Namco Bandai thinks Wii/DS market has collapsed

Written by pikaby

An excerpt I got over at GoNintendo.


“It’s a tough market. We had a lot of product, and the average quality of a game on DS and Wii is very, very bad. So in the mind of the consumer today, to buy a DS or Wii game is to buy a game that isn’t very good. One of the reasons the DS collapsed is piracy, it is very clear, but also it is a fantastic machine and very easy to develop for. It was possible for three kids in a garage to make a game for it. DS is the most successful platform ever, but all my kids’ friends at school have a DS with an R4. They have 100 games for no money. So yes, the market has collapsed for the DS and Wii.” - Namco Bandai’s VP of sales, marketing and publishing Olivier Comte

Woah, easy there. Every system except the PS3 is wrangling with piracy, even the XBox 360, and the world's current best-selling console, PS2. (it's especially bad for PS2 and GBA here in Malaysia. Pirated games are so rampant that it completely eclipsed any and all genuine games!). So one point down, piracy is not an excuse if the system still does well.

You're right on the shovelware, but it's worse on Wii than it is on DS. Still, as I always like to put it 'if you're willing to dig through the sea of garbage you'll end up with a few gems'. True for Wii, true for DS, true of any console. PS2 had so many pieces of crap I couldn't count them, but there will always be some good games on it. And what of you, NB? Have you made anything worthwhile for the two systems?

Your Japanese division seems to be doing well with their Taiko no Tatsujin DS/Wii sales (which still pops up in the top 30 of Media Create's charts on a regular basis). Why the hate?

Namco Bandai thinks Wii/DS market has collapsed