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Originally Posted by CyCo PL
There is no argument that the Wii is doing better than all of the other consoles in system sales. But what about games? It seems like many of the Wii owners are purchasing the console just to have a "Wii Sports" machine, rather than a real gaming platform. I wonder if some people even know that you can purchase other games for the Wii.
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I'm going to start with this, which is basically the very common, "but it has a low attach rate" argument.
Why is the attach rate skewed lower than their competitors?
Key point: Attach rates drop as marketshare increases.
This can be approached two ways, size of overall marketshare, and SPEED of increase, I'll take overall marketshare first as it relates to attach rates.
Historically, only the hardcore buys systems near launch, and then as more people filter in with different interests, due to lower prices and a wider range of software, overall attach rate drops. The top selling games for playstation 2, having sold over 120M hardware units, are GTA:VC and Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec at roughly 15 M a piece (12.5% attach). It drops dramatically from there. Mario Galaxy, excluding Europe, has about 3 million out of roughly 13 million hardware (~23%)
# Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (12 million)[95]
# Grand Theft Auto III (12 million,[94] may include PC and Xbox versions)
# Gran Turismo 4 (9.52 million)[82]
# Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (7 million)[96]
# Final Fantasy X (6.6 million)[97]
# Kingdom Hearts (5.6 million shipped)[72]
You can certainly argue that the Playstation 2 doesnt have a "flagship" series, though for many people, Gran Turismo is Sony's big fish.
Nintendo has come out of the gate attracting different groups of people than would traditionally buy a game machine, whereas normally, the casuals wouldnt come into play until later in the generation when the prices are lower.
Contrast this with Microsoft's strategy - From the start it was to consolidate the "hardcore" base, and also making new "pseudo-hardcore" players, due to the hooks of online and achievements. While it has served to get them a ridiculous software attach rate, hardware install base growth is limited.
Next: Speed of increase, which is a more relevant issue to the Wii, being the fastest selling game machine in history.
Selling as many consoles as the 360 has in half the time means that weeks of ownership are going to be a lot lower. If Nintendo had sold that amount over 2 years rather than 1, people wouldve had a lot more time, and more importantly MONEY, to buy games. They basically just got the system into their home and are out maybe $350-400+ after their first batch of games and accessories.
As an aside about Mario Galaxy, you havent provided any grounds to as why the current rate of sales is disappointing, outside of your personal view that a "flagship" series ought to do better. I think this post overall frames why I think they are NOT disappointing.
In my next post, I shall address 3rd party software sales and profit, since thats another hot issue thats somewhat related. Its only numbers that give us a bigger picture. Whether you personally think the software is good is as irrelevant as my disliking the software on the HD consoles.