"The true potential of Mii isn't even known yet"

Wii News | Nintendo's George Harrison gets positive about Mii.

Nintendo have made a few decisions recently that seemed odd but that made sense in retrospect. Most of us scratched our heads and said 'whatever' when we first heard of Nintendogs and Brain Training, but both have become nothing short of phenomenon and among the highest selling games of the last two years. Nintendo's upcoming Wii console also has it's fair share of 'huh?' concepts, one of which is the character creation feature Nintendo has dubbed 'Mii'. The feature allows the user to create a cartoon version of themselves (using a large selection of facial features) that can be used as the player's avatar in several games, which sounds like fun, but by no means a system selling feature. However, it seems Nintendo are quietly confident the Mii feature will be another 'Nintendogs'. George Harrison, Nintendo's senior vice president of marketing,.talked up the character creation feature of the Wii in an interview with US news outlet Reuters.

Harrison thinks the Mii Channel will help families get into Wii games together. "A younger player can create a caricature of their parents, and it might entice them to play (a game)” he said. While only two games are currently Mii compatible – Wii Sports and WarioWare Smooth Moves, Harrison expects third-party games will start to make use of the feature, and many more games will use Mii characters by the middle of next year. "It's true potential isn't even known yet," Harrison said.

The Reuters story also details some of the features of the Mii system. When the Wii is first turned on, the user will find "Mii Plaza," a virtual waiting room where the Miis hang around. You can then use Wiimote," to drag and drop Miis into a game or email. 100 Mii characters be created and kept in Mii Channel at a time, and best of all, up to 10 can be saved on Wiimote's onboard RAM and carried to a friend's house.

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24 Comments

Nev

5 years ago

Aside from appearances, what possible potential does this idea have?

OMG! That little guy on the screen kinda sorta looks like a really simple cartoon version of me!

Oh wait, so does that guy...

And those two over there....

And that potplant kinda looks like my cat!

renegadesx

5 years ago

Nintendo's WTF? idea's have really taken off. I think the Mii thing will really help get my old man playing Wii Tennis (who has not played a game since Sonic & Knuckles)

The Brett

5 years ago

No, I think the full potential of how gay it is is quite apparant to me.

rodvcpetrie

5 years ago

Well time will tell I guess.

Joseph

5 years ago

I am looking forward to creating all these Mii's. My friends thought I was weird having dozens of names in my SSBM name creator.

Wait till they see al the Mii's I create. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ellegarden

5 years ago

Nev wrote

Probably never beats rainbow six, where you can use the camera for your face. Now I think about it, the idea kinda scares me.

rodvcpetrie

5 years ago

The camera thing is old anyway, you could do it for Tony Hawk's Underground.

Ellegarden

5 years ago

rodvcpetrie wrote

The camera thing is old anyway, you could do it for Tony Hawk's Underground.

Never heard about that, definantly beats the mii stuff, miles ahead.

ret the roman

5 years ago

rodvcpetrie wrote

The camera thing is old anyway, you could do it for Tony Hawk's Underground.

that was tony hawk 3 you can do the whole camera is your face thing.

wwe_westy

5 years ago

I'd like to see a game where people make there Mii characters fight each other. Each Mii character could have it's own move set with moves being unlockable along the game.

ugh the boot

5 years ago

Man people have really lost their minds! This is rubbish!! Along with frickin' Nintendogs! Sh!t the only reason Nintendogs even sold that well is cuz Japs barely have enough room there for themselves let alone pets!! The game is one big ass FAD along with most of the crap that comes out of there nowadays! Geez, just cuz the Japs are buying it people think it's the next big thing in games! Yea righto...

My dad would take one look at that stupid cartoon character and go back to watching sports! What a joke!

Also once people start using real photos of themselves as their gamerpic on Xbox live (when the usb camera is released here) then people will see how crap this Mii thing is!

ObsoletE

5 years ago

retroman wrote

rodvcpetrie wrote

The camera thing is old anyway, you could do it for Tony Hawk's Underground.

that was tony hawk 3 you can do the whole camera is your face thing.

Tony Hawk Underground, actually, and only on PS2, with the Eyetoy. (i'm not sure if there was a PC version, but if there was, i don't see why it wouldn't also be possible there too.)
TH3 was the first PS2 game to have Sony Network support.

not really fussed about Miis. i got sick of the South Park character creator after 2 minutes, i'm pretty sure i would tire of this just as quick.

David

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

Sh!t the only reason Nintendogs even sold that well is cuz Japs barely have enough room there for themselves let alone pets!!

a) That's borderline racist
b) Nintendogs sold far more in Europe then in Japan

Quote

The game is one big ass FAD along with most of the crap that comes out of there nowadays! Geez, just cuz the Japs are buying it people think it's the next big thing in games! Yea righto...

Nintendogs and Brain Training are doing better in the US and Europe then they were in Japan, and in Japan Brain Age has been a consistant seller for two years. I agree that it's slightly annoying that they're so popular, but it doesn't change the fact that they're ultra-successful products.

Spanca

5 years ago

David wrote

a) That's borderline racist
b) Nintendogs sold far more in Europe then in Japan

a) his comment had nothing to do with race, how is it even close to racist?

anyway,
b) Have they sold more per capita/DS owner?

David

5 years ago

Spanca wrote

David wrote

a) That's borderline racist
b) Nintendogs sold far more in Europe then in Japan

a) his comment had nothing to do with race, how is it even close to racist?

'Japs' is often considered a racist term. You're not allowed to list an item on ebay with the word 'Jap' in the title, for example.

Quote

b) Have they sold more per capita/DS owner?

Nintendogs has sold far more per capita in Europe then in Japan, and far more full stop. there are about 12 million DSes in Japan, and I think Nintendogs sold about 2 million there all up. Europe has around 8 million DSes, and Nintendogs has sold more then 4 million there. The US is lower - almost 7 million DSes have been sold, and only 1 million Nintendogs.

As for Brain Training/Age, it's only been out for a few months in the US and Europe, and I believe has sold almost a million in each, which is far more then it had sold in Japan in the first few months.

So yeah, they're not exactly a Japan specific phenomenon, since they're selling better in the west then in japan.

DancesInUnderwear

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

Also once people start using real photos of themselves as their gamerpic on Xbox live (when the usb camera is released here) then people will see how crap this Mii thing is!

They're going to allow you to use pictures as an avatar? Well theres an advantage for the Mii for me - I'd prefer not to see penises everywhere when I log onto a server thanks.

How are they going to police/restrict/etc the picture uploader / webchat camera? I could imagine it getting pretty damn ugly pretty damn quickly.

ugh the boot

5 years ago

Maybe I was a little hard on the Mii pics and stuff cuz I can see how people would opt for a little charicature of themselves as opposed to real photos (e.g the pics of the palgn staff are cool) but I still stand by Nintendogs being a Fad! Braintraining is great actually.

I'm actually surprised that Nintendogs sold so well in Europe. But why would people buy it, seroiusly? My ex had it because she wasn't allowed a dog but even she got bored of it after a month or two. Maybe people just wanted to see what it was i guess?!

Also Jap ain't racist only if you want it to be. And seriously you must be lying thru your teeth David about not being able to list items on ebay with 'Jap' in the description. There are hundreds of items....just look it up. Type "jap" in the ebay search bar...you'll get "jap ps2" or "jap version of game". Seriously stop being so PC and get on with it! I'm not a racist, far from it, infact my g/f's japanese!

Jellyfish

5 years ago

DancesInUnderwear wrote

ugh the boot wrote

Also once people start using real photos of themselves as their gamerpic on Xbox live (when the usb camera is released here) then people will see how crap this Mii thing is!

Only people on your friend's list can see your picture, and if you put anything undesirable. People will report you and you'll lose the ability to put pictures up or be banned from Xbox Live entirely.

David

5 years ago

ugh the boot wrote

And seriously you must be lying thru your teeth David about not being able to list items on ebay with 'Jap' in the description. There are hundreds of items....just look it up. Type "jap" in the ebay search bar...you'll get "jap ps2" or "jap version of game". Seriously stop being so PC and get on with it! I'm not a racist, far from it, infact my g/f's japanese!

I should have been more specific.

You can't use the term on USA ebay (where I sell all my Japanese stuff). When you try to list an item with the three letters j, a and p next to each other with a space before j and a space or punctuation after, it rejects the listing. You can get around it by not having a space at the start, but it's clearly meant to be banned.

Go on, seach for the term on USA ebay. You will not find it exept where people have 'cheated' (or in non-american ebay listings)

Here, I'll even do it for you:

http://search.ebay.com/jap_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8

Spanca

5 years ago

^ What?

Top 3 search results are:

USA Ebay wrote

Gunparade March Complete TV Series DVD Jap Anime New
Banner of The Stars II 2 Complete Jap Anime DVD Set
BN Eyelash Curler / Jap Design / Easy to Use / Makeup

they're search results from the American Ebay, citing listings from American sellers.

ugh the boot

5 years ago

That's all good....but we live in Australia.

But i'll do the right thing...if I offended anyone i'm sorry, didn't mean it in a racist way. I love Japanese culture....it just seems like the 'fad' aspect of it has gotten a little out of hand lately.

Spanca

5 years ago

I've never thought the term "Japs" to be derogatory. There is another word (beginning with N) that is such, but I've not heard it used very often.

David

5 years ago

Spanca wrote

^ What?

Top 3 search results are:

USA Ebay wrote

Gunparade March Complete TV Series DVD Jap Anime New
Banner of The Stars II 2 Complete Jap Anime DVD Set
BN Eyelash Curler / Jap Design / Easy to Use / Makeup

What the hell?

Ah, I see, they've got around it by listing in a new catergory that doesn't ban the term yet (they're listed as HD-DVD, even though they're just pirated DVDs). So they cheated, as I said.

Here'e the video game listings with the term, as you can see none are from America:

http://video-games.search.ebay.com/jap_Video-Games_W0QQcatrefZC12QQfromZR8QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsacatZ1249