Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The Wii has comfortably outsold its rivals since it first launched, but it does lag behind in at least one other respect: the number of games sold per console. The low software tie-in ratio of the Wii is hardly a new issue, but it's one that shouldn't be ignored.

According to a new article in The New York Times, Wii owners typically purchase only 3.7 games a year, a figure that compares unfavorably with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners (4.7 and 4.6 games per year respectively). This, argues the article, is just one of the effects of the expanded audience that Nintendo has captured -- as the New York Times piece observes, most Wii owners seem to treat their console as little more than a Wii Sports machine.

There are solutions, however, with Wii Fanboy favorite Michael Pachter suggesting third-party publishers should adopt a different approach to marketing their wares. As Pachter puts it, "Advertising on GameInformer and 1up.com just isn't reaching [the expanded] audience."

[Via Joystiq]

The NY Times' Seth Schiesel recently had some very nice comments for Nintendo's Wii console, praising several of the console's titles, such as Wii Sports, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and Madden '07, stating that the fun factor of all these titles, as well as the console itself, is what sets it apart from it's competition.

"The Wii is about rescuing gaming from the clutches of the hard-core young male demographic that has dominated the industry's thinking for years. It is about making video games accessible again by providing a simple, intuitive, relatively inexpensive entertainment experience that an entire family can actually enjoy together. At that, the Wii succeeds admirably."

Schiesel also goes on to comment that however much fun the console is, it just won't work as the primary console for the hardcore gamer. With strong first-party titles behind them like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Nintendo is undoubtedly seeking that hardcore gamer. What do you guys think? Will the Wii forever be doomed to 'extra console' status and never get itself into the spotlight?