Michael Kimb Jones

VGChartz recently announced that the Wii has indeed got close to the sales figures of the Xbox 360 with sales just shy of 11m units.

It has of course reached this figure in just over half the time the 360 took, which any way you look at it is an amazing feat.

But I have a problem with this. And so should every gamer.

You see, the Wii is not a next-generation console.

I would even go as far to say that the Wii is not a ‘games console’ as we have come to know and expect.

The Nintendo Wii is something different. Something uncategorised. Impressive and innovative but hard to place.

For this reason, it should not be subjected to the same hyperbole as the PS3 and the 360 and should not in any way shape or form be listed on the same sales charts.

Wiith or wiithout you

So what to do with the Wii?

I know many people who would never shell out on a games machine like the 360 or the PS3 or even the PS2 who are buying Wiis.

People like my step brother who is the kind of uber-casual-gamer type which failed to explore more than 1% of the available games library of the PS2 he used to own. Yet he has lapped up the Wii upon arrival because of its snazzy ad campaigns and annoying TV spots.

Why are so many people buying the Wii?

Why? Because its different, its a novelty and also because its incredibly cheap!

This is reason enough to omit it from the rankings.

Also, the Wii massively underpowered is compared to the PS3 and 360. Its a non-HD piece of kit in a HD world. Its graphics are at best a slight improvement on the original Xbox.

This of course has nothing to do with the games being published. Nintendo has intentionally set to design ’stylised’ games titles which look immature and rely on interactive gameplay and not impressive imersive graphical might.

This is not a bad thing but it IS another reason why the Wii should be thrown out of the next-gen arena and given its own unique category.

What that category could be is anyone’s guess.