The Wii’s history-making run continues today, as the plucky white console’s two-year sales numbers purportedly beat the PlayStation 2’s two-year numbers this past December.
“Nintendo’s life-to-date sell-through of the Wii is very close to life-to-date sell-through of the PS2 through year-end 2002, and we expect Wii sales to surpass PS2 sales in December,” wrote analyst Michael Pachter in a research note obtained by Edge.
Congrats, Wii. I see no reason why 2009 won’t bring more of the same.
Used Cisco
The PS2 was a fad. It’s finally starting to wear off. The Wii is a fad. it will wear off eventually too. Duh.
Instant_Awesome
@Used Cisco
I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that was sarcasm. Because if it wasn’t, I just don’t know what words to use to explain how ridiculous that comment was.
Attilio
While the Wii itself may be a fad, the technology it brought to the gaming industry definitely is not. We are going to start seeing more interactive gaming in the future, maybe not exactly like the Wii but very similar. If I am correct the PS3 already has the feature in their remotes that detect if the user is tilting the remote forwards/backwards/left/right.
Jack
@IA: He’s a regular. It was sarcasm.
On the other hand, I’d be perfectly happy calling the Wii a fad if it was a 10-year one like the PS2 😉
Infendo
“It will fade” has become synonymous with hardcore unbelief, irrelevance, and lameness. In previous console wars, defeated single console owners scrapped for whatever game victories they could find while acknowledging the other system won. Now you have goobers saying stuff like “it will fade” or there are “no good games for the system.” Hive mind stuff.
InvisibleMan
Well, of course it will “fade”! All consoles fade in popularity eventually… how long they last until they fade is what determines their success!
Now, do the PS2/Wii success stories tell us something about video game consumers? Could it be that the expectations in hardware performance and graphics have a peak at the level these two consoles reached? Maybe consumers don’t care enough about hardware power to pay the price for it?
Jack
I think it partially comes down to pride. Early on, the games were few, I can agree to that, having owned just Wii Sports and Zelda for the first few months. A meme set in. The Internet mob did what it did best. Meanwhile, a majority of the gaming public starting buying up the system to the point of a shortage, and they also started playing a wide range of games.
Now that the rabble is becoming increasingly irrelevant, they still cling to old memes as a matter of pride (see also: tough guy culture). It’s perfectly normal and expected. But it will eventually go away, nevertheless, which was the point of Nintendo’s money-making strategy all along.
And, to add to that, it’s really too bad. There are some great games out there this year for the Wii (DLC, retail shelf or VC) that are very fun, deep and enjoyable titles. If people would stop “clinging” as Blake just described, these tired, easily disprovable little jabs would be even more irrelevant, and we could all get on helping gaming as a whole become better than it was yesterday.
So just go out and play a few of these titles and leave pride at the door. There are more people who will embrace you for playing and enjoying the Wii or DS today than there are rotten little complainers who will make fun of you. That’s a win as far as I’m concerned.
Jeff
Is this just America or Europe or something?
Because if you look at the totals according to VGChartz, the Wii is absolutely stomping the guts out of the PS2 side-by-side worldwide.
Used Cisco
@Jack,
“On the other hand, I’d be perfectly happy calling the Wii a fad if it was a 10-year one like the PS2 ;-)”
Hehe, exactly!
Seriously though, one thing people (especially the whiners jack mentions) don’t realize is that the Wii is absolutely the PS2 of this generation. Every generation, one console, more than the others, grabs the attention of the masses. Because of this, it builds momentum and creates a self sustaining reaction. You can’t sell PS2 numbers or Wii numbers solely on the hardcore gamer. Period.
That being said, everyone talks about the Wii tapping a huge new audience. But I’m not sure it’s as huge and new as people think. Let me rephrase that. It’s huge, and its new, but the new portion isn’t huge and the huge portion isn’t new. Yes, there are new gamers coming to Wii (elderly, females, etc) but I don’t thing they’re as big a piece of the pie as some would think. They’re just more newsworthy. Last gen, the PS2 was THE system. It got all the press and all the big media coverage. This time its the wii. All those tens of millions of PS2 owners who were platform agnostic (most of them) are moving on. They are buying Wiis. The people who read this site, and sites like it represent probably 1 percent of gamers. I read a study that only 3 percent of gamers have multiple consoles. Most gamers are not multiple platform owners. They have a game system, buy a few games and that’s it.