Predictions For 2008

[CantGetAWii]

Prediction: The Wii will hit the breaking point with casual and hardcore fans alike

The success of the Nintendo Wii caught everyone by surprise in 2007.

In the last generation, Nintendo hardware was embraced by Nintendo die-hards who picked up the system to play games developed in published by Nintendo. As a result, the company's 3rd-party relationships suffered. Eventually developers focused on the Xbox and Playstation 2, which in turn caused the hardcore Nintendo player-base to suffer.

The Wii changed everything by incorporating a new and innovative control scheme that felt fresh to casual gamers who hadn't picked up a controller since the original Nintendo Entertainment System. The press swooned over the system, prominently featuring Wii-related articles in lifestyle and entertainment sections in publications world-wide. Nintendo reaped the benefits, selling over 17 million consoles and posted record profits.

Despite all the revenue the Wii has generated for Nintendo, the system won't be as popular with gamers in 2008. The Wii will continue to be
Nintendo Wii Forum - Post New Threada success on Wall St., but that success will not translate over to the gamers that bought the system.

Hardcore Nintendo fans will be disappointed as the company continues to focus on the casual market. Just look at the recently released 2008 Wii line-up. Besides Super Smash Brothers Brawl, there just aren't that many innovative games to be excited for. Nintendo franchises will continue to trickle out at a very slow pace, forcing many fans and developers to jump ship.

Even casual fans will start to notice the lack of quality titles. Although Wii Fit to do well on the Oprah and Ellen circuit, the title will be the only game that most casual players buy for the Wii this year. The system's attach rate (the average number of games that are sold to each system owner) will continue suffer, and those figures won't be an encouraging sign for the 3rd party developers that shunned the GameCube last generation.

Source

Anyone agree or disagree with this?
I personally don't. WiiFit is a game that will have many casual gamers going crazy, and I am sure they have other things in store for them as well.

And games like Mario Kart, Disaster Day Of Crisis, Alone In The Dark etc. along with the games we know nothing about just yet, I would say 2008 would be a good year for Wii. Not a bad one, certainly it will be better IMO than 2007.

 

[Icandy]

Yeah, I'm kinda agreeing with this article. I'm classed as a casual gamer but I'm really more hardcore than casual. I have only 3 games on my list for this entire year. One comes out in March, one in May and the last in October. That's too few, spread out too far. I'm already looking at the PS3. I really want some FPS that have nothing to do with any war. All in all, I'm having trouble finding what I want now on the Wii and I check every day. The Wii brought me back to gaming but if some more quality games aren't announced soon, they'll lose this consumer and that's too bad because I love the Wii. I just don't like the choice of games on offer for this year.

 

[Sterculius]

one thing that always boggles my mind is how when a system has poor game selection, the system holder seems to always get the brunt of the blame. Like, it's not Nintendo's fault crappy games are being made for the Wii, it's the developers. But the developers and gamers never say "hmm...the game sucks because it was poorly developed" they just say "well, it must be the system".

always a mystery to me. but i think the Wii will do just fine, it will have it's ups and downs and level out and then come right back. I expect it to have the same sales pattern as the DS. It's going to take the developers some time to get out of their friggin comfort zones and use something they hardly ever use...their imagination!

Exactly what happened with the DS if you recall, they kept wanting to shoe-horn the same game mechanics into just about every game, because they couldn't wrap their minds around how to incorporate the stylus into gameplay when their brains are so hardwired to think about standard controls of d-pad and buttons. The time will come when some more imaginitive developers come along and make some phenomenal third party wii games.

 

[romj]

Source

Anyone agree or disagree with this?
I personally don't. WiiFit is a game that will have many casual gamers going crazy, and I am sure they have other things in store for them as well.

And games like Mario Kart, Disaster Day Of Crisis, Alone In The Dark etc. along with the games we know nothing about just yet, I would say 2008 would be a good year for Wii. Not a bad one, certainly it will be better IMO than 2007.

That is the same old crap that these people been saying since the wii came out; predicting it's doom. It's irritating to me, but in a way, it's true if the developers don't do any better than they are doing. I don't know what they expect, maybe this is what they WANT.

one thing that always boggles my mind is how when a system has poor game selection, the system holder seems to always get the brunt of the blame. Like, it's not Nintendo's fault crappy games are being made for the Wii, it's the developers. But the developers and gamers never say "hmm...the game sucks because it was poorly developed" they just say "well, it must be the system".

Exactly! And this really irritates me, why can't people see this? But in the end, preception is everything, it doesn't have to match the truth, that dosen't even matter, cuz preception becomes it's own kinda truth, and that is what may kill the wii, if they don't begin to take it more seriously and make decent games for it. But I don't know if they want to anymore. I'm beginning to think they want it to fail now. To them, its not even a valid games machine so why should they even care?


[/QUOTE]always a mystery to me. but i think the Wii will do just fine, it will have it's ups and downs and level out and then come right back. I expect it to have the same sales pattern as the DS. It's going to take the developers some time to get out of their friggin comfort zones and use something they hardly ever use...their imagination!

Exactly what happened with the DS if you recall, they kept wanting to shoe-horn the same game mechanics into just about every game, because they couldn't wrap their minds around how to incorporate the stylus into gameplay when their brains are so hardwired to think about standard controls of d-pad and buttons. The time will come when some more imaginitive developers come along and make some phenomenal third party wii games.[/QUOTE]

Yes I remember how the DS was slagged off as a gimmick and devepopers didn't know how to handle it. It was pretty bad for awhile. Seems like the wii is going though the same thing. Thing is, will it survive...?

 

[link1305]

To be honest I'm quite surprised that more third party devs haven't released more innovative/fun games. The Wii has consistently been sold out for the past few months (if not longer), so why aren't more games coming out? I would think companies would jump on the change to get it on the action. The only thing I can think of is perhaps lots of games are in development, and it will just take 4+ more months until completion. Perhaps most developers didn't jump on-board until the Wii started selling really well (I know it sold well at launch, but 6+ months later when it was still sold out, that says something).

Anyway, I can't wait for Smash Bros and Mario Kart...surely to be two of the best. I just got my Wii on Friday and I only have Zelda, so I still have lots of titles to catch up on from last year.

 

[neveragain]

Smash bros Ds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol jk that wont happen this year.
I want some returns of heroes weve just remembered from brawl like Ness/Lucas/Ninten and Pit.

 

[RandomZero]

I think this year will be a good year for the wii. Super smash bros brawl...and mario kart with the wheel...both of those games alone will sell alot of units..i got that game no more heros today...its a mature game...but i like it..i beat the first level and stopped because i dont like beating games all in one day. But this game made me feel like the games to come will be amazing..

 

[crazyman2]

I would agree with the article about most of 2007, but i hope and pedict 08 to be a better year for the wii. I dont find this to be a very credible article considering sweet games like brawl and mario kart should be coming out. Also, the spelling, punctution and gramatical errors bother me. if your just posting i dont give a hoot( haha hoot) at that stuff, but if your making an article, i expect some proof reading if you want me to consider it. Anyways, i say hopes up for 2008.

 

[CantGetAWii]

Yeah I didn't write this, just was sharing a thing I found.

2008 will no doubt be a better year, hopefully no more good games get delayed though.

 

[WiitnessID]

What I'm wondering is why oprah and ellen is seen as a bad thing...LOL Any thing on that show automatically sells out. They may not be why I buy stuff but to act like people don't listen to them could almost get you fired. The fan boys are really trying hard this gen yet with out a game to get people excited about they are just blowing air and hoping for the fad thing to be true.

These guy are basing their prediction on unknowns. The same way every one said that the Wii just couldn't make it this gen. The spec popped up and every one was like this is the end...LOL Also too we know that the PS3 is getting FF13 and metal gear and we still have not bought one. They are cool games but they are not exactly what I want to play in 08.
If you look back every one was laughing at nintendo and hoping it would go away...LOL
Then the controller came and it crushed E3 to the point companies did not even want an E3 any more. Then Wii sports got every one addicted. Then came Wii play. This is all from the experience of watching what other people see. These people don't even know about the web browser, the VC games, Wifi gaming or the hardcore games.

What is funny is this one quote ...LOL

"Nintendo franchises will continue to trickle out at a very slow pace, forcing many fans and developers to jump ship."

Now tell me why nintendo's slow pace of games is going to cause other developers to jump ship. If any thing they should see this as an opening to actually establish a buzz for the publisher. I mean imagine if NMH came out after Smash.

There is a guy on wall street doing this same thing...LOL These guys are ignoring the fact that most people thing that hardcore gaming is boring and actually pushes people away. The Wii does the opposite. People see it and want to try it and then they love it. Also if you really are hardcore then the VC is great, for the price of a rental you can own a game that maybe you didn't even get to play!

Also too they are ignoring the titles like fragile and other RPGs that are signaling the flood of support the Wii is about to get.

Right now the other guys can only hope that the Wii doesn't get some good games. Because of it's price and control types any type of game is possible.

07 was a good year too if you actually play games. I've haven't bought this many games in one year in a while. I usually just rent games since most stuff is so easy.

So far there has not been much to get me too excited on the HD systems except for PC games. I mean spore is coming to the Wii also.
There is one more beat em up with a scantly clad samurai in a bikini, the child king game, square Wii ware game and many more games will come out of the wood work. At some point the fan boys will have to put their bias to the side and come and make a game on the Wii , just like factor 5. Just imagine if Rare still worked with nintendo! Retro's next game is unknown and so is KujU the makers of BWii. The guys that did galaxies have not announced their next game either. Even Id carmack is porting his cell games over... I mean really it just a matter of time before people realize that this market is wide open.

It's like a case of money just sitting there! Eventually people will end up going for it. Almost 20 million is not a fad it's a market!

 

[sagema]

50 million Wii's sold by the end of 2008.

Sony will catch up to Microsoft if Microsoft doesn't do a legit (One where the hard drive is included with the console's low price) price drop.

The PS3 will drop in price 2-3 times this year and launch another 1-2 versions of the console. Dual Shock will eventually show up, and TV monitors will release 1900x1200.

WoW will hit 10 million (Prediction already confirmed) subscribers. The MMO market will decline dramactically this year. Most online gamers will eventually leave WoW in favor of XBL, Wii Online, and Home. I predict WoW will break past 10 million and eventually decline.

Smaller companies will grow. Larger companies without decent original IP will shrink.

Finally... The US economy will tank badly around the end of 2008, no matter who takes over as President. The solutions the politicians will offer won't help much.

Now let's see which ones come true.

 

[WiitnessID]

50 million Wii's sold by the end of 2008.

Sony will catch up to Microsoft if Microsoft doesn't do a legit (One where the hard drive is included with the console's low price) price drop.

The PS3 will drop in price 2-3 times this year and launch another 1-2 versions of the console. Dual Shock will eventually show up, and TV monitors will release 1900x1200.

WoW will hit 10 million (Prediction already confirmed) subscribers. The MMO market will decline dramactically this year. Most online gamers will eventually leave WoW in favor of XBL, Wii Online, and Home. I predict WoW will break past 10 million and eventually decline.

Smaller companies will grow. Larger companies without decent original IP will shrink.

Finally... The US economy will tank badly around the end of 2008, no matter who takes over as President. The solutions the politicians will offer won't help much.

Now let's see which ones come true.

The price drop may not happen unless square steps in once again. I just don't see SONY as feeling like their system is worth less than it's current price for the simple fact that another price drop would hurt their stand along blue ray drives also. I think SONY is going to ride this system out and keep it going like they said while the others come out with new systems. The reasoning behind this is if they keep the price up they WILL make a profit on every system sold. I mean do you really think they are charging them selves that much for the blue ray....LOL Thats like nintendo worrying about how much carts cost.

It does need to happen for the PS3 to stay competitive with the xbox 360 though. SONY is not one to actually listen to it customers though unless it has some to gain and I don't blame them. They are going to make major money off this blueray thing.

 

[ssbb_lover]

The release of Brawl this year automatically makes it better than 2007. Mario Kart and others don't hurt either.

 

[WiitnessID]

The release of Brawl this year automatically makes it better than 2007. Mario Kart and others don't hurt either.

You know you are so right and factor 5 is back in the fold and they've been slapped up side the head for bad game play so they will automatically make a classic!