Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The gap between Wii and PSP sales is slowly but surely decreasing, making us wonder if the Wii might be able to overtake Sony's handheld once the Monster Hunter hype dies down:

• PSP: 89,884
• Wii: 67,308
• Nintendo DS: 51,228
  
• PlayStation 3: 8,054
• PlayStation 2: 7,464
• Xbox 360: 1,298

Yet, the true triumph for the Wii last week was in software. Nintendo scored big all-around, but the Wii claimed six of the top ten spots in the chart. Keep in mind, though, that all the Wii games that made it to the top thirty are first-party titles, with the exception of Deca Sports.

In other news, Smash Bros. Brawl managed to hop up five spots, showing us that it won't be disappearing any time soon. Meanwhile, Mario Kart is inching nearer to Brawl's total sales, making it a close race between the two games. To see how they're currently fairing against each other, just click past the break.

Every week, sales charts show us that Wii Fit is popular among Japanese gamers. To give you a sense of just how well it's doing, though, Enterbrain recently reported that two million copies of the fitness title have been sold in Japan. Matched with recent reports of six million Wii consoles being sold in the region, that means every one in three Japanese Wii owners bought a copy of Wii Fit.

It hasn't yet caught up to its Nintendo cousin, Wii Sports, which has almost reached the three million mark. Yet, keep in mind that 1) Wii Fit was released a year after Wii Sports and 2) Wii Fit is a lot more expensive; it costs more than a usual Wii game, while Wii Sports costs less than the standard. To throw in another interesting comparison, Media Create sales indicate that there are almost as many Wii Fit owners in Japan as PS3 owners (with the PS3 currently having a 50,000 unit edge).

While we find it unlikely that Wii Fit will hit the same one-in-three ownership ratio in Europe and North America, we have little doubt that the exercise software will do well in those regions, too. Let it be said that Nintendo definitely understands the casual market.



[Via NeoGAF]

Now that a weekend (and a holiday weekend at that) has come to an end, we thought it might be a good time to ask: when was the last time you got together with friends and/or family for a little group Wii gaming? Do you get together on a regular basis for a little Mario Kart, Smash Bros., or Wii Sports? Do you rarely play together with folks? We're curious about how much multiplayer action you're getting.

Ah, remember Link's Crossbow Training? The game that was bundled with the Wii Zapper last November (December, for PALs)? It was only released in Japan last week. If sales are any indication, though, Japanese gamers were clamoring for the goron-junk shooter rail shooter, as it claimed the third place spot.

Even so, Link had to hail to the king (baby), as Mario Kart Wii still dominated the charts. The other big news for Mario Kart Wii? It passed one million sales in the Far East, denoting its success. Meanwhile, Deca Sports clamored back into the top ten, but Brawl only slipped further downward, thus answering our question from last week. Also proving that the Japanese love their sports games for the Wii, Bandai Namco's Pro Baseball Family Stadium debuted at spot twenty.

The Wii triumphed in hardware last week as well. While the console continues to trail behind Sony's handheld, Wii sales went up almost 30,000 units from last week -- perhaps from the Link's Crossbow boost. Go on and check things out for yourself after the break, if you feel so inclined.

If you're in the gaming industry on the development end, odds are you've had plenty of meetings talking about the success of the Wii platform and how your company needs to get its own slice of the pie (well, unless you're Epic). EA has decided that they want a fairly decent slice of that pie, and are doing so with special Wii versions of their sports games. EA expects that sales of its sports games will account for $1.3 billion in its fiscal year (which just ended in March), coming to a third of their total revenue.

The model for them (like others) has been Wii Sports. Peter Moore, head of EA Sports, commented that EA has "no intention whatsoever of dumbing down the experience that we all love and that drives this multibillion dollar business ... we need to make sports games more approachable." He then comments how Wii Sports became so popular "and we saw that and decided we needed to redefine what our sports games were about." These new accessible Wii versions of EA's popular sports games will have an "All-Play" label attached. Moore explains it as "like how swimming pools have a deep end and a shallow end. EA Sports has really only built a swimming pool with a deep end. It's intimidating for a lot of people to jump right in the deep end. With All-Play, we're building a shallow end."

Maybe with all this Wii support, Reggie will finally send Peter one.

Mario Kart Wii continues to top the charts in Japan, but a lot of movement happened with the Wii's other software. Because a bunch of new games came out last week, Wii Sports, Deca Sports, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl were all knocked out of the top ten. We know that Wii Sports will return to top ten fame soon enough, since it always does, but we'll be interested to see whether the other two titles can pull that off as well.

On the hardware side of things, the Wii got sandwiched by the two portables as it jumped up into second place:

• PSP: 92,411
  
• Wii: 48,796
  
• Nintendo DS: 42,435
  
• PlayStation 3: 9,107
  
• PlayStation 2: 7,108
  
• Xbox 360: 1,283

To see the software sales, just bring your super smooth moves past the break.

NWF: Are there any that you've noticed that actually do make pretty good use of the controls?

JL: Well, Nintendo has done the best, because they had the longest time to work with it. Wii Sports is fantastically done ... in fact, I was talking to a Wii game developer, and apparently Wii Sports is so good that it's a problem, because people buying the Wii almost don't feel compelled to buy another game, so they're having a hard time getting people to buy their games. It's also hard to make a competitor. For example, if you're making a baseball game, you're essentially competing against Wii Sports, and that's a challenge. There were some games I saw in prototype form, and I don't think I'm allowed to talk about them, but there are some interesting things coming down the pipeline. They weren't "WOW, AMAZING," or world-changing, but they were much better examples of the controls than some of the things we've seen before.

NWF: Hey, that gives us hope! That said, I really just have one more question, and it's probably the one you won't answer.

JL: [laughs]

NWF: I've read in some other interviews that you have more projects coming. Can you give us any hint at all of what we can expect, or maybe when we'll see them?

JL: I've been really busy lately... [laughs] It's sad, because I haven't been able to do any work since December. I've actually been on my job search the past few months, and dealing with my job search and dealing with the attention from the Wii remote projects has consumed my extra time. And then I'm defending my thesis -- I'm graduating next week, so I've had to deprioritize making new videos. I do have a couple more ideas. I don't know ... it's hard for me to tell if people are going to get excited about them. There's also a closing window here. I don't know how much time I can spend on publishing these videos, partially because once I start employment, I may not be able to continue openly publishing and sharing these Wiimote videos. My hope is that I can, but I don't know. Maybe next week or the week after that, I can push out another video.

[NWF note: said graduation is now this week!]

NWF: Well, on behalf of our staff, and all of our readers, everyone wishes you the best of luck and probably thinks that, out of everybody in the world, you shouldn't need much of that luck. I'm surprised you even had to search for a job.

JL: Well, it's actually been a pretty easy search, and I had a lot of opportunities I didn't even ask for. And oddly enough, Nintendo was not among them. Nintendo never contacted me.

NWF: Never contacted you at all?

JL: Nope. It's okay. I don't think I'd actually want to work solely at Nintendo. I have a pretty diverse set of interests, only some of which are relevant to gaming, so working at a gaming company isn't very interesting to me.

NWF: Congratulations on graduating, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us during this busy time!

JL: No problem!

Now might be the right time to construct a bigger, stronger mantelpiece in the Miyamoto household, because Nintendo hero Shigeru Miyamoto has just won another damn award. This one comes courtesy of Japanese gaming bible Famitsu, which recently held its own awards ceremony in recognition of its 1,000th issue.

As Miyamoto picked up 2007's MVP gong and subsequently burst into tears on stage, it seems fitting that two of his most ubiquitous Wii creations also did rather well, with Wii Sports (not a pack-in game in Japan, remember) bagging the Best Hit award, and Wii Fit grabbing a trophy of its own for innovation. So congrats, Shiggy -- even if you don't return our daily letters asking to meet up IRL for a chat, some chamomile tea, and a round of Wii Sports tennis (he'd be really good), we still love ya!

The Wii had a good week in Japan, as far as sales are concerned. With Mario Kart Wii continuing to champion the cause, the little white console almost nabbed second place in hardware:

• PSP: 85,421
  
• Nintendo DS: 44,551
  
• Wii: 44,241
  
• PlayStation 3: 7,438
  
• PlayStation 2: 6,545
  
• Xbox 360: 1,076

Even in software, five of the top ten games were Wii titles. Wii Sports found its way back into the coveted ten once again, managing to coexist peacefully with Hudson's Deca Sports. Wii Play, meanwhile, performed the worst in relation to the rest of the Wii games in the top thirty, but still ended up in spot twelve.

Check after the break to see just how well Mario Kart Wii did last week in Japan.

Koreans really love free stuff! Then again, who doesn't?

This latest round of preorder incentives rewards gamers who've reserved Wii Sports with branded towels and Wii Remote cell phone straps. Unlike in the states, Wiis will not come bundled with Wii Sports when the console launches in South Korea on April 26th.

EA is also throwing in what looks like Brando's Crystal Cooler with every preorder for FIFA 08. The replacement base features a cooling fan and electric blue LEDs -- not too useful, but it's free, which automatically makes it a hundred times more awesome. Bring five bucks past the post break to get a look at the stand offer.

It looks like just the same old stuff for Wii sales in Japan last week. Wait a minute -- what's that, you say? Mario Kart Wii dominated Japan? Sure enough, sitting pretty at the top of the charts is Nintendo's famous kart racer, with almost half a million copies sold in its first week.

Despite the Mario Kart bump, the Wii only took third place in hardware. Considering that Japanese gamers love them some handhelds, though, that's not too much of a surprise. One little observation that may floor you, on the other hand, is that Brawl was already overtaken by Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G in total sales.

See it to believe it after the break.

Last week was once again all about Sony. Although Nintendo still had a good showing in the top thirty, there were only five Wii games in the software chart. Wii Fit continues to be the system's best-seller, but Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Deca Sports also made appearances in the top ten.

As for hardware, the Wii once again trails behind the handhelds, but leads the pack in home consoles.

Hardware:

• PSP: 120,964
  
• Nintendo DS: 55,190
  
• Wii: 44,618
  
• PlayStation 3: 11,303
  
• PlayStation 2: 10,423
  
• Xbox 360: 1,452

More numbers can be seen after the break!

For the first time in a long time, the Wii is down to having only five games in Japan's top thirty. As House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return fell of the charts in its second week and Everyone's General Knowledge Training TV disappeared after having a good run, only the regulars remain.

Deca Sports is the exception, being the only Wii title on the charts without either "Wii" or "Smash Bros." in its name, but even that is showing early signs of fatigue. While the game managed to nab the eighth spot and sell 29,000 copies, its Nintendo counterpart, Wii Sports, is nipping at its heels in spot twelve. This may seem insignificant, but keep in mind that Wii Sports has been out for around seventeen months, wheras Deca Sports has only been out for two weeks.

In the hardware department, the Wii got a beat down from the handhelds (especially the PSP), but still continues to do better than any other console in Japan. This week, for example, the Wii sold over four times the amount of PS3s, its closest console competitor.

Of course, you can just take a look at all the numbers for yourself by clicking past the break.

As you all know, we've had our eye on Deca Sports for quite some time. It really looks like a fun compilation of sports. But, to sway any doubt about the game's excellence that we may have had lingering around in our mind, Mike Samachisa, the head of Hudson Entertainment's console division, answered some of our questions regarding the game.

Why wasn't Wi-Fi support added? What made them go with this collection of sports? What sports did they have to cut? Which is better: Wii Sports or Deca Sports?

Head on past the break to get a better idea for what the present and future holds for Hudson's Deca Sports game.

Goodbye, Family Ski and Winning Eleven: Play Maker 2008 -- we hardly knew ye. While Family Ski enjoyed a seven-week run in the top thirty, Wining Eleven (aka Pro Evolution Soccer) only lasted for four. It's no coincidence that they fell off this week, though, as fifteen spots were taken up by new releases.

The big Wii dog in town was not Brawl (which ended up 7th), and not even Wii Fit (which ended up 5th), but new release Deca Sports. We can't help but wonder if the appearance of Deca Sports will have an effect on that other sports game for the Wii. Is there room for both on the charts? (We think so.) And will Deca Sports have the same longevity as Wii Sports? (Probably not, but we're sure the game will do well for itself.) It's also worth noting that Deca Sports had the third highest third-party sales debut for the Wiil, following only Dragon Quest: Swords and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles.