PSP World

Why Wii Sports is a Winner

Without a doubt, the decision by Nintendo to ship its Wii consoles with the Wii Sports game was a brilliant one, and is contributing to the initial success of the console. By delivering Wiis with this game, Nintendo enabled all owners to have a great experience with the Wii right out of the box, without the need to invest immediately in one or more $50 games.

It was a game Nintendo itself developed, and its inclusion enabled a positive experience with the console and the powerful Wiimote. Nintendo controlled the owners’ first use of the Wii and Wiimote, which I would imagine for the vast majority of users was a success.

Wii Sports was the perfect intro to the Wii. The game was incredibly easy to play out of the box, with little or no learning curve. At my house in particular, once the console was set up, we had people ages 2 to 70 throwing strikes in bowling within minutes. We had the entire room loving not only playing the game, but practically rolling on the floor watching the others play! Playing the Wii is clearly a social experience, in an age when gamers are portrayed as greasy, unbathed teenagers holed up in a dark room for hours at a time! A much needed change for the industry!

And the ease of play was not limited to just bowling, all of the other Wii Sports included games were equally as easy to play and enjoy. I don’t think you will see that with the PS3 or Xbox 360! My elder relatives could not, and frankly would not want to a play a PS3, but they are bowling away on the Wii!

And the fact that anyone can play the Wii, and enjoy playing Wii, is why the Wii itself is so popular, and has seemingly won the first round of the battle with the PS3. We are now past the first quarter of ’07 and it is not uncommon to see people lined up at their favorite retailer on Sundays to scoop up the latest shipments of Wii hardware, and you can practically walk into any store anytime and buy a PS3. Well done Nintendo, the test now will be can they sustain this momentum?