Is the Wii having a hard time selling software?

By Robert by Apr 21st, '08 at 9:47am CST

decline-chart.jpgAn article in the NY Times brings up a debatable question: Is the Wii having a hard time selling software? We know for a fact that the console itself is still selling like hotcakes; I’ve yet to see one in my local Target or GameStop and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear if any of you have seen the same. Nintendo has their fair share of third-party woes, but first-party titles like Smash Bros. Brawl sold 1.4 million copies in its first week, breaking records for Nintendo of America. However, a few weeks after its launch sales began to slowly decline. Could Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit suffer the same fate?

I own only three Wii games: Super Mario Galaxy, Guitar Hero 3 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The average attach rate for the Wii is 3.7 games per person; do any of you own upwards of four, five, even ten games?

NYTimes

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Categories: Wii

About the Author: Robert

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  • NLK4711

    I own Super Mario galaxy, SSBB, Legend of zelda:TP, Resident Evil:UC,and warioware

  • DRock067

    I own only 2. Super Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. But it will double with Mario Kart and Wii Fit

  • http://roto13.livejournal.com/ Roto13

    I own eight games, if you count Link’s Crossbow Training and Wii Sports. The rest are Guitar Hero III, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, No More Heroes, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Wii Play.

    Anyway, if you look at the software sales charts, it’s pretty obvious that Wii games are selling.

  • http://www.gamegym.blogspot.com travis_hendricks7

    I have upwards of 10 games. I would list them but I don’t want to. I will say this though, of the 10 or so titles about 6 of them are third-party. I will list those:

    1) Godfather: BE Edition
    2) No More Heroes
    3) Tiger Woods
    4) Mario and Sonic Olympics
    5) Red Steel
    6) Zack and Wiki

  • WolfeatingRaven

    i got 9 and only 2 of which are third party :(

  • drktrpr1

    I’ve got nine. About 4 are third party.

  • Hax0rz

    Metal Slug Anthology, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, WarioWare Smooth Moves, Wii Play, Resident Evil 4, Trauma Center Second Opinion, Trauma Center New Blood, Super Paper Mario, Super Mario Galaxy and Link’s Crossbow Training. So 4 of which are third party.

  • bischoff36

    I have 10, if you count Wii Sports

    SSB Brawl
    tLoZ Twilight Princess
    Super Mario Galaxy
    Guitar Hero 3
    Metroid Prime 3
    Metal Slug Anthology
    Mercury Meltdown Revolution
    The Godfather Black Hand Edition
    Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent
    Wii Sports

    And I will soon have Mario Kart Wii to add to that list!

  • asean

    13 Wii titles

    NiGHTS
    SSBBrawl
    Metal Slug Anthology
    House of The Dead 2 + 3
    Sega Super Stars Tennis
    Super Mario Galaxy
    Okami
    No More Heros
    DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2
    Geometry Wars Galaxies
    Wii Play
    Link’s Crossbow Training
    Wii Sports

    I did own Super Paper Mario and Harry Potter, but i traded those two in. both good games (Paper Mario was great) but i don’t see myself playing them again.
    And yes i don’t own Legend of Zelda, all of my friends do so i never felt the need.

    Proud to say 8 third party titles.

  • purpletreefactory

    I own:
    super monkey ball (I didn’t know what I was doing)
    twilight princess
    warioware
    super paper mario
    super mario galaxy
    super smash brothers brawl
    metroid prime 3 corruption

    I would by many, many more, but I don’t have enough money or time.

  • http://goodevilgenius.org/ goodevilgenius

    I didn’t realize most people had so few games. I have 7, 8 if you count the included Wii Sports. My roommate owns 6 games (although he doesn’t own a Wii, just uses mine).

    I talked to another friend today about it. She and her husband only own 4. 2 of them were included with his used Wii when he bought it, he bought one, and got the other as a gift.

    Her idea is that perhaps most people have so few because the games are pretty expensive (~$50), and most people probably haven’t owned their Wiis very long, since it’s in such short supply, so they haven’t had the time to build up their library, because they can only buy games so often.

    It made sense to me once I thought about it. Several of my games were gifts, or purchased with gift certificates given to me. Most of the others I’ve bought used.

    BTW, my games include:
    Bleach: Shattered Blade
    Cranium Kabooki (excellent party game for large groups: 8+).
    DDR: Hottest Party
    Twilight Princess
    Mario & Sonic @ Olympics
    Red Steel
    Wii Play
    WiiSports

  • JAREDJR

    Apparently I am considered to be at least 7 people then. I have to say guys that you are all disappointing.
    I own:
    Elebits (interesting concept but repetitive)
    Endless Ocean (cool concept -blue ocean strategy, new experience)
    Excite Truck (fun racer, but short)
    Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (recently sent in to replace the disc)
    The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (excellent)
    Link’s Crossbow Training (good value for peripheral included)
    Mario Strikers Charged (too much ‘attitude’ but still fun)
    Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (a step towards decent online, great control)
    Metroid Prime 3 Corruption (excellent)
    Nights Journey of Dreams (neat concept – discount purchase)
    No More Heroes (retro feel, funny, great style)
    Okami (stylish adventure)
    Rayman (discount purchase -crap)
    Red Steel (discount purchase – crap)
    Resident Evil 4 (excellent)
    Resident Evil The Umbrella Chronicles (old-school arcadey charm)
    Spider-Man 3 (fun swinging around and that’s about it)
    Super Mario Galaxy (excellent)
    Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz (first game -decent but not great)
    Super Paper Mario (lengthy adventure)
    Super Smash Bros. Brawl (addictive, but not much new still excellent)
    Wario Ware Smooth Moves (inventive controls)
    Wii Sports (free, but still fun)
    Wii Play (free with Wiimote)
    Zack and Wiki (different experience, challenging)
    -not to mention probably around 16 Virtual Console games.

    I bought all of these games for a reason. Some I wouldn’t pay full price for, while others pleasantly surprised me. Nintendo games are high quality pretty much guaranteed but Capcom games are also excellent, I’m hoping that other companies follow their example.
    I will be adding Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, and Rock Band this summer for sure, because they will be fun, and a different experience (Wii Fit).

    There is a lot of quality content available for this system, few people actually realize it because games like that Circus mini game thing get all the attention.

  • NoName

    Well, I own twenty-eight or so Wii games. However, I can honestly say that I regret getting about half of them. When Wii first came out I bought games left and right, trying to find a game that showed me what Wii was all about (if that makes sense). Kind of like my buying Rogue Squadran on GCN because I wanted a game that showed off to me what GCN could do graphically. With Wii, however, it can’t do much graphically, and I just couldn’t find the one game that made excellent use out of the fancy remotes (and still can’t really). Now that Wii has been out for a while, the new system bug has been squashed. So I know only buy games that I are quality titles – not all are first party I should note. I would guess that I’m in the minority, as I’m a Nintendo only gamer and have only the Wii and DS to call my own. Which is fine by me. I do wish more titles would sell so as to attract more developers/publishers and so forth.

  • Hax0rz

    I have owned plenty more then sold them, and been able to play through a lot for free for example No More Heroes. At my job we are allowed to check out games for 4 days at a time and play through them.

  • Ryan

    @NoName
    You are tied with me, I got 28 games as well….

  • NoName

    To Ryan:

    And I bet we’ll both be adding another game (Mario Kart) to that number come this Sunday… So, soon it’ll be twenty-nine!

  • Zephyr Starfields

    I own 12 games (13 if you count Wii Sports), 4 of which are 3rd-party:

    1) Endless Ocean
    2) Ghost Squad
    3) Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
    4) Link’s Crossbow Training
    5) Mario Party 8
    6) Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
    7) Resident Evil 4
    8) Super Mario Galaxy
    9) Super Paper Mario
    10) Super Smash Bros. Brawl
    11) Wii Play
    12) Zack & Wiki

    Not to mention the fact that I will own Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit later this year, and am still planning to pick up Dragon Quest Swords when the price drops.

    And when WiiWare is active, sales of that software will likely be very high, which is even better, as it’s a higher percentage of profit in many cases.

  • http://spaces.msn.com/trickyquintal rickytheleaf

    I’ve got 11 games (4 are third party):

    Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
    Elebits
    Far Cry: Vengeance (Don’t ask why)
    Splinter Cell Double Agent
    Mario Strikers Charged
    Guitar Hero 3
    Super Paper Mario
    Super Mario Galaxy
    Super Smash Bros. Brawl
    Link’s Crossbow Training
    Wii Sports

    I’ll be adding Wii Fit to this list next month and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith in June, but will be skipping on Mario Kart Wii, it just isn’t impressing me.

  • http://newmannarrative.blogspot.com/ MattyN

    I’ve got a nice clump of Wii games and I am a barely purchase games kind of guy. I’ve got –
    SSMB
    Wii Sports
    Link’s Crossbow Training
    Super Mario Galaxy
    Sonic and the Secret Rings
    Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
    Okami
    Wii Play
    Super Paper Mario
    LoZ: Twilight Princess
    Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
    Balloon Pop
    Puzzle Quest
    Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree

    5 third party titles so far. I also am planning to pick up Ghost Squad in the near future.

  • Nintendude

    Mine:
    -Super Mario Galaxy
    -Super Paper Mario
    -Guitar Hero 3
    -Zack & Wiki
    -Smash Bros Brawl

  • Havoc

    I have 14 games. I’ll list them later.

  • http://buffetoblog.wordpress.com/ TW5011

    I have some of the standards (like Super Smash Bros Brawl & Super Mario Galaxy), but also a few not mentioned on here.

    I won’t list all the others, but some worth mentioning:

    Elebits — unique game, maybe not worth full price, but worth getting used or renting. It’s kinda like Ghostbusters, in a way.

    Williams Hall of Fame Pinball Collection — If you like pinball, this has 10 famous tables and does them very well. Amazon has it for $30.

    MLB Power Pros — I know, it’s a PS2 port of a Japanese game, and it’s somewhat anime / animated, and it doesn’t make much use of the Wiimote functionality, but it’s FUN (which is what matters most in a sports game). If you like baseball, check it out. There’s a GM mode, where you can also play as much as you want; there’s many degrees of difficulty (spread among different areas); and there’s an RPG mode where you make decisions for an aspiring baseball player in college.