Unlim. Wiis, PS3s, and Captain America 25s...

Just got back to France and... wouldn't you know it? The Wii is EVERYWHERE.

The Wii, the controllers, the games... you name it. There's just no such thing as a shortage over here. (There was around the same time I sold mine for a 35 euro profit minus a 12 euro flat tire.) There are also plenty of PS3s to be had. But it begs the question of how "real" the American shortage is...

I already posted photos of the four million Wiimotes the Virgin Megastore on the friggin' Champs Elysees had during the "drought." The Wiimotes existed "en masse" then as they do now, but for some odd reason they just weren't shipping them to the states. Just the Wiimotes at THAT Virgin Megastore alone would have been enough for the entire city of Chicago.

Now I can say more or less the same thing about the Wii.

I don't think Nintendo's having any manufacturing problems... I doubt they ever were. And the sales figures just don't match up to what they *could've* been selling. I spent two months in various states in the U.S. sticking my head into Best Buys and Circuit City's and Gamestops, and Gamecrazies... and the most I ever even heard of anybody getting in was 20. Which is ridiculous when the Virgin megastore here has three HUNDRED... the store across the street from my apartment has FIFTY, and I believe the Carrefour has about 500. (Carrefour and Auchan are ridiculously large department stores. The only thing to compare them to is Costco.)

I'm already sort of ****ed at Nintendo (in case you haven't been able to tell) about how they've let their entire console empire go to pot ever since the N64. And there are more than enough reasons for me to be ticked at them about the Wii. (Do I really need to even get into all that... again?) But far from all that they aren't even TRYING TO SELL THEM in America.

And the idea that "Oh, the demand is just so high they can't keep up..." is completely absurd when not even BEST BUY can get more than thirty pieces in at a time and they're shipping them in the fifties to the smallest possible stores in France. (I can only speak about france because its where I live, but I would imagine it's much the same around Europe.)

Add to this all that "other" stuff and I demand you show me the "revolution in gaming" that everybody's supposed to be raving about...

(As a side note, Captain America 25 (the death of Captain America)... which was absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to find in Chicago can be bought at just about any English-speaking comic book store, in its first printing and in whatever quantity you want, because the French suck at English. The PS3 is rarer than the wii, because the market is flooded, and I'm enjoying the hell out of all those DS games I got from target for 24 dollars. FINAL DAYS! At least grab a raincheck!)

It sucks and I have suspected these tactics for oh about the past twenty years.

As bad as it sucks, it doesn't change the fact that some of us enjoy and very much want a Wii and are unable to get them without going through ebay. Granted I am seeing them sell for roughly what retail+tax would be, but there is still the risk involved with ebay. I try to limit my purchases to @ $100 on there just so if I ever get burned it won't be bad.

I took a leave of absense from OC for a while and missed the lot that was in our secret area too.

I'll camp Walmart Sat night. If they don't show up I will have a person at pretty much every retail store when they open Sunday morning.

Gabbiani said:

It sucks and I have suspected these tactics for oh about the past twenty years.

As bad as it sucks, it doesn't change the fact that some of us enjoy and very much want a Wii and are unable to get them without going through ebay. Granted I am seeing them sell for roughly what retail+tax would be, but there is still the risk involved with ebay. I try to limit my purchases to @ $100 on there just so if I ever get burned it won't be bad.

I took a leave of absense from OC for a while and missed the lot that was in our secret area too.

I'll camp Walmart Sat night. If they don't show up I will have a person at pretty much every retail store when they open Sunday morning.

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Alright... Well, "riddle me this", Gabbiani: WHY do you want a Wii so bad? I mean Jesus... the game library is virtually unchanged since the launch. You've got some horribly dark Tiger Woods and a convuluted version of SSX. I think the Wii version of Sonic is the only game since Rayman to even rise up to the level of "average." Even the PS3 has the recently released Motorstorm and Virtua Fighter 4. The Wii has released nothing since launch that compete with either of those two (and you better believe that they ARE competing), let alone anything on the 360... or God of War II or Final Fantasy XII.

Let me tell you how disillusioned my friend in Chicago was after he bought the ORIGINAL ds and was stuck with a handheld that had practically NOTHING for about a year...

Jesus... what am I so mad about? Must be because I'm back in France. The French make me really angry for some odd reason. But I've GOT to be hear. I have to get my guitars and books and visit some girls in Spain where I can hopefully finish my article for T...

...almost got me there.

Its true the library sucks too. But even just wii sports is a great way to waste an evening drinking with buddies. I have car friend, computer nerd friends, movie friends, but sometimes its hard to entertain them when I have friends from different groups around. So far sitting around swinging a piece of plastic in the air has been damn good fun.

Gabbiani said:

Its true the library sucks too. But even just wii sports is a great way to waste an evening drinking with buddies. I have car friend, computer nerd friends, movie friends, but sometimes its hard to entertain them when I have friends from different groups around. So far sitting around swinging a piece of plastic in the air has been damn good fun.

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$250 is an AWFUL lot of money to pay for one game though... Even if it's the best game of all time... and I've actually played most of the best games of all time... it will get old eventually. Even Gears of War got old. And I'm sure that if I had played it long enough, God of War would've gotten old. Wii Sports, because of it's interactive party nature, will simply get old *slower*. But many of the people who got the console back in November are already there.

Too bad for them... because there's no end in site. I reported back here when it was announced that Sega would be making a bunch of games simultaneously for the PSP and the Wii. I speculated on if this was the future of the system. Well guess what? Ubisoft put out that Prince of Persia game... for PSP and Wii. And the list is getting bigger. The Wii is currently competing with a damned HANDHELD... and you know what? So far all the PSP versions (Prince of Persia especially) are better!

I've been screaming about the need for Nintendo to take this whole "third party developer" thing seriously ever since they announced they were makinga nother system. But all I got out of anybody was "innovative," and "original," and "captivating..." Here comes April folks... and if the Nintendo people aren't going to get mad of their own accord, I'll do my best to get mad FOR THEM.

After all... I was kinda ticked off anyway... for completely different reasons.

I had the strangest dream last night. People were saying the Wii is "just fun." So I started playing Techmo Bowl on a classic controller and 5 minutes turned into an hour, an hour into a day and shortly after i woke up.

Strangest dream because i didn't DL Techmo on the Wii and don't have a classic controller, but just to be sure I ran my finger across the top of my Wii... yup still collecting dust:/

Maybe I'll pick up Tiger Woods today, I do like golf and haven't had the chance to play in months.

OC Noob, if you can I would suggest you rent Tiger Woods for the Wii as it is not getting a great deal of positive feedback.

rainless said:

$250 is an AWFUL lot of money to pay for one game though...

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Is it? Take half a dozen people out one night, pay for dinner and drinks and then entertainment of some sort. Now buy a wII, fire up the grill, mix some drinks or buy cheap beer. Is $250 really all that much.

No I am not wealthy. Yes $250 is a good chunk of money, but its nowhere near the mortgage, the car payments, or anything else that normal adults pay here in the states monthly.

tenchi86 said:

OC Noob, if you can I would suggest you rent Tiger Woods for the Wii as it is not getting a great deal of positive feedback.

Click to expand...

Good idea, I'll give it a rent tonight.

Gabbiani said:

Is it? Take half a dozen people out one night, pay for dinner and drinks and then entertainment of some sort. Now buy a wII, fire up the grill, mix some drinks or buy cheap beer. Is $250 really all that much.

No I am not wealthy. Yes $250 is a good chunk of money, but its nowhere near the mortgage, the car payments, or anything else that normal adults pay here in the states monthly.

Click to expand...

Who's talking about a mortgage and car payments? You're talking about paying $250 to play one game. And when was the LAST time you took half a dozen people out for a night on the town? I can tell you when the last time I did was... NEVER!

You're cool in my buck... but that's a completely illogical argument. Hell... maybe you're young. My best friend's purchase of a Jaguar (I think that was between $250-$300) was a ridiculous mistake. Then again he bought the sega cd and 32x as well...

But if it's WORTH $250 to you... then why not eh? I'm just trying to point out the contradictions. (Not entirely unlike Phoenix Wright. And you'd be MUCH better off getting yourself a DS, both Phoenix Wright Games, and Hotel Dusk. At least the DS also has online games...)

The argument that it's "Just one game" for the WIi, is ludicrous at best. Right now there may not be 100 stellar titles out, but it's definitely got some interesting games on the shelves right now (Elebits, Zelda, Wii Play, Rayman, Trauma Center, etc.)

Plus, keep in mind you still have to pay $$$ for each game.

So when you buy a PS3, you pay $600 for no games, and then $20+ for each additional game.

When you buy a 360, you pay $300/$400 for no games and then $20+ for each additional game.

When you buy a Wii, you pay $250 for one game, and then $20+ for each additional game.

(I used $20 because that's how much I'll pay for each of my games. I rarely buy a game when it first comes out.)

So basically, for a PS3, you're paying $650 for one game, Wii you're paying $250. This gives you a base cost of $250 per game on the Wii, and $650 per game on the PS3.

Lets say you buy 4 games for the Wii @ $50 each and for for the PS3 @ $50 each

You now have $450 into the Wii and 5 games. This gives you a base cost of $ 90 per game. You also have $800 into the PS3 and 4 games, which is a wopping $200 per game.

Lets say you never buy another Wii game again. You would have to buy 14 PS3 games to reach a "Game to Console Value Ratio" of $90 per game. The final cost on 14 games? @ $50 per game you would have paid $1300 dollars to get to the same value ratio as buying a Wii and 4 games.

So don't give me this $250 for one game 0101010101!!! crap

Some numbers on the 360 as well...

If you bought a Premium 360 + 10 games you would hve the same value ratio as a Wii with 4 games.

Nintendo really needs to step it up, they could be doing and selling soo much better.
Elif Tymes, nice calculations, cool to have some numbers. Makes sense aswell.

Never in stock in my town in the midlands UK.
The whole Wii is cheap thing just doesnt wash with me a Wii with no games is £180 you can get a core 360 bundle with memcard and games for the same amount.
Still im gonna buy one to play the up coming mario games.

I entertain guests on a regular basis....
Sometimes its to kiss *** with business prospects,
Sometimes its just friends having fun.

People buy $250 cell phones just to talk on
People pay $250 (or a whole lot more) for an amp to make their ghetto music thump more
My microwave cost more than my wii, does that count?
I have since enjoyed more games, but I bought my ps2 JUST for FFX, and no I didn't have one until it came out.
People buy boats just to go to the lake 2-3 months in the summer.
When I was working through college I sold retail electronics for a while, the most common reason people bought bigscreens was "for the game on Sunday"
Sad to think I am still paying my WoW fee, wonder what thats cost now.
How many people here have bought a new video card just to play ONE game that came out?


We pay a premium for entertainment. There are no contradictions here, I am talking only about entertainment; the reason we play games. Honestly I didn't buy the Wii for just one game, but they value of the Wii+Sports is worth the cost alone to me.

My point is that if $250 will break the bank, you have more concerns than this silly argument. If I couldn't splurge a few hundred here and there I would rethink my education/career choices.

Core 2 Duo E6400 @3.64ghz max (so far)
Gigabyte DS3 F6 @520x7 FSB
2x512=1GB Corsair 6400 5-5-5-12
Fortron Blue Storm 500
Gigabyte 7600 GS 16x PCI-E
Evercool WC-202 Water Cooler

*****

HAHA! Watercooling.

Gabbiani said:

I entertain guests on a regular basis....
Sometimes its to kiss *** with business prospects,
Sometimes its just friends having fun.

People buy $250 cell phones just to talk on
People pay $250 (or a whole lot more) for an amp to make their ghetto music thump more
My microwave cost more than my wii, does that count?
I have since enjoyed more games, but I bought my ps2 JUST for FFX, and no I didn't have one until it came out.
People buy boats just to go to the lake 2-3 months in the summer.
When I was working through college I sold retail electronics for a while, the most common reason people bought bigscreens was "for the game on Sunday"
Sad to think I am still paying my WoW fee, wonder what thats cost now.
How many people here have bought a new video card just to play ONE game that came out?


We pay a premium for entertainment. There are no contradictions here, I am talking only about entertainment; the reason we play games. Honestly I didn't buy the Wii for just one game, but they value of the Wii+Sports is worth the cost alone to me.

My point is that if $250 will break the bank, you have more concerns than this silly argument. If I couldn't splurge a few hundred here and there I would rethink my education/career choices.

Click to expand...

Thats all relative. You could just as easily say some people work for less than $250 take home per week and that is a huge amount to them or that GC, PS2 and Xbox are around $100 so it is close to twice as much as its older brothers which still have games still being released on them (well, if you can call whats on the Xbox now games).

I think its price reasonably for a release console, but realize it is exspensive to a lot of people and will be considered expensive when it drops to $150 and later $100 as it will, sooner or later.

Its the same with the other consoles too, just refering to the topic at hand, the $250, but relative to the console world $250 has never been cheap until now where more people are considering it to be that because of the $300, $400, $500 and $600 price points of the 360 and PS3.

So the Wii is cheap, but its not


ps nice system, I made a boo boo and upgraded a few months too early, lol.

BigFoofieMan said:

Nintendo really needs to step it up, they could be doing and selling soo much better.
Elif Tymes, nice calculations, cool to have some numbers. Makes sense aswell.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought Elif's numbers were cute, too... They just don't add up to anything.

First of all, when you buy a 360 premium you DO get games... about a half a dozen of them if memory serves me correct... First you get the full version of the Live Arcade game Hexic HD. THEN you get demos of FULL games (something I don't think Nintendo will even to be able to pull off with those little SD cards...)... mine came with Burnout Revenge (which looks and plays... friggin... AWESOME.), Tomb Raider: Legends, Kameo, that weird Pinata game, and something else which escapes me...

Then there's all the little movies and stuff it comes with...

But let me stop you right there: THIS WHOLE TRIP IS A RED HERRON!

The argument was never "which system comes with games" I simply made an argument against buying a system just to *play* one game.

Now if you can explain what all those numbers have to do with that, you need to help me out with Phoenix Wright 2...

It's not about price... it's about the quantity of quality games... and that's where your math will quickly be turned against you.

Gabbiani said:

Core 2 Duo E6400 @3.64ghz max (so far)
Gigabyte DS3 F6 @520x7 FSB
2x512=1GB Corsair 6400 5-5-5-12
Fortron Blue Storm 500
Gigabyte 7600 GS 16x PCI-E
Evercool WC-202 Water Cooler

*****

HAHA! Watercooling.

Click to expand...

Greenmaji will tell you... Somewhere during the construction phase I ran out of money.

Sure. COnsoles been out 4 months...

Rayman: Raving Rabbits is a great game,
Trauma Center for the Wii is also pretty good
Super Swing GOlf is pretty good to.
Monkey Ball is also entertaining.
Zelda!

that's 5 right there. Need I go on?

/\Not everyone likes those games, so for a lot of people yes it is 250$s for one game right now. The PS3 and X360 comparison may be true but most people do end up buying more then 1 or two games if they are spending that much on a system to begin with, they also use the system for more then just gaming.