Despite having the worst games (average), Wii is still the best-selling console.

Found this article which questions why Wii is selling so well despite having a lower average in review scores than PS3/360, and I thought it might be interesting to bring up in here.

The average of all Xbox 360 reviews cataloged on GameRankings turns out to be almost 70%. The same number for the PlayStation 3 is over 73% and for the Nintendo Wii... 64%. A picture says it best:

(It's zoomed in which is why it looks like the difference is huge, but it isn't a huge difference).

Anyhoo, why do you guys think that the Wii is the best selling console despite having the worst games according to the gaming community?

Obviously it has the most casual appeal and the best price of the 3 which is of course helping sales, but is it possible that once the PS3/360 prices start to drop to a more casual-friendly price that the Wii will be forgotten? Or by that time, will the Wii have gotten a better average of reviews in games and start to have the best sales and the best games?

Is it possible that reviewers just don't know what makes a good Wii game, and that is resulting in the low scores? What do you guys think?

OMG 6%!!

i thought it was worse

Wii = cheapest console to develop for

Cheapest console = shovelware central

It's not hard to see why the average review scores are so low. :/

OMG 6%!!

i thought it was worse

JuarN18

Lol that was my exact reaction, System Wars makes the Wii look like the worst console in history.

We need to put to rest that it's the price that is selling the Wii. Does it help? Certainly, but we have to realize that people are willing to pay extra to get one.

And the answer is simple. The motion controls. That's all we need to know. People want the Wii because of the motion controls.

As for games, 3rd party devs dropped the ball with the Wii and that's why they released so many ports to try to cash in. They're starting to come around now that it's obvious the Wii will outsell the other two.

The Wii is the biggest selling console. For each generation, the console that sells the most gets more shovelware than the others. This happened to the NES, the SNES, the PS1 and the PS2. That doesn't mean the Wii doesn't have a lot of good games, it just gets more shovelware than its competition.

It would be interesting to see how that chart looked during the last generation. I bet the Gamecube and the Xbox had better averages than the PS2.

True story:

I was buying no more heroes today, and some european sounding guy came into the store looking for wii's to use for some sort of physical rehabilitation program. I also imagine that any student studying surgery would want to try trauma center on the hardest difficulty

The wii truly has every market covered, even ones we didn't know existed

Was kinda hoping people would focus on the last part: "Is it possible that reviewers just don't know what makes a good Wii game, and that is resulting in the low scores? What do you guys think?"

Imo, a lot of the "big" games of this gen are fun for a while but ultimately overhyped (a good example is AC), while a lot of the Wii games, casual or not, are fun if you take into consideration how Wii is supposed to be played. I mean, something like Wiisports, you don't play that everyday, you'll get bored. But if you play it once in a while with friends, like it's meant to be played, it's great.

That's how people should review those casual games but they review them like they review SPM, or MP3...

Probably not making any sense, but that's my thoughts on this.

Most people don't have time to play all the games that come out.

For example, I have 10 good games on Wii (a few still unfinished) and there are still a few games I'd love to own and plenty coming out in the future.

I don't care if the average is better on PS3 or 360, because I don't need to buy bad games.

Also, Wii has a ton of games out for it, alot of people trying to cash in on Wii's success.

For a couple of reason

1- Casual Appeal
2- CHeaper Price Tag
3- The best first party developer with Galaxy being the highest rated game this gen, Metroid Prime 3 being AAA, Zelda being AAA, Paper Mario and Fire Emblem being AA with Warioware as well. ALl this by gamerankings and metacritic ofcourse.
4- Most of those bad games, are shovelware and not the big hyped games any of the hardcore gamers bought a wii for.

True story:

I was buying no more heroes today, and some european sounding guy came into the store looking for wii's to use for some sort of physical rehabilitation program. I also imagine that any student studying surgery would want to try trauma center on the hardest difficulty

The wii truly has every market covered, even ones we didn't know existed

GunSmith1_basic

My cousin is doing her internship at a hospital and bought a Wii for those games. Obviously they're nothing like real surgury, but she loves em.

Was kinda hoping people would focus on the last part: "Is it possible that reviewers just don't know what makes a good Wii game, and that is resulting in the low scores? What do you guys think?"

Imo, a lot of the "big" games of this gen are fun for a while but ultimately overhyped (a good example is AC), while a lot of the Wii games, casual or not, are fun if you take into consideration how Wii is supposed to be played. I mean, something like Wiisports, you don't play that everyday, you'll get bored. But if you play it once in a while with friends, like it's meant to be played, it's great.

That's how people should review those casual games but they review them like they review SPM, or MP3...

Probably not making any sense, but that's my thoughts on this.

the-very-best

Was kinda hoping people would focus on the last part: "Is it possible that reviewers just don't know what makes a good Wii game, and that is resulting in the low scores? What do you guys think?"

Imo, a lot of the "big" games of this gen are fun for a while but ultimately overhyped (a good example is AC), while a lot of the Wii games, casual or not, are fun if you take into consideration how Wii is supposed to be played. I mean, something like Wiisports, you don't play that everyday, you'll get bored. But if you play it once in a while with friends, like it's meant to be played, it's great.

That's how people should review those casual games but they review them like they review SPM, or MP3...

Probably not making any sense, but that's my thoughts on this.

the-very-best

Was kinda hoping people would focus on the last part: "Is it possible that reviewers just don't know what makes a good Wii game, and that is resulting in the low scores? What do you guys think?"

the-very-best

[QUOTE="GunSmith1_basic"]

True story:

I was buying no more heroes today, and some european sounding guy came into the store looking for wii's to use for some sort of physical rehabilitation program. I also imagine that any student studying surgery would want to try trauma center on the hardest difficulty

The wii truly has every market covered, even ones we didn't know existed

TacoJelly

My cousin is doing her internship at a hospital and bought a Wii for those games. Obviously they're nothing like real surgury, but she loves em.

Anyhoo, why do you guys think that the Wii is the best selling console despite having the worst games according to the gaming community?

the-very-best

Well, the PS2 probably also had the worst average game score for its gen, and we all know how that sold...

Anyway, obviously, the best selling console is going to attract the most shovelware. That's how shovelware companies stay in business.

I don't see why I should care about bad games.

Either way the Wii can definately stand it's own between the other two consoles when it comes to exclusives (the reason why people buy a console in the first place).

honestly, i've just accepted the fact that the wii appeals to people who simply dont play many games.

To them, it doesnt matter if a game sucks from a critical standpoint, they couldnt tell a good game from a bad one anyway. all they care about is wii fit and rock band.

Wii = cheapest console to develop for

Cheapest console = shovelware central

It's not hard to see why the average review scores are so low. :/

metroidfood

I was going to reply to this, but it looks like you've already nailed it.

Well, what do you expect? The most popular console always get the most shovelware, same thing happened to the PS2, but I don't recall anyone complaining. As for the other thing, I think that in a sense, reviewers should be looking at Wii games in a different way. Some of them play so differently (Endless Ocean for example) from your "normal" game that reviewing it by "normal" standards is completely redundant.

Not saying that the Wii has the best games (I at least don't think so) but a console is measured in its best games not its worst games.

The reason the Wii is outselling the other consoles is because it appeals to a larger demographic.

For example. If you had a product and I told you to go sell it to these 10 people. Then I told you to go do the same thing but you get 100 people to sell it to. Your obvioulsy going to sell more in that 100 person group. It just has larger appeal.

I don't see why I should care about bad games.

Either way the Wii can definately stand it's own between the other two consoles when it comes to exclusives (the reason why people buy a console in the first place).

Gunraidan

honestly, i've just accepted the fact that the wii appeals to people who simply dont play many games.

To them, it doesnt matter if a game sucks from a critical standpoint, they couldnt tell a good game from a bad one anyway. all they care about is wii fit and rock band.

JPOBS

I suppose the Sheep here don't play many games.

I bought 10 Wii games (with VC) last year... I def don't play games.

Found thisarticle which questions why Wii is selling so well despite having a lower average in review scores than PS3/360, and I thought it might be interesting to bring up in here.

The average of all Xbox 360 reviews cataloged on GameRankings turns out to be almost 70%. The same number for the PlayStation 3 is over 73% and for the Nintendo Wii... 64%. A picture says it best:

(It's zoomed in which is why it looks like the difference is huge, but it isn't a huge difference).

Anyhoo, why do you guys think that the Wii is the best selling console despite having the worst games according to the gaming community?

Obviously it has the most casual appeal and the best price of the 3 which is of course helping sales, but is it possible that once the PS3/360 prices start to drop to a more casual-friendly price that the Wii will be forgotten? Or by that time, will the Wii have gotten a better average of reviews in games and start to have the best sales and the best games?

Is it possible that reviewers just don't know what makes a good Wii game, and that is resulting in the low scores? What do you guys think?

the-very-best

a quick glance at that picture could lead one to believe that ps3 games are reviewed 3 times better than wii games

turns out, they cut it off at the 60% mark (i know you clarified this, but still)....that makes that picture very misleading......which leads me to ask, why even cut the picture off at 60% at all? why not show the full 100% figure? that would give a much better indication of how wii reviews actually stack up to 360/ps3 reviews.

a jump from 64% for the wii to 70% on the 360 is not all that huge, considering all of the shovel ware the wii gets as a result of it being the most popular console. the wii really doesn't have that much to worry about.

Was kinda hoping people would focus on the last part: "Is it possible that reviewers just don't know what makes a good Wii game, and that is resulting in the low scores? What do you guys think?"

Imo, a lot of the "big" games of this gen are fun for a while but ultimately overhyped (a good example is AC), while a lot of the Wii games, casual or not, are fun if you take into consideration how Wii is supposed to be played. I mean, something like Wiisports, you don't play that everyday, you'll get bored. But if you play it once in a while with friends, like it's meant to be played, it's great.

That's how people should review those casual games but they review them like they review SPM, or MP3...

Probably not making any sense, but that's my thoughts on this.

the-very-best

All that shovelware is truly saddening :(

But the wii still has great games that are out and are going to be released so all the REAL gamers ignore the crap (ninja bread man ect ect) and get the good games like SMG and NMH