Japan Loves the Wii

Post-E3 joy for Nintendo as gamers lap up the company's new console.

Not long after E3, top weekly Japanese games mag Famitsu polled its readers to find out what they thought of the show, and the results should bring a smile to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's face.

The readers of Famitsu have let their love for the DS spill over to the Wii, with nearly three quarters of them saying that Nintendo's console will win the hardware race. Seventy per cent of them said they were most interested in the Wii, as opposed to around 20 per cent for the PlayStation 3.

The reason for the lack of love in Japan for the PlayStation 3, the successor to the runaway victor in the current hardware race there, comes down to the same reason as everywhere else - it costs too much.

Almost nine-tenths of the responders said the PlayStation 3 was too expensive, leaving about a tenth who said it was priced about right. We'll ignore the half-per cent of voters who said the system was actually a bargain.

Considering these results, the votes for the biggest news of the show aren't too surprising.

The PlayStation 3s hefty price tag was considered the top news story of the week, followed by the announcement of Final Fantasy XIII. The rest of the top 10 was populated mainly by Wii news, including the no-show of launch details for the system and the announcements of several new games and sequels.

Nintendo has yet to reveal exactly when the Wii will launch in Japan or anywhere else, but we do know that it will be out before the end of the year.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games