Nintendo's primary business is games. Their secondary order of business is... printing money. And lots of it. The Nintendo Wii is a lot like the old guy in old karate movies. He just lays back, seemingly outclassed by more powerful opponents. Then all of a sudden, he takes everybody out in one punch. The Wii is clearly less powerful than Sony and Microsoft's giants. Yet it has been able to outsell them both constantly. Why? I was under the impression that bigger meant better. Multimedia gaming consoles with internet access, downloadable content, and HD graphics are the future. Maybe not. The Wii is so dominant for a few reasons. The most obvious is price. It's about $100 cheaper than a Xbox 360 Premium bundle. However, with recent price drops between the 360 and PS3, this is slowly becoming less of an issue, especially when you factor in the quality of games. The Wii may be a lot cheaper, but what about the games? Truth be told, the only games that are hits on the Wii are from first party publishers. Some examples are Zelda, Paper Mario, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii in the future. The third party publishers shell out either mediocre or just plain bad games. The average number of Wii game purchases is about 4 games a year. The reason for this is probably name recognition. Nintendo managed to target people who aren't really gamers, and made them into gamers. And who doesn't know the name Nintendo? Instead of entering a death match for first person shooter superiority, they laid back and got the family together. A lot of people who buy Wii's aren't really that knowledgeable about the video game universe and what makes a great game. They just want to swing that Wiimote and have fun. They aren't so hung up on reviews and scores like hardcore PS3 and 360 gamers. Nintendo sells games to people who won't judge them for bringing out less than stellar games, and will keep coming back for more. Brilliant.
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