The Wiis success, a cautionary tale for Sonys Ps4

Looking back on the most rousing success story in the history of consoles, the Wiis success caught everyone in the industry with their pants down, selling as much as 5 million units in a single month! A herculean feat.

But it was short lived, due to the lack of compelling software being made. Sure the wii had games, right out of the gate and right up until its quick demise, even third party developers were on board. But after a short time those games went from fun to familiar, to giving off an ever so faint whiff of urine in second hand bargain bins.

Its a similar narrative at the moment with the ps4. Sony fanboys are quick to assume the ps4 has ran away with the generation and its already over, but i say dont count your chickens, theyve got some slick marketing and its working wonders il give them that, but the "next gen" exclusives still havnt arrived..

Theyre leaning completely on 3rd party developers who arent even creating anymore, theyre releasing the same formulaic twoddle they did last gen only now its buggier than a meth addicts peripheral vision, and to top it all off are struggling to break even! What a bloody mess..

Honestly, i think when the curtain parts on the NX, so too will the assholes of Nintendos enemies.. Nintendo is going to greener pastures and everyone else will follow, yes even you ps fanboys, its ok don’t be scared Mario loves you.

Apples and oranges. The Wii was essentially a kitchen appliance, the PS4 is a game console for the core audience of gamers who built this industry.

Point in case. The "new gamer" that the Wii was supposed to create turned to their iPads even before the previous gen was up. PS4 is taking the formula that worked for PS1 and PS2 and marching to the endzone like Emmit Smith stiff-arming his way through a defensive end.

LOL

The PS4 is a traditional gaming console.

The Wii was a gimmick that appealed to casuals, kids and people who otherwise don't really play videogames (ie females).

How anyone could come up with this comparison is beyond me.

No, the PS4 is targeted as a console with a much higher skill floor than the Wii at people who flocked to the 360 and PS3 before it. The Wii was aimed with Iwata's mentality in mind of having a low barrier of entry and to target anyone who wanted to try a new medium besides books, television, and movies.

What people have already stated in this thread.

Not the same situation.

The PS4 is selling on fumes. Much like the Wii.

1. Sony's console doesn't rely on gimmicky controls
2. Sony's consoles have never relied on a short list of 1st party exclusive games with very little AAA 3rd party support
3. Sony's console is a traditional console with an established online service that appeals to a fairly broad audience across multiple territories

PS4 is for users looking for a new blu-ray player after their PS3 blu-ray drives crapped out on them. Wii U is for people looking for Nintendo games, it doesnt need such gimmicks.

Not the same thing at all. Are you grasping?

The Wii was a gimmick that a lot of non gamers picked up which inflated the impact of the console. Sony consoles generally sell well. It's a gaming console with the games that gamers want to play. They have both first and third party games.

The Wii was a gimmck that made people who hadnt bought a console in decades buy it. No suck luck with WiiU.

loll "females"

Umm. NO. Nobody is buying a $399 console in 2015 to play blu-rays. I've literally never played a blu-ray in my PS4. The only reason that existed for PS3, was because blu-ray players were $600 at launch, and PS3 was basically one of the better blu-ray players for the money when it launched. I used my PS3 like that for about a year or two, but it didn't take long to decide to get a standalone once those started coming down to $100. Nowadays blu-ray players are dirt cheap. so it's literally not even a factor.

lol no. The Wii was a crappy casual gimmick sold to grandmas and soccer moms. The PS4 is a traditional console with most of its fanbase being core gamers.

The Wii fad died because the market it was intended for moved on to tablets and smartphones.

Completely opposite scenario here. No chance that will happen with the PS4.

Yeah, females.

Girls, Chicks, Bitches, Broads, Dames, Coozes, Holes....

Pfft, Nintendo is done, NX will just seal the deal.

Question is where do they go from there? Dedicate selves to handhelds? Dedicate self to mobile free-to-play / pay-to-win games? Go third party for other consoles and PC?

Nintendo sure has a knack for being unpredictable, they'd probably go as far out there to release their games from here on out strictly for Apple rather than to admit defeat in the market and make games for former competitors.

Although Wii-bashing has become popular these days... I'd prefer the Wii over the PS4 any day. Sure, the Wii had a ton of trashy garbage shovelware, but it also had a lot of great games, certainly way more than what the PS4 has right now.

This is basically what i was getting at, its all hype it wont last much longer and they have no exclusives to fall back on, only a vr headset.

What scenario?.. Do you play online on consoles much? well over half the ps4 userbase are likely 10-15 year olds.. not saying you cant be hardcore about games at that age, but im sure there are plenty of old people that are hardcore too, not much else to do at those ages..

Wii sold like crazy but did not sell games unless they were Nintendo 1st party games.

PS4 sells like crazy and also sells 1st and 3rd party games like crazy.

Not the same.

I don't even think they can survive by just manufacturing handhelds.

Cell phones and tablets are the new handheld market.

They'll probably just be regulated to making software for PC, PS, and XB.

Maybe get into the toy market or something.

IDK

Thats good to know, my advice, dont play blu-rays or dvds in that cheap gimmick player, best to just buy a good one from the store for a little over a hundred.

None of that happened at all.

Please do research next time

This will be Sony's third win out of the 4 console generations they existed in the console market.

They're like a Dynasty.

@SonySoldier-_-: Theyve never beat a Nintendo handheld not once. Nintendo undefeated.

Nintendo is the console killer, they just straight up kill consoles. Vita was its latest victim.

Nintendo are planning to enter the mobile market. That will be their next target. It was big news earlier this year, as Nintendo's stocks shot up as soon as it was announced.

Sony is now tied with Nintendo for the number of console generations they won... We'll have to wait until next gen to see which takes the lead.

I have no interest in handhelds so i could care less.

"Nintendo is the console killer" umm yeah they're doing a good job killing themselves in the console market.

They may end up only developing games for handhelds and Mobile phones if this keeps up.

Honestly I think it's a shame because I enjoy Nintendo games as I grew up playing them.

@SonySoldier-_-: Their list of console victims is too great to even name. But yeah, i wouldnt worry about such things, the battlefield is a dirty warzone, victims left to rot, IPs with facial impressions that would haunt even the most seasoned of hearts.

Nintendo had it's ass handed to it by smartphones, they lost badly

Want to know how badly?

They literally changed their entire direction trying to save themselves by joining the mobile industry.

Your hero is dead, the only bad part is that the suffering wasn't longer.

"One is a traditional console"

"The Other was a gimmick that didn't last" ...

Neither have a future in gaming. "Traditional Console" ...

All this sales talk... and the PS4 offers one of the most lack luster librarys... this gen so far is worse than the last in terms of REASONS to own consoles.... their identity is gone, their limits get worse.

@Jaysonguy: What more can i say, phones are awesome, its a device for everyone. Nintendo wont die for a very long time, since 1800s in fact and yet they still be a kicking and still a killing consoles. RIP Sony Vita, welcome to the boneyard.

This is true. The Wii U being their latest victim.

You think that Nintendo has been making games since the 1800's?

I blame the public education system.

@Jaysonguy: Card games mate, cant stop wont stop.

As much as I would like to slam the PS4, it is no Wii. I said all along that first few years of Wii sales that it was a novelty. Eventually it wore off and people were throwing rocks at it.

The PS4 has a firm hold on what it is doing and I don't see any slowing down......................unless they perform a classic Sony **** up. That isn't out of the question yet.

As others have noted, it's all about the audience. How is this not obvious?

Actually, when the ps3 1st launched in 06, the next cheapest price for a blu-ray player at the time was 1000 bucks, also the ps3 came with an Ethernet port in which indicated that through software updates, it can get better. The 1000 dollar blu-ray player at the time didn't. This was 2 of many reasons why the ps3 was considered to be the best blu-ray player at it's launch.

You do realize that the Vita is considered a "handheld" and not a "console", don't you? Ever since Sony came into the gaming market with it's brand of consoles, the only gen that Ninty beat out a Sony console was last gen. The ps1 destroyed the n64, the ps2 mutilated the GameCube, and from the looks of things, the ps4 will be cremating the Wii-u.

@ermacness: Its a portable handheld console. Sony might have won a small battle in the home consoles race, but it has lost a major battle in the handheld business, they got kicked out, forced to abandon their platform. This is the ultimate defeat, some would even go as far as calling it a disgrace.

Who the hell cares about the handheld market? Its dying. Smartphones are going to eventually take over.

Nintendo is done.

@killonsight: You are absolutely clueless. The PS4 actually gets quality multiplats the Wii did not. It was a casual console for casual gamers the PS4 is not.

Looking back the wii was a rather good console. At the price I don't see why anybody wouldn't own one. Pretty great library with wii originals, a few great compilation discs, gamecube games, and a decent virtual console. Underrated system by gamers, imo.

I owned one...and it spend the majority of its life packed away in its original box. There may have been some good first party games on it, but they didn't amount to anything if you couldn't stand to use the wiimote for longer than 45 minutes at a time.

1st of all, do remember little lamb, that ninty always had a stronghold on the handheld market. Sony just introduced a little competition with it, and even though they couldn't stop ninty, they was obviously successful enough to release a newer version of their flagship handheld. 2ndly, to some (a very few) it may be a disgrace for sony in the handheld market but sony never officially triumphed over ninty in the handheld market (heck, to me they were never even competitive), but just stayed alive. Now ninty not only had dominance over the handheld market but for a while had dominance over the "console" market as well, but a little something called "The PlayStation" totally destroyed and disgraced ninty future plans for dominance in said market. Out of the 4 generations that sony was in a console gaming market, a ninty console only won in one of those generations. That, to me, is much more disgraceful than sony losing in the handheld market, especially seeing that it was ninty that screwed sony over initially, and it came to bite them back BIG TIME LOL!!!!

P.S. You deserve a massive LOL if you think that the handheld market is bigger than the console market. Even computer manufactures are building a type of console/PC hybrid to compete in the console market. Who else besides sony and ninty is making a handheld currently?

Thread bookmarked. Will bump the week NPD results are tallied for the month FFVII is released.

OP, you want to talk about hype, I don't think that word means what you think it means.

@bforrester420:

I didn't buy one till 2011/12. I'm simply saying it has some games. The wii originals are great and the VC emulation is some of the best--and the GC game AND controller support is a big plus. It's an easy way to get crisp images out of many old games.

As many units as it sold it maybe put nintendo in a worse position than they thought as the console really changed the public perception of the brand--wiiu turned out to be a very confused product because of this.

Another delusional topic.

Two completely different scenarios.

The wii fell off a cliff once everyone realized that the motion controls were limiting. That isn't the case with the PS4.

While the PS4 is selling largely on hype and expectations at the moment, Sony can still deliver on those expectations. If they do... The PS4 will dominate this console gen, and even likely pick up some of Ninty's fanbase if the NX flops. If Sony keeps on its current track of lackluster 1st party output, and relying on indies, then sometime over the next year, gamers will wisen up and move over to the XB1.

Nintendo doesn't have the options that Sony does. The whole motion control hype is gone. They've either got to get in the traditional console race, or relegate themselves to mobile.

The WiiU is struggling right now. The NX might be hostile if done properly at launch.

Agreed. When your console's best selling game is CoD: Ghosts, you should be at least a little worried about losing momentum.