In Battle of Consoles, Nintendo Gains Allies
A Links entry from Tuesday, July 17, 2007In Battle of Consoles, Nintendo Gains Allies
Inspired by the early success of the Wii, the companies that create and distribute games are beginning to shift resources and personnel toward building more Wii games, in some cases at the expense of the competing systems: the PlayStation 3 from Sony and Xbox 360 from Microsoft.
Because people want a videogame console—not another computer for their living room.
Mark Cullen
Thank god you found something to post about, this summer is bone dry on news. I’ve got nothing.
Eric Tobis
Of all the video game news that came out last weekend this is what you choose to post? I would think you would be better off mentioning the Wii Fit or the PS3 faux Price Drop.
Bryan Klausmeyer
I’m not really discriminatory when it comes to posting about video game news.
Eric Tobis
You’re not very good at it either. You should probably leave that to Zach.
Jason
What’s the insatiable urge to laud “niche” corners of the market coughapplecough?
The Wii is a great idea, but it almost purely rests on its gimmicky potential, and regardless of sales figures, most message boards (IGN, 1up, etc) are full of topics/editorials from staff and gamers that all agree with the same thing: THERE AREN’T ANY DAMN GAMES FOR IT. Buying a game system isn’t like investing in stock, you don’t wait for it to accrue profit.
So far the PS3 and the Wii are being held afloat by “games that are going to come out” as opposed to games that “are actually out”…I don’t know any other entertainment device that rests on the same premise: you wouldn’t buy a blu-ray player if blu-ray dvds “only might” be coming out “sometime in the future”. And even then, have you seen the E3 conference? Surprise! Its more mini-games!!!
Bryan Klausmeyer
Perhaps it’s because the X-Box 360 was out for nearly a year longer than both other consoles…. (cough)
Oh, and neither Nintendo nor Apple are exactly “niche.” Nintendo has existed since the end of the 19th century, and Apple since the early ’70s. You’d have to be either culturally inept or have lived under a rock for the past half century to not have heard of either of those companies.
Jason
I said they cater to niche corners of the market,; you can’t disagree that the Wii follows a different strategy than the other two consoles. All three developers have stated pretty much stated that Nintendo is attempting to carve out a seperate section. Also, the game selection could be argued as being less “mainstream”, i.e. Cooking Mama and such.
In any case, Nintendo, though having existed since the late 19th century, made playing cards, and later attempted to function as a taxi service and love hotel. The 1970s brought its start as a “computer” entertainment industry. The wikipedia search you probably used to find the date said as much in the next sentence. 
Bryan Klausmeyer
Interesting facts almost wholly unrelated to the point I made…
Mark Cullen
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/nintendo-throws-down-again-not-the-way-you-think/
I think it’s hard to make the argument that the Wii appeals to a niche market when it has been the top selling console for the last few months. Then again this information wasn’t available until recently so I can’t really fault anyone for making that claim.
You could also make the claim that the PS3 is a niche device appealing to gamers whose main concerns are graphics and performance, but in the end it’s just different approaches to the same market.
Bryan Klausmeyer
bryklaus@umich.edu
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