The Guardian today has a nice wrap up of the Wii’s success so far, with a few choice quotes that sum everything up quite well.
“The past couple of months have seen a flood of adoring coverage. Breakfast TV presenters have thrown themselves into live Wii Sports sessions, while highbrow pundits on the Late Review shamefacedly admitted the genius of the machine. As a console manufacturer, you know you’re on unstoppable form when a man can accidentally punch his wife while playing with your console and the tabloids treat the story as a comic tribute to the product rather than conclusive proof that games are bringing about the collapse of civilization.”
It’s true, and I don’t think any number of fluffy class action lawsuits are going to change the fact that people wear Wii-related scars with pride. Not with Al Roker shaking his thing to Wii Sports anyway.
“As one of the most fascinating years in videogame history draws to a close, there is one story that stands out: the return of Nintendo. It’s almost impossible to believe that earlier this year journalists were unsure how the public would react to the Wii, with its motion-sensing gimmick and dated technology (it’s little more than a customised GameCube).”
That’s true too. There was uncertainty, for some. So, be honest. Where you a closet doubter? Maybe you look back at the GameCube and even now you still doubt Nintendo can pull it off. How can Miyamoto and Co. change your mind?
Yeah, I was – and still am – a 'closet doubter'. If there is such a thing.I believed and still believe that either the console is too expensive or too 'weak', that the VC is woefully underrepresented and overprized, in short, that Nintendo of Europe is gouging us (as usual). Add to that that an unacceptable amount of the launch games are pure unadultered dookie. That being said, I knew Ninty had enough going for it and that it only had to reach 'critical mass' to maim its competition. I'm still not sure if they'll manage to do it, considering the ridiculous scarcity and slow restocking of the wii. We'll see if Ninty manages to pull an Apple (ipod, not tree). I'm still on the fence, but somewhat optimistic…
Call me a raving fanboy (for that is what I am) but I think Nintendo are onto something big. And I mean big with a capital 'holy shit look at the size of that thing!'. The majority of my friends are either Playstation or PC gamers and they all ridiculed me for wanting a Wii. One game of Wii tennis and they all want one. I know we've heard these sort of stories before but surely that's an indicator as to how much of a winner Nintendo is onto. I agree that they need to restock quicker, otherwise people who haven't pre-ordered are going to be waiting till February at the earliest (My local Gamestation has taken over 80 pre-orders!). But those problems aside welcome back Nintendo :DAlso from the article:"You can't buy goodwill like that – and God knows, Sony has tried."Made me chuckle 😀
Well, on the one hand, I never had low feelings for the GameCube: I always thought that, technically, that machine had legs. Wii just shows how far you can take the GC's technical prowess.But I do have some doubts still, mainly about Nintendo's online strategy… It is still too soon to tell, but I'm not sure they can pull off creating a service as robust as MS's Xbox LIVE.I also think that the remote's technology can be reproduced for any of the competitor's hardware!
@InvisibleManWhile the remote technology could be reproduced for competing hardware, it won't. The knock-offs are never anything close to the original *looks at zune, zen media player, countless other iPod ripoffs*. And the competition doesn't have the public image or price advantage that Nintendo does.