THQ predicts strong sales for Nintendo Wii

Dean820

THQ CEO Brian Farrell has predicted healthy sales for the Nintendo Wii, confirming plans to release additional games for the console next year

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Good news for us Wii fans, eh?

0ubliette

The GC sold pretty well initially too, if i remember right. But strong sales dont really mean much unless you have the software to back it up, which the gc didnt really have. So lets hope the wii can sort its sh!t out on the games front.

thebman

The Wii's advantage is that it is about half the cost of the competitors for developing a game for it so they will like that idea.

It has the potential to make developers a lot of money so they all want it to do well. Now its up to consumers to decide if its what they want from gaming.

projectmayhem

brim4brim wrote:

The Wii's advantage is that it is about half the cost of the competitors for developing a game for it so they will like that idea.

It has the potential to make developers a lot of money so they all want it to do well. Now its up to consumers to decide if its what they want from gaming.

it's also half the cost to buy a console for consumers, and cheaper to buy games (assuming retailers don't go off profiteering)... but all these are initial reactions to a new machine. it could well pan out that the games lack a lot of depth compared to ps3 and 360, so we will see.

Ciaran500

projectmayhem wrote:

it could well pan out that the games lack a lot of depth compared to ps3 and 360, so we will see.

Cause a different controller is used?

flogen

projectmayhem wrote:

it could well pan out that the games lack a lot of depth compared to ps3 and 360, so we will see.

You can apply the same rule to every single game or console that hasn't been played by the general public, or even critics yet.

I'm suspicious about a lot of PS3 games that they'll be poor games that look nice, just like a lot of the 360's launch titles (and some of them didn't even look that nice IMO), but that's another matter.

I'd say strong initial sales of the Wii isn't a big prediction to make; it has a relatively low price point, Nintendo have plenty of stock ready (or they say they will), it's been getting a lot of press in both the mainstream and gaming circuit because of curiosity towards its control system etc. and, for Europe anyway, it's the only new device on the market this year.
As already noted, the GC sold very well at first, fastest selling console at the time I think, but it couldn't back that interest up with solid titles from 3rd parties... let's hope Nintendo have learned their lesson this time.

tba

Predictions are all big steaming piles of mutant horse poo, until proven as fact.

projectmayhem

Ciaran500 wrote:

Cause a different controller is used?

no no, i mean for example, you get stuck into GTA4 on your 360 or PS3. it looks great (i'm making assumptions, i know) and believable, you can interact with characters and it has a long and winding storyline with a totally interactive environment (physics and what not). the Wii simply won't stand up on its own next to that, at all.

Ciaran500

But that gulf has nearly always been there between PC and console games, I don't remember having any trouble getting into console games because of the graphics.

projectmayhem

Ciaran500 wrote:

But that gulf has nearly always been there between PC and console games, I don't remember having any trouble getting into console games because of the graphics.

my argument isn't just on graphics, but i'm far too lazy/tired to actually type it all out now. but the gulf between PC and console in the past, and present has always been bridged by the fact that consoles are always only one step behind. HL2 was stunning on PC, but MGS2 was just as stunning on PS2.

crysis will be stunning next year on PC, but MGS4 or Halo3 will be stunning on the consoles. i can't see any games on Wii being stunning. fun, great & innovative, yeah. stunning? not so much...

flogen

projectmayhem wrote:

my argument isn't just on graphics, but i'm far too lazy/tired to actually type it all out now. but the gulf between PC and console in the past, and present has always been bridged by the fact that consoles are always only one step behind. HL2 was stunning on PC, but MGS2 was just as stunning on PS2.

crysis will be stunning next year on PC, but MGS4 or Halo3 will be stunning on the consoles. i can't see any games on Wii being stunning. fun, great & innovative, yeah. stunning? not so much...

What do you mean by stunning? It's a pretty loose and subjective term.

thebman

projectmayhem wrote:

my argument isn't just on graphics, but i'm far too lazy/tired to actually type it all out now. but the gulf between PC and console in the past, and present has always been bridged by the fact that consoles are always only one step behind. HL2 was stunning on PC, but MGS2 was just as stunning on PS2.

crysis will be stunning next year on PC, but MGS4 or Halo3 will be stunning on the consoles. i can't see any games on Wii being stunning. fun, great & innovative, yeah. stunning? not so much...

I think you overestimate the importance of stunning games. People will go wow for 10 minutes and then get over it. Incredible graphics are nice but I've played on 360 and the games I've played have not been stunning so far. Disappointing for a next gen console. I was playing in HD before you ask and it was Dead Rising, Pro Evo and Call of Duty 2 that I played. None of them look spectacular.

As for things such as physics/numbers on screen etc.. Wii will do what all machines do and sacrifice some graphical abilities to achieve this if neccessary.

Also nobody really knows what Wii is capable of. All we have are launch games which always seem to look like crap (360's line up, PS2's line up etc..) and the term twice as powerful as GC is as meaningless as 4 times the power of Xbox or PS2 for the other consoles. These terms are not based on facts and any actual benchmark performance is unlikely to be fully achieved in games anyway as these multi-processor architectures are extremely complex to develop for.

Huge graphical increase to photo-realism is hype. We've not seen a single game approaching it yet and I doubt we'll see it during the life span of the consoles. They'll get close enough to say they've achieved it maybe but they won't achieve it. Everything looks like last gen with a bit of polish, better lighting and slightly more detail is all next gen brings.

Wii just isn't quite as much polish. It will hold up aswell as PS2 did to Xbox IMO. PS2 was really far behind by the time 360 was released but it wasn't enough for people to justify spending the extra money on it.

Not saying Wii will sell well but I don't think any argument on power or capabilities like Bluray will have a significant impact on the sales of the consoles. People will buy consoles for a game that is released that they really want to get. Best marketing & games wins. Nintendo are in a good position but they all are if they do a good job marketing because they all have must have titles.

There is no science to console sales. Consumers will make their minds up and anything could be a spanner in the works. Wii's lifecycle is most likely 5 years like every other Nintendo games console (I think).