Will will follow in DS's footsteps News

wiiiill

What's with the title?

"Will will..."

Woah, since when was Reggie top dog of NoA? What happened to George Harrisson?

Damn good news, either way.

Well they certainly have my vote of confidence

I personally think that post initial fanboi release the PS3 is going to nosedive a la PSP

Yay for the DS and all that but cut out patting yourself on the back already, you'll strain something. You know what the say about what comes "...before a fall".

@sko

That has certainly been true for the PSP :)

See July figures for the US:

DS: 377,000
PS2: 241,000
360: 206,000
GBA: 163,000
PSP: 161,000
GCN: 44,000
Xbox: 12,000

(from PSP-Fanboy)

Uh oh, PSP outsold by GBA. That must hurt lil' Ken!

"I personally think that post initial fanboi release the PS3 is going to nosedive a la PSP"

Jesus Christ, if you are going to write ironic comments about fanboys, at least spell the word properly.

The term was around well before Avril Lavigne was crashing the mall and looking grumpy. So there is no need to go all numetal and start spelling it "boi" like some music label exec.

Rant ends.

Will will follow in DS's footsteps
Does that mean it gets a complete overhaul just a year after release? Fine, i'll get mine after that then... *eg*

Its going to be an interesting couple of years. If he big N get their pricing right and the marketing/games for the demographic that has/is buying the DS I wont be at all suprised to see them take a market lead (dowload demos/games from my Wii to my DS? Hell yeah).

That said - what the hell do I know though? I loved the DreamCast and my favorite game atm is magic drop III on my X-Arcade/Myth box....its DOOOMED!!

It seems he is not very good at math... but nevertheless very impressive DS numbers.

1. DS Lite - 163,572 [3,533,399] units
2. PSP - 49,352 [1,116,075] units
3. PlayStation 2 - 25,987 [882,231] units
4. GBA SP - 2,784 [179,598] units
5. GB Micro - 1,928 [111,444] units
6. Xbox 360 - 1,389 [64,783] units
7. NDS - 1,159 [950,903] units
8. GameCube - 904 [60,417] units
9. GBA - 34 [2,956] units
10. Xbox - 14 [1,624] units
(latest sales chart from the-magicbox.com)

I agree, the PS3 after the intial launch hype and the novelty of the new technology wears off, just like the PSP many people will lose interest in favour of the Wii or 360. Mainly due to the pricepoint of the PS3 and lack of great games to justify the purchase.

I don't know about that, but selling software is obviously key. The PSP does not have a single title in the Top25 software charts (again in the US), which I think explains why it has been defeated.

It seems he is not very good at math...


eh? How do you work that out?

Hmmm.

"We are so far in advance of our handheld competitors that they're not even on the map."

true this might well be, but the trick to being the lovable underdog is to get public support behind you. It currently very much is. But spouting arrogant soundbytes isn't going to win you many friends.

"Executive hypes own company and product" - gosh, there's some real news. ;)

Seriously though, I'll believe it when I see it - despite the constant stream of hype and fanboy rhetoric, I've yet to see anything very exciting about the Wii - it is afterall basically just a slightly overhauled Gamecube with a novelty controller. Sure, it'll sell for a bargain price - but that's because you get what you pay for.

The success of the DS has been impressive, but let's not forget that Nintendo has dominated the handheld market for decades - for Sony to have *any* share in that market is a significant shift in Sony's favour. To say that because the DS has helped Nintendo keep hold of an existing market that the Wii will allow them to completely dominate one that they currently have a minimal share in seems like a big leap to me.

I agree, the PS3 after the intial launch hype and the novelty of the new technology wears off, just like the PSP many people will lose interest in favour of the Wii or 360. Mainly due to the pricepoint of the PS3 and lack of great games to justify the purchase.

The PS3 will sell, though. It'll sell to the sort of people who bought a PS2 not for its huge and varied game library, but just to play yearly FIFA updates and generic GTA knockoffs (but not the real thing, that has a sense of humour). The sort of people who wouldn't dare play anything that doesn't aspire to complete unstylised realism, for fear their friends might call them "gay" or something. It'll sell to wankers, in short. And people who really want to play MGS4 and have a bit of cash to throw around, I suppose.

it is afterall basically just a slightly overhauled Gamecube with a novelty controller


And the 360 is a overhauled xbox .. *sigh*

Hmmm.. actually considering most of the 360 releases seem to be ports of xbox games.. (whoops shouldnt say stuff like that, it'll wind the fanboys up)

"eh? How do you work that out? "

By reading the article and by checking the posted sales figures...
"Nintendo DS in Japan outsells all of our competitors by a factor of five to one." [...] "according to recently released CESA figures, Nintendo sold 4.25 million DS units during 2005, while Sony shifted 2.61 million PSPs."

But Smelly, that is all the Wii is. Or do you know different?

"I'd much rather have the consumer buy a Wii, some accessories, and a ton of games, versus buying any of my competitor's products."

Says president of Nintendo America.
Well DUUUUUHHHHHH.

Could'nt care less how powerfull the Wii is. Mario Galaxy looks ace!

Wow. I mean, all this DS selling does make me so much warmer. I have one and now that I see almost everyone in Japan has five or something I feel GREAT! Too bad it's not paying my bills.

And hey, I am still waiting for some quality RPGs for my DS. Come on, Nintendo, use your money to make some!

The Wii is going to release at a price that the PS3 and 360 are going to be at slightly later dates themselves. Sure, the Wii will be cheaper after that, but at this point, the difference between the prices of the consoles and the quality of the games will have become disproportionate. So we'll just have to wait and see. The irony is that the Wii would be able to sell best in the first years, during a large part of which it may well not be able to supply to the demand (considering the demand is as high as they themselves are projecting).

Incidentally, the PSP is doing great. The DS is doing exceptional, on all levels in Japan, on the software level in other regions (where hardware is about equal). It would be a tremendous mistake to write off the PSP at this point however. The DS has it relatively easy, being cheaper and Nintendo having been a synonym for handheld gaming nearly since its inception.

In the console market, Playstation is in that position, so it will take a considerable effort before Nintendo takes over in that area. I give them fair odds of getting a better share of the market this time around, but I think it will be far from a walk in the park.

it is afterall basically just a slightly overhauled Gamecube with a novelty
controller.

Blimey, what a pessimistic person you are. I suppose the glass is always half empty for you?

But Smelly, that is all the Wii is. Or do you know different?

But by that logic, all the 360 is, is a souped up xbox. And ALL the ps3 is is a souped up ps2??

IMHO the wii is offering MORE than the other two in terms of next gen. As all the others are offering is better graphics.

But I dont want this to get into a discussion of why the other two are/arent rubbish or whatever. My point being is that you can apply the same flawed logic to the other two.

But lets look at what the wii does offer over the cube.. More powerful graphics, More powerful cpu, is now using proper dvd's (so more storage space and can play movies), it's online, it has a built in storage system, it can download/upload stuff in standby mode, it's backwards compatible with the entire nintendo back catalogue, AND it has a swanky new controller.

Slightly more than JUST a souped up cube me thinks.

(And yes, before someone does the exact same list of ways the ps3/360 is better than prev gen - i dont care! I just used them as an example for a flawed argument)

And less we forget, this generation, the best selling console WAS the least powerful (by a great margin!)

I didn't know Reggie was the NoA president... o_O

I'm pretty sure that there is a difference between getting what you pay for in hardware, and getting what you pay for in fun and entertainment. But that's just me and my silly ideas about valuable gameplay.

Reggie got promoted after E3.

"Our competitors are both going down"

O_O

I thought the Wii had no competitors? :-)

The Wii is the novelty console at the end of the day...I agree, it has the most potential, but it will likely just be filled with Mario/Donkey Kong/Zelda rehashes with the same story but new control system.

@Smelly

I stand by my comment that the Wii is basically just a slightly upgraded GC - yes it's more powerful, but the difference is tiny compared to the jump between Xbox and 360 - let alone PS2 and PS3. Sure it can go online, but so can all the current gen consoles. And now it has a memory card built in. Hardly revolutionary (especially when its competitors have hard-drives).

As for it being backwards compatible with all previous Nintendo systems: that simply isn't true. As far as I'm aware it's only backwards compatible with the GC (which doesn't really detract from my argument, now does it?) - you may be able to download old Nintendo games for other systems and have it run them through emulation - but a PC can do that (and I'm sure a GC could too, if Ninty wanted). Personally I'd rather play my old SNES and N64 games on the consoles that I already own rather than pay for the games all over again to play them on a Wii... ;)

@KraftWerk

When you buy a console what you're paying for is hardware - not gameplay. The gameplay comes with the games... ;)

Seriously though, you can't really argue which console will be better for gameplay until there are some actual games to play and compare - just because Nintendo's hardware is cheaper and less powerful doesn't in any way suggest that the gameplay will be better.

Go Big N !

Yeh, assuming they do well with Sega, the Virtual Console will be one of the best selling features.

"IMHO the wii is offering MORE than the other two in terms of next gen. As all the others are offering is better graphics."

So the Wii not having HD graphics, no hard disk, no much more powerful CPU, no online service comparable to Xbox Live, no Blu-ray as in PS3 makes it 'MORE' next gen than the Xbox360 or PS3. Have you been sniffing something.

Let's see how long it takes for you too get fed up with waving that dildo of a controller around like a retard and cursing the lag as movement on screen takes a bit of time. I'm interested to see how people are going to be affected by the lights in their rooms as Nintendo have said that some light sources can effect the Wii's controllers. Must be another next gen feature.

Anyway, I wouldn't insult my 50" HDTV by plugging some old gen console in it.

@bengalibengali

Fair point that a lot of people may not have access to old Nintendo hardware, so downloading old Ninty games for the Wii might be worth it for them. Still, when you think about it this isn't actually much different to all those retro compilations you can buy for most platforms already - either way you're paying for old games, while with backwards compatibility you can play old games you already own.

I stand by my comment that the Wii is basically just a slightly upgraded GC

1. Nintendo still havent announced any official specs. And as none of us are developers for it, we cant possibly comment on how much more powerful it is/isnt to the cube. Personally I thought the screens/movies of the new mario game looked quite stunning.

2. Most people cant percieve the extra power anyhows, it's all emperors clothing. Tell someone something is more powerful and they'll believe you, but 9 times out of 10 they wont be able to tell the difference (look at how many people who think the ps2 is powerful!)


"Sure it can go online, but so can all the current gen consoles".

1. My point was that the cube couldnt. Therefor that's an improvement over the cube. Which therefor means it's more than just a souped up cube, which is what i was discussing. My discussion had nothing to do with the other two consoles.

2. But as you're mentioning the other two console.. try going online with wifi with the cheaper ps3 :-)


Personally I'd rather play my old SNES and N64 games on the consoles that I already own

That's a stupid argument. The ps2 emulates ps1 games. As will the ps3 with ps2 and ps1. And the 360 emulates the xbox in software. Does that mean back-compat is pointless for them? I certainly dont have room for 100's of consoles under my tv!

The wii is emulating the old games, but accurately in hardware (As opposed to a downloaded pc emulator which may or may not be accurate).

I never owned a n64 or snes, so i welcome the ability to play old games (especially the old marios). Just because you dont want to do it, doesnt make it a non welcome feature.

And again, I only mentioned it as an improvement over the gamecube (Which you argued there wasnt much of any).

either way you're paying for old games

Hows that any different to people buying street fighter 2/frogger on xbla anyhuws?

smelly, if you can't notice the graphical edge of 360 screens over current Wii ones (granted they're early), then you're quite frankly blind.

And... there are Wii developers here.

The Wii will hopefully provide a lot more than a graphical update (which it will still do to a very incremental extent), as you say. But it is not a lot more than a Gamecube with added features. The 360 over the Xbox was a massive hardware leap. The Wii isn't - it's a peripheral upgrade. It's the difference between jumping forwards, and jumping sideways. Both are progress towards different goals.

@smelly

Actually I think most people can pretty easily see the difference between different generations of graphics hardware - the jump between SNES and N64 graphics is huge, likewise for PS1 and PS2 - and I expect the jump from PS2 to PS3 to be similarly noticeable - while the difference between GC and Wii looks to be rather small.

I'm certainly not saying that graphics are everything, but I do think they can make a lot of difference and I think a lot of gamers really enjoy playing games with more detailed and immersive environments.

As for online: all the current-gen consoles can go online, you just need to buy an adapter for the GC or the old version of the PS2. The difference is more that Nintendo are saying they'll actually support the online capability this time around. Similar to Sony's stance with the PS3 and their online service - so I don't see how this makes Ninty stand out from the crowd - surely both of them are just playing catch-up with Microsoft on this front?

And wrt emulation: I have no problem with old games being emulated (although I should point out that PS2 emulation of PS1 games is hardware based - i.e. the PS2 effectively contains all the PS1 hardware, and the situation with PS2 games on PS3 will be similar). The issue here is that with the PS3 I'll be able to play all the PS1 and PS2 games I already own - with the Wii I won't be able to play the SNES and N64 games I own, I'd have to buy new version to play them on the new console. Not saying it's a crippling problem, just pointing out that being able to download old games isn't the same thing as being backwards compatible.

It's also worth mentioning that Sony are going to offer PS1 software for download on the PS3 and PSP, so again Ninty aren't exactly unique here. ;)

@smelly

"Hows that any different to people buying street fighter 2/frogger on xbla anyhuws?"

You're catching on - there's not much difference at all between Ninty's 'virtual console' and XBLA. So again, this hardly marks the Wii out as being special and different - it can do things that the 360 and PS3 can also do, and they can do things it can't.

Still, it has got that novelty controller... ;)

GRRRRR!

Did i say that the wii being online or backwards compatible was special or different? No.

Someone said that there was no improvements over the gamecube apart from slightly nicer graphics and a new controller.

So I went on to list the other extra improvements.

I EVEN said in my original post that im not comparing against the other two (apart from as an example!). FFS what is it with you guys not being able to read stuff in context and read it as some sort of slur on the machine.

GRR!

Most people cant percieve the extra power anyhows, it's all emperors clothing. Tell someone something is more powerful and they'll believe you, but 9 times out of 10 they wont be able to tell the difference (look at how many people who think the ps2 is powerful!)

Have you played GRAW on the 360? I personally can perceive a hell of a lot of extra power in just that one game without having to upset any emperor's. I would imagine so could 9 out of 10 people.

Anyway, I wouldn't insult my 50" HDTV by plugging some old gen console in it.

Well fuck off out of this conversation about a console you have no interest in then, and get back to masturbating over you 50" penis extension.

I love how people keep saying the wii is innovative and doing something radically different when it only has the same bloody games Nintendo have been making for the last 20 years. What in gods name is innovative about another Mario, Zelda or Metroid game? They've all been done before. How the hell does the wii mote change the way we're playing games when its the same gameplay as before on screen? Personally I can't stand any of the 3D versions of these games. Before people start having a go at me for being a Nintendo hater-actually I was once a fan, I loved the old 2D versions. But when they moved into 3D they just felt wrong, outdated, something that belonged to a bygone era. I think they are some of the overated software going and it disgusts me how the entire gaming media always falls over promoting them whilst games that are actually innovative get ignored. Nintendo are right we do need some new gameplay-but they ain't the ones who are gonna provide that. I hate Sony but currently PS3's Assasins Creed looks like the most innovative thing in a long time. Why? Because the machine has the power to give you an enviroment that wouldn't be possible on current gen hardware-such as the underpowered Wii...

If Nintendo are serious about this they need to have a complete gaming overhall and throw away all that has gone before, totally new titles that really push the capabilty of the wii mote. If they do indeed have some secret revolutionary software in development I'll forgive them and give them a big hug but so far the whole Wii project just seems to be even more cynical than PS3+Xbox360 in exploiting gullible die hard fans. I bet Sony and Microsoft are kicking themselves thinking "why did we waste millions making super powered hardware when we could have just brought out the a tarted up version of the current console with a novelty joypad."

Smelly, for someone who admitted to occasionally putting in an "anti console quip just to wind the geeks up" on a seperate PSP thread, you are getting awfully wound up yourself by these trolls.

:)

@Smelly

Actually what I said was that the Wii was a "slightly overhauled Gamecube" - I never mentioned graphics. Integrating the memory card and network adapter into the core hardware strikes me as fitting into the category of a slight overhaul, don't you agree? ;)

Being able to play old games isn't a feature of the hardware, it's a feature of the online service - which Ninty could just have easily done for the GC. Again, seems like a minor update to me, rather than a 'next gen' feature. Afterall downloadable PS1 games are being added to the PSP sometime soon.

If Nintendo are serious about this they need to have a complete gaming overhall and throw away all that has gone before, totally new titles that really push the capabilty of the wii mote

So no more franchises? Well that's a stupid statement - I couldn't see nintendo, MS or Sony adopting that strategy - it would be comercial suicide.

Believe it or not, it is actually possible to do new and original things with existing frachises e.g metroid vs metroid prime. Lets hope that nintendo can use the inovation in the controller to reinvigorate these franchises than just scrapping or 'porting' them like you say......

@Hog-lumps

Im getting wound up by people taking my comments out of context... Twats that they are :-)