Greenberg: Wii consumers are "buying it as a novelty"

[Shrygue]

via Games Industry


Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg has said that consumers are buying Nintendo's Wii as a "novelty" machine similar to home karaoke machines.

Speaking to Gamasutra, the outspoken director of product management for Micorsoft's gaming business said that he believes consumers aren't buying Nintendo's home console for games, and that those same consumers will eventually “graduate” to the Xbox 360.

“You see they're not buying games on it, right? They're buying it, it's like something they break out when people come over, and it's maybe a fun thing, but it's almost like the same people that buy a karaoke machine, you know?" said Greenberg of the consoles popularity with consumers new to gaming.

"They're not really buying it for games, they're just buying it as a novelty."

Greenberg believes that the Xbox 360 can appeal to mainstream consumers, not just the hardcore audience, and that the popularity of the Wii will push consumers looking for a new experience to Microsoft's home console over time.

"I think that there's a difference in the type of customer that is buying the Wii. When you think about it, there's a difference between trying to be the number one console with nine year old gamers, and being the console that offers the most experiences from 13 to 33," he said.

"In this generation we're seeing record revenues for the US and globally for the business, and we're seeing more people buying and playing games than ever before, and the Wii is definitely part of that. And as they grow that pie, that benefits us too, because those customers are eventually going to want to graduate to an Xbox 360 experience."

Sales of the Wii in North America were 675,100 units during May 2008, as it outsold its rivals for the fourth consecutive month. According to figures from NPD, the Xbox 360 sold 186,600 units in the same month.

[clockworkjb]

Clearly, Greenberg is yet to play Prime 3, Twighlight Princess, Brawl, Galaxy, Mario Kart or any of the multitude of other games that will happily keep me from "graduating" to any Microsoft console for a very, very long time. That being said, there are some games for 360 which I enjoy - I currently own them all for PC...

[idapimp]

personally i bought a wii because it is fun.

[watupgroupie]

Clearly, Greenberg is yet to play Prime 3, Twighlight Princess, Brawl, Galaxy, Mario Kart or any of the multitude of other games that will happily keep me from "graduating" to any Microsoft console for a very, very long time. That being said, there are some games for 360 which I enjoy - I currently own them all for PC...

I don't even buy wii games any more because they all suck, I was disapointed by all of those game you listed except zelda and brawl. But brawl I only played for a short amount of time. And having most 360 game on PC is giving people a choice between the console experience and the computer experience which is diffrent. Only thing keeping me interested in my wii is the homebrew.

[dahun]

sais the company that made less money within more time

[grossaffe]

is this the same microsoft saying "hey, buy a wii and a 360 instead for the same price as the PS3"? I guess they're just discovering that Nintendo was their real threat, not Sony.

[AndrewArsonn]

I wish I knew Mr.Greenterd's e-mail address I'd so send him hate mail for being for being such a big baby about the wii selling more.

[Harshboy]

lol, I actually did go from a Wii to a 360.

The Wii just got boring. I wanted to play Halo 3, CoD4, Gears of War, and those other great games.

The only thing the Wii is used for now is playing cracked VC Games and Emulators.

My old modded Xbox has better Emulators than the Wii, so the Wii gets turned on only once every month at most.

[Eviltaco64]

lol, I actually did go from a Wii to a 360.

The Wii just got boring. I wanted to play Halo 3, CoD4, Gears of War, and those other great games.

The only thing the Wii is used for now is playing cracked VC Games and Emulators.

My old modded Xbox has better Emulators than the Wii, so the Wii gets turned on only once every month at most.

Ha you're right about the Xbox. People make such a big deal about the Wii, when there's already been numerous fullspeed emulators on the Xbox for years xD, not to mention you can get an Xbox and everything needed to mod one for under $50 nowadays (I got everything for $35!)

[Vernonjr]

I don't even buy wii games any more because they all suck, I was disapointed by all of those game you listed except zelda and brawl. But brawl I only played for a short amount of time. And having most 360 game on PC is giving people a choice between the console experience and the computer experience which is diffrent. Only thing keeping me interested in my wii is the homebrew.

Your a liar! No one dislikes Galaxy... no one.