Wii Sports is the answer to all your questions.
The console has the lowest attach rate software wise this generation despite selling like gang-busters. The only game that everyone buys for it guaranteed, including myself, is Wii Play for the extra remote. Don\'t kid yourselves into thinking it was Zelda or even Mario that made the system popular.
Wii Sports though, the advertising Nintendo threw behind it, making it a pack-in, it was brilliant. Well played. Well done.
Good pricing, pack-in game, great advertising - it\'s an easy sale. No one predicted it would be THIS popular, but the reasons are really obvious. Wii Sports is over a year old now, but it\'s still the reason all the casuals are after the system.
I\'m fairly certain that right now, Sony and MS both are kicking themselves in the ass and wishing they would of at least spent some money on developing a product for the casual audience when their respective systems launched.
I don\'t think so. I personally think the vast majority of gamers, who were PS2 owners last generation, are still on the fence. I think they\'re waiting, for what i don\'t know, maybe even cheaper prices, but they still have yet to make the leap into next-gen territory. We\'re about two years into this generation (give or take based on launch dates) and the total hardware sales is somewhere around 40 or so million total for all three platforms worldwide. The PS2 sold 100 million in its cycle (and still going) all on its own. Just from the PS2\'s sales standpoint, the vast majority of those same people who now own PS2\'s own nothing from this current generation and are still waiting. That\'s a lot of people and a lot of sales that still have yet to be spoken for by any company.
I\'m a firm believer that MS and Sony are pleased with the success of the Wii. I think both companies truly feel the Wii\'s success isn\'t something that is going to hurt them in the long term and may just open consumer\'s eyes and new markets to gaming in general. I think the same people who are buying Wiis now will buy a PS3 or 360 down the road when they finally hit that magical 199 price point in a few years. The arm-chair analysts who already say the PS3 and 360 are doomed because of the Wii\'s runaway success aren\'t thinking about where the state of the industry will be in 3 to 5 years.
I think the state of the industry will continue to change in 2008. Sony will finally find its footing in the console space and Nintendo will finally start to slow up in its sales and appropriately meet and overcompensate for demand in the US much like it has in Japan. Still, the big players haven\'t been seen yet. The big system sellers of last gen are still a few months off, but they\'re coming. Nintendo is firing on all cylinders right now, but I have a feeling this is going to end up moreso like the tortoise and the Hare then anything else.
Unless Nintendo makes Wii Sports 2 and packs it in with a Wii redesign and sells the game on the shelves for the original Wii adopters as well. Remember the DS everyone - no one gave it a chance until the DS-Lite. Now look at it. Last month it sold more units on its own than all sony consoles (PSP, PS2, PS3) combined.
We\'ll see though... This coming year will be FULL of surprises. I apologize for making this a prediction post.
