New console breaks down barriers
The Nintendo Wii could be the hottest Christmas gift this
season
– if only it were available online or in stores.
Nintendo Co.’s entry into the game console wars went on sale
Nov. 19, and quickly sold out in many stores despite stocks that
far surpassed those of the rival PlayStation 3, which went on sale
two days earlier. The game consoles were absent from advertisements
in local newspapers heading into the busiest shopping weekend of
the year.
New console breaks down barriers
The Nintendo Wii could be the hottest Christmas gift this season – if only it were available online or in stores.
Nintendo Co.’s entry into the game console wars went on sale Nov. 19, and quickly sold out in many stores despite stocks that far surpassed those of the rival PlayStation 3, which went on sale two days earlier. The game consoles were absent from advertisements in local newspapers heading into the busiest shopping weekend of the year.
Even Amazon.com, one of the biggest online retailers, sold out of their stock in less than one minute Nov. 19 and has yet to receive an additional shipment.
The week after its launch the console had become a hit with one family who spent Thanksgiving playing such titles as “Wii Sports” and “Rayman Raving Rabbids.”
The Wii takes a different tack than the competition, forgoing the high-definition graphics that Sony has spent billions to develop for the PlayStation 3. Players can’t just sit on their duffs and hit buttons with this game.
Instead, Nintendo aims to draw gamers and non-gamers alike with intuitive game play. The Wii comes with a motion-sensitive controller that the gamer waves around in the air, using it as a tennis racket, golf club, steering wheel, gun or sword depending on the game.
Gilroy teenagers Brandyn Lemmon, Patrick Lemmon and Frankie Coronado are all avid videogame players so it was no surprise that they enjoyed the new console. But the Wii also drew the attention of their uncle, a 58-year-old who is often challenged by electronics, and their ten-year-old cousin Brandie Cameron who lacks the attention span for quest games.
In one game, the players had to make the main character Rayman run to beat a clock to deliver a present. To make Rayman run, players move the two controllers up and down rapidly. Brandyn beat the 35-second limit by nearly 10 seconds.
“It’s because he plays football and they do a drill like that at practice,” his brother Patrick said.
The games such as those on “Wii Sports” allow people to play by moving their body, with the remote in hand, in much the same way they would in real life.
Sony had about 400,000 PlayStation 3s in North American stores on Nov. 17. Nintendo has said it would have “five to ten” times as many Wiis available at launch, and will have shipped 4 million units by the end of the year.
Gamestop in Gilroy allowed preorders for the dozen or so Wii consoles they received on launch day. Other local stores in Hollister and Gilroy, including Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target quickly sold out of their consoles. Many of the add-on items, such as additional remotes and nunchucks to control the games, were not available at local stores by 11 a.m. Sunday. The game consoles come with controllers for one player and the remote remained elusive through online sites such as Amazon.com throughout the first week of sales.
The Wii costs $250, including one game, half of what the cheaper PlayStation 3 model costs. The most common PlayStation 3 model costs $600, with no included game.
On the eBay auction site, Wiis were selling this week for up to $450 each with one game, indicating that supplies are still tight. The PlayStation 3, meanwhile, was selling for around up to $900.
Melissa Flores can be reached at
mf*****@pi**********.com
. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
