it's the Wii's playability that's had the biggest impact on gamers. Iwata pushed his team to come up with a radically new controller design that would make the Wii a quality experience for sophisticated gamers and novices alike. The result was a wireless, wand-shape gadget with built-in motion sensors and a gyro-meter to translate action directly onto a TV screen.

Nintendo is also working hard to woo new types of gamers. Figuring the hardcore crowd would need little motivation to check out the Wii, the company devoted about 70% of its $40 million TV, print and online launch marketing campaign in the United States last fall to older and less experienced gamers.

"We have been able to satisfy existing gamers and add the expanded audience of adults older than 25," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president for marketing.

The only negative publicity the product has received so far has been that avid gamers tend to lose control of their controllers.

Nintendo responded to stories about renegade Wii controllers accidentally smashing through TV screens by offering consumers stronger wrist straps.

The serious cash is in software
A more serious issue Nintendo faces is avoiding the kind of parts shortages and production delays that have plagued Sony. Nintendo has been working with suppliers such as Matsushita Electric (MC, news, msgs), whose Panasonic unit makes disk drives for the unit, and IBM (IBM, news, msgs) and ATI Technologies, which make the core processor and graphic chips.

Right now, meeting demand is a bit of a struggle, says Harrison. "We are shipping the Wii, and they are generally selling out in a day or two," he says.

Of course, the serious cash made in this business is on the game-software side, where operating margins can run 35% to 40% on games Nintendo has developed over the years that are compatible with the Wii. This is a company, after all, that created icons such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokémon.

In the first quarter of 2007, third-party game developers such as Electronic Arts (ERTS, news, msgs) will release Wii-compatible games titles such as "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07." Buena Vista, Majesco Entertainment (COOL, news, msgs) and Ubisoft Entertainment (UBSFF, news, msgs) are launching ones, too.

Macquarie Securities analyst David Gibson reckons the average Wii owner will buy more than three games a year, and the bulk of the games will be made in-house by Nintendo.

None of this has been lost on investors. Nintendo last week reported a 40% jump in third-quarter profits of $644 million, and its stock touched a 52-week high of $27.60 in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nintendo shares have more than doubled since last February, and so have its U.S. depositary receipts, which trade at about $35.75.

Investors have also been cheered by the success of the DS portable lineup at Nintendo. Since its launch in November 2004, the line has sold 10 million units in the United States and enjoys a global user base of 35 million, powered by popular gaming titles such as "Brain Age" and "Nintendogs."

In a category once dominated by Sony's PSP portable, the Nintendo DS has been a hit with women and gaming novices. Its dual-touch-screen design, voice-recognition capability and easy-to-use stylus have connected with consumers. To keep the momentum going, about 20 new DS games are expected to be rolled out in the first quarter of 2007.

This article was reported and written Brian Bremner for BusinessWeek.