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Wii is just a novelty, says Xbox's Greenberg

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Wii is just a novelty, says Xbox's Greenberg

Xbox product boss dismisses market-leading console; gamers will ‘graduate’ to 360

In an interview with Gamasutra, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live has stressed that Wii is nothing more than a ‘novelty’, while talking up 360 as the console that Wii owners will graduate to.

"Everyone says that eventually the novelty will wear off, right? I think that a lot of the people that are buying that console today are not people that have generally bought consoles in the past, right?” he told Gamasutra.

“You see they're not buying games on it, right? They're buying it, it's like something they break out when people come over, and it's maybe a fun thing, but it's almost like the same people that buy a karaoke machine, you know? They're not really buying it for games, they're just buying it as a novelty."

Greenberg’s comments echo those made by Xbox EMEA VP of strategic markerting David Gosen in MCV’s recent in-depth interview – click here to read the full piece.

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true

posted by sgh379 Jul 07, 2008 at 4:22 pm
1

true

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Re: true

posted by SvenOf9 Jul 07, 2008 at 4:28 pm
2

yeah they don't buy software, or peripherals for the machine at all... right?

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Re: true

posted by Victor Von Doom Jul 07, 2008 at 5:32 pm
3
Victor Von Doom

I purchased two Wiis for my daughters last Christmas (they don't share well and I figured they could play against each other from the comfort of their rooms). It was the coolest thing for about a month. They have some of the classic stuff but ask for very little in new software. Now I have to negotiate for time on my 360. My point is the Wii works well as a family gaming machine but the real gaming (at least in my household) is on the 360. So this Christmas I'll upgrade to an Elite and let them fight over my Pro. As someone said earlier, all you have to do is look at the software sales and attach rates.

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Re: Re: true

posted by Smithy Jul 07, 2008 at 5:59 pm
4
Smithy

@ Victor Von Doom, you have a point there. And yeah, the 360 does have a much higher attach rate, and software sales than the Wii..in America anyway.

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Not true

posted by Gareth Hacon Jul 07, 2008 at 6:51 pm
5
Gareth Hacon

I see - the brilliant guys who have wasted £500 million on poorly designed 360's tell us what - to buy theirs. I bought a PS3 and love it - the Wii is a fantastic idea.

Microsoft needs gaming people running their department not people told to read cues from a board.

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Re: Not true

posted by smithy Jul 07, 2008 at 7:20 pm
6
smithy

Anyone who regurgitaes utter rubbish from The Mirror, which is easily the worst newspaper in birian, needs to have his brains examined. MIcrosoft has long ago taken a charge to cover the costs of rrod repairs, and after that proceeded to make good profits in the XBOX 360 business for 3 striaght quarters, amounting to some $600 million. Meanwhile, Falcon 360's that have been out for vlose to a year now, have been preforming excellenty, with no rrob problems to speak of. Question then arises, why is The Mirror draging out an issue that was dealt with last year, and which has been solved on the Flacon 360's for over a year now? Manifestations of the normal anti-American agenda from The retards at The Mirror? You bet!

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On the Fence

posted by Chris Jul 08, 2008 at 7:43 am
7
Chris

I own both an Xbox 360 and a Wii. I have to say my main out of the two is the 360 but mainly due to the fact that XboxLive is far better than what Nintendo have in way of online gaming. Trying to play online with friends on the Wii is far too much effort with exchanging "Friend Codes" and everything. And then you can't even easily tell if people are online. Nintendo need to take a leaf out of MS book and get the "Friends" type system working well and then it will be better. The trouble I find with the Wii is that I don't have anyone living nearby to get a party going and play a lot of the games for it. With Xbox there's no trouble.

And anyway, with the way publishers release so many games for all formats nowadays theres not a lot seperating the consoles. Ok, each have a little corner of exclusives but with prices as they are it's not totally impossible to own a Wii and an Xbox or PS3.

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more games

posted by holdmykidney Jul 08, 2008 at 8:49 am
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holdmykidney

When the Wii first came out I was concerned about the lack of mainstream-type games.

However there's so much good stuff that's out for it now there are honestly more games than I can actually find time to play.

Therefore whether it's true or not that a lot of Wii owners will 'garage' their Wiis I can't see them migrating to XBox; if they aren't interested in buying the games that are available on Wii I can't see those same people actually buying games on XBox. You can't use the same argument twice.

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In denial

posted by Drake Jul 14, 2008 at 6:37 pm
9
Drake

Microsoft released a year earlier than the Wii. How will gamers "graduate" to and earlier machine? The Wii is a brilliant concept and a great system, though i will admit the name could have used a bit of tweaking. The 360 is just the X Box with better graphic while the Wii brings something new to the field. Nintendo games might not have as good graphics as Microsoft games, but they have infinitely better game play. This is just a corporate executive trying to deal with his company's defeat by lying to himself.

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total contradiction

posted by wiz1000 Jul 15, 2008 at 7:04 pm
10
wiz1000

Surely if they've bought a Wii purely as a novelty, and "are not people that have generally bought consoles in the past" they're most unlikely to upgrade to a more serious (and expensive) piece of gaming hardware? If they're not 'true gamers' then they won't go anywhere near an Xbox... right?

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