I just read an article about the fact that it is expected that wii sells will go down this year. That's not surprising everything has to stop at some point and this includes wii's high sales.

What I found interesting is that there are game publishers who state they aren't haven't manage to sell games well on the wii and that they won't focus so much on wii games. The publishers talked about in the article where EA, Capcom, THQ and Ubisoft.

A person form EA said that the Wii market was unpredictable. Part of me thinks what that means is they haven't really figured out how to sell to people who may have bought the wii that aren't really big gamers.

But then I remember that many gamers dislike the wii because they can't find many games aimed at them. So the problem isn't the game companies making games for gamers on a system they don't want, because the reason games are unhappy with the wii is because they don't have enough games to make them happy.

So I looked at a few of these companies sites to see what are they selling for the Wii and it looks go me that the problem is these companies aren't really putting out compelling games out on the system. At least there aren't many games that look like something I would want.

EA had the most attention paid to them in the article so I looked at their site to see the what they had for the wii and noticed only a few games that appealed to me. Though they did have a number of things I think would have sold well even if I don't care to much for them (sports games and sims related stuff)

They also have a game similar to wii sports and I think the problem there is that I am sure someone with wii sports won't fell the need to get another game similar to one they already have. Remember a big chunk of wii owners aren't games. There's a lot of older folks who got a wii for things like wii fit and wii sports. I can't help but remember when I was a kid and I wanted say a new edition of a sports game or street fighter II my mom would turn and say well you already have game like that why would you want another? I can see a lot of older wii owners taken that mindset...heck as I have gotten older I'm taking that mindset more and more.

I found similar problems across the board. The Wii has an odd mix of games, there are many tie games to stuff like game shows (There is a biggest loser game...really who would want that game) and of course lots and lots of kids games. Which makes sense giving that another big group of wii owners are kids, but the problem with having such a huge focus on this market is that kids don't buy games their parents or other adults do and I can see a bigger limit on the over all sales one can make to kids then to adults.

Now on one hand I think it's good that the companies are putting out games in hopes of drawing in more people then just hardcore gamers. It reminds me a bit of the days of the NES when we had a wide range of games, the problem is that just like back in the 80's a lot of those game being pushed out on the wii don't really look that good and back then everything was pretty much released on the NES good or bad, games for hardcore games and causal gamers. The wii just seemed to aim at the causal games and forgotten about the hardcore gamers.

I'm all for making games for causal gamers but a lot of these games don't really look that good.

I'm also surprised by the fact that some of the biggest gaming publishers didn't sell some of their biggest properties on the wii.

But what really sticks out is that even thought these comapanies say they are having a hard time selling games looking at the top selling games (at lets those listed on this wiki page) The wii has some of the highest sells figures of any game system, EVER. now it's true that it's Nintendo the company that putting out most of the high selling games on the wii and I think it's do to the reasons I listed. These are good games, they use their biggest characters and a lot of companies are just copying what the big N puts out (why get another multi sports mini games game when you already have wii sport and wii fit? And how many party games can someone really play?)

also looking at the top selling games on different platforms their seems to areas that publishers can focus on that Nintendo either doesn't really have covered or seem like there is room to grow the market for on the Wii. Like a sandbox adventure game (like grand thief auto), fighting games (wii has super smash bros but I'm shocked capcom doesn't have a Street Fighter game for the wii...the closet is is Capcom vs some group of characters popular in Japan but haven't really crossed over to America much.), etc, etc.

are we seeing the end of wii madness?

that what some people are saying due to the fact that last month, the PS3 out sold the Wii in Japan.

I don't know if I wouldn't put Wii in the grave because of this news. The Wii has been at the top for a long time (selling like gangbusters) and it makes since that sooner or later there would be some slow down.

Gamasutra has a post up about the fact that over half of the wii sales are for Nintendo's game and music games and because it's easy to port games between the the PS3 and 360 it best to make games for those system and not the Wii

and that is where I think the Wii's problems lie. It was a smart move to make a gaming system that people not hard core gamers can enjoy playing and kids. Heck it worked back in the day win the NES. The problem with those markets is they don't naturally buy as many games as the adult hardcore gamer and that the market that PS3/360 picked up and Wii didn't and with the bad economy the non hardcore gamer is less likely to spend money on games.

why? because the types of games many "hardcore gamers" want ended up on the other system.

The thing is the wii's problem isn't 100% Nintendo's fault. a big problem is that 3rd party publishers didn't make games for gamers for the Wii, many focused on the other systems and mostly made games for kids and such for the wii.


Now I'm not one of those that thinks Wii should just market it self to the hardcore gamer but I feel the system could do a better job of walking and chewing gum at the same time. If Big N doesn't want to change it's focus on the games it makes, fine. but it might be wise for them to point out what the system has for hardcore gamers, as well as try to push 3rd party developers to look at the wii when they make "gamer games"

wii the funs coming...maybe?

The news is out the Wii will cost $250 (pk it's 249.99 to keep it just under that promised less then 250.) Which means I lost in all those guess the wii's price pools. I was guessing it would have been a bit over $50 cheaper.

But it does come with a game. something that hasn't happend in a long time with the release of new gaming consoles. The game? Wii sports.

PS3 price giving Wii still in the dark

So the PS3 is going to cost about $500 to $600 depending on if you want a 20 Gig or 60 gig hard drive for your system.

But Nintendo is still keeping there price a secret only saying that there system is going to "more fun for less". I'm begining to think it's time for the big N to show it's hand on this one but I guess I can understand waiting (why give sony or microsoft the change to cut their prices below yours).

I do think the new xbox and playstation is over double what I would like to pay for a game system but I'm cheapass.

Wii will Will will rock you

So Nintendo revealed the name of their new up and coming game system and it is going to be called Wii.

Truth be told I was kinda liking Revolution but the name doesn't matter what does is the games.

Happy little Trees

so it seems that Bob Ross (the painter that had a show on pbs) is going to have a video game.

Really odd choice for a game, I remember liking watching the show when I was a kid (I like drawing and what not) but I can't say I really want to play this as a game.

Though I may rent it just to see if the game says things like and now to put in some happy little trees

Game tap looking a little dry

About a month I listed an article about that mentioned the need for the video game industry to have new system for selling games. It was mentioned an online system where some could down load games maybe a good ideal.

so enters Gametap. For a monthly fee ($14.95) GAMETAP allows you to play any game in it library.

They already have a few big name companies putting their old games out on this system. Plus they are have gotten some media coverage (it was shown on G4's Attack of the show) and they already have media campaign (I saw a commercial for it a few days ago). So this may be an ideal that is poised to work.

I say may because looking at the games they have up right now there is much I want to play or at least seeing paying 15 bucks a month for when I could get them cheaper. This something I will I will keep an eye on because they are just starting out and so I am sure they will have many more games coming out for them.


Thought I am wondering about this system business model. How are the game developers making money from this site? Is gametap paying the companies a licensing fee, IE they pay the company x amount a month/year to have the games on the gametap site. Or maybe each game gets a percentage on the profits based on how many times it get played.

I mainly wonder about that because I wonder if this company's model would work for developers to make new games for GAME TAP.

At the moment it looks like a dumping ground companies to put up their old games. Which is cool since there is a market for those who would like to play those games. I know I would (it just like I stated above they don't have enough I want to play yet) but having new game would be a good draw for many people.

If the money is right I could see this system as a great way to smaller/medium developers to put out games in a market that is getting harsher and harsher on games that don't make it big in the stores.

Cool article on the importance game innovation

So this blog article on the importance of innovation in the video game industry is in making sure the market keeps growing by keeping non hardcore gamers (and turing some of them into the next crop of hardcore gamers).

Jack Thompson creates video games

Jack Thompson, a guy who has been a long time critic of the video game industry has said he will give $10,000 to the head of Take-Two Interactive (the distributors of GTA) Paul Eibeler's charity of choice if any game company makes a game in 2006 that follows his (Thompson) story line.

A teenager kills another teen because he played to many violent video games.

The father goes on a killing spree after trail of his son's murder.

The father goes to Take Two's offices and kills a lot of people as he is looking for Eibeler.

He then goes to Philly to kill the people that worked at the law firm Take Two uses.

With the FBI on his tail he attacks the Gamewerks chain of arcades.

Then the characters goes to chain stores where he kills the employee staff and bitches how they need to check ID's.

and then tops it off at E3 where the character goes and kills as many video game execs as he can.

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All I have to say is PLEASE SOME VIDEO GAME COMPANY MUST MAKE THIS GAME. IF done right you'll get a tri-fector of raising money for a charity, making a game that is sure to get alot of publistity and it will piss Thompson of even more if someone actually made this game.

Also the E3 level will be a great level to jam as many spoof of the game industry as possible.

Sequential gamers it’s always greener on the other side

I was reading an article on the escapist magazine (which I found via Penny-Arcade) that was talking about the current business model of the video game industry is destroying smaller developers and creativity, when something struck me. In the article Costikyan states that one of the problems of the video game industry is that video game industry is lacking a fan base that buys more independent artistic products like the movie and comic book industries and games need a market to sell those types of games like the other two industries have.

The reason why this statement stuck out is being a fan of comic books and reading comic book message boards and many in the comic industry are envious of the success of the video game market. You see while everyone is talking about how the video game industry has boomed (the video game industry is now making more money then the movie industry) the comic industry is very far past it’s apex. So both industries need what the other has at the moment.

It also should be noted that the smaller comic book publishers in a similar position as the video game industry in the terms of retail. Both the majority of retailers focus most of there effort of the bigger selling titles (that more then like come from the bigger companies).

The biggest advantage (maybe more so then the comic shop since the game industry does have a few stores that only or mostly sales games) that comics have over the video game industry maybe the fact that they are much cheaper to produce then video games. So they don’t need to sell as much to a profit as the video game company does. If it cost some where around 10 to 20 million to make a graphic novel I would bet that the smaller publishers would be in the same spot as the smaller game developers. Because most of the comic fans stuck to the big two publishers and many retailers keep most if not all of their focus on those companies.


*Hmmm I wonder if a number of retailers popped up that focused on the indy games and comics would they do well and would they have any effect on helping both markets. I could see cross over in both markets.