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Wii: Failure!?

Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Location
Kalamazoo, MI
I've seen quite a few people say this about the Wii. As polity as possible, I must ask those individuals: what in the World is wrong with you!?

The Wii has sold over 87.5 million units. The only consoles still in production that have sold more than it are the PS2 and the DS. And most of those sales were made years before the Wii was released, and they are at the tail-end of their popularity. As for the competition, it's no competition! The Xbox 360 and PS3 have sold 55 and 51.7 million units respectively. They haven't even outsold the NES, let alone the Wii. The PSP is the only competing console that even comes close to the sales figures of the Wii (just on the edge of selling 73 million units), but even that is easily outsold by the Wii. The Wii is the third best selling home-based console ever and the fifth best selling out of all consoles. If you see that as a failure, your standards are way to high.

Can someone please explain why someone would believe the Wii is anything but a success?
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Location
↑&↓&↑→↓←
People say that the Wii is garbage mainly because they say there aren't any good games on it and only kids play it. Even people who owned an NES as a kid will say that Nintendo is going downhill. I think at least 95% of people that are on ZD have a Wii. A lot of the games on the Wii are family friendly and I guess no body doesn't think that's cool. Hopefully the Wii U will sell more than the Wii because I want to talk about Nintendo at school again, I miss those days.:(
 

athenian200

Circumspect
Joined
Jan 31, 2010
Location
a place of settlement, activity, or residence.
People believe this mostly because they feel that the Wii had inferior third-party games. This is true to an extent, but it is largely blown out of proportion by detractors of the Wii, and Nintendo will be addressing the issue in their next console to silence critics.

Also, some people feel that the Wii's controls were "gimmicky" and that the hardware was simply inferior. They feel that the high sales were simply a result of "casual" gamers and children buying the console, and that Nintendo's luck is going to run out because they "abandoned" the "hardcore" gamers. It's all very self-righteous and self-centered, IMO.

Now, I will tell you why Nintendo has been successful.

1. The Wii innovated. Sure, the controls weren't standard and a lot of games could have benefited from a normal control pad, but the new controls allowed developers to create games that wouldn't work on any other console. And people LIKED those games.

2. Strong First-party titles. Certainly Nintendo didn't always attract the best third-party developers (though they did get some good ones), but their first-party titles were strong. There's no denying this. Mario games, Zelda games, Metroid games, and several other games.

3. Virtual Console. This was a major selling point, as it allowed people to play the most popular games of the last generation, more reliably and for lower cost than hunting down a used console from 20-30 years ago. Many of these games were well-loved by players of previous eras, and many got to share these games with their children on a modern console.

None of this has anything to do with sales of fitness games to "casual" gamers.
 

LolGames4U

Viceroy of Area 11
Joined
Dec 24, 2010
Location
USA
It's looked down a lot due to the MASSIVE amount of casual games, motion controls, and lack of 'hardcore' games and HD graphics. I for one, think those people are out of their minds. The Wii tapped into an entirely new market: casual gamers!!! I consider myself a 'hardcore' gamer due to the amount of time and money I put in on games, even if I'm not playing Halo and Call of Duty. I do consider epic games like Zelda and heavy-duty action/adventure or RPG games hardcore. I mean, why aren't they?! Go Wii!!!
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
Joined
May 26, 2010
Location
Akkala
Gender
Hylian Champion
The Wii failed in 3rd party and graphics departments, in my opinion. I could careless about graphics - just don't get me a pixelated game such as LoZNES on an HD console, but the 3rd party malnourishment is terrible for any system. Yes, I expected Call of Duty for the Wii because, regardless of what you Zelda fanboys/fangirls may think, the series is great fun for anyone who can afford every successive new game and map pack. I was also expecting third party quality such as the GC's Resident Evil 4, on the Wii (not saying RE4Wii, but great games alike that of RE4). In spite of that, though, most of the 3rd party games are watered down versions of the HD counterparts, with tacky motion control and in most cases, terribad AI, camera, and other essential parts of the games. Don't get me wrong - I could live off of Nintendo's 1st party games because they are freaking amazing, but they are too far away from each other that once I beat one, it would be at least a one year wait for another to come in. That's one of the reasons I believe why 3rd parties even exist - first party games are generally better than 3rd party and thus 3rd party games are simple 'time wasters' that could potentially bring in good concepts for the first party games.

The Wii has barely any good 3rdies, though they do exist. I could careless about the 'hardcore' gamer spectrum, as they are all single minded and literally don't play anything but one sort of genre, and usually only one series which in my opinion is ridiculous and the fact that their praise is so highly desired by many developers is also ridiculous. That doesn't mean they don't need to be satiated at least in part, though. Good graphics could've helped the Wii. Heavy violence games could've helped the Wii as well. Luckily, the Wii U looks to be at least catch up with PS3/360, so those hurts that the Wii did could potentially be healed. I just have to wait and see, supposedly.
 

TriforceHunter

Forever I am Abandoned
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Location
In the middle of Kansas...
The Wii is pure win. It may not be big on the graphics and online department, but out of all consoles it's got the most quality exclusives, virtual Console, endless controller possibilities and you can get some pretty good stuff for pretty cheap. And it at least doesn't break down with a red light or strive to be more than what it is and tell you it does everything and then it turns out it can't even do cross game chat or backwards compatibilities. ZING! ;)

It's got some of the best games and exclusives that you cant get in the other consoles, Nintendo exclusives like Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Smash, Kirby, DK, Sin and Punishment 2, Trauma Series and many more. And it also has great exclusive third party: No More Heroes 1-2, Monster Hunter 3, Castlevania Judgment, Resident Evil games, Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, Ju-On, FFTCC: The Crystal Bearers, Valhalla Knights, Zack and Wiki and I could just sit here and name off games all day also games that never saw their way here like Fatal frame 4, Xenoblade, Last Story and many more that makes no sense why they never got relesed in NA.
 

PK Love Omega

PK Flash's Good Twin
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Location
In a forest
I personally love the Wii, but I love anything Nintendo gave us like the GB, GBC, GBA, N64, GC, SNES, etc :P And 95% of Wii games of 2010 was first party, such as Kirby, DK and Metroid, and they are some hardcore games alright
 

arkvoodle

Diabolical
Joined
Sep 20, 2008
Location
Somewhere
The lack of casual games, and deny of using the console to it's full potential both online and in terms of decent casual games opposed to the family friendly gimmick games really ruined the wii's reputation as a console for everyone. It seems that due to the massive lack of actual games, it is loosing alot of fans to Xbox and PS3. Nintendo really needs to up their game if they want to keep their fans.

The wii was not an absolute failure. It broke records with the amount of sales it had because of the new innovative controls. Though at the same time, this drove away alot of people, as they felt that the wii was going to be party game central, and they felt that nintendo had neglected and ignored their true, long term fans, which is sort of true.
 

PK Love Omega

PK Flash's Good Twin
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Location
In a forest
Besides, Nintendo made Sony Jealous they had to copy it. And I don't see what's bad about the graphics. Take Metroid Other M. I know it's dual layer, but PS3 is also blu-ray.
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2011
Location
Portland, OR
I don't think the Wii is perfect, but I think it's a great console, despite the flaws. :)

Too early on in the system's life, it became bogged down with crappy third-party games aimed at casual gamers. Once that strategy took off and sold well, the amount of serious games developed for the system paled in comparison. There's a definite lack of certain genres (RPGs, seriously...) and the amount of cheap games thrown together just to sell greatly outnumbers the good games.

However, the first party titles are among some of Nintendo's best, even though they can be few and far between. They have definite staying power. When I hang out with a big group of friends, we typically end up playing the Wii because Nintendo knows how to craft fun, first-party multiplayer games that very rarely get old. I still play Mario Kart Wii and Brawl to this day, for example.

Most of my serious gaming gets done on my ps3 because I have more games for it and the library of third-party games that are good is much greater than on the Wii. But Nintendo's got the first party thing in the bag.

All in all, I think it's a matter of opinion, just like every system. The online functionality is sorely lacking and friend codes are a chore, but really, some of my best memories of playing the Wii is in getting a group of friends together and just having pure, simple fun. Some also complain about the graphics, but if you have component cables it doesn't look half-bad on an HDTV. The quality of sound output is also not as high as, say, the ps3, but it's not a huge grip unless you're a big audiophile.

On a personal note, I can say that having a bigger TV can make it hard to properly position the sensor bar, which can be annoying. That's more nitpicky than the other complaints, though, but it's still something to bring up. You have to be a little deliberate with your placement of the bar, especially when friends are over, but I digress.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2011
When it comes to sales wii has the most software and consoles sold this gen. People call it a failure because due to it's low tech it doesn't have as much BIG third party support as the other 2. I see this changing with the wii-u now developers have no excuses what so ever to not develop games on a nintendo console. Imo the wii is not a failure nintendo just had the wrong mindset they created the wii around there first-party games instead of making it stronger for big third-party games.
 
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Maikeru

Piper of Time
Joined
Aug 11, 2011
Location
The Lost Woods
I find the 360 much worse, not because of the games, because of it's hardware. I've had three 360s. Well, one of them was my sister's boyfriend's. Both of those 360s were killed by the Red Ring of Death. My new 360, which is supposed to fix all the problems, put a perfect circle around my copy of Fable 3. I was livid. Microsoft should really take some time to make their systems not do crap like that so damn often.

My Wii has been great, it has never frozen on me. Even my PS3 has froze once. The Wii may not have amazing games everywhere, but I'm not into many games on other consoles either. The classic games like Zelda, Mario and Donkey Kong have me using the Wii more. Oh, and it has a spot Gamecube, along with several old, downloadable games. I love my PS3 as well, but I get the most enjoyment out of the Wii.
 

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