There's no "I" in team, and there no "e" in Wii

By Gil Whiteley

Nintendo put its money where its creativity is and the registers haven’t stopped ringing. Game industry experts had their doubts about the funny name and the choice of cutting back on processing power. Especially after Nintendo took a hit in the pocketbook and street credibility with the failure of the Power Glove in 1989 and Virtual Boy in 1995. After all, what could this strange new controller system do for the company’s bottom line? Everything!

It’s not as powerful or as costly as Sony PlayStation 3 ($599) or Xbox 360 ($399 for the deluxe setup), but Wii ($250 if you can find one at retail pricing) gets back to the basics of the game industry itself. Wii is fun to play! Forget about being a couch potato, Wii puts you on and in the court/field/course/alley/ring.

Wii’s November 2006 release put pressure on Nintendo to deliver 4 Million units before year’s end and they met their deadline. Nintendo’s profits for the first three quarters of 2006 were up over 70%, and most of that is attributed to Wii’s innovative design and playability. Nintendo’s sales soared from $3.4 Billion in 2005 to $5.9 Billion during the same period in 2006. Profits exceeded $1 Billion. Ouch!

Editors Note: We constantly hear people talking about a million of this and a billion of that, but do you know how long a million seconds is? Of course you don’t, it’s approximately 12 days. Now. . . how long is a billion seconds? (See below.)

At a Best Buy mega store in Denver, the Manager of the Day (MOD) told me that if they got 500 Wii units in today, they would be gone in a couple of hours at one per customer. That would be no advertising; just GWOM (Geek word of Mouth).

Wii is not only cost effective; it comes with five games (Tennis, Bowling, Golf, Baseball and Boxing). It doesn’t require a startup disk because Wii is fully self-sufficient. Everything you need comes in the box. What a concept. You get the console and the revolutionary new motion sensitive game controller that looks like a TV remote PLUS two AA batteries. Batteries included. What’s next? Nunchucks? Actually. . . yes there’s a Nunchuck and a sensor bar and Wii composite video cables included. Everything. Got it?

Wii makes money on each unit sold rather than the business model used by Microsoft and Sony that hawks their consoles at a slight loss but profits on their exclusive game sales.

The only problem Nintendo has encountered is that the wrist strap on some remote game controllers has failed. Wii.com features a replacement request form to access a new and improved strap.

Do you know how many PlayStation 3 users it takes to open a container of Milk? Two. One to watch the milk so it doesn’t escape, and the other to find a Wii player with enough sense to open Milk carton. BTW: 1 Billion seconds is 32 calendar years.

Wii is clearly the new cool-kid on the block. Nintendo will soon have 6 Million units in play. While X-box 360 is over 10 Million, Wii quickly is closing in. The clear loser is Sony’s PlayStation 3 which has about 1.5 Million units sold. We’re betting Sony kids have a severe vitamin D deficiency and can’t open the milk without help.

According to the Best Buy MOD, Wii is the hottest thing on the planet. It won’t take Al Gore long to start blaming global warming on it.

***

Gil Whiteley is the host of VIP Denver on News/Talk 710 KNUS Radio and 1650-KNUS2 Saturday from 6 to 9 pm. As a freelance writer and pop culture expert, Whiteley is the Film Critic for the Denver Daily News and VipDenver.com, 10starmovies.com and is the Wine Columnist for Colorado Avid Golfer. You can email Gil at Gil@vipdenver.com.