Little by little, sea devours its shores - Nintendo’s Wii seems acting likewise kick-starting its indomitable victory procession by debuting on November 19 last year in the US with a great pomp and show. Since its launch, the next-gen console has hardly seen a sales slump. Currently, the system has surpassed 10 Million milestone and is vowed to be market leader by exceeding Xbox360’s 10.32 million mark.
With nearing the record sales landmark within just 9 months, the Wii has certainly done the unthinkable. But would it be able to uphold the pace in near future is dubious stance.
How long will nine-day wonder last?
Some analysts have rightly called the console battle a marathon, rather than a sprint, which will heat-up more in near future. However, prior holiday season has shown multifarious results for the various hardware sales, the coming holiday season would also cause us to make a major market reassessment as several magnificent software launches are coming this wintry weather to all three next-gen portals.
No doubt, motion-sensing feature associated with its Wii-mote has acted like a golden-egg laying goose, showing a boom sale in a short period, but with the passage of time, impact of ruse has started radically fading away. Be it Wii-mote’s motion-sensing feature or titles that the Wii console supports, are fairly meant for children and old folks who are not interested in serious gaming, but in case of teenage or adult gamers, who are more possessively involved in gaming, the shallow and limited creativity will turn fruitless in tempting them for long.
Wii no more a ‘goosebumping console’
The idea of motion-sensing is entirely new however, I would rather define it as a real pity, because despite having managed to fully exploit its potential, Nintendo has constantly continued to introduce some handful of childish games in a repetitive motif. The feature that Wii-mote brings in use is a phenomenon originally patented by Interlink Electronics in its ‘Trigger Operated Electronic Device’ for which Nintendo had to face a patent infringement lawsuit. Despite being asked to sack patented feature, Nintendo was fined three times the assessed damages. Had Nintendo been forbidden using motion-sensing feature, Wii would have encountered a zilch transaction even after offering too low priced system.
Stepping aside from motion-sensing feature, an external factor like 3rd-party games and growing interest of games in HD-graphics are some other factors that will also play a vital role, because, in modern era, graphics have earned an esteemed position in gamers’ hearts making them more ‘enhanced visuals-concentric individuals’.
In addition, unlike other two competitors, Wii still remains sans a hard-drive, lessening its lasting appeal. Talking about Wii’s successor, Nintendo has denied introducing any until its shelf life expires in the next four/five years. Another drawback that Wii faces is ’sole entity’ - unlike Xbox360 and PS3 with a string of Core and Premium systems with hard-drive variables, Nintendo has thrown the Wii all alone in the next-gen battleground full of rivals.
Talking The Yankee Group’s prediction - with 30 million PS3s, 27 million Xbox360s, and 11 million Wiis sold across North America by 2011, the organization forecasts that the PS3 is inclined to win next-gen war.
Apart from this, much talked ‘greatest cost rigidity’ associated with the Wii, higher power consumption while in standby mode, glitches in output due to system’s overheating and a cut-throat competition from its own clan i.e. Nintendo DS and Sony’s market dominator PS2, are some other deciding factors that will matter a lot somewhere down the line.
Final thought
When a new console debuts, it’s very easy for anyone to get carried away in the hype. Analogous is case with the Wii that has done a great job in perking up the ears of many Nintendo fans and general hardcore gamers. Although, the Wii may have energized Nintendo’s fan base like no other systems that has come out since the PS2 and DS, but in all honesty, it will not sustain in long term.
Ironically, icing the cake, some critics believe that in a quest to deliver games in HD format, the videogame industry has lost sight of what games are all about - such dust-gathering postulations have bolstered the reality that more intense photorealistic graphics have always an advantage over feeble one.
Vinegar at good price is sweeter than honey - perhaps, this might be a notion that favors towering sales of low-priced Wii, but seems like the rage will end up Xbox360 and PS3 battling for 1st and 2nd place, whereas Wii crying over its obsolete motion-sensor idea in near future.
