Source: infendo.com

That’s in billions, folks — more than all profitable public publishers combined. It won’t soothe your hardcore-loving, first-party heart, however. Via Edge

Source: infendo.com

That’s in billions, folks — more than all profitable public publishers combined. It won’t soothe your hardcore-loving, first-party heart, however. Via Edge

Source: infendo.com

I’m reading a really good book right now, called Predictably Irrational. The first chapter is about how we humans tend to assign “anchors” to things, like price, and how we start to base future decisions off of our first impressions, even if at second glance those decisions start to look pretty stupid (I should probably dust off my copy of Strunk and White, too, after re-reading that double negative headline).

After reading analyst Evan “ZOMG the sky is falling” Wilson’s NPD analysis this morning, I’m beginning to understand this irrational “Wii bubble is about to burst” mentality that still grips the entire industry, even today. The only test that was failed this week was the one Wilson took when he wrote that research note.

For the uninformed, Wilson said this: “Boom Blox was a true test of the potential for third-party success on Nintendo Wii. It appears that success on the Wii will remain difficult to achieve.”

True test? Where can I take this test? Who made it? Where did it come from? Did the Nintendo DS take this test when it first came out?

Like Derek pointed out, Pacific Crest grossly over projected Boom Blox’s numbers for May. They said 250,000, based on what I don’t know, and now that the game did not reach the number they conveniently cover their ass by lambasting the title for not meeting their own expectations. Is your head spinning yet? Why are we even listening to them? Time and time again, the only thing any gaming analyst has proven to me, at least, is that they are incredible deft at saying something stupid one day, and making everyone forget about it the next by coming “sort of” close to getting something right. In this case, Wilson does neither.

Why? First, who’s to say 60,000 units sold is a failure? When Blair Witch Project first came out, it didn’t sell as many tickets as, say, Iron Man, but it made its money back and then some because the stupid thing cost $40,000 to make. Any guesses how much Iron Man cost?

Now, how about Boom Blox? Any guesses as to how that game’s budget compared to Grand Theft Auto IV? Any guesses as to how their internal projected sales figures differed? I’m going to throw out a guess: both categories were about as similar as Catholics and Atheists. Again, my guess is that EA and Steven Spielberg ARE happy with the sales of Boom Blox. Even in the bargain bin, that title is going to make them money. Hell, I’d argue that IN the bargain bin the game makes MORE money than it did on the New Releases rack! And yet, here we are today, criticizing Nintendo’s “lack” of third party support, because it’s the easy thing to do.

And that’s where I head back to the book I’m reading. For a long while now, we’ve judged the success or failure of a game based pretty much on whether or not it can attain Grand Theft Auto numbers, with Grand Theft Auto type budgets. Only 60,000 units in the first week? FAILURE!

Well, that party’s over. I’ll get the “first week” part of that later, but for now, small budget games with big budget ideas, designed for the mass market are the future. And don;t go insulting everyone by thinking that means “casual games,” or that “gaming is doomed” if that’s true. If so, you’re doing Sony and MS’s work for them, unpaid! It’s simple Long Tail economics, and Nintendo’s first party titles are proving it. Mario Kart Wii? Top of the charts again two months in a row. Big budget blockbusters? Sorry, but they blow their load in a week, drop out of sight–and they don’t even push hardware off the shelves.

On a related note, I got in trouble the other day at one of my freelance gigs for writing this headline: “Epic Fail: Grand Theft Auto IV doesn’t sell more hardware.” The argument was that GTAIV, as a game, sold incredibly well, but it failed to do the job. It failed to be a killer app, because if you look up the literal definition of that word, it means an irresistible application that sells more hardware. Meta Gear Solid 4? Debatably another good game, but the story’s the same: Every person who wants a horsepower system has one, and they probably bought the game. This is the opposite of the Wii dynamic, which is great games sell more hardware. And yet, no one can see this for some reason. It’s always labeled a fluke, or a gimmick, or a passing fad.

Now, Boom Blox is by no means a killer app, but it is a Long Tail game, and over time (not up front!), its sales will probably be comparable to a decent top 20 video game (it’s already broken the top 10, lest we forget). However, in Pacific Crest Land, that’s unacceptable. The short-sighted video game media and analyst cabal want results NOW, and in record numbers. Trouble is, the everyday gamer could care less. They don’t wait in lines, and they aren’t early adopters. Guess what? Most people fall into this category. As another freelancing coworker of mine wrote last Sunday, a lot of people are ULA’s, or Ultra Late Adopters. To them, Boom Blox is a Sunday afternoon purchase at Target; one they’ve probably heard about now ad nauseum from guys like David, Blake, or their neighbors, and they will grab alongside some patio furniture. If EA were smart, they’d heavily promote Boom Blox again this holiday season, complete with holiday seasoning pricing. It will sell, especially as all those people who can’t find a system get one. Finally.

And speaking of EA…

For once, I’m going to come to the defense of EA. You have no idea how long it took to write that sentence. As a caveat, I’m going to bash them over something about Boom Blox soon after, so all will be well again. Anyway, for all their follies and football game monopolies, EA, at least in the press, is starting to “get it.”

EA CEO John Riccitiello, tired of attempting to explain his company to biased journalists has officially labeled them incredibly accurately: The Cult (and I’m jealous I didn’t think of it).

“And you sort of feel a little bit like a twit getting out ahead of it because there’s a certain cadre of journalists that would love to prove me wrong,” he said. “EA doesn’t usually get the benefit of the cult - ‘everybody has to rate it a hundred’ thing going on — that happens sometimes even when they may not, based on the review, have played more than the first fifteen minutes of the game. But that’s a separate issue.”

Riccitiello also said during a conference call with analysts that EA was pleased internally with Boom Blox’s sales. I believe him. I partially agree with my Infendo comrade Derek on his opinion of the call. Yes, CEO’s want to give their investors good news. However, having sat in on more than a few calls with big name software companies in the past, I also know that investors don’t like to be lied to. These investor calls are known for their fluff, sure, but they’re also known for their honesty. If a company is doing poorly, then the CEO has an obligation to explain that, and what he/she is going to do to fix it. The investors, after all, OWN THE COMPANY.

So, when Riccitiello says EA is satisfied with Boom Blox’s sales, I believe he is. And not because I’m some blind fanman, but because I’ve stopped looking at the sales of video games with an irrational, one-week-or-nothing, light. EA knows that mass market games like Boom Blox are slow burners; their sales will come over time. See also: Wii Play, one of the best selling video games of all time.

On the other hand, and here comes the bashing, EA marketed this game at the non-existent “casual market,” and at kids, instead of across the board like they should have. Infendo loved the game, as did the guys at Penny Arcade, and many others outside the EA Casual team’s demographic. On the marketing front, Boom Blox did indeed fail, and fail hard. Not because of the game itself, but because of EA’s inability to understand that it’s not casual versus hardcore or core, it non-gamers vs. gamers, and NOTHING ELSE.

Also, Blake said in a comment to Derek’s piece that some blame can be laid to rest on the cartoony graphics. I disagree. Mario Kart Wii is a visual clusterf**k of cartoons and squeaky voices, and yet it sold to everyone. Why? Because Nintendo will never market that game solely at kiddies. And it’s still selling today. Very well, in fact.

Here’s some free advice for anyone worried about the Wii’s third party sales right now: Instead of having all these knee jerk reactions all the time, why don’t we start looking at the whole picture? As in, there are still 12 months in a year, and many years in a console’s life, so why don’t we start acting like it?

Again, this goes back to basing the entire industry on the sales of games like Metal Gear, et al. When you compare 60,000 to 5 million in one week, well, gee, no wonder it’s so “easy” to blast the game as a failure. Meanwhile, 12 months from now, a game like Boom Blox has the potential to sell millions.

I doubt it will happen, but I’d love to see the day, in 18 months, when we learn that Boom Blox, over its life, sold more than Metal Gear Solid 4 sold in its first impressive week.

Will it? Of course it’s not guaranteed, not by any means, especially since EA marketed this title to kids. I wish I had read the article before I started writing, but Sean Malstrom touched on EA’s failed marketing strategy with Boom Blox and how that failure–not some 3rd party doldrums effect on Wii–is responsible for lower sales.

I’ve been critical of EA in their stupid ‘casual games’ division and the dumb decision to market Boom Blox to twelve year olds (instead of, like, everyone which is what Nintendo does for its expanded market games), I feel sympathy for the crew behind Boom Blox. Their poor game has become a football to be kicked around for arrogant analysts and hardcore to make their ridiculous assertions that since Boom Blox wasn’t a ‘major hit’ when it came out, it means all third parties will fail.

First, if it WAS a ‘major hit’, I would have been very worried as would EA. Expanded market game sales are not frontloaded. Carnival Games originally did around 50k I believe when it was introduced to the market (and it was cheaper). The big unreported story on Wii software is that there is significant leg action, or ’slow burning’ sales. Instead of sales going off into the abyss as they do with most Core games, the sales are consistent and often go up. How can this be? One major reason is that people who want the game cannot get the console, and once they do get the console, they buy the game. Another is that only enthusiastic gamers would realize about Boom Blox when it launched. Also, it is absurd that one game becomes the de-facto of whether third party games sell on Nintendo systems.

When you think about it, those seemingly biased fanboys crying about unfair treatment in the media for Nintendo are more right than they realize. When Heavenly Sword bombed, or when Lair laid a turd, or when Assassin’s Creed didn’t cure cancer as advertised, where were the cries of failure about PS3? Oh, and the Heavenly Sword 2 sequel was just canned this week too, due to incredibly low interest from developers and gamers alike, and all we hear is crickets from the snake oil salesmen like Michael Pachter and company.

The even-handed criticism is non-existent. As always, it’s Nintendo products that are weak on third party support and destined to fail, and it is the PS3 software that’s almost ready to crest the hill into gaming nirvana.

And silly me, if I had only known that Boom Blox was THE TITLE that would decide the fate of the Wii, I would have bought a few copies and encased them in Carbonite for safe keeping. Then, in a few decades, I could have trucked them out for the kids and spun them an old timer’s yarn about Pacific Crest Securities, and how it made the prediction of the century.

“Lookie here, kiddies, at this here game Boom Blox. It decided the console war!” Does this sound ridiculous yet? No? Then you obviously know nothing about the DS, which is continually forgotten month after month by these “analysts,” who are now literally incapable of flipping their calendars back more than a month or using a search engine.

Lastly, I’m going to have to punch a hole in a least one part of what is overall a well-thought-out, research article from Derek. My argument goes thusly: “Who cares if Game Party outsold Boom Blox?”

Metacritic’s “based on biased ‘hardcore’ gaming journalists scores” argument aside, Game Party is a throw away title if I’ve ever seen one. It’s $20 (even less used), and it’s an exclusive for a system that boasts the largest, most diverse audience in video games today. Guess what? Enchanted made more money than Children of Men. To me it’s a travesty, but outside the bubble of passionate film discussion it makes perfect sense. Game Party was marketed at everyone (mini-games), while Boom Blox was pegged as a kid’s game from EA Casual. Is it really that much of a surprise which one has sold better?

To conclude, I revisit the question: Boom Blox failed? According to who?

The time of games making their mark in one week or less is over. Boom Blox will sell, and sell just fine, but it won’t be to the irrational, backward ways thinking of today’s experts. The great games of the future are the ones that sell well all the time, not just within some close-minded analyst cadre’s one-week splooge window.

Source: infendo.com

No surprise here. According to the semi-reliable VGChartz, Wii surpassed the Xbox 360 in the U.S. as of June 1, 2008. Nice job Nintendo.

Source: infendo.com

“I have an idea for an Infendo post you should do…” — Sean Malstrom

And so began this simple post on an extraordinary idea. Perhaps a bit crazy too, but then again all disruptive technologies are labeled as such before they’re accepted en masse.

The idea? That the Balance Board packaged with Wii Fit isn’t an accessory at all. It’s a console, just the like Wii or even the PlayStation 3.

You were wondering when Nintendo would update the Wii? Unveil a Wii 2? Good news: The Wii Balance Board is it.

Some might argue that no, the Balance Board is an accessory, like the Wii Wheel (awesome fun, by the way) or the Wii Zapper, but they’d be wrong.

Those two bits of white plastic enhance the Wii console. They bridge a gap between traditional gamer and non-gamer by mimicking their real-world behavior and mapping it over a video game. The Balance Board, on the other hand, is its own little world, and creates as much of a new market for video games as the Wii and Wiimote did when they launched in November 2006. Enhances versus creates. It’s a subtle difference in wording, but it will make all the difference once developers start to treat the board as a console with its own fanboys and girls and audience.

If you think they won’t, then you’re again one of the many people who first dismissed the DS, and then the Wii, for the very same reasons. And you’ll be wrong again with Wii Fit and the Balance Board. As always, there’s hard data to back this opinion of mine up, starting first in the markets where Wii Fit has launched and is currently launching.

Japan gets Fit
Or, Let’s put Final Fantasy XIII on the Balance Board

“You should declare Wii Balance Board to be an honorary console. After all, it is almost in second place in Japan against the PS3. Third parties might very well abandon the PS3 and put their games on Wii Balance Board.” — Sean Malstrom

I hereby declare the Wii Balance Board to be an honorary console. There done. Now here’s why.

In Japan, Wii Fit has almost sold as many units as the PlayStation 3. And that’s with only one game, the pack-in title Wii Fit, mind you.

So, using the simple fact that developers will develop games for the consoles that have the hype and fan base to make them a profit, we can say that the Balance Board is as profitable a platform as the PS3, in Japan, to develop games for. Since we’re talking Nintendo here, and lower horesepower, we can also say something else about the board.

“[The] Balance Board is cheaper to develop [for], [has] less competition for games, and beat Sony as it will be the first console that has no disk drive. It will be cheaper (and probably sell more) if Final Fantasy XIII was put on the Balance Board instead of the PS3″ — Sean Malstrom

A little confused? Don’t be. Here’s why. Wii Fit is 1/50th of the size of the smallest PS3 game. That’s rough fuzzy Jack math, but I’m only going by eyeball estimates, graphics and the fact that most PS3 games today are already pushing the huge storage limits of Blu-Ray discs. As I’m sure has been discussed ad neaseum at Nintendo HQ already, WiiWare will be one of the driving platforms for Balance Board development–if not the platform.

And why shouldn’t it be? The Board was designed for a non-traditional audience. It is an audience that is well-versed in having their music delivered over the Internet; Tivo’ing their favorite shows; and not having to deal with the process of picking up a physical title at GameStop, which they are afraid of because, like it or not, they don’t like the people who hang out there. In effect, since the Wii Balance Board is the latest console to hit the market, it will create its own Balance Board fanboys and girls.

“They will parade the forums, declare Wii Balance Board has a higher TIE ratio than the other consoles and say, “Sure, your console can play DVDs but can your console SAVE YOUR LIFE?“ said Malstrom during our discussion the other day.

Miyamoto already let slip that online was coming to Wii Fit, thereby giving this simple title a rather complex means with which to compete with other Wii Balance Board consoles around the world. Didn’t think you could compete with fitness, sit-ups and Yoga? Join the club, but regardless it’s going to be a whole new spin on “gaming.”

Lastly, a Square Enix Balance Board game has actually already been discussed on the record. In July, Square Enix’s Motomu Toriyama told IGN the company was “intrigued” by the idea of using weight and balance to control games.

Moving Americans
Or, If you get Oprah, you get the world.

Amazon’s top sellers list, or most popular items, or whatever it’s called, has long been a sketchy way of throwing around fanboy taunts on NeoGaf, etc, but I’m going to cite them here anyway because I can. In the lead up to the Grand Theft auto IV release yesterday, do you know what video game had the most pre-orders? No, not GTA IV. It was Wii Fit and the Balance Board. But GTA was next, right? Nope. That slot was for Mario Kart Wii. and after that, you ask, then surely at least the Xbox 360 version of GTa IV made an appearance. Not quite. That stupid waste of plastic you make fun of but secretly want to try out anyway, the Wii Wheel, THAT was number three. Then GTA IV, Xbox 360 version.

And that’s without Nintendo’s multi-million dollar Wii Fit marketing blitz. That comes later with, we’ll assume, an even more amazing number of pre-orders, lines and Wii mania.

Speaking of that marketing push… it’s pretty big. Pretty console-like, if I do say so myself. Like they’re trying to establish a solid base of board owners with which to market to developers looking for something fresh in this FPS, gun-toting haven gaming inhabits today. As of right now, there’s also zero competition for these board owners, until Microsoft releases their Xbox Balance Board Xtreme to the Maxxx, sponsored by Mountain Dew.

When we look to the East, we can see the base forming literally by the second. At UK store Woolworth’s, Wii Fit sold an astonishing 90 units per minute last week, which was faster than GTA IV. But that’s not even the ace in the hole. Today, another UK chain, Curry’s, announced that the Wii fit momentum lasted through the weekend, with a unit selling every four seconds.

People are moving to get moving with this “game” in the hundreds of thousands — and millions in Japan. That’s great for the short term, but what about this holiday, when the press and forum types begin to beat the “gathering dust” drum again? (over their plump, under exercised bellies, natch)

Well, that’s when the aforementioned WiiWare kicks in, if it hasn’t already.

As I wrote about this last summer, when the Balance Board was still just an accessory to me and many others, Wii Ware is surely on the minds of many a developer–especially ones looking at the Balance Board with hungry eyes. I’ve changed my tune about a few things, but the basic forward-thinking message still holds true:

Having WiiWare developers shoulder the majority of 3rd party games for the balance board does two things. First, the costs involved with developing a WiiWare title are already bare bones, so the risk is lower. This means we might actually see some pretty amazing, albeit simpler games developed exclusively for the balance board (or that at least utilize the board for integral control functions).

Second, this scenario creates a base from which larger developers can field ideas or even acquire these smaller companies. Either way, it reduces the apprehension developers might have about developing a game that requires a peripheral to work properly — as opposed to, say, bolting optional motion controls onto a PS3 game.

And the best part is — at least for the early WiiWare developers — is that when the Wii Balance Board launches sometime in 2008 and is snatched up en masse by non-traditional gamers (and some hardcore — just you watch), they’ll have a healthy installed base of at least a million or so users to work with.

Again, this is why the board is no mere accessory, and why it actually reaches out not only to non-traditional couch potatoes and fitness buffs, but to intelligent, fresh thinking developers, and even the rough and tough hardcore sect that will inevitably at least experiment with the board when the momentum begins to build.

With the board, Nintendo has effectively extended the life of the Wii itself. Not in the traditional, accepted way that requires a hardware update, faster processor or better graphics, but in a new way that actually takes what is there and expands it outward–not upwards.

This is the third time around the gimmick assaults and dismissive tone towards a Nintendo product have been leveled. You would think people would have learned by now.

So today I officially label myself not only a rabid Nintendo fanman, but a Wii Fit/Balance Board fanman as well.

Oprah, care to join me?

Source: infendo.com

Remember that damning New York Times piece about Wii, low attach rates and how the system is anathema to “hardcore gamers?”

It’s been pretty much summarily attacked all week long as an example of poor reporting (believe me, I can relate), but this article from Ars Technica–and a response from VGChartz, from which the NYT compiled its data–pretty much smothered the article’s weakened husk as it slept.

We’ll take the misinformation in chunks. First, the attach rates. Traditionally, the media and the gaming community has associated an attach rate stigma of sorts with the Wii. The NYT article used this as one of the main foundations for its anti-Wii, desperate for controversy piece, but today the source of the information, VGChartz, says the analysis was bunk. Basically, VGChartz calls NYT out for not including Japan or Europe in its analysis. Rookie mistake for a senior publication, but perhaps it was a slow news day and the reporter in question needed to get something filed.

Back to the ars technica article on this point. According to Nintendo’s internal data, each Wii owner has purchased 6.07 games since launch. Ars correctly notes that this is a figure that’s in line with the competition (in fact, it’s one of the few positive notes Microsoft can still claim when spinning quarterly reports). “The US audience is even hungrier for Wii games, as the attach rates for systems in America is 7.48 games per system,” reports ars.

But they’re all Nintendo first party titles, right? Well, you’d be half right if you stormed over the NeoGAF forums to bash the Wii. There are in fact several third party titles that have sold over a million units each. These include several well-known titles, like Guitar Hero III, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, Carnival Games, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Red Steel.

So what’s left? Not much, really, especially with this week’s Majesco revelation. Even Friend Codes appear to have lost a little bit of the black mark that gaming aficionados assigned them early on. As it has always been and always will be, those who are proactive in looking for alternatives, and approach things like Friend Codes as a challenge, and not an excuse to complain, are being rewarded. It would appear as though Friend Code workarounds were always there, but developers and publishers were either too lazy, or too dismissive of the console, to see the forest through the trees. Harmonix, Rock Band, I’m looking at you right now as a poster child for this laziness and carelessness. It’s too bad, because you were first to the party, but today, with the potential for Guitar Hero instruments on the horizon, I am firmly in that camp when it comes time to open the wallet.

Ars technica sums up the non-news regarding Nintendo this week succinctly and with a calming finality, in my opinion. Writes Ben Kuchera, “The arguments against the Wii’s apparent success—that players aren’t using it after it’s purchased, that game sales are low, and that it’s a fad—are starting to ring hollow, and the latest data from Nintendo should go a long way towards silencing the critics. While developers are struggling to understand the Wii, trying to figure out how to deal with its prominence in gaming, or simply slamming it to the press, one thing is apparent: gamers know exactly what to do with the console.”

Source: infendo.com

As is too often the case today, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PES 2008) was release late on the Wii after PS3 and Xbox 360 versions were already well out the door. Sounds familiar, right Harmonix? However, unlike the gimped, no frills version of Rock Band that’s headed to the Wii in June, PES 2008 was held back by Konami to give the game the extra attention it needed to fully make use of the Wii’s unique controls.

Next Generation has a profile up today with PES European team leader Jon Murphy that tells me Konami “gets it” when it comes to what makes a Wii version of any port “sing.” By all signs and portents, the Wii version of PES 2008 is by far the superior version, both from critical acclaim (86% Metacritic) and customer response.

As series creator Shingo ‘Seabass’ Takatsuka admitted late last year, the final PS3 product was “so far from what we wanted”. The game regularly “stuttered” and was plagued with online problems, something that was also reported by some owners of the Xbox 360 version. It was hardly the beautiful game as we’d come to expect it from Konami, but, says Murphy, things are back on track – in PES 2008 for Wii the platform has finally got the decent football game it has been “crying out for” and one that “offers the best online experience” in the history of the series.

I fully expect to see more and more of these kinds of stories throughout 2008 and 2009. This is not some tacked on “shake the Wiimote to check someone” that we saw in Mario Strikers Charged (which was a great game, btw), it’s a well thought-out, robust offering that shows when graphics are only a component of the game design experience, and not the ultimate goal, titles can certainly hum on the Wii.

And how’s this for irony? The Wii version has superior online functionality when compared to its next generation brethren.  Consider me swooned.

Source: infendo.com

Wii Fit is big in Japan (1.5 million sold in three months) and arguably will be as big if not bigger in the US when it goes live in a month or so (more people, more people who subscribe to new “weight loss” gimmicks, Wii’s existing momentum among people outside the now incorrectly described “core” or “traditional gamer”). But, just in case, Nintendo is allegedly preparing a massive marketing push to ensure the peripheral is seen and experienced by as many people as possible. I’m talking Oprah here people, Oprah.GameDaily recently spoke with gaming guru Michael Pachter about the build up, and he seemed to think it was going to be in the tens of millions. Pachter also saw a shift from Nintendo (once again, I smell a trend!) in how the marketing money would be spent:

Pachter notes that Nintendo’s marketing approach reinforces his theory that hardware sales will shift away from specialty stores like GameStop and towards mass market chains like Best Buy. “…it is unlikely that such a large marketing campaign is intended to disproportionately benefit GameStop,” he said. “Rather, we think that the Nintendo campaign is likely to feature key retail partners such as Target and Best Buy, notorious for attracting so-called ‘couch potatoes.’”

I’d add that with these mid year releases (Brawl, Mario Kart, Wii Fit, WiiWare), Nintendo is also shifting the industry away from the “Christmas sales or bust” behavior that’s had a hold on it since, well, forever. Brawl was the fastest selling NOA game ever, and it released in the typically low key month of March. Wii Fit and Mario Kart will do the same for April and May, with WiiWare being the cherry on top.

Source: infendo.com

Last week, while the Infendo offices bubbled with giddy Brawl-induced enthusiasm and my colleagues took some brutal smash attacks from the regulars, I was taking a week-long break in sunny San Jose.

Finding a launch-week copy in California was almost impossible, so as soon as I landed in Pittsburgh late last night, I committed to a very important goal. There would be no phone calls, no unpacking. At least not for a while; more than anything else, I needed to get my Smash on.

I drove home, tossed my luggage in the corner and made an impetuous 12:15 AM beeline to a local Wal-Mart, desperate to find a leftover copy of Brawl and to log some late-night hours of Smash. I expected to a find ghost town, an empty department with few, if any, copies and nary a nearby Wal-Mart associate to assist me.

What I found was quite different.

As I passed the children’s apparel and turned right at the Wheat Thins, I noticed a large group of customers had amassed near the electronics department, forming a line that stretched well beyond the HD television displays. I immediately feared they were waiting for a Brawl shipment, leaving me Smash-less. But after asking one of the several associates patrolling the area, I learned they weren’t waiting for a new movie or game release at all.

They were waiting for Wii. This particular Wal-Mart had just received a shipment of 19 Wii consoles, and at midnight, they went on sale.

I had unexpectedly walked into another case of Wii-mania. Customers were complaining about low shipments, “unfair line” structures and stealthy “line jumpers.” More than 25 people waited in line, though several had walked away in the hours prior. Wal-Mart positioned several employees in the electronics department for the shipment, as well as managers and security for rambunctious parents who were nearing pre-Christmas levels of consumer anticipation.

On a random Saturday. At midnight. In March.

“My daughter knows someone who works here,” said one customer. “He told her yesterday they had a shipment coming in, so we got here at about 6:30 PM and have been waiting here ever since.”

Though most customers were able to pick up a Wii, several walked away discouraged as the hours passed. Some stuck around until the very end, perhaps hoping for some sort of miracle or counting error, before being turned away after the shipment was depleted.

“This is just ridiculous,” said one disappointed customer. “They’ve got to be doing this on purpose. How are people supposed to get one when they’re hoarding all the damn things?”

Conspiracy theories were abound, not exclusive to frustrated customers who were turned away without a Wii. Even some who were able to get one shared the feeling that Nintendo is leaking Wii systems to the market slowly, as did some Wal-Mart employees.

“Oh, they’re definitely doing this on purpose,” said a Wal-Mart electronics employee. “They’re saving them for Christmas, just like last year, so it builds demand and then we’ll sell a ton of them over the holidays.”

Asked when she thought supply might meet demand, and chaotic shipment situations like that night’s would stop happening, she answered me with a quick chuckle.

“Not until after Christmas. Not until next year, at least.”

“We get a shipment every two weeks,” she continued. “We started getting shipments of about 15, but they send bigger shipments to stores that sell more accessories. We’ve been trying to move a lot of that stuff, so now we’re up to shipments like tonight’s.”

Despite bigger shipments, Wii consoles still don’t last long.

“This happens every time. We usually already have people waiting, but we announce it over the speakers in the store, too. That’s when people start rushing back to get one. They sell out so fast that there’s no point putting them on the shelves. We tried it once, and people were breaking into the cases to grab them. So we don’t anymore. That sign has been in there for months.”

I checked the Wii section, and sure enough, there was a sign. Although a shipment had just come in minutes ago, all that stood in the glass Wii case was a simple white sign:

So when will the proverbial “bubble” burst, Infendoites? Is the Wii situation still desperate in your neck of the woods?

Source: infendo.com

Thanks to the one-two punch of titles like Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the quirky Wii Fit balance board, Nintendo has widened its lead in Japan over Sony’s PlayStation 3.

According to an article from Reuters today, Nintendo’s Wii game console outsold the PlayStation 3 nearly 4-to-1 in Japan in February despite Sony’s console beginning to narrow the gap last autumn. In addition to strong hardware sales, Wii software titles also dominated the best seller list. Super Smash Bros. Brawl led the software sales with 1.33 million units, followed by Wii Fit which sold 309,311 units in the four weeks.

According to Reuters, Enterbrain and the Japanese gaming mag Famistsu, the Wii’s lead on the PS3 appears to be widening. In February it was 4:1; in January, the Wii outsold the PS3 by almost 3-to-1. Nintendo sold 331,627 units of the Wii in the four weeks to Feb. 24, compared with 89,131 units of the PS3, market research firm Enterbrain said.

Microsoft, content to sell to that lucrative “niche collector’s market” in Japan, sold 14,079 Xbox 360 units in the February reporting period.