Nintendo strengthens Wii online, talks Virtual Console sales
Just a couple of days ago, Nintendo held a Press Conference over in Japan to outline its plans for promoting how broadband Internet access can be used with the Wii console for various purposes. Details of the deal with Japanese telecoms operator NTT’s regional units were also discussed, as well as a snippet of news regarding the success of the Virtual Console so far.
Nintendo and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation are teaming up in Japan to drive more people to use the Wii’s online capabilities since the WiiWare programme will be starting in March 2008 and the Kyoto Company wants to ensure that as many people as possible will be taking advantage of downloading the latest new games from the service. After all, it is a service that is being heavily supported by the likes of Bandai Namco (with a version of Mojipittan coming), Hudson (who is bringing Star Soldier, amongst others) and even RPG heavyweight, Square Enix, which stunned the world just a couple of months ago by revealing an exclusive new entry into its Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles franchise that will launch along WiiWare, called ‘Little King and the Land of Promise’.
On the flipside, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation is keen to see more consumers jumping on-board the online Wii train via its fibre-optic Web connection service, seeing this as a new long-term source of growth due to the continuously increasing userbase of the Wii being a very attractive pool of potential customers. The co-operative project, which involves both of NTT’s regional units, NTT East and NTT West, working with Nintendo, will commence as soon as this Thursday, 29th November, with call centres providing users with consultation and support on how to hook-up to Wii’s Internet connection. In addition to this, lower-rate start-up packages will be offered, giving consumers equipment for Web access, on-site set-up and other services in one handy Wii package. Nintendo believes that having sold nearly four million units of Wii in Japan alone (a massive 13.2 million around the world as of the end of September!), the majority of users should be accessing the online Wi-Fi Connection service just as easily as people having been doing with the Nintendo DS, and you have to wonder whether or not such a campaign will eventually filter to the Western world to educate the non-gaming community, as well as the older and female demographics that are being thanked for the massive sales.
“I hope our fiber-optic service becomes as popular as the Wii. I think we have won a powerful ally to hit our target to boost fiber-optic subscribers to 20 million by the year ending March 2011.”
- NTT East Senior Executive Vice President Tetsuo Koga told a news conference on Wednesday.
At the same conference, Question and Answer session took place following the main presentation, where worldwide Virtual Console sales information was disclosed. Nintendo’s Shinji Hatano was asked just how popular the Virtual Console had been so far, to which he responded there have been 7.8 million downloads to date, and the retro download service has consequently generated 3.5 billion yen (approximately $33 million / ÂŁ16 million / 11.5 million Euros) in sales. As for how successful that made the service, however, all he could state was “We’re currently unsure if this is a lot or low. They’re not bad figures.”
Do you feel that the Virtual Console side of Wii should be advertised more and what are your thoughts on the idea of an online support centre for the West as well? Be sure to air your opinions by posting below.
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The Virtual Console is definitly a good idea, espically for someone like me. Whilst I have been gaming since the days of the megadrive, the Wii is the first Nintendo console I have owned and there certainly are some amazing games.
It definitley needs to be advertised more. Even so I do not think that it will be a main source of revenue for Nintendo as the main people who are buying the console are not interested in all the cool retro games they could get for their Wii.
To be honest though I think they need to remake the virtual console, as the one part that has got me concerned is that you have no ID on the console (like a gamertag) to link you downloads to. This has made me a bit wary of downloading to many games for it just incase something ever happens to my Wii.
Currently a friend of mine also has a Wii and his seems to keep freezing and its happening more frequently now, he has an absoulte ton of Virtual Console games, so what is he going to do about getting them back when his console breaks down?
Does anyone know what happens in this scenario?
With regards to your friend’s Wii, I’d suggest turning off WiiConnect24 as that’s reportedly causing some people’s systems to overheat, thus eventually start to freeze. It hasn’t happened to mine over the past year, but I do indeed know others that have had this problem.
On the VC side of things, it’s a very valid point about the lack username/gamertag. Sure, Nintendo says you can just download things forever and a day, but again there have been reports of people being screwed if they need to get a new Wii. If we all had some unique login details, then the issue would be resolved…but then Nintendo would worry about hacking, etc.
Personally I feel the potential for VC has not even begun to be reached yet. Third Parties have an extraordinary chance to recoup sales that may not have been quite achieved back when certain titles were released at retail (like Square Enix’s ActRaiser). Others may be able to make extra revenue from games previously unreleased in particular markets (Sin & Punishment is a prime example).
A little more advertising in Japan will do wonders for the downloads, I reckon, especially given Japan’s love of all things retro (see the amazing Famicom Mini sales for proof!). I also think a similar dedicated Call Centre approach would be of benefit in Western markets as well, since so many new gamers are joining the Wii experience and may not be au fait with getting a system connected to the Internet.