I have read a few articles recently that have stated that the Wii is nothing more than this generation's Hula Hoop. While I guess I know what they are saying, I obviously disagree with them.One of the main reasons I disagree with them is the Nintendo DS. Back when this portable system was launched, it was scoffed at and only bought by extremely hardcore Nintendo fan boys and by parents who didn't understand or were just to cheap to by the PSP, which at the time was the front runner. Message boards all over criticized Nintendo for it's approach to their next portable system and claimed that the touch screen was nothing more than a gimmick. Sound eerily familiar? When the DS was launched there was a huge sales surge and while it was popular for a while it soon died down and it seemed that Sony was poised to take over the portable market just like they took over the console market. Fast-forward to now and look at the sales of the DS verses the sales of the PSP. The PSP has 24.70 million units shipped worldwide as of December 31, 2006. The DS has 35.61 million worldwide as of December 31, 2006. That's over 10 million more. The DS has seen this recent surge largely due to the surge of good games; games that actual used the touch screen well after initial complaints that some games used it horribly. I must say the DS looks like a good purchase to me right now. What does the PSP have?... GTA's? PS2 ports? There isn't much right now. In short PSP = PS3, and DS = Wii.
Before the Wii was launched, it didn't garner much respect from the gaming community, and I will admit to originally being on the PS3's bandwagon. Then more details where revealed about the Wii and it's games, soon followed by the details of the PS3's availability which lead me to the glorious conclusion of getting the Wii. I got up early on launch day and went to the local Best Buy and managed to get a Wii pretty easily, which I had expected. I got Wii 67 out of 102 possible Wii's; the last ticket given to a buyer was given to a guy who walked up at 8:45... the store opened at 9:00. As the days went by after launch day, I began to see reviews of the system online and the games and the articles raving about it and the articles bashing the PS3. I soon realized how lucky I was to have gone out and gotten one right away. However the thing was it was not that hard to get one. Most of my friends who went out to get one on launch day did in fact get one. Compare that to the PS3's launch where you had to camp out for ridiculous amounts of time to get one for sure. Now the tide has turned, I have had five different opportunities to purchase a PS3. I have passed all of them up and surprisingly money was actually not a factor, I could have scraped the money together (600 dollars is still way to much.) I was expecting to be able to walk into store now and see the shelves lined with Wiis, which is simply not the case.
Many people will also claim that the Wii is like the Gamecube (the most portable console ever) because of the lack of third party support. While many third party companies were with the PS3/360 at the beginning, the strong launch of the Wii seems to have convinced them otherwise. Furthermore "Third party developers didn't receive proper Wii development kits too long before the consoles release. With the average game taking well over a year to make these days, we should see an influx of third-party releases -- developed specifically on Wii kits (not GameCube placeholders) -- rushing to Wii later this year and in 2008.*" The main reason that companies didn't believe in the Wii was because of the failure of the Gamecube. The Cube had no third party support and it's first party was very weak. Wind Waker was a miss for many fans as was Super Mario Sunshine - they where both good games but they definitely did not reach the high standards that where set by previous installments. Now look at all the reviews for Twilight Princess and the initial reception of Super Mario Galaxy.
Another thing that is forgotten when people consider what console to purchase is the Wii's Virtual console. If the future Wii games are lacking people will always be able to download old classics that where not lacking from the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and TurboGrafx- 16. On top of that the Neo Geo and MSX have games available for download in Japan and they have been first to get everything meaning America should soon follow. Not only will you be able to download old games but some companies have hinted that they will release brand new games exclusively on the VC.
The Wii is more than a 250 dollar hula hoop. The Wii is definitely here to stay and I predict it to win this generation's console war. We have seen Nintendo take this approach before and succeed; they do know what they are doing. The Xbox 360 will stay on top for a while because of the massive head start they got, but the Wii appeals to all gamers and will have games for gamers of all ages. The PS3 is for hardcore gamers and the 360 is for cheap hardcore gamers while the Wii is cheap and for everyone.
*http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2007/02/19/
is_the_wii_another_hula_hoop.html
Editorial By: Dan
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