Wii an "expensive niche" says Sony boss News

Man the lifeboats.

That's rich!

I have 9 games for one of those consoles and 1 game for the other one.

It's not the Wii that's the "expensive niche".

Expensive for Sony. They've been butt-fucked by Nintendo

ROFL!

"it's still the best way to buy a Blu-ray player"

I think this shows how much he knows/cares about gaming.

My Wii has a much thicker layer of dust than my PS3

It may be the best way to get a Blu-Ray player, but nobody really wants one anyway.

Someone just failed basic math.

Sony & Microsoft in "hating on Nintendo" news articles shocker

I think I missed the joke

LAWL!

They need to lock these fools in a cupboard and NEVER let them speak where other people might hear.

OMG are they still banging on about this? Man the lifeboats? That ship sailed a long time ago... Sony, it seems, is still stuck on dry land, while the rest of us are having fun on the good ship Wii.

360 are here too, until they betray us in the next E3 conference and we push them overboard :P

I think he meant "expansive".

'we don't see it as a competitor' because if we did we'd have to admit that its caning our ass in sales - this marketing spin gets funnier and funnier each time you read it

and it's still the best way to buy a Blu-ray player

How about a games console?

Strikes me as a bit odd for Stinger to label the Wii as expensive when the PS3 is the most pricey of the three current consoles. Also it makes my heart skip a beat every time I read a Sony exec praising the PS3 for its BD playback instead of its ability to play games... :?

In other news, PSP is still the best way to buy a UMD player.

Critizising one of it's rivals. I suppose they're fearing things are gonna get worse for them in their money war!? The three of them always do this when they know they aren't No1

Wow, internet connectivity you say? Someone should tell Nintendo to get on that, stat.

...

Oh wait...

I think he meant "expansive".

his definition of niche is truly staggering in relation to wii vs ps3.

also, blue ray is niche, dvd is ubiquitous.

idiot.

Did Eurogamer swap in "Wii" in the headline when it should've said "Blu ray"? Because surely no one called the Wii an expensive niche when Blu Ray exists as it does right now. Even if they do work for Sony.

No, that just makes no sense. The only logical solution is that Eurogamer swapped "Wii" for "Blu ray" - and that's very naughty of you EG and you should be ashamed.


FOR SHAME.

Man, although I prefer Sonys console, I'd rather prefer them NOT saying such crap...

I think the real question here is whats better?

Ninja Breadman or Genji 2?

You decide!

His target group is probably investors and shareholders, so you shouldn't put too much weight on what he says. Also, he probably never plays PS3 so I guess the blu-ray player is the feature most relevant to him.

So everyone outside "hardcore gaming" is a niche?

Oh well, at least Nintendo aren't the only company doing it. Ford and Volkswagen target a similar niche market.

I don't see how he's seperating "expensive niche" and "blu-ray player"...

@MrFlintBlackman

Ninja Breadman is by far the best obviously with its superior Toast playback ability

The Wii is expensive for what you get, but saying it's niche is a bit of a catch all phrase. At least in terms of who is buying the Wii, it's not niche, in terms of whose playing it on the other hand, it probably is. But then gaming as a whole is an expensive hobby so the relevance and important of the statement is ropey.

@Skurmedel

Yeah, these comments shouldn't be taken out of context, but still, the Wii is far less of a niche market than either the PS3 or Xbox360, and it's also not really expensive either. It's hardly going to win confidence from investors when bullshit you throw out has no match at all to the reality. Expensive is fair enough in terms comparable functionality, but niche is so wrong.

LOL

D'you think Sony and Microsoft will still be dismissing the Wii as a fad when this gen ends with the Wii on 100 million and the 360/PS3 on around 30? Probably.

BLU RAY IS AN EXPENSIVE NICHE YOU UTTER UTTER MONGTARD

This must've been said in jest. It's a perfect mirror image of reality.

It's badly phrased but look at the context. Both MS and Sony are trying to put a super box that does lots of stuff under every TV in the world. They are just using Gaming to get it there. That has and always will be their aim. Nintendo make a great games machine. Their targets are different. It's not actually a criticism of Nintendo.

Nintendo want to sell as many machines to people as possible and have them play games on them.
MS & Sony want to sell as many machines to people as possible and have them do *everything* on them.

He lives in opposite world where "expensive" means "cheaper than the others" and "niche" means "sells more than all the others combined".

Sonylol

Sounds almost like he's saying Wii is niche as it only plays games.

Of course the lack of focus on PS3 as "just a gaming machine" is what caused it to stumble in the first place.

We're selling a lot of PlayStation 3s now and it's still the best way to buy a Goat Milker.

I bet Nintendo don't see Sony as a competitor anymore ;-)

Sony, one of your idiots escaped! Get the duct-tape!

No, seriously.

"I've played a Nintendo Wii. I don't see it as a competitor,"

Because if they did they'd have to admit that they're losing to a cheaper, less powerful and less functional rival. Does this ring bells for you Sony, it's what you did last-gen with the PS2.

"It's more of an expensive niche game device. We're selling a lot of PlayStation 3s now and it's still the best way to buy a Blu-ray player."

You know, this is where they miss the point. I'm a GAMER. I want GAMES. I could care less about Blu-ray right now. Yadda yadda it's the future but the future is certainly not now, DVD is still the giant and Blu-Ray is the niche. A lot of push for HD but it's a few years too early I think, give HD and Blu-Ray a couple more years to get cheaper and perhaps make the quality a lot more noticable and then perhaps people will go for it...

I mean, why buy a HD system if you don't have an HDTV? A lot of people don't, after all...

The PS3 sold 1.2 million units across the US in the first five months of 2008, compared to the Wii with 2.8 million sales, according to NPD data.

They can't sugar-coat those figures.

Currently the PS3 costs USD 399 (GBP 200) and the Wii costs USD 249 (GBP 125).

And with some fun economic times, is it any wonder that people go for the cheaper system?

this is probably the most hilarious sony pr gaffe yet. "expensive niche"!! fool!

strange how neither ms or sony see the wii as a competitor these days, i wonder why??

ps3 please get some good exlusive games... anything will do... please... something... mgs4 doesn't count as i think i missed the part i actually controlled snake because i blinked. :(

"He lives in opposite world where "expensive" means "cheaper than the others" "

You can pick up a 360 Arcade for less than a Wii these days, but yeah, 2006-era Sony are BACK! Six months without fucking up horribly (apart from that whole bork your machine with our new overhyped updated thing) and people think the PS3 is on an even keel. Guys, it's a £300 minimum games console. Nobody's buying Blu-Ray.

"I've played a Playstation 3. I don't see it as a games machine," said Shadman.

"It's more of an expensive niche media player device. Nintendo are selling a lot of Wiis now and it's still the best way to buy a games machine."

Look, I can do what he did too!

I suppose the Wii is a niche machine. Only the niche seems to be non-gamers, who make up a pretty large group. And since they're going after different audiences, they're not really competing very hard.

can we have the £125 and £200 prices over here please??? Damn the dollars week at the moment!!

Went into a Zavvi store yesterday. Lot's of room to browse the Xbox 360 and PS3 sections but couldn't get near the Wii and DS sections as they were heaving.

Nintendo have played a blinder this gen.

Everyone getting upset but he does actually have a point and might be right. Many people can't seem to grasp that Ninty (by their own admission) went for a different market with the Wii. Sure they are trying to keep the "hardcore" happy with a few games here and there but their core audience is family and casual. Not a fanboy comment, just a fact that has never been a secret, for some reason though the Ninty faithful get offended if you say it.

Yes it's sold more but the PS3's demographic (and 360's for that matter) is completely different to the Wii's.

How to stop this sort of nonsense being spouted by these morons! ->

When a ridiculous spin comment like this is made the whole audience/interviewer should burst out into side splitting laughter as if they've just heard a fantastic Billy Connelly toilet joke and keep laughing as they leave the room.

Not a competitor yet both Sony and Microsoft are both rumoured to be ripping off the motion sensing controller idea. Actually come to think of it Sony already did though its easy to forget.

I presume hes talking as a movie enthusiast rather than a gamer. Wii IS an expensive niche for movie enthusiasts because it doesn't play movies. See? Do you see now?

Also I'm not sure that a Sony exec should be showing off about the fact that the best way to watch a Blu-ray is to buy an expensive games machine. It kind of underlines the fact that Blu-ray has a long way to go before it's anywhere near mass market. It could still fail completely, especially if PS3 owners don't actually buy any Blu-ray's themselves.

I'm still mourning the loss of HD-DVD as it was a truly mass market format (the spec was stable on day one and the players were cheap) which I feel would have stood far more chance against DVD's in the long run. .

@bad09
I don't think the real target demographic is different, they all want to sell to as many people as possible. The approach is different though. Nintendo want to sell them easily accessible games, MS & Sony want to sell them a multimedia box that does a lot of things (one of which is games).