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Chris Leigh
16 Aug, 2006

Wii will emulate success of DS - Reggie

Wii News | As McGee dismisses PS3 and Xbox 360 as 'mere upgrades'.
In an interview with top-selling US newspaper USA Today, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has announced that the company's Wii console, due later this year, will match Nintendo's DS handheld in terms of success. Indeed, in Fils-Aime's eyes, the handheld race between Ninty's portable console and Sony's PSP is as good as over, with the Nintendo executive declaring, "We are so far in advance of our handheld competitors they're not even on the map." Currently, the DS leads the PSP in hardware sales in all three main regions - Japan, Europe and the US.

And, if Nintendo's number one cheerleader is to be believed, there's more hurt on the way for Sony and Microsoft, with Reggie confidently predicting that the unique features of the Wii will give it a vital edge in the next-gen race. "Our competitors are both going down the same path. Both believe that more and more performance with a higher and higher price tag are their keys to success," he stated. "What do I see? I think our two competitors will trade share between them, while we go off and grab share in a completely different way."

In other words, the Wii is set to match the impressive popularity of the DS, and according to Fils-Aime, that's because Nintendo embraced a tactic of tapping into new markets when designing the two devices. "[The success of the DS] is all based on a market expansion strategy," he said. "And that's what we're looking to do with home consoles. I'd much rather have the consumer buy a Wii, some accessories, and a ton of games, versus buying any of my competitor's products."

Meanwhile, away from Fils-Aime and his relentless tub-thumping, American McGee (responsible for the likes of gothic PC adventure American McGee's Alice) has become roughly the eight millionth third-party developer to proffer his views on the three next-gen machines from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Speaking in an interview with CVG, McGee argued that Nintendo was all set to "capture the hearts of gamers," whilst Microsoft and Sony were more likely to "stab each other in the neck" when it came to market-share. "The only truly next-gen console out there is the Wii," remarked McGee. "Everything else is just a video card and processor upgrade."

Related Content

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57 Comments
5 years ago
Ippongi Ryuta is Nintendo's Number 1 cheerleader. =P Or rather, represents on a Nintendo console, but meh.
5 years ago
I know some of my non-gaming friends are excited about Wii. For me, I'll sit back (with my current-gen console) and wait for PS3 or Xbox360 to drop their prices.
5 years ago
Alice was an awesome game, so I'm going by what McGee said.
5 years ago
I have dought that Wii will be the #1 selling console, I think Sony will take the cake
5 years ago
Haha what a tool.

The Wii is just an upgrade too, with a different control scheme. In fact, it's less of a jump from the Cube than what PS3 is from PS2 or the 360 from the original..

No doubt the Wii will be successful though.
5 years ago
Quote
I'd much rather have the consumer buy a Wii, some accessories, and a ton of games, versus buying any of my competitor's products.
umm doh! icon_rolleyes.gif

Also to me it seems like Nintendo want to steer away from the market that made them successful up to this point and are afraid of the competition. So they're now looking to fulfill a niche market because they can't keep up with the pressure.

As a person who has grown up with video games as my number one hobby....it seems to me like Sony and Microsoft will be supplying me with my hardcore gaming needs where Nintendo comes in is for novelty value. I really hope they prove me wrong....but that's the way it seems (especially with a severly underpowered console when my whole gaming life has been about MORE POWER!!)
5 years ago
ugh the boot wrote
umm doh! icon_rolleyes.gif
I know, revelation of the year there from Reggie.
5 years ago
The ONLY special thing about the Wii is its unique CONTROLLER.
The controller is just a PERIPHERAL device.
MS and SONY can make any peripheral for the intended purpose.

So to say N will dominate the market because of ONE peripheral is WRONG.

360 will have many peripherals such as guns, hd-dvd player, camera, etc
PS3 also will have camera, gun, eyetoy camera, etc

The POINT i am trying to make here is that both MS and PS3
CAN POTENTIAL come up with a PERIPHERAL that ASLO
enhance the GAMEPLAY in the similar way as the Wii controller.

By then MS and PS3 at least have ENOUGHT CPU/GPU power to handle such peripheral.
5 years ago
^ I agree....if Microsoft or Sony were to come up 'Wand' and a 'Wiimote' (albiet with different names)....their machines would be just as capapble but obviously a lot more powerful.

It's funny cuz I was just about to make a post exactly like the one above....well maybe not EXACTLY.
5 years ago
No doubt if Wii ends up being succesful, Sony and Microsoft will follow suit in some way shape or form.

As Kojima has said, the ideal machine would be the one with the power of the PS3 and controller of the Wii.

If push does come to shove, Nintendo keep gloating that they will be affordable, something that has yet to be demostrated and that they really ought to confirm soon, because the longer they delay it, the worse a feeling i get.
5 years ago
mqphu1 wrote
So to say N will dominate the market because of ONE peripheral is WRONG.
Is it? Nintendo are offering something that their comptetitors aren't offering, and it all centres around an input device. They're also offering developers something that the competition isn't offering - a machine that doesn't have multi-million-dollar 100+ staff requirements for top grade games. Even if a XMote or a PSMote were to be released, developers would be hard pressed to ditch the Wii for the more powerful machine, especially if the Wii is highly successful by that point.
5 years ago
Well, here is my personal view upon the Wii..

Although the Wii is coming out with some unique features, and it will be innovative, I also think it will be limited severely, due to its lack of power under the hood. Sure, you can create a great FPS game which responds well and has fancy effects, however, there won't be complex physics, there won't be a huge world, etc. All of this because of the limited power that the Wii has, and this in turn will limit the extent of where they can take the gameplay. Gameplay is limitless, but only if you have enough power to keep improving upon it. I highly doubt we will see thousands of high res models on screen at once on the Wii, as we would on 360 or PS3, because the processing power required for that will be too great for Wii. Basically what I mean to say is that because Wii does not have the raw power of PS3 or the controlled power of 360, its gameplay can only be taken to a certain extent, because there isn't enough power there to supply it. A good architecture can only get you so far. This is why I think that Wii will not be the lead in sales. It will do well, but people typically want power, and Wii just doesn't supply that.
5 years ago
Am I the only person on the planet who's actually going to wait and see what the games are like before declaring which system is going to earn its parent company more millions of dollars of revenue?
5 years ago
^ Don't be silly, that'd be a totally logical thing to do. Put on your fanboy hat and join the speculation party!
5 years ago
We don't do logical things around here! icon_smile.gif

"Sony and Microsoft will follow suit in some way shape or form. "

They'd have to be careful about Nintendo's patents, if they did. Plus, it would prove that Nintendo are onto something, if they felt the need to copy. The Wii i made especially to use the new controller, anything made for the 360 or PS3 just wouldn't be as good, and would take a while to make, look at how long the Wii has been in development for.

I think the Wii has a great chance of doing very well this gen, I'd be thrilled if they came 1st, just to see the looks on the faces of all the doubters (not to mention that I want to see Nintendo continue on as a gaming company).
5 years ago
Is everyone forgetting about the motion sensing feature in the PS3 controller?
5 years ago
Qbert wrote
Is everyone forgetting about the motion sensing feature in the PS3 controller?
Yes.

By yes, I mean purposefully yes.
5 years ago
No, I haven't forgotten. icon_smile.gif We've had discussions about that before, and the overall verdict was that it will be nothing like the Wii's controller, and will be a pretty ordinary feature. Some of the things they say in that article are similar to the sorts of things I've been thinking.saying, like how the Wii is the only 'true' next gen console. I like that article (as I should).
5 years ago
How the hell is the Wii the only next gen console? Its a stupid comment that gets thrown around too much. If Wii is the only next gen, then surely the only other next gen console was the N64, since that was the only one that really changed the way we played games.
5 years ago
Good point there, technically that is true. Still, that's not to say that the others don't add their own things to the mix, there's been some excellent games.
5 years ago
I really REALLY want N to stick around for next few generations.
But I highly doubt it. I think they will merge with another
company in order to SURVIVE.

SONY is the second largest electronic company, they
have hundreds of research labs and partners (IBM, TOSHIBA, etc).

If it took 3 years for N to create a Wiimote,
then SONY should only take months.
Patents are just a formality, they can steal it and pay it back later.

MS can actually BUY the Wiimote if they want to.

Nintendo are just TOO small to compete with BIG BROTHERS.

Good Luck N, you gonna need it!.

Thus N will be in third place, after a BIG BANG!.
5 years ago
mqphu1 wrote
Nintendo are just TOO small to compete with BIG BROTHERS.
I disagree to an extent. Sure Nintendo are a much smaller company than either Sony or Microsoft, but when you narrow it down to the games industry they're well sized to compete with Sony and Microsoft's respective games divisions.
5 years ago
Nintendo can survive easily. They are the only company to keep making profits while developing their console. Nintendo could survive, just on the hand-held profits alone.
5 years ago
Let me ask you guys some questions.

Can N afford to lose money per console sale?
Sony and MS can practically give away their consoles
Can N afford to buy third party companies?
Sony and MS are acquiring/buying companies at their will.
So how long will it take for Sony/MS to own MOST PUBLISHING right?
Not long i can tell you.
The gaming industry is slowly fading.
E3 is adapting by including the other entertainment sectors.
MS is adapting by including its Windows and PC business.
SONY is adapting by including its MUSIC and MOVIES sales.
Nintendo???

I have a lot of fear for N. Maybe they SHOULD merge with Apples to
expand its gaming business.

Surely, Reggie must foresee the challenges facing N.
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