Analyst Bursts Wii’s Bubble
With the Wii dominating consoles sales since its release in late 2006, publishers have no-doubt been relying on the platform for easy money. While this may have proven successful for certain titles, a vast majority of games have done poorly after release. Predictably, this is precisely the reason why analysts are downplaying this scheme as a means of profit.
According to financial analyst, Doug Creutz, of Cowen Group, more than fifty-percent of current Wii owners also own either a 360 of PS3. In turn, he believes that game publishers would be wise to target the hardcore gaming market instead of casual gamers for profit. Rather, the analyst conforms to the idea that “the Wii bubble could be deflating.”
Obviously, the downside to this is increased effort (which means increased costs) in game development to appeal to the standards of the hardcore crowd. We definitely concur with his views on the subject since the concept of hard work holds the greater reward than aiming for a quick buck or two with shovelware.
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9 Responses to “Analyst Bursts Wii’s Bubble”
I concur, as well.
The inevitable is striking.
I do like nintendo, but relying on such a ADD crowd for their means of profit was pretty weak. Hopefully there will be more primary titles announced for the Wii to hook previous devotees back to their ranks.
Hardcore titles tend to do very poorly on the Wii – the Dead Space fiasco was just the latest example. I don’t think there’s any money to be made from putting good games on the Wii, and apparently not much to be made from shovelware either. All I can say is that I’m glad I don’t own one
Nintendo has proven though that you don’t have to have extreme gore in games to be a contender in this generation of consoles. When you consider the turnover rate of their niche market they will always be new gamers to excite with Mario and Luigi. Remember that they are going after the first time gamer which at that age does not care about 1080p vs 480p, they just see colors and movement and they squeal with laughter and excitement when they get to the end of the level. It just proves that fun and excitement can be just as satifying as kills and trophies.
“Obviously, the downside to this is increased effort (which means increased costs) in game development to appeal to the standards of the hardcore crowd.”
This is a downside? For any company wishing to switch from wii development to 360 or PS3 maybe, but a company working harder to meet my standards is a very good thing.
I know a lot of people who own a Wii, and I have yet to meet a person who has moved past Wii Sports. Nintendo has ALWAYS supported casual and family gaming, their technology made it more fun for younger and older audiences, but only one game is truly successful … the one you get for free WITH the system.
The problem with an audience that is easy to please is that they don’t ever crave anything new… The “hardcore” gamers are always looking for a new fix while we are telling stories about the stuff we loved last year; we can be satisfied, we just don’t stay that way for long. We love to spend our money on new things, which makes us profitable to market towards. The problem is that they are GREEDY and aren’t happy with “just a profit” and they want more than they deserve, honestly.
haha looks like karma is coming back to bite both nintendo and ms
If I owned a Wii, which I have considered. It would only be to play retro games from the past, but then I thought about it and i could just go find the old consoles and games for cheap and there are no new games that look any better than a gamecube port. I seriouly only believe the Wii sold well because of the the low price and the advertising to kids and first time games. The Wii game’s commericals only come on channels like Disney and Nicktoons. The Hardcore games are never advertised well enough to even be noticed unless your on the actually Wii and are always checking the Nintendo Channel for updates. I can’t go a day without seeing commericials for PS3 and 360 games on just about every channel, probably because the are visually amazing where as Wii games are an eye sore and actually showing gameplay would not be beneficial in anyway. And Wiifanboys are the worst, always talking about how they are the best because outsell the rest. 360fanboys should be telling those clowns they have no games, then they’d actually be making a true statement for once.