From: London Free Press
Wii love it!
Wii, Nintendo's latest video game console, is a runaway hit and is far outselling its more expensive competitor, Sony's PlayStation 3.
Both were released to long lineups and much hoopla in November, but only the Wii is still hard to find in London-area stores. Even in Japan, Wii sales are double that of Play- Station 3.
Sony sat solidly on top of the previous generation of game consoles, garnering 70 per cent of the global market by selling 35 million PlayStation 2 consoles. Nintendo was a distant third, behind Sony and Microsoft's 15-million seller Xbox, selling just 11 million GameCubes.
Both Sony and Nintendo say they will sell six million new-generation consoles worldwide by the end of March.
Allan John, manager of EB Games in White Oaks Mall, said his store has been getting as many as 200 calls a day for the Wii, which sells for about $279. The weekly shipment of about 10 to 15 consoles are usually gone in five minutes.
In contrast, the PlayStation 3 is usually in stock.
John said there's no mystery to Wii's wild popularity
"It's the most interactive, fun thing I've bought in the last 10 years. No matter who you are, chances are you're going to like playing it," he said.
The Wii's big innovation is a wand-like controller (Wii-mote) that detects and mimics the hand and body motions of the player, translating them to TV-screen action.
Buyers of the Wii console get a free game called Wii Sports. It gets couch potatoes up and thrashing around in simulated games of golf, tennis, baseball, boxing and bowling.
Parents who have never played video games tell him they've spent hours playing Wii games with children.
"That's something unheard of in the gaming industry. The whole point of this system was to bring in people who don't play video games," said John.
Carol Bennett, of Head 2 Head Games on Dundas Street, said customers sometimes wait an hour on weekends to play on her Wii station consoles.
Head 2 Head has had to clear a bigger space for the Wii players, she said.
"We don't keep them side by side or they (the players) would hit someone. They get right into it."
There have been reports that enthusiastic Wii players have broken the wrist straps attached to the controllers and sent them flying into TVs or other players' faces.
But Bennett is skeptical, saying Head 2 Head has had no such incidents.
There have been more games released for the Wii than the PlayStation 3 and they are easier to play and less violent, appealing to a wider audience, said Bennett.
Playstation 3 has far superior graphics for serious gamers and can play Blu-ray discs, she added.
"But graphics isn't everything. I think that's what Sony is learning," said Bennett.
