Is the novelty of Wii wearing off?

Despite it still being completely sold out in the US and UK, Wii sales are showing signs of slowing in Japan as players settle into Nintendo's new generation...

The initial hype generated by Nintendo's motion-controlled console was phenomenal. Forums erupted with Wii speculation, rumour and excitement, Gav was even live on Channel 5 News. Amazon.co.uk was completely overwhelmed when its entire pre-order allocation was sold within just seven minutes, and Wii's were flogged on eBay for as much as £900 - FIVE times the retail price.

[2tired2day2hate]

i've always thought that the wii was just a gimmick and the novelty will wear off. but i think its too soon to write it off. i hope it does get its faults exposed so people will stop praising a half-a$$ed product, but its doing so well right now.

plus i think people are a little too anxious to see it fail and are making a story out of nothing. its doing fantastic at the moment.

[eques judicii]

that the story is being fairly positive about the wii. It is saying how the wii is mirroring the ds is several ways and that there are a few great games expected later this year that could keep the wii going strong.

[TheMART]

"Sales of the PlayStation 3 and Wii new-generation consoles dropped for the fourth straight week in Japan, according to figures published Friday."

All hardware fell in sales. But still the Wii is selling at least three times more then the PS3

@ Kingboy

Listen buddy, go click the link and READ the source. I just copied it out of that source. So it's not strange bringing that up. It's more strange they specified the Wii in the header

[kingboy]

i knew u would bring the ps3 into this..geezz! ur sick mate,u might wanna check with a doctor.Well,and for the Wii it`s clear sales will drop even more in the near futur

[The great 1]

Your life is about as exciting as the lenth of your manhood which is not much lol haha. That's why you come on here to flame PS3, just admitt it you wish you had a PS3 loser.

[Shadow Flare]

Why do you do it? This article has nothing to do with the ps3. You still have to include it though. Im starting to think all those FPS's on the xbox have made you into a lunatic. A deranged psycho who twisted on degrading the ps3 all he can. You've gone loopy in the thinktank Martyr. Your avatar is dissing sony, every comment disses sony...GET A LIFE you mental! The great 1 is spot on with all his comments

[Marty8370]

PS3 is out selling the X360 by 3/4-1 every week in Japan.X360 is last get over it,it always will be.

[CAPS LOCK]

this article is making sense, i have noticed this in all the major stores like HMV, GAME and Virgin mega stores. there isn't a drought anymore and people by know have finished zelda and pulled a few muscles on wii play, i also heard that the wii can't handle 480p? so hmm i think nintendo really just want profits straight away, i think they sense that they wont be the winner in this generation either...also there is a lack of third party support...i hope it does't go the same way as the gamecube did.

[ChickeyCantor]

there is a wii shortage, and people still want one.

[BIadestarX]

The wii will eventually get old. Nintendo will continue to bring 1st party games that will make wii owners happy, but sells will eventually slow down. Once the wii-mote no longer WOW people; gamers will be left with inferior graphics, party games and kids entertainment while the XBox 360 and the PS3 will be bring games like Halo 3 and Metal Gear.

[Bathyj]

I'm surprised it took this long. I'm not going to knock the Wii in a malicious way but theres alot I don't like about it. First of all I think the popularity of the Wii has been confused with the popularity of Zelda. 99% of the people who bought a Wii got it for Zelda, me included. Nintendo made it really hard to get the GC version. Limited number released. In Japan it was only available to buy online. So pretty much they said, "You know this game we've been dangling in front of your nose for 3 years, yeah well, you need to buy a Wii to play it." Not entirely true, I know, but not exactly a lie either. Then theres the rest of the games line up. Are there seriously any good games on this machine besides Zelda? Wario? Is every game on Wii going to be a collection of mini games just for the sake of waving your arms around? Ports are out. Any port is going to look better on the other machines and the control will be tacked on. Games need to be build from the ground up with Wii in mind but even then, do we have to wave and jump and dance about just because we can? Is this going to be a good idea in EVERY game, or just the select few where it actually works well? The most fun I've had so far on Wii is the Virtual console and even thats a bit of a sore point for me. First I had to pay $40 for a LAN adaptor because I dont have wireless. You have to buy it directly from Nintendo as no shops sell it. Then you down load the game at nearly $15 each which is a little pricey I think but fair enough, if you want it you pay for it. Then of course you cant play them with a Wii-mote so I have to pay another $30 for a "Classic" controller which pretty much says to me "Yeah, we know the Wii-mote doesn't suit a lot of games so we'll sell you this separately." But the biggest screw job is the Classic has to plug into the Wii-mote so if I want to play MarioKart I need 4 Classics and 4 Wii-motes including my LAN adaptor that comes to about $350 to play a bit of Kart with 3 mates. Plus $400 for the Wii in the first place and all of a sudden a grand for a PS3 doesn't look so bad. I didn't really want to bring PS3 into this arguement but at least theres a dozen good games for it when it launches here. I know you can use GC controllers on VC games but they dont all suit very well either. Try playing Super Mario World to see what I mean. You have to hold the X button to run fast and press B to jump and its just uncomfortable. Thankfully the Classic is alot better (and it is a nice controller, in fact its the best controller Nintendo have ever had IMO). Also, is it just me but none of my 3rd party GC controllers work on Wii, only the official ones. Thats a bit rude as well I think. Nintendo just keep squeezing me for every cent.

[Maddens Raiders]

for the 8 wii fans on this site (without a parent filter) to really tear into you bladestar. I brought some similar views like the one's your expressing to a wii thread about a week ago and got eaIten alive by those 'kids'. I gotta say fanboys are rabid bloodsuckers whether they have and HDD or not.lol and that certainly proved it to me!
I'm not trying to be mean; I just don't see the wii going deep into the rotation here, but if it does -- hey more power to Ninty. I believe the hazy love affair is wearing off. The motion-sensing gimmick, the kiddy games, lack of HDD, poor vc online offerings and late nineties graphics are big, big turnoffs. 'Hard-cores' run from the wii and & may fire it up between monster gaming sessions on the 360 or PS3. I know that Ninty will support this system even if every single game is made by Ninty, but how do they expect to compete with a section of their own market which is literally pulling light years away from them (in e-years) on a daily basis? Look, I grew up playing Nintendo until I couldn't see anymore as a kid (I suppose like everyone else my age did) -- but it's like Ninty is now saying "look, look at us -- we're first out of the gate with this new, cheap machine with a motion controlling wand and we're Soooo fast..!"

--And to boot it's as if they don't realize the other players (MS, SNE) in this race with ample stores, plenty of oxygen and energy reserves to die for are growing and evolving by leaps and bounds with storage, visual and audio quality, Hi-Def everything, etc....o_O.

Nintendo would be wise to crank up the attention on it's new titles and how it's going to "continue" to try and bring not only the CaSUAL (I hate that word) gamer in, but also the hard-cores as well. New games - availability of its system at this stage of the game? Am I going to play elebits for 8 hours straight like Resistance or Gears? NO. Is wii sports really supposed to satisfy grown men? The people don't even have arms & legs for Christ's sake. Ahh...Just my take. Life's too short to flame. =]

[Bathyj]

Sorry, alittle more to add that I forgot. Everyone keeps saying how they cant find a Wii anywhere, as if to prove they sell out instantly. My local games shop which is the biggest of its type in my state hasn't recieved a shipment since it launched in December. Early December. Is this normal in other peoples areas? One more thing and I'll shutup, promise. Nintendo fans have always gotten upset when you call their machine a "Kiddy" console. Dudes, I know quite often the graphics can hide the underlying, more mature and sophisticated aspects of the gameplay, but can you really blame people for thinking that? I mean every game Nintendo release looks like a cartoon. Look at all the material they always use for promotions. Its always Mario or Link or Princess Peach. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. Nintendo know where their bread gets buttered. But getting upset because someone calls Wii kiddy is like getting upset because someone says Xbox has a lot of shooters.

[SamusA]

This article was pretty fair, more so than the title would make you think. But Wow, it's amazing how the haters come out when they even think their biased view against the Wii is being validated. Look, even we nintendo fans are surprised by how awesome the wii turned out. It's just a lot of fun, get used to it. All this sniveling about the VC or being "gimmicky" or "kiddie"... it's just sad. The lenghts you have to go to come up with something show how ridiculous your arguments are. Anyone who actually owns a wii knows these comments are as baseless as the idea that the original controller strap somehow forced me to throw my wiimote through my TV.
But what about the haters who note problems with wii's they own? There are two posibilities: Either they don't really have one, but are making things up in a vain attempt to tear down a console that already has a huge base and is still going strong, or, much more likely, they actually have a wii (because no one who enjoys gaming could pass up the deal), but are pretending they don't love it in public to keep their XBOX/PS3 street cred. It's OK. The wii doesn't require your public approval, and it obviously doesn't need any help selling. As for the others...

[FeralPhoenix]

They have enjoyed major launch success and still going strong yet still most people believe in the end it's just a kiddie console. Unfortunately the writing is on the wall...its considered a kiddie console because it has a abundance of kiddie games, the hardware isn't as sophisticated as its competitors, and its named the "Wii" for god sakes, Nintendo I love you, but come on why didn't you stick with the ultra cool name "Revolution"? -noooo Ninty that was just too mature so you had to find the cutest lil nickname that furthers the kiddie reputation which they say isn't fair because its for all type's of gamers, really?...but if you keep reading the writing on the wall, you will see Ninty's biggest hurdle is 3rd party support, which seems to be fading, I mean honestly I read alot of gaming news from all sources and I hear dev's announcing alot of new projects for everything but the Wii....of course Ninty will have the great kiddie games, to be fair I think they have 1 or 2 exclusives for older hardcore gamers to enjoy....but I just don't like most of their game selection now....either way I do wish Ninty good luck, having more competition is always good.

[Torch]

At least definitely so on a personal level.

I acquired both my Wii and PS3 early on, approximately one and three weeks following launch dates, respectively. Prior to actually getting my hands on either, the bulk of my excitement and anticipation was focused almost entirely on the Wii. As a matter of fact, I hadn't even expected to purchase a PS3 until I was fortunate enough to come across one at my local EB Games.

Once I had both, however, a strange thing happened: My little white box got less and less attention, while the PS3 just kept growing on me more and more everyday. As of late, I've been using the Wii primarily for weather updates and to surf the net.

Please understand this: I love my Wii, and I'm absolutely content with my decision to purchase the cute and cuddly little machine.

But that's just it: Cute and cuddly.

In the beginning, I (and all those around me) played it to death (Wii sports, Zelda, Trauma Center, & COD3). But after a while - and primarily as a result of having access to the more-powerful PS3 - when it came to game-time, I found that I had less and less time for my Wii.

The novelty, quite simply, has just wore off.

After having both for almost three months, I'm comfortable to compare the Wii to a Mini Cooper or a VW Bug: Addorable, and an absolute blast to take for a spin once in a while. But for real thrills, chills, and well-roundedness, you've simply gotta opt for a more expensive and powerful set of wheels (i.e., PS3 or 360).

If your situation allows it, it would be ideal to have one from each class. If not (which is more likely the case), I'd highly (but somberly) recommend that you overlook the Wii, and save your money for one of the two big boys from Sony or MS.

[Mishmash19]

Last month I went out and purchased a Wii for one of my friends. I waited out early in the morning at Circuit City with a few other people hoping to get one. The store had 16 so we were guaranteed one. When I was talking in line to a few people, a couple told me that some retailers do have Wii's in stock, maybe 3 or 4 in the back but will not sell them to customers until they get more supply in. I went on a Sunday morning so the new ads come out for retailers. They just try to have as many Wii's as they can for that advertisement. Plus when I was calling around to find out when shipments would arrive, some stores such as Wal-Mart and Target sadi they haven't had a Wii shipment in about 3 weeks. So the sales decline could be that they still don't have enough out for demand, not that the novelty is wearing off.
However I have played the Wii a few times and it is fun. But to me it just doesn't keep me into it after a while. I played a few games for it and it is fun to me for only a short time. It just doesn't have my type of games. I have a PS3 and they have more titles that are appealign to me coming out, as does the 360. It just depends on your game preference I belive as to which system you want. Now I loved teh Nintendo 64 and thought Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time were some of the top games that I have ever played, but the two newest games in the Mario and Zelda collection alone won't make me purchase a Wii. I guess I will ahve to play them to get a feel and maybe my opinion may change, but I do see the novelty wearing off unless they come out with more better games.