back to article Wii wins console war, market watcher claims

Nintendo's Wii is now the world's best-selling next-gen videogames console, having this week nosed past the Xbox 360. The Microsoft console has been available to buy for the best part of a year more than has the Wii. So claims little-known online gaming sales tracker VG Chartz, which this week said that by its reckoning, as …

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  1. Matt

    so

    it's not a next gen console. It's a last gen console with a tv remote and a rock bottom price.

  2. Thaddeus Aid

    Of the three current generation...

    The only one I had any excitement about was the Wii. The PS3 is pure bloat-ware. I have considered a 360 but just can't get up the enthusiasm for it.

  3. Milo Tsukroff

    Backward compatibility is key

    Backward compatibility is the key ... and has been ever since the IBM 360 back in the early 'Sixties. Nintendo finally learned their lesson. Also, continuing innovations with the controller, finally going beyond the brave experiments of the original NES. And one more thing Nintendo did right this time -- they didn't restrict really neat tech to Japan. It didn't help to create world-wide sales when the xenophobic Nipponese kept cool NES accessories like the disk drive for Japan only.

    Bravo for Nintendo -- Mario rules!! ;)

  4. sabroni Silver badge

    selective "Factoring in"

    >> Factor in PS2 and PSOne sales, of course, and Sony remains the market leader in games consoles <<

    while conveniently ignoring handhelds......

  5. wim

    gameboys

    Who would the market leader be if you count all the Gameboys (color, advance, micro and DS) ?

  6. Wade Burchette

    Imagine that

    Who would have thought that a low-cost console than included a game would be more popular than the more expensive consoles without a game.

  7. Jon Brunson

    Keep going Nintendo

    "Factor in PS2 and PSOne sales, of course, and Sony remains the market leader in games consoles"

    Even when you factor in all of Nintendo's home consoles (including the two before the PS-era) Sony's way ahead with over 226m console sales vs Nintendo's 175m (Source: Wikipedia).

    If you add the GameBoy + DS vs PSP to the mix, well, that's a different story....... (424m vs 251m in Nintendo's favor if you're wondering)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nipponese....

    nipponjin.

    Very selective factoring in, evey gamese console Sony has launched, what about factoring in every console and game & watch nintendo have launched.

  9. Craig

    I love my Wii

    and I can't wait for a decent game to be released.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Matt, 360 fan-boy?

    The Wii is the the most innovative piece of console hardware released since the Atari 2600. It's small, quiet, powerful, and the console+games are fairly priced. No wonder it's the world's best seller, and popular with people like me, who actually have real friends they can have fun with in the same room!

    Stop wasting our time Matt, and get back to your virtual friends playing 1st person shooters on your noisy 360, before it breaks down, as most of them have a habit of doing. Loser.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Know your market . .

    It looks to me like Nintendo have just been a bit more clever in their market research. PS3 and 360 are clearly aimed at a relatively small market of people who really, really like their games and have the money and time to spend on it. Nintendo have aimed at a larger market of families who don't want to spend every free hour playing games but would quite like to have some fun *together* even with those members that can't remember 30 key combinations after a five minute briefing (and without breaking the bank).

    I bought one recently and my father-in-law was able to play on pretty near even terms with his eight year old grandson that would normally be 15 moves ahead of him (and me) on our old XBox. They both enjoyed the experience a lot more as a result.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    weeeee

    the wii will change the way we play games forever,

    who wants to sit hunched of a controller with 50 buttons, or wave their arms in the air like they just dont care!

    ME ME ME

  13. Matt

    lol

    the anonymous that protects the wii is evidently both weak and slow.

    I don't own a next gen console - they're all quite pointless. However even I can tell that the Wii is in a different arena to the 360 and ps3, both aimed at gamers and home entertainment, where as the wii is aimed at families, children, and people that like to get a load of folk round their house and wave their arms about. It's still not a next gen console spec wise.

    I'll stick to my PC and a copy of call to power 2 kthxbi

  14. A. Merkin

    WII EVERYWHERE

    The genius was in the name; "Wii" ensured losts of coverage (and snickering comments) upon announcement, and helped MSSony underestimate the platform.

    However, XXXBox sales are set to surge again this fall with the release of the new Codpiece rumble controller. Then maybe people will stop playing with their wii... or not.

  15. Hugh_Pym

    @ Matt (next gen)

    While being correct in saying that the Wii is technically behind the others I think the they are all aimed at the same market - owning the TV. whoever gets most boxes on the TV sets the standards as for as downloadable content/ipTV/web browsing is concerned. This is the next battleground so these three are also in completion with TiVo type boxes and all that junk.

    Choose wisely. Whoever wins will be controlling what you watch in a few years.

  16. Matt

    well

    I don't think the Wii has enough grunt to decrypt high def h.264 content does it? Can't be sure but from what I see in its spec it couldn't, and if it can't do that - who cares?

    Anyway I only turn the TV on at about 20:45 on a thursday (the tv is very old and takes a while to fully charge its lazooorz) so I can watch mock the week. Everything else is fansubs, fansubs, fansubs and I can watch those on my pc - hell if I did have an xbox 360 I could watch them on that aswell (seen as apparently it got h.264 recently) dunno about the ps3.

    Actually I lie, when I have my mates around for beers and pizza we turn the tv on watch a few j-concerts or an other dvd. We even tend to go out and have fun.

    Nintendo barely acknowledge the internet "We have online play but in order to play with other people they need your stupidly long code..." so of course people ended up setting up forums to exchange these codes.

    I think they recently announced their first online game for the Wii too, and they thought it was impressive - sorry guys everyone else has had online gaming for a few years, nice you decided to join the party though.

    Anyway I shall sit back and scoff *scoff scoff* at you people and your next gen consoles until someone finally releases enough games that interest me to warrant a purchase (so 2 or 3 years then.)

  17. Christopher Aussant

    Not a next gen console?

    Not a next gen console cause of its specs? What, are you kidding me? Since when did specs alone determine a next gen console? Since when did technology become an amusment park ride? "Sorry, you must have specs this high to be on the next gen ride."

    I guess Final Fantasy 3, Chrono Trigger, and other old time favorite RPG games can no longer be called video games. They're specs aren't high enough, the graphics aren't pretty enough, nope. Not a video game anymore, sorry.

    Wake up Matt. Specs don't make a console. Fun gameplay, gripping storyline and reactive controls make a game. If a standalone unit can play these games, its a console. If its the latest unit from the company making it, its next gen.

  18. Ben Daluz

    Next Gen?

    The term "next gen" is thrown around a lot these days

    For me, there hasn't been a "next gen" since playstation/n64 when "3d world" games arrived.... every iteration of consoles since then has just improved graphics/ai etc and presented nothing new....not really "next generation" but an increment of the current one. The Wii with its completely new way to interact with the games is the first "next gen" thing i've seen since then and, i think, is set to revolutionise the way we play games (and the people who do it)

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Ghost of Bill Deedes Writes

    "Sorry, you must have specs this high to be on the next gen ride."

    As I was saying to the UN envoy on my recent trip to the Sudan, I am reminded of the brouhaha over the Atari Jaguar, which was in the unfortunate position of having theoretically impressive specifications, or at least superficially impressive specifications, but - in addition to everything else going against it - when you opened the box, the only thing in the box was thirty thousand worms, dead ones. Little squeezy slithery dead worms.

    And obviously the console was not a success, because worms are free, in both senses of the word, including the beer sense. The added value of having the worms in a box did not outweight the cost of buying a box full of worms. The few people who would benefit from a box of worms were anglers, and they did not need to play video games, because they had a real-life hobby; a hobby which bridged the gap between life and death.

  20. Matt Kemp

    Next Gen?

    The Gamecube was the previous generation, the N64 before that - last I checked, generations were to do with levels within a family rather than tech specs (Even then, it has a higher spec than the gamecube which technically, makes it the next generation of Nintendo console. Taking that into account, they managed to keep full backwards compatibility with the Gamecube, so woo for them)

  21. Schrock

    History

    Leaders, particularly in business, are usually not beaten, but beat themselves.

    Sony, having lost every format war since the dawn of the digital age, thought they would use their dominent role in the games business to win this one by tying their new game console to it. It backfired. Exactly the opposite happened. Another Sony digital format will bite the dust, and it will take their games division with it.

    As far as the Xbox goes, it is easy to use their fans' propaganda against them...

    1. The Xbox has more good games.

    2. The Wii is not a "next-gen" console

    Number 1 is true, as the Wii has few good games and NO great games yet, but instead of that being good, that is a minus (if you are a Microsoft fan) when looking at what is actually happening. DESPITE the fact the 360 has more good games and DESPITE the fact the 360 core is now as cheap as the Wii in some parts of the world, the Wii is kicking the 360's ass by over a two to one margin worldwide. Not good stats if you are MS or a fan, When Metroid comes out next week, Wii sales will skyrocket again. Since Nintendo hasn't been able to ramp up production as planned, there will be massive shortages again and Wiis will be selling for $400 on Ebay. Wii will be in the news again. The legend continues.

    Number 2 is just crap. Who doesn't have a wireless connection? 360. Who doesn't have a browser? 360. My latest FREE cell phone has a wireless connection and a browser for criminy. Who uses the old fashioned disk tray for loading? 360. Which system uses the same old tired controller layout that has been used forever now? 360. Which of the current crop is not "next-gen"? 360. This goes back to the same thing as Sony. Bill wants to protect his main hog, Windows. He doesn't want too many "computer" features in the game machine.

    Some guy here said "if it doesn't have super dooper high res, who would want it?" The answer is, my friend, almost everybody. The number of people with a high res screen is currently small. To everyone else in the world, high res is worthless.

    Here is what will happen. The Wii will soon gain total dominance. In 2 or 3 years, the number of people who have high res will rise dramatically. By then the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD thing will be settled. By then the cost of both high definition input and output will be massively reduced. Nintendo will come out with the Wiii (notice 3 i ) (for $199) which will be backward compatible with the Wii, and continue their dominance for another 10 years. Having shot themselves in the foot once (cartridge/compatibility), they probably won't do it again soon, particularly since they don't have other business units to cloud their thinking like MS and Sony.

    Crystal ball off. : -)

  22. Matt

    next gen

    wait no, I just decided I still don't care, this evidently meaningless term next gen (now apparently simply refering to an iteration of a console family as opposed to a generation of technology and ability) which means isn't the wii... 2 generations ahead of the ps3 and 3 generations ahead of the 360, and shouldn't they all simply be called the current generation?

    What are all you console fanboys gonna call the next gen of consoles the next next gen consoles? Seriously just call them the current consoles already.

    And what do video games have to do with it mr Aussant? Allthough I wouldn't class those games as "modern" or "current" what on earth would stop them from being games just becouse of that? Please tell me where your logic comes from. At no point did I say the Wii was not a games console, nor did I say it was not a good games console. Nor did I say that the PS3 or the XBox 360 were good.

    I am saying that placing the Wii in the same group as the 360 and ps3 is like putting an orange with two lemons, although they may all be citrus, they sure as hell arn't the same thing.

    Anyway I have a pressing game of Call to Power to get back too, the Aztecs are building a few too many underwater coloniese for my liking and I may have to teach them a lesson with a dazzling array of icbms.

  23. 4.1.3_U1

    re: next gen

    Matt - I think "putting an orange with two lemons" says it all.

    I don't own a console at all; thought of getting a Wii, but decided against it as I've got too much unused tech shit lying around.

  24. Andraž Levstik

    Consoles...

    Only dedicated gaming device I ever owned and still own is a plain pre-color game boy :)

    With a single game at that... So I never really was much interested in various consoles etc...

    But the wii... well I was actually considering buying it... but as games aren't that high on my list of things to do I really won't...

    That's what makes wii such a big hit... Even people that don't care about gaming are interested in it :)

  25. eddiewrenn

    console wars

    Well interesting mix of different opinions here, all of them pretty valid when you look at them. Assuming these figures are true (they got panned on another website a week ago), it does seem like the start of a proper three-way console-maker battle. Xbox and Sony both have a lot to lose if they fail, and we could see another one pull out of the industry like Sega in the last round.

  26. Ian

    Reg idiocy strikes again.

    Last time The Reg pimped VG Chartz (affiliate? side-business?) we all pointed out how flawed their methodologies are, in particular according to them, no Xbox 360s have been sold in about 5 months now, which of course we all know is rather idiotic. In response, many were quick to point out the 360 figure is the number shipped and not necessarily sold, however this is largely irrelevant due to the fact VG Chartz is tracking one set of figures (last claimed number shipped according to VG Chartz) for the 360 and a different one for the Wii (number sold). To rely on one metric for one console and another for the others is rather idiotic and can paint entirely different pictures - if we use last number claimed shipped figures for all consoles, the 360 is around 10.5, the Wii around 6 and the PS3 around 2. Now, we all know those figures aren't correct, because more have shipped since then however the respective companies haven't felt the need to announce the new numbers shipped and so we need a new metric - we need to examine the number of consoles actually being sold. This leads to the question, why is the new, more appropriate metric being used by VG Chartz for the PS3 and Wii but not for the 360?

    I'd argue that this alone is demonstration enough that VG Chartz is not a reliable source of information for this just as I argued it last time and so I ask the question to The Reg. staff, why, when you know the stats at VG Chartz are flawed are you still referring to this site? It's just a shame that the whois data and contact details at VG Chartz are entirely anonymized, I'd be intrigued to know if the VG Chartz owners didn't live/work in the same area as The Reg. with them having the Same Wii + PS3 bias (scroll up, look for "Everything Wii" and "Everything PS3" buttons and notice which console is missing) and with the site being pretty much advertised here with the articles pointing to it thus far. Finally note the amount of ads on VG Chartz, mmm, think of all that ad revenue.

  27. Defiant

    are you serious

    How can this guy call the Wii "next-gen" ? doesn't he know the spec of the Wii its just a Gamecube with a little extra ram and cpu power in fact the original XBOX could hammer it

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sales figures don't mean anything

    All the people I know who bought Wiis played it for 10 minutes with a few friends and then put it in a cupboard. I'd bet LARGE that if you compared the gaming time spent on 360s or PS3s it would far exceed that spent on Wiis.

    In summary, the Wii is nothing more than a toy.

  29. Stephen Hurd

    [the Wii is nothing more than a toy]

    Exactly. And what in blue blazes do you think the rest of the console are? ALL consoles are toys. That's the POINT.

    I'd be fascinated in what you think the rest of the consoles are.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wii is a toy (similar to twister)

    The Wii is a novelty and therefore will not sustain gamers time.

    It is going for the "mainstream" market so may get good sales volumes, but that doesnt make it good - yes I am being that arrogant as to dismiss other peoples interpretations of what makes games "fun" (...to play with friends, chr!st!!)

    - my wife knows shit about gaming, but out of nowhere suggested we buy one!?!? - I rest my case!!

    (might get it for my 7 year old son, but suspect he might think it a bit shit compared to Jak& dexter, ICO etc etc on PS2)

  31. Scott Mckenzie

    Next Gen

    Of all of them, i'd call the Wii the only "Next Gen" console...

    What have the others bought to the table? Better graphics, faster processors etc etc.. i.e. more of the same

    What has the Wii bought? Innovation, a totally new way of playing games and interacting with them, mass appeal....

  32. Steve Barnes

    "Wii is the best, etc etc."

    I'm sick of everyone telling eachother what console's best!

    For years people have like different consoles for different reasons. Get over it!

    Personally, I really dont enjoy the Wii. My sister-in-law has one, and I enjoyed for the first 20mins, but the 'novelty' got old fast for me. But I can completely see why other people like it. It has the mass-appeal, easy & laid back approach & you don't need to be good at games to play it & enjoy it. But it's just not for me.

    I'm borrowing my friend's PS3 at the moment while he's away, and I have to say, it's a beautiful bit of kit, but could understand why people don't want to spend the cash on it, Blu-Ray & Hi-Def content isn't important to a lot of people, but I love it, and am loving The Darkness, Go! Puzzle, and Motorstorm too! I'll def be getting a PS3 at some point, and no doubt a 360 some day too.

    Different people want different things from their consoles. It's nothing new.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good Riddance!

    Glad to see Microsoft who wasn't content with its self-money-shoveling stranglehold on the PC market, is losing a little ground in the gaming market.

    Maybe someday we'll be able to choose to buy a PC at a local store with something besides the latest bug ridden reworked copy of Windows. Remember Captialism?

    Choices? Competition???

    Those were the days..............

  34. JA Sense

    Its a Matter of Economics

    People just aren't making the disposable cash they used to. Layoffs, outsourcing, new credit card laws, high gas pump prices are all taking their toll.

    Maybe a small portion of the public is becoming super rich, but for most people out there its getting harder and harder to drop half a grand on every latest game unit with a little bit better graphics and sound. Just look at the disappointing sales of the 'iPhone'.

    Nintendo knew what they were doing. Sell something with a new twist and make it much more affordable for us peasant folk. IMHO they deserve the success they're having right now.

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