I did a post few hours back depicting a vivid scene of NYC Wii-buyers tenting outside Toys ‘R’ Us in Times Square. The view was not very different from Japan’s PS3 launch on 11th Nov. At last the long anticipation broke for US gamers and they burst out for Wii porches standing tall in the long queue, somehow in the midnight. As watches displayed 1200 hours, Nintendo announced Wii launch with a rocking stage show.
People were lined in long queues and more than thousand buyers were there for Wii hands-on impression and everybody was determined to score Wii. However the launch event was no too rebelling as in Japan where police had to disperse the vigorous crowd, the people were cool, waiting for their turn.
An unknown US identity Isaiah Triforce Johnson was the very first man to score Wii console, who has a great passion for console and to get the console he had been waiting for in line outside the store for more than a week dressed with a Nintendo Power Glove, a wearable controller to show his warmth towards Nintendo. He was too delighted when he procured the first Wii from Nintendo America’s head Reggie Fils-Aime.
Nintendo has shipped 5000 consoles to Toys ‘R’ You in Times Square and I think until now all the consoles would have been wiped away. The bold design of Wii consol is enough to drive crazy about it and the second thing making buyers mad all over the US is the price thing ($250) that seems quite economic. However the consol doesn’t carry any HD support even then it is creating a great friction in the gaming marketplace to both next-gen consoles with HD graphics.
All the developers are much more considerate about HD graphic but Nintendo comes with some different standpoint, Nintendo says that the graphics matters don’t matter as much as game content maters. If gameplay is quite captivating then graphics get repressed itself. The developer believes that the console invites new generation of fanboys while not losing existing ones. The console focuses more on older and female gamers including teens as well, breaching existing perceptions. The Wii-mote is another enchanting device incorporated with Wii that comes with motion-sensitive property that comes with real simulation like in Wii-Tennis in which it act as tennis racket to smash the ball as it is done in real game. The same phenomenon can be performed in Bowling game and Base Ball or sword simulation game.
Wii comes with cost advantage in comparison with other two rivals already in the market. Blu-ray PS3 comes with quite hefty price range of $500-$600 depending upon console design while Xbox 360 with HD graphics contains $300-$400 price range. On Japan launch day Sony had shipped somewhat 100,000 consoles for launch day out of which 88,400 consoles had been pulled off the store shelves while on occasion of North US launch on 17th of Nov. Sony had shipped 400,000 units.
Nintendo has exactly inverse debuting schedule for its innovative console as Sony debuted its PS3 console in Japan first and after that in US while Nintendo launched Wii firstly in US next in Japan on Dec 2nd. Nintendo has shipped far less units for launch day in US but for Japan debut day it has shipped huge 400000 units. The reason for reverse schedule is holiday season as per Nintendo officials, because US holiday shopping season that starts a bit earlier than in Japan.
Nintendo officials informed that the developers are too optimistic about the wireless remote controller saying that the remote will drive attention of the large no. of gamers with a totally different gameplay experience.
IGN did a review of the Wii-mote around two weeks ago and makes it out that the wireless remote doesn’t gives perfect strokes while having a Tennis or Bowling gameplay. The analysis reveals that you cannot do much with remote except waving it forward and backward. And if you want to give any swing to the ball, you can’t. Also the console doesn’t offers HD graphics like other next-gen consoles i.e. Xbox360 and PS3.
However Nintendo is prepared for the criticism and says that if the gamers are provided with good gaming content then graphics matter not at all.
Nintendo is considerate about emerging Russian market and has announced that it’s going to establish a distribution center there that will start working appropriately by the end of this month. Including this it has inaugurated its retailer shop in Malaysia as well.
Nintendo is emerging as the biggest economy amongst all games developers. As revealed by Nintendo in a press conference saying Nintendo has filed a huge 203% of overall growth. The current growth rate is 11% higher than last year. Eliminating the contribution of Nintendo from entire net growth, the gaming industry’s growth rate just sinks on petite 1.6%. Moreover Nintendo has set another milestone in gaming industry as its share price touched 26,770 yen ($227) mark on 14th Nov which is very first time occurring with Nintendo.
If we move back to the prior launch time announcements done for Wii by Nintendo itself and third party developers then we come to know that the third party developers as well are quite considerate about next-gen console, Wii. The third party developers say that Wii is the right platform that can give them a chance to encourage their technology. Ubisoft is one of them who are keen to suspend its titles onto Wii. Ubisoft announced last month that 7 more titles will be playable on Wii as already it had announced 7 titles for Wii. Now the total no of titles have reached up to 14. These all 14 titles have been announced within a small span of five months.
Red Steel title announced Ubisoft for Wii captured in video:
On 1st of Nov. Nintendo uncovered its Virtual Console title line up which includes Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Space Harrier II, Toe Jam & Earl, F-Zero, SimCity and Bonk’s Adventure while The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Call of Duty 3 for Wii. EA announced few titles for Wii a swell like Army of Two and Crysis that will be available for play by starting of next year.
As looking US launch day time seems quite favorable for Nintendo because fortune is with Nintendo. The DS: Lite was being nominated for title Gadget of the year award by Time magazine and after that Wii recommended for Grand Award by American monthly Popular Science.
Meantime in the first week of the Nov. Game Daily did a thorough analysis on all gaming consoles. The site graded them on the basis of their graphics, price and titles. Wii, DS: Lite, Xbox360 procured ‘A’ while latest release PS3 could afford B+.
All these titles that have been dropped in the lap of Wii that robustly show that the graphics doesn’t matter at all. Nintendo started a campaign on 12th of Nov. tossing huge $200 Million for Wii Hype. The hype includes some TV commercials and other outdoor endorsement. To hurl such a huge amount is the very first time that Nintendo is investing on Ads. As Nintendo dares that the console has been designed in such manner that it will make its reach not only to teen gamers but to older and female gamers as well. The developers are hoping a good response form older and female gamers. Nintendo says that it wants to break the existing perception that says that the gaming consoles are just for teen or young gamers.
So to overcome the obstacle Nintendo has planned to ship huge 4 Million Wii units by the end of this year. Nintendo wanted to lessen the cost of the console from $250 to somewhat $100 or less but as per Nintendo officials few pricy add-ons made it cost $250. Few updations in software and NAND embedded inside the console made it a bit costly.
Five titles listed below are the popular titles for Wii:
I). Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
II). Call of Duty 3
III). Rayman Raving Rabbids
IV). Trauma Center Second Opinion
V). Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam
The pinned videos (above) can give you the experience of wild ecstasy during the gameplay with innovative touch-sensitive Wii remote.
CONCLUSION:
The consol is pretty comparable with other pricy next-gen console already there in market. However the gamers who are more concerned about HD graphics rather than gameplay and don’t want an economic console will never feel comfy with Wii. The admirable titles (picked with great care) and remote with perfect strokes I think are quite sufficient criterions to drive someone crazy!! Isn’t it???
Via: tech-buzz
