Wii...world leader of Next gen consoles. No lie.

[Razer]

-from Cubed3.com

"Wii Becomes World Leader? Xbox 360 Toppled!
By Adam Riley (jesusraz)

Various sources are keeping a close eye on how each of the current generation of home consoles are doing in terms of sales around the world and now it seems there is a new market leader! Check out these rough numbers below for Wii and Xbox 360:

Wii

* Australia - 138,192

* Europe - 2,870,000

* Japan - 3,424,139

* Canada - 313,956

* North America - 3,615,000

TOTAL: 10,361,287

Xbox 360

* Australia - 195,056

* Europe - 3,250,000

* Japan - 402,381

* Canada - 403,500

* North America - 5,950,000

TOTAL: 10,200,937

So not only has Wii now surpassed Microsoft's hardware, which was out a whole year before Wii hit the market, but apparently the same source believes Wii could have hit that majestic 10 million mark before the 360!"

Now these are only estimated sales figures guys, and as close as the figures are it's definitely not official. However, since you're comparing the Wii at 9 months old to the 360, I feel the gap will only get really larger during the Holiday season when the Wii makes a bigger impact in the US.

[RivaOni]

But look at the figures for the 360 and wii in Japan, thats a HUGE difference! So its unsuprising.

Fair play to Nintendo for selling so many systems worldwide, but at the end of the day, whats available to play on it thats more of a gamers game at the moment? Super Paper Mario (in the US anyway), Metroid, Zelda and Resi 4............. 4 whole games, the rest being party/mini games and the sort of games we've seen push the DS. Hardlly a stellar line up.

[BK]

The reality is that it's only outselling the 360 in Japan and by a large enough margin that the total sales makes it seem like it's a worldwide figure.

Never thought I'd see the day when I'm disagreeing with Riva, though. Working in the gaming department at Best Buy I've witnessed that those party games are being snatched up by even the hardcore gamers. The Wii is probably the best system to own for when your friends come over and everyone wants to play a game. And don't forget to give Mario Strikers a chance.

[Shino]

Actually BK, it's outselling the 360 in every territory. Difference is it hasn't been out long enough for it to catch up in every territory. The fact that the 360 is doing so poorly in Japan is the reason that the Wii is the worldwide leader now, but it's only a matter of time before the Wii has outsold the 360 in every territory.

I have to say I'm with BK on the games though.

I have a number of those casual games. They are just fun to play when people are around.

[Girkon]

[RivaOni]

Oh, the casual games are selling like crazy, but if you look at the largest criticsm aimed at the Wii, is that "it has no games". Thats not to say theres nothing being released for it, but the money at the moment is in casual games, stuff like Warioware, Cooking Mama, Trauma Central, somrthing that you don't have to dedicate time to to get everything from it. Which is fair enough, theres room for that in the market, as the Wii and the DS have shown.

But, as things stand, out of the 4 games that I listed, Europe has 2 of them......... Zelda which came out on launch day 9 months ago (?) and Resident Evil 4 which came out 4-6 weeks ago (just a guess there). Everywhere I look I see people complaining about their Wii's collecting dust, maybe this is just a European thing, because of how poor the NoE release lists are. Most of the 360 games come out here at roughly the same time as they do on your side of the pond, and since it launched in March here after a delay I think the PS3 is in the same boat. Where as Metroid doesn't currently have a PAL release date I don't think, and we're getting Super Paper Mario next month, right in amongst all of the big huge heavily marketed titles that are coming out between Autumn and Winter. Not the best time for Nintendo to put out a game thats hoped to be their next big hit, but has so far only had a handful of previews and no marketing drive behind it what so ever.

I'm not in anyway calling the Wii a flop, certainly in terms of hardware sales its not, but software, it's very rare to see a game in the top ten, and why would that be? Because the people buying the games aren't those that buy them regularly, which is not what third party publishers want to see.

And BK, over here, people don't generally go round each others houses to play games anymore, thats frowned upon by anybody over the age of 13, unless its FIFA or Pro Evo (soccer games), instead the youths all gather down the local parks or side alleys or whatever drinking White Lightning (a cheap, but incredibly strong cider) or beating some poor sap up, while once you hit 16, most are trying to work their way into the towns bars and pubs to get pissed on whatever they can buy and then scrap in the street over some tart with chlamidia........

[Legend]

This is completely off-topic and random, but Riva, I had to put in that I adore you for using the word 'tart' and it may have to replace 'bugger' as my current overused Britishism.

Also-- I think the Wii is going to storm all over the US market for one reason alone- kids. The Wii is -fantastic- for kids, and cheap. And mommy and daddy are much more likely to buy a game console that has more kid-friendly games than anything, and won't drain their pocketbooks. Especially as people are (slowly, but I think surely) getting into the idea of actually paying attention to what games they get their kids and all that jazz. I don't know if it's the same in the UK, but here in the US, I can definitely see that being a huge issue.

[RivaOni]

Tarts the only way to describe alot of young British girls now, they might aswell sell themselves, there'd be a bit more respect aimed their way.........

anyway, back on topic...

The Wii is most definetly a great system for kids, I've always reccomended Nintendo products over any others when it comes to buying games for kids, they're just that much more family orientated, and having a child of my own, I could never knock them for that!

As for people watching what their kids play, unlike in the US a game has to be seen by two or three governing bodies, depending on its content. ELSPA which is for the whole of Europe, but the ratings they give a game only act as a reccomendation, PEGI who put a big age rating on the front, but again, is only a reccomendation much like your ESRB ratings, and the BBFC which I'm sure you may have heard of due to Manhunt 2, who only take a look at cases where games have recieved a rating of 16+ from PEGI iirc. Now these will rate a game at either 15 or 18, or ban it, and these classifications are law, if anybody is caught selling a game to anyone below these ages they will receieve a £1000 fine, and the store will be heavily fined too. I think the same goes if Mummy buys GTA for little Timmy. Not that it stops them.

I really do hate the scum that populates this country (christ, I'm sounding like a really bitter Englishman these days )

[Razer]

[RivaOni]

I'm not saying the things not selling, and the software numbers are different here due to us hardly getting anything over here for the Wii.

No the money doesn't spend differently, and I'm not on about the system not just appealing to me. I'm also not saying its bad for the industry, its getting more and more people into gaming, thats a good thing, maybe the likes of the BBC and Daily Mail will take it a little more seriously due to that.

But at the end of the day, their hardly appealing to the gamers that have stuck with them so long. As you pointed out, Wii Play is still selling, maybe its because of the bundled remote, doesn't matter, you've labelled it as a tech demo, now how many Wii games that are on the market fall into that catergory? Quite alot I'd say, surely thats not a good thing as people will begin to think "well aint this the same as Wii Play? I'm not paying £40 out again for that".

Mind you, this is the same people who go into GAME and buy FIFA, Pro Evo or the latest GTA clone every week.