7-9 Million Wiis by 2007? 89
Gamespot is reporting that Nintendo's production of the Wii is actually going better than expected. Analyst firm UBS is now estimating that 7-9 Million Wii units should be off the production lines by 2007. From the article: "Citing industry 'checks,' UBS analysts Alex Gauna and Steven Chin claim that Nintendo already made 2 million Wiis by the end of September. They go on to predict that, 'at least 7 million and potentially as high as 9 million more units are in the build plan for Q4 06. This production ramp handily exceeds a publicly announced target for 6 million units to ship by year's end.'"
Supply and demand? (Score:3, Funny)
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That statement by itself has no value, as Wii processing power has already been officially released for some time, now.
However, if you are implying that to accurately assess the value of a gaming system is to base it purely on its technical specs or a "dollars/PPM (polygons pushed/minute)" comparison, go buy a PC and be done with it.
But you know and I know that processing speed alone does not a gaming conso
Tis a Wii too many, but lots of fun (Score:2, Insightful)
Any idea on how many games the 7-9 million Wiis will have? Are we looking at only 30 million, or will it break 100 million by the end of 2007?
all our base could belong to us? (Score:5, Funny)
All our base are belong to Wii
And we're going to buy them (Score:2)
And then the prices will go down, the platforms will be unified (Or at least logically diversified [high end low end mid range etc]) and all will be good with the force!
Re:And we're going to buy them, and make games (Score:2, Informative)
Especially when the dev platform is only $1000 for the Wii, instead of ten times as much for the PS3 or 360 ones.
Might not be enough (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Might not be enough (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Might not be enough (Score:4, Insightful)
And then we would spread the gospel to the Muggles in turn, providing free advertising/sale's drive to their consoles.
I know enough people still anticipate those systems, but it seems the Xbox 360 reception has been lukewarm and the Wii has turn the industry on it's head by not trying to compete in the areas Sony is exceedingly strong in, but rather playing to their own strengths.
In part, I see the PS3, with its Bluray encumbered/enable device, heading somewhat in the same direction as the Nintendo Gameboy VR and Sega Saturn, of years past. It will have success, however, but right now it seems Sony has to initiate most of its own hype, the PS3 will fail to launch Blu-ray as a defacto video standard, and probably fall short of the PS2 in terms of market domination.
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But through all that, I still only seem to see about four or five must-have games in a given year. Despite all the advances in technology, making a great game appears to still be ra
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Online multiplayer, however, I'll give you. That's a recent advance that's really benefitted as of late from technology, and has made some new types of games possible.
All that being said, I think my original point still st
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Advance Wars is the first western release of a long standing series known as Famicom Wars [wikipedia.org] in Japan.
Nintendo is doomed. (Score:3, Funny)
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*well in five minutes when I'm in the bathroom anyway**
**and yes checking slashdot after I've come back after a night out does mean I haven't bought a lady home***
***though my other half will be pleased about this****
****that is the not bringing a lady home, not the checking the slashdot bit*****
*****OK now I really do have to go, but the question is - To Preview or not to Preview?
Re:Might not be enough (Score:5, Funny)
Who let these RIAA/MPAA mathematicians in here? This is a gaming forum goddamit! Oh wait..Is that you Sony?
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And there have been quite a few people on Slashdot (me among them) who haven't been buying consoles at all the previous few generations, but will buy a Wii. I wonder if we're factored into the projected demand?
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Re:Might not be enough (Score:5, Funny)
The Guy Who Makes You Funny: Man, did you read that?
The Guy Who Does Your Math: Yes, what terrible logic!
Funny: Logic? Well, of course it's not logical, it's a j-
Math: Shh! I am working out how to explain the logical flaw of "social networking" to this yokel.
Funny: What? You're going to "explain" it. Dude, he knows it's a joke. That's the whole point of jokes, people do them on purpose.
Math: Preposterous. He's not joking, he's clearly an imbecile who thinks that people's networks are exponential in nature, when really they're not.
Funny: Wait, wait. I get it. You're joking with me.
Math (having just hit submit): Yes. A joke.
Funny (chuckling): Whew! You had me going there, I thought - you know - maybe you were really going to try to prove a point, and we just don't need to show we're unfun-HOLY SHIT YOU ACTUALLY SUBMITTED A POST HOW COULD YOU?
(Pause.)
Funny: We are *never* going to get laid.
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You don't rebut a joke like it's an argument, you're just proving his point!
Your GF must be a very patient woman =)
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Not worse, but bigger.
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What's a J-? Is that like worse than an F-?
A J? It's how a funny man stays funny... now pass it here! *takes a big toke*
*exhales* ahhh.... That's better...
- John
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Going so well (Score:3, Informative)
Hopefully nothing has gone wrong in the production process. I can't imagine the stress of being a designer or tester for the console hardware. What happens when your company is successfully rolling millions of new machines off the line and someone finds a showstopper hardware bug? We all rememeber the Intel division fiasco.
Smart move (Score:4, Interesting)
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Though I almost had a heart attack when I got my Gamecube and borrowed a copy of Turok: Evolution (worst game in the s
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You have to have enough games to sell your system and then you need the library of "renters" of games t
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I dunno what magical Blockbuster you have near you, but where I live, you are lucky to find a copy of Nada III.
Blockbuster had at best 2 shelving units for Xbox and Gamecube and maybe a whole 4 for PS2 (compared to a whole row of units for 1 systems Carts back in the Cartridge days.
All the video game selection I have seen at Blockbuster in the last 5 years has been sports/wrasslin type games and
The post holiday market: (Score:3, Funny)
Perfect for all those moms and dads returning their kids' overheating PS3's.
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You missed pricing. The number one reason I'll likely be getting my kid the new Nintendo instead.
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[pause for laughter]
ok, I can't remember if they did or not. But I -do- remember not being able to see a damn thing on it unless I was in a brightly-lit room.
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Backlit GameBoys? (Score:2)
Did you own a 1G GameBoy? There was no backlight at all! Even the first color GameBoys didn't have backlights. Backlights in GameBoys are a pretty recent development. But they were able to survive a long time without them, since all of the other portables with backlights and/or color were pretty much total flops (Sega GameGear, Atari Lynx, etc.).
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Design problems, but generally not hardware ones (Score:2)
A cynic could argue that even the design problems were "by design", as its a great way to get gamers to buy more hardware i
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Re:what if problems arise? (Score:4, Informative)
Also, with the early production, maybe nintendo will test those first units to make sure the mass-manufacturing works well.
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For the most part, I don't forsee too many issues. The chips are derivitives of a proven design manufactured using mature technology at a quality fab plant (IBM's fishkill facility). Most of the other components are off the shelf - Broadcom ethernet and bluetooth chips, MoSys SRAM, etc.
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"1T-SRAM" is really DRAM and is implemented as a macro, or block, within larger integrated circuits (chips) using embedded D
I think Sony & MS have jumped the gun too earl (Score:4, Interesting)
Nintendo won't have to live up to the graphic expectations of Sony, Xbox, but for that, the gameplay will have higher expectations.
This is of course good for the average consumer, because, by the merits of mass production, HD capable consoles will be the minimum/default the next generation, and it might even boost HD TV sales more than they are, and drive down the price in that area by the time the next console wars come.
Re:I think Sony & MS have jumped the gun too e (Score:1)
The PS3 is going to have to be around forever, just to turn a profit and make an improved platform feasible.
Re:I think Sony & MS have jumped the gun too e (Score:2)
The funny thing is...the only thing the Wii has going for it is it's controller (and first party games, of course). If the other consoles make a similar controller that works well...the Wii advantage is gone (Wiirased?). I am sure they have some good patents
Actually, it is hard. (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, it is hard. I know of only one case where it worked: The Dual Shock on the original PS. And that one only worked because the new controller was a superset of the old one (it added the analog sticks) and because it came very early in the PS's life.
You can't just go ahead and replace the pack-in controller with something totally different. How would people play the old games with the new controller? You'd essentially fragment your customer
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Re:I think Sony & MS have jumped the gun too e (Score:1)
Re:I think Sony & MS have jumped the gun too e (Score:2)
You forget about a few things: The price, and the target market.
The price matters... well, for obvious reasons -- especially for casual gamers.
The target market matters because it means that I, as a casual-/non-gamer, will probably be able to find plenty of software which provides fun diversions without eating up much time at a chunk or requiring any kind of dedication. (There are others
Re:I think Sony & MS have jumped the gun too e (Score:2)
MS & Sony can't realistically add new controllers after the fact, but Nintendo can certainly release an HD-edition of the Wii down the road. The SD and HD edition can be 100% compatible (PC games support multiple resolutions and detail levels all the time). SD-era games won't look as good on an HD unit--but games always start to look dated after time.
VIVA LA REVOLUCION... ESE (Score:1)
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7 Million Wii Indeed (Score:1)
Seems like just a dribble... (Score:2)
Thats just pissing in the ocean...
So that means.... (Score:1)
Nintendo's physcal cycle ends in June (Score:1)
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Just to elaborate the above post. Nintendo has never stated that it will ship 6 million consoles by the end of the year. What it has stateded is that it plans to sell 4 million by the end of 2006 and 6 million by the end if its fiscal year, which ends in March 2007.
Because of these inaccuracies I'm not sure if the analysis meens 9 million by the end of 2006 or 9 million by March 2007. Either way it's good news. If it sells as well as expected it'll be well on the way to that glorified number 1 spot. Afte
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Just checked [wikipedia.org]. Fiscal year seems to be the correct term and every company can choose it's own with tax being paid the following march. October is the start/end of the US goverment's fiscal year.