Merry C-Wii-stmas everyone!

I must be missing something, but my first and only Nintendo Wii experience did nothing to rectify the doubts I've had about the damned thing since I first heard about it. Now I don't pretend to be an expert on anything (except for football), but that means I live out in the real world rather than some geek haven, surrounded by smartphone review units, notebooks and pizza boxes. As far as the Wii is concerned, I dig the tech. It's nifty, but I was convinced upon announcement that it would flop harder than Butterbean on a diving board once it reached the market that really counts: the consumer market.

Shows what I know, right? The Wii is huge, and as well as being a favourite at Stuff, it now is the subject of such demand that there is likely to be a shortage this Christmas. And I'll be honest, I really didn't see that one coming a year or two ago.

(From CNET)

I'll tell you what my concerns were - and indeed are - about the Wii. I thought the mixing of motion-tech with medieval gaming was a risk, because essentially it is simply whacking a gimmick on top of substandard gaming. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Nintendo had a choice, I'm sure the technology isn't good enough yet to map onto next-gen consoles. To be honest, I thought the novelty would wear off and that gamers would return to their preference of gaming quality, graphics and so on. Wrong.

I also thought the Wii was going to be hampered by attempting to get the gaming demographic off its arse and do some exercise. Gamers like videogames because they can sit down, chill out and play. I didn't believe the Wii had the ability to sell well in a market of lazy people. Wrong.

Finally, I thought it would struggle to compete with XBox-360 and PlayStation 3. I don't know the sales figures, but I also haven't read anything about those two products being in short supply over Christmas. So...I was wrong.

Nintendo seems to have successfully targeted the previously non-gaming consumer and showed them a new kind of fun. Maybe I just don't like the thing because I'm a scrooge, but facts is facts and I've been proven completely incorrect. Just a shame nobody's going to be able to get one.