Gaming giant Nintendo announced recently that it will discontinue its video game console, the Wii, in order to make way for the new Wii 2, which will be available sometime in 2012.
In an official statement released by Nintendo the company announced its intentions to release the new Wii in 2012, and added that there will be a playable (but not final) version of the new console at the upcoming E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in June in Los Angeles. So far no other details have been released.
The Wii was released in November 2006 and was the first video game console to effectively implement the use of a motion based control system, where the user interacts with the game via a movement sensitive remote controller.
Competitors Sony and Microsoft recently released motion based control updates to their consoles, the Playstation 3 and the Xbox360 respectively, but Nintendo has dominated the market, selling roughly 30 million more units than Sony and Microsoft since the Wii, Playstation 3, and Xbox360 were released.
College Park Gamestop employee Stephen Rane says the reason for this is Nintendo’s willingness to go after consumers who aren’t traditionally interested in videogames.
“The motion controls appeal to non-gamers because they find regular controllers intimidating, so Nintendo made controls accessible to the average gamer,” said Rane.
However, Rane says that one of the Wii’s main drawbacks is its lack of emphasis on graphics and third party software.
“There’s a lack of big titles on Nintendo consoles,” said Rane. “They strike gold with Mario games, those keep them going, but other than that there’s nothing new.”
Gamestop employee Andrew Graul agrees.
“They just don’t have the games and technology of Xbox and Playstation,” said Graul. He feels that its line of handheld systems, to which the Nintendo 3DS was most recently added, are where the future of Nintendo lies.
“Their handhelds are amazing. If they dropped the system [Wii] they could dominate the hand held market,” said Graul.
While Nintendo has been dominating the market of both handhelds and consoles, sales have decreased across the board recently. According to gaming website gamespot.com, Nintendo’s profit fell more than 66% last year, and it moved 5 million less Wii’s than in the previous year. Rane says that this may be because the system got a lot of its initial buzz from the motion control system, but failed to deliver on quality titles.
“It’s too gimmicky for a system that percentage wise has a lot of bad games compared to the 360 or the PS3,” said Rane. “The very reason the Wii was popular also meant it was too casual for most gamers.”
While Nintendo has only given 2012 as a release date for the next Wii, Graul that it may be earlier rather than later in the year.
“Nintendo releases a lot of big stuff in the springtime because it’s the end of their financial year,” said Graul.
However, the first Wii was released in November of 2006, and Graul says the next one could have a similar release date.
“I would assume the next system would be sellable before the holidays, November at the latest.”