The Nintendo Wii: Wal-Mart of Game Systems Can Negatively Impact Gaming Industry

According to Nintendo, 13.17 million Nintendo Wii's have been sold by September of this year, and with this success, it has very possibly changed the video game industry forever. There's been a longstanding tradition amongst console sales, whereby it was equated with the selling of razors and razor blades - the company took a net loss on the console, only to make it up on software/game sales and subscriptions.

However, as reported by Seeking Alpha, Nintendo has optimized the production costs so that it makes an unprecedented profit on each console sale. This encourages Nintendo to continuously sell their Wiis with the additional benefit of getting to play the much fabled Wii Sports. This means that, rather than focus on pumping out new and improved games, the company is allowed to focus solely on attempting to sell its system - which it has done miraculously.

According to reports, it often outsells its competitors 3:1 in North America and 6:1 in Japan every week - with no real sign of slowing.

There are many reasons for this too - for many parents, the idea of getting a game system that utilizes actual cardiovascular exercises is a good one, and what's more, parents are often encouraged to play along with their kids in these games. On hot days, there's no need to endure the discomfort of a typical tennis court when one can simply play it inside, taking advantage of the same exercises with the comfort of air conditioning. What's more, Wii Sports makes a great party game - so much so that Wii Sports Centers have opened all across Southern California and throughout several malls, where a small fee is paid so that people can enjoy a cafe style Wii sports game.

What isn't seen, however, is the potential downside that comes with these low costs. Many of the more hardcore video game fans have already noticed the most obvious effect in the absence of noteworthy game titles released for the Wii. While everyone is interested in keeping up with the latest Super Mario or Zelda, and therefore these games in the series are a sure sale, every other game released has either been a simple continuation of an already successful Nintendo series, or has tried to, often times failing in the process, utilize the unique Wii Remote features.

For example, much ado has been made about the various fishing games that have already been released for the system and Trauma Center: Second Opinion, however these games do not necessarily have a widespread calling, or act as a good template for eventual, consistent success. Many gamers in the United States are simply uninterested in pursuing Trauma Center, for example, simply because of its obviously Japanese, anime influence - an art style that has a decent calling amongst America's teens, but little else.

These games have been fundamentally built not on the level of fun the game elicits, but due to its departure from normality. The Wii finds its success in providing players with something otherwise simple and uninteresting if not for their presence on their screen, which is not frequently utilized in other game systems. For example, the game darts is a relatively easy video game to program and a thousand previous attempts at making it had found it difficult to root itself in gaming culture. But as soon as someone had a Wii Remote, they were able to get fully into the experience, which managed to sell a number of copies of Super Monkey Ball 2.

Meanwhile, more conventional games, such as Madden 08, are hurt by Nintendo Wii. Failing to utilize the top of the line graphics that the X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3 are capable of, it attempts to make up for it by making the player pump his arms to make his player run. For many people, this is simply too rapid a departure from convention for enjoyability - but this does not deter the success of the Nintendo Wii itself, which does not need to rely on software for its profits.

Because of this, the Wii's games have been lackluster at best. An entire system built around Wii Sports, it has not diligently pursued any titles to stack its shelves. A trip into any GameStop or even Wal-Mart and a glance at the Wii section will show only a few games, the most prominent of which have already had their day.

There are very few new Wii games on the horizon, too - but this does not bother Nintendo one bit, as it has no need to produce these games.

And if this becomes an industry standard, without a doubt, there will be a negative backlash as other companies take on this idea of low cost, innovative but simplistic consoles which can make profits all by themselves - and the need to create games will decline. Then so, too, will game studios.