James Galvin

Kotaku highlights this Wall Street Journal article which examines Nintendo’s success so far in 2007. Having never paid much attention to the portable market, the extent of the Nintendo DS’ dominance is surprising to me. What is not surprising, however, is the performance of the Wii relative to its expensive competitors.

Despite initial doubts based on the name of the product, it became clear early on that 2007 would be the year of the Wii. Following its release a few months ago, YouTube bulged with homemade videos of hillbillies swinging motion-sensing controllers in a bout of Wii boxing; a new era had dawned for console gaming.

This old video summed up the appeal of the Wii over the PS3:

For me, the pricetag is the critical factor - a quick comparison from Smyths Toystore in Ireland just for the base console with no games:

Playstation 3	€629.99
Xbox 360	€409.99
Nintendo Wii	€269.99

Even now in mid April it is difficult to get a hold of the Nintendo Wii, as retailers are constantly sold out. Hopefully this trend will influence an evolution towards smaller, cheaper gaming consoles, as opposed to bloated all-in-one entertainment centres which cost more than a ‘98 Ford Fiesta.

Have you pre-ordered? If not, sounds like some places will be opening specially at midnight tonight:

Dublin, 7th December – GameStop, Ireland’s largest Games Specialist Retailer, will open their Henry St. store, at Midnight tonight, for the launch of the long awaited Wii Console from Nintendo.

Must resist…