Nintendo's Wii console launched in N. America, selling out in most of its launch venues, making the launch an impressive feat as supplies of the console were "healthy".
The Times Square Toys "R" Us store in New York saw over 1,000 gamers gather in order to be the first to get their hands on the console while the GameStop store at Hollywood's Universal City Walk featured similar numbers. Nintendo's plans to appeal to non-gamers will have to wait for the holiday season since the man who was the first to buy a Wii was Isaiah Triforce Johnson, a gamer who wore a black leather Nintendo coat and a Legend of Zelda sweatshirt.
The USD 250 price tag and the innovative motion-sensitive Wiimote seem to have captured gamer imagination and all that Nintendo has to prove now is that it has managed to develop the concept making it part of a viable gaming solution. The fact that queues formed at Nintendo Wii launch sites is even more impressive when you consider that there were no shortage warnings and most gamers did not have to queue in order to guarantee themselves a unit.
The Wii comes as an additional tool in Nintendo's strategy to broaden the appeal of gaming to include traditional non-gamers such as women and the silver surfer generation. The strategy was first implemented with the Nintendo DS which utilized its innovative touch screen gameplay and unique titles such as Nintendogs and Brain Age to lure women and older adults into gaming. Now the Wii will attempt to use its similarly unique motion-sensitive controller to capture the imagination of even more non-gamers.
Wii owners seem to be keeping the eBay temptation at bay and the console's are selling for an average of USD 600 on the online auction website. Analysts expect the Wii to also benefit from a strong launch lineup suggesting that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess may prove a hit title for the console. Nintendo expects to ship 4 million Wii consoles globally by the end of 2006, twice the number of PS3s expected to be shipped by year end.
