If you have read some Wii articles before, read only the red text. From:
Nintendo's Wii flattens competition
Darren Bernhardt, CanWest News ServicePublished: Friday, June 01, 2007
The stratospheric rise of Nintendo's latest gaming system has been nothing shy of Wii-markable, flattening Sony's PS3 and charging after Microsoft's Xbox 360. The company is thriving in markets around the world. The Wii was the top-selling console system in Canada, the Nintendo DS handheld was the top-selling portable gaming system, and Nintendo held the top four spots for games (Pokemon Diamond Version DS, Pokemon Pearl Version DS, Wii Play, and Super Paper Mario for Wii) for the period of April 8 to May 5, according to the latest Canadian figures released by independent market researchers NPD Group Inc.
Nintendo boasted the same achievements in the United States while in France the 15 top-selling games are all for Nintendo systems. "We're ecstatic over the explosive appeal of Wii and Nintendo DS," said vice president and general manager of Nintendo of Canada Ron Bertram.
At the November 2006 launch of the Wii in Toronto, Bertram anticipated good things for the console and hoped for "a strong second place" showing. The actual success is beyond anyone's expectations. In less than five months since introduction, the company has sold six million Wii systems globally and nearly 29 million Wii games. The console has taken a step toward becoming a cultural phenomenon.
"Wii is selling out everything we put into the marketplace," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president and CEO of Nintendo of America, speaking at a conference in Seattle on May 22 to announce sales achievements and upcoming games for the company. The reason for Nintendo's rise is its approach to new consumers and giving them something different, said Fils-Aime.
With its innovative motion-sensing controller, Wii gamers get as close to the action as possible. Players swing the controller like a baseball bat or golf club, leap around their living rooms to make a backhand return in tennis, jab madly away at the air in a boxing bout, and point it at the screen to aim their weapons. Sitting on the couch and pressing buttons just doesn't cut it anymore.
The Wii remote controller is also simple to use. It's based more on gestures than button combinations, so there are very few gadgets on it, making it less intimidating to people who've never played games before. Nintendo has also taken aim at non-gamers with titles that veer away from the shooters and racers that appeal to males aged 18 to 35. "We're not just competing with Sony and Microsoft any more. We're competing with movies and other leisure activities," said Fils-Aime.
Nintendo began feeding non-gamers with Nintendogs, a non-competitive and quirky game that requires people to adopt, care for, and raise a computerized canine companion. It has since put out a series of puzzle games, and a collection of mentally stimulating mini-games to test thinking, memorization, analysis, identification and computation.
Consequently, "the market is changing in unprecedented ways," said Fils-Aime. "There's no question consumers are picking up a controller who've never played before. And these games are becoming a part of everyday life for many of them."
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