Finally, someone speaks rationally about the Wii.

To me, the Wii hype seems exactly the same as the Gamecube hype from years ago, but that system didn't go on to set any sales or marketshare records, instead suffering an embarrasing defeat to the Xbox.

The gameplay was there for the Cube, and it will be there for the Wii, but I don't see how any rational observer of the industry can expect the Wii to do any better than the Cube did.

Wow, another doom and gloom editorial for Nintendo. What will you surprise us readers with next, gaming media? Why the gaming media further fuels this "graffix = gameplay" BS is far beyond me, but it would be nice to see someone play the other side of the fence casting Nintendo in a good light for once instead of this negative tripe all the time.

In closing, the Wii will outsell the 360 and the PS3 this Christmas and will continue to do so for many years for many reasons. Didn't you gaming media idiots learn anything from the PSP-DS fiasco? Better graphics and a more expensive system doesn't automatically mean you are some big winner. Treat Nintendo like Disney.. Each with their own cast of characters that can they can sell every single time and make a profit. Why would Nintendo even *care* about Sony or MS seeing they are doing just fine and show zero signs of slowing down? But yeah keep up with the doom and gloom guys.. I won't read this stupid website again with it's graphics whore focus.

Very nice truth to power essay. I guess you and I are in the minority thinking that Nintendo may exit the console market. Keep up the good work and give us a different voice than this ubiquitous fanboydom that has dominated the launch run-up.

@ Dognose--

Sarcasm. Learn it. Love it. Develop the ability to detect it.

Jeeez, GSW has a graphics whore focus? I'm hard-pressed to think of the last GSW piece that mentioned poly counts or Frames per second as something insanely high or seriously lacking. I guess we're lucky that most of the fanboys stay around "nintendo can do no wrong" sites.

But I liked the piece (and for the record I like Nintendo for the most part) but I too am wondering about how successful the Wii will be down the road. Yes, lots of Wii hardware will sell but how much software over time? I mean I love my samba de amigo maracas for my dreamcast, but guess how often I play with them? While the Wii will definitely have some some fun experiences, but how many of them will be fun to repeat? Red Steel looks pretty fun and interesting but how many other action games down the road, which will likely do exactly the same thing, be? While this is true for every platform and many game types, I wonder if the more physical element of the Wii will bring this issue more clearly to forefront. Lately, Madden has been effectively the same game year after year, but EA slaps something on it to make it seem different...with the Wii version, I don't know what they could slap on it to make it really different year to year.

And while the causal market offers much promise, they aren't the most free spending lot out there...although the ability to download old Nintendo games for $5 might appeal to them as well as the more old school hardcore.

But given the business model Nintendo is using, they are not going to be losing money off the Wii, but if I was a publisher, I wouldn't be banking on the Wii to be any more financially successful for third party publishers than the Gamecube was. The hardware base may end up being a mile long but I've got a feeling the demand for software is only going to be an inch deep after the launch frenzy settles.

The PSP's graphics are significantly better than the DS, but no one can argue which is more successful. Why? The DS has games that can be picked up by non-gamers.

As much as we gamers like to think we drive the console market, the true deciders are the people who *aren't* gamers. Look at the sales for every new Madden / NBA 2K rehash.

Consoles can be as sexy as they want, but sex appeal doesn't give them staying power- Brain Age does.

There's no point in arguing guys, this is Buzz Berkeley, and he knows best. The Wii is doomed. On launch day I'm going to buy it from GameStop and then trade it right back in.

@Dognose:

PSP/DS comparisons don't help here. Nintendo has routinely crushed its competitors in the handheld market by offering a wide variety of software, and batteries that last long enough for a road trip.

In the home-console market, Nintendo has historically lost market share every generation after the NES. There is no reason to expect things will turn around now, especially with Nintendo completely abandoning the Hardcore Gamer market.

There may be new people attracted to gaming because of the Wii, but it won't be enough to make up for the loss of the hardcore crowd.

Gee...are you actually being paid to write this kind of trash?

Well GSW, it is not late...FIRE THIS GUY and send his resume to Sony's PR dept.

And they said that with age, comes maturity...

Just one reason to stop reading GSW.

In a shade of seriousness, this is the sort of thing people said about the DS. Exactly what they said. My friend said "too gimmicky" to me on the Orange Line in Boston on the way to Good Times Emporium to play DDR and Tekken. And in a sense, yes, it is.

But it's one of the best gimmicks ever.

And now the Wii is brimming with gimmicks.

I've got a gimmick for you. It's called a "mouse." It's the same as using the arrow keys to move your cursor, but it's... a "mouse."

This is all very true, but then you get the people who dont care about popularity and who are nintendo fanboys who will buy their console no matter what they put out. What will probably happen is the adults that do not care about popularity will be the biggest crowd of wii owners, and the kids and teens where popularity is everything will stick with their xbox 360s and ps3's.

I hope this is all true because then the wii will have a nice price drop since it wont sell much after the holidays, which means i will be able to purchase it cheaply like with the gamecube, there is also the nice potential to pick up a hardly used console on ebay after everyone gets bored with the wii and the usual game drought occurs.

Heh heh heh. You can certainly tell most of the people here aren't regular Buzz readers. ;)

It's a joke, folks, lighten up. Come on, the paragraph about the Spanish didn't give it away?

LOL...c'mon guys..can't you smell the sarcasm?

He's actually using tongue n' cheek method to tell you that the Wii will pwn.

I can't believe some of the comments I'm reading...

Are you all really that dense? Are you that incapable of picking up on sarcasm? Or are you all part of some sarcastic conspiracy that I failed to notice.

Geez, and you people actually agreeing with this obvious satire--are you really so shallow minded as to believe that Buzz was upholding your arguments? Agreeing with your asinine assertion that substance matters less than appearances? That profit is worth less than popularity? You people are crazy stupid.

I don't mean to flame, but my jaw is literally on the floor right now. Stupid, stupid, soul-shatteringly unsmart! God damn!

oh wow at first i was like
this does not make sense..!!
but then i read it again and read these posts....
now i can see the sarcasm

i have noticed somepeople try to make themselves think better graphics are all that mattes
this guy at school was getting a ps3 and i asked him
he said that it had the best graphics
and i asked how that made it better
and he said it just is
i think the wii will change that

whoah whoah whoah somebodys crying out for extra traffic

LOL!!! Only a few understood the sarcasm in the article! haha.

Buzz is basically saying Wii will rule and PS3 is the suxors.

I'm not surprised the haters are praising what they think is another Wii hit-piece to justify the $600 price of "potential". I just love the fact that they are making themselves look like the asshats Sony fanbots are... I see that sarcasm is lost on you people. Go Nintendo! indeed....

"In fact, in 2006, didn't Nintendo bring in $840,842,000, compared to Sony's Games Division's loss of $233,000,000, for a difference of over $1 billion in Nintendo's favor?" To these people I say "You obviously don't know much about business."

At this point my sarcasm detector bleeped!

This is a great and funny article!!!

A decent satirical article, and it raised an interesting point in my head.

Given a little bit of thought, Nintendo's swing toward the user experience is actually a really shrewd long term strategy. Graphics are great and all, but some games are so fast paced that the raw beauty of the graphics almost completely escapes meaning.

A level in, say, Call of Duty 2, can and probably will be sprinted through by gamers specifically because that's the way the game was meant to be played. In a way, that makes it self-defeating to go the extra mile to detail the world, especially when all that effort makes for maybe 10% of the overall experience.

my god.....this guy talks the biggest load of **** ever!!
i have been with the gaming industry since the start!!! i worked for atari and nintendo in the 90's!!!!

i know what will sell and what wont....and i wii will dominate atleast until the next nintendo console comes out...the ps3 is designed to last 10 years or so....it will be outdated in 6 max i say!

nintendo wil come out with a console with amazing HD graphics AND the amazing gameplay....and once again nintendo will rule the market

ZOMG ARE ANY OF YOU LISTENING?
SARCASM!

What an IDIOT. Why would anyone buy a pretty game that you can't play? I wonder is a Sony Rep, or maybe peter Moore wrote this article.

Dear buzz, Mexico isn't the only spanish speaking country in the world...

South american countries are generally poorer, so they cant buy many videogames and havent got their own game divisions. That's it.

Also, I live in Spain, and here, DS is hugely outselling PSP, so Nintendo continues ruling in handheld market.
And although currently sony rules with ps2, the percentage of gamecube owners here is bigger than US or Japan's.
And well, Xbox's don't even exist here. And dont talk me about 360s...

I don't understand why there's still people comparing the Gamecube and the Wii. The only thing they have in common is that they were both made by the same manufacturer but, apart from that, they are completely different from each other. Their age target is different, the concept behind its invention was different, the hype before their launch is different, the feedback from game publishers is being different...

I believe in the Wii, I think it's a winner. And I think that there will be much more people impressed with its gameplay than people impressed by the PS3's graphics!

LMAO, I love how Sony's bitches immediatley start agreeing with this guy, because they're too stupid to realize this article is a joke.

The part about Mario in spain was hilarious.

Wii will make a joke out of PS3, just like DS did to PSP.

Yo know how this reads? This reads like a: I have been insulted by someone and now my hatred focuses towards Nintendo because that someone likes this company...

Like a 5 year old kid. I, for one, dont care about graphics. I play Games for more than 15 years. I never played because of graphics. I still play Mega Man 3, Super Metroid, Resident Evil 2! Because those games are FUN! Not Realistic or HD! FUN!

Let me spell it out slowly for those of you in the special learning class:

S

A

R

C

A

S

M

Got it?

Steve, I believe we agreed to keep private history private. If you want to go public with this again, I'm game. Are you ready to lose your job again? What will this make, the fourth time I've gotten you fired? Fifth?

I came from Go Nintendo, and I loved this article.

"Motta is a name you can trust!"

Had me rollin, man! Favorites adding comencing.

Sir Buzz, I understand the sarcasm in your article, but Nintendo is huge in Mexico

Most GSW article comments ever!

Hehe...

Buzz, I've never read your articles before, but I am going to have to start.

I don't know if you intended to laugh at all the ignorant replies to this, but whether you did or not, it is brilliant.

Can't wait for the Wii. Just like DS, time will tell.

Also: You have a great birthdate! Heh...

...seriously hilarious.

Does sarcasm make the Wii not suck all of a sudden?

Maybe my 44 year old sister will like it.

Maybe her 12 year old daughter will want one.

But until I hear someting convincing that makes it sound like I will actually have fun playing those games....I'll have to decide between a 360 or a PS3.

I like the Disney analogy. Disney makes movies that are mostly for kids. Ultimately the movies all have recycled plots and juvenile themes that make them fall flat despite innovative production and presentation. Every once in a while you have a winner (like Tron) but it's mostly designed to make a profit off kids and old ladies. I'm not going to pretend that I'm the target audience and spend $250 on a fancy paperweight.

You know, the more comments I read, the more I'm convinced that this article wasn't really about the Wii, that instead it was meant to expose the irrationality of fanboys on both sides of the aisle.

That PS3 fans can read this and claim that it "speaks rationally about the Wii," and Wii fans are actually retaliating, implicitly acknowledging it as an argument, proves to me that the videogame world is just polarized as the political arena in this country. Both sides are so heavily entrenched in their ideologies that neither will ever budge, logic be damned.

If at this point you honestly believe that the Wii is going to bomb, then you're blind. If you spend your day constantly railing against people who believe that, well, you're insecure, and also blind. And you all have reading comprehension issues, but honestly, who reads anymore, anyway?

*laughs at himself*

This is a big day for 'BUZZ' Berkley. XD

36 replies. Not bad for someone from Lacuna, IL.

what the author of this article fails to realize is that this new controller interface made by nintendo could very well be an industry standard for future gaming generations. he dismisses nintendo's ideas as gimmicky. do you think MS, or sony don't already have plans to try and make a controller of this kind for the next gen? you don't think sony is already including touch screens, dual screens and microphone input on their next psp? as for sony having a lifespan of 10 years. come on now, you know MS and nintendo will come out with their next gen in 5 years, and without a doubt would make sony look dated in technology. don't believe for a second when a company says they know what people want 5 years from now. 5 years from now there will be new technologies, and innovations to implement into game systems, that we cannot forsee at this moment. who could have foresaw nintendo's 3D motion controller 5 years ago? be real.

Classic.

Not only does this article appeal to my sense of humour, but the comments have achieved that rare status of being equally hilarious.

Joseph Berkely I have never heard of you before today, but you are clearly an author to watch. I salute you.

Yours sincerely,
An unbiased gamer

The same PSP-DS story...

But I don't care, because videogames are not ruled by these people. Wii... I mean.. we, the mass market, define the winner.

Do any of you read each other's comments? Let me spell this out for you:

THE WRITER OF THIS ARTICLE IS BEING SARCASTIC!

This is somewhat clever attempt of the writer to reach out and point out the ironies of Nintendo failing with the Wii, and that's because the gamers are idiots. I think I agree with him.

"Nintendo has never been successful in any Spanish speaking country."

Nintendo is still HUGE in Mexico, even if there's no official mexican representation of Nintendo here (I believe there is a Sony México and some sort of Xbox México).
The problem has been that all (most) games are in English. I've noticed that the Wii website has got an LA division where the thing is in Spanish, that's a good step forward for Nintendo.

A few words for you:
Mario brought us out of the video game drought in the early 80's! We are about to enter another era of that, and this time around Nintendo sees that fact, and is doing things about it NOW!

Read only the bolded parts if you can't see sarcasm...

horse power = succes (according to you)
Look at DS vs. PSP
thankyou

While I agree (disagree?) with the sarcastic stance in general, one thing that should be taken into account, is that in terms of us gamers, popularity probably does count more than profitablit, at least somewhat.

Nintendo is not going to stop making consoles. They're not going to go out of business. However, if you want the huge large library, last generation, Nintendo was not the place to go. The PlayStation 2 had that, quite hands down in fact.

This is, because of popularity. You get the installed base you get the games. Simple as that.

HOWEVER. Any comparison of the consoles that simply states as a fact that the PS3 will have the same sort of library should be dismissed out of hand. Why? Because we don't know what the installed bases are going to be. And quite frankly, the chances that they'll be anything similar to what the current bases are is silly.

I don't think it's too hard to believe that by the middle of next year, Nintendo may have the highest installed base and the highest attach rate. That's going to be damn seductive for third party publishers.

This article is hilarious! Thanks for introducing me to this guy!

Thankyou all for giving me an ass laughing read at work on a friday avo in oz.

Made my day :)

guys I don't get it is this supposed to be sarcasm

Hi Buzz! Loved your column, as always, you are absolutely right, or as we call you in my country "El Buzz" cause we don't use "The" in spanish. Don't know why. I blame the spainards.

Anyway, you got your facts right, señor Buzz, except that in México Nintendo has always been huge, in spite of extremely shitty and awful third party companies selling nintendo products at twice the suggested retail price (when we are lucky).

Last time I checked NPD numbers, Nintendo was leading here, and Club Nintendo, the mexican sister mag of Nintendo Power, was for at the very least a decade the best selling magazine of ANY TOPIC in the country. Right now it's still doing fine, even tough these days it sucks a ton, but not as good as they did during the N64 days.

Oh, and BTW, I am a mexican and I have a Sega fan site because I'm a rebel. Yes!

I read this article. I did read every ones comments. I crossed over to this site from reading an article from an old man named Bud...Steve... no wait, it was Buzz Yea. Buzz. Wait. I went to Sumo, then now back to here. But any ways Fizzle...Buzzz has a case for certain.... quit fluent in manipulating everyone as he took great pleasure in his "masterpiece". He's Cognitively Irresponsible. Deserving? The crafty and proud even crucified their King..., Do I think he should be fired; Wii Wii I do. At any rate. I can hear you moan like an old cheese Goat, "Don't Do this".. but I truly hope that everyone that posted here, takes the time to go back through all the comments, and pay attention to what some are taking great pleasure in at your and their discretion. I'll even fill you in. It has nothing to do with gaming. Unmasking; things are always ugly on the insides.

Wow.. this article is fantastic! I found it amusing and knew that the point was a good one from the "You obviously don't know much about business."

I am a very dedicated fan on the big N.
I used to love sony but now times have changed,
In my opinion i see it ass this

Sony = Bad
N = Good
Xbox = neutral

I dont blam the partys that make the games, but in fact the son company thereselves.
There stratagy is almost doomed to fail unless they do something.

heyas! Im a huge fan of sony! This guy is right! The graphics of PS3 kill wii hands down! The gamecube died and this will to ^_^!
Sony is so smart!

Hello, im am typeing due to I, Highly disagreeing in this.
This persons veiws are not nogical, and i know.
I never played a video game in my intire life. I played with my son and such but very rarely. After i tryed the Brain Age game, my veiw's change.
I would like to point out to the solid fact that sony is very much a computer and i have one, aswell as my son.
Thus, we do not need another one. I saw this web page opened if your wonderfing why i am replying anyway. But listen from someone of an older age group. Nintendo is focoused on fun. And i am haveing a great deal of it.
This is my first comment about video games, and i hope that you like it alot.

i do believe that nintendo is lacking in many areas but i also believe it will win this console war. nintendo will have amazing hardcore games and will be creating new genres that are not possible on other consoles. each to his own.

Again, great article Buzz. After reading it again (still very fun indeed) you DO have a point: most gamers are just STUPID.

And don't know how to write.

And don't know how to read.

But mostly they're just stupid... and too many 10 year olds have access to a computer and the internet.

Over 10 comments explain that this article is satirical and completely sarcastic (heck I made one comment about it already)... and yet the others don't READ THE COMMENTS THAT ARE ALREADY IN PLACE REGARDING THIS ARTICLE ABOUT IT BEING SARCASTIC BEFORE POSTING.

Kids nowadays... they're just... STUPID.

Did this article really go over so many people's heads?

How embarrassing.

To Jessica, graphics do not matter in a console war...

who here is buying a wii?

my point exactly.

You forget that Wii is a console reflection of the DS. PS3 = PSP. Which of the handhelds has the most compelling games? How will it be any different with Wii?

If everyone cared about the best graphics, they all would have bought a Gamecube last gen.

Jessica, are you for real? It's getting to the point where even I can't tell the difference between sarcasm and plain old dumbassery.

Christ, woman--is that what you really believe?

I am not dumb! Wii will lose! Its only 2 times powerful then the crapcube. And besides, the controller sucks! All you do is wave your hands like an idiot! So you'll look dumb playing it. On the ps3 the graphics beat the crapcube .5 and you look cool playing it. What are you going to choose?
Ps3 of course, i meen, look at wario ware for it then look at killzone2, it looks real! Wario looks like an nes game dur!!
Ps3 is also bigger then wii by far, and a motion controller too, far more creative then the crappy ass wii, you dont look stupd playing it either.
So what do you think now!? ^_^

You people... ugh... get a high school edumacashun or a GED or something...

The article is positive.

Thank you buzz for another entertaining article.

Your dry wit never ceases to amaze me.

Let me also say that I believe the vast majority of comments here prove Buzz' entire article.

THis is why I get all my news from the Game Watch Set. It's not like Gamefaqs, where they got tons of reporters but there all biased and cant spell, or that Gamasex place where the name seems all dirty but the stuff they write is all boring crap about muddleware and some country named Euro. Here we got Simone to give us the most new 3D0 news and make sure we know which realm is winning in Second Life PVP. And she don't take no crap from whinnies who can't admit how Nintendos gonna be six feet under in a PS3 box after throwing there controller out with the babywater.

2 words, Wii tottaly sucks!
Why waste your time with it! Ps3 is going to cream it soooo bad with its freakin blueray!

I'd post something intelligent to debate the worth of the Wii in the console wars, how it's great and innovative, but I think a lot is said already in the content of what has already been written by those that favor the PS3.

quote: "2 words, Wii tottaly sucks!"
That would be three words and you spelled totally wrong (but that's not as big of a deal, we're not all grammar nazis).

quote: "All you do is wave your hands like an idiot! So you'll look dumb playing it. On the ps3 the graphics beat the crapcube .5 and you look cool playing it. What are you going to choose?"
Do you go outside just to lean against the wall and smoke a cig to look cool? Because even if you you do look good doing it, you're still getting cancer. It's about the content. I'm playing my game system because it's fun, not because I look good doing it.

In the end do these bias even matter? Just buy the system that will be fun to play. If you're not a marketer for the company you favor then stop abusing those that might not want the system.
I might consider the PS3 at one point, but for now I am just going to buy what is most appealing to me-and that would be the Wii.

Dude what are you on!? The Ps3 has B L U E R A Y!!!
It looks better then wii!
Wii is for 3 year olds and is to small.
Dont buy it buy playstaton3

Jessica, you are a retard.

You state that the PS3 is better in so many ways, without justifying yourself. You need to base your statements on something.

You can't even spell. It's obvious that you're an obese child.

If graphics mattered so much, why didn't the Xbox win the console wars last generation?

The PS2 had the worst graphics in the last generation, so you're contradicting yourself. Why? Because you say:

"Ps3 of course, i meen, look at wario ware for it then look at killzone2, it looks real! Wario looks like an nes game dur!!"

If graphics were better, you wouldn't of bought/liked/admired Sony beforehand. And you criticise Wii because the graphics are worse than the PS3's.

Remember the Gamecube? The graphics are better than the PS2's. Are you dissatisfied with the cube? Yes. So you cannot hold a questionable argument, when you contradict yourself.

You probably don't even understand me because you're such a retard. But to show others how much of an idiot you are, you're the only person who keeps posting shit about the PS3 (which aren't logically presented).

You also go so far as saying:

"Ps3 is also bigger then wii by far."

That doesn't make sense. Everyone I know would prefer a smaller console over a bigger console. Why did the PS2 Slim replace the PS2? That's right, idiot.

And you state:

"...and a motion controller too, far more creative then the crappy ass wii, you dont look stupd playing it either."

That doesn't make sense yet again. By saying "too", you have forgotten the words 'which was copied of Wii's original gameplay mechanics'. And then you go so far as to so it is more creative? So 6 axis is better then 360 degrees of motion sensitivity with depth perseption and rumble?

Yeah. You're an idiot. You need to learn how to place a comment without looking like an absolute ass. Congratulations though, it's a rare sight.

Is it that us non Sony fans are just so incredibly more intellectually advanced that we can see sarcasm when they cannot? I realized that this article was sarcastic when I read the freaking title. "Nintendo's Fatal Success". The phrase Fatal Success kinda gives it away, it's kind of like an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp except that 'fatal success' doesn't actually exist and was coined by the author to emphasize sarcasm.
At some points I was actually laughing when I read this article because it was so incredibly obvious that he was sarcastic. If this is normal for this site, count me in. For the rest of you, have fun when we stop caring about your ignorance and just ignore you ourselves.

Still searching for the few, the humble, the intelligent Sony fans.

P.S. upon further review of Jessica's posts I'm not even sure that she/it could be serious ( 2 words...) and may be sarcastic yourself or just trying to pose as a Sony fanboy negatively but actually is not. Else, see above.

Yeah, I'm pretty positive that Jessica's pulled a fast one on people like me. I'm humbled to say the least--well played, Jessica.

I should of guessed earlier to be honest. After all, I'm really a hardcore Sony fan pretending to support the Wii myself.

Blue ray > humanity FDW!