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NEWS > GAMES > GAMESTOP MAKES PLANS TO KEEP BLACK WII’S SEPARATE
GAMESTOP MAKES PLANS TO KEEP BLACK WII’S SEPARATE
May 1 2010
Grapevine, TX – The Wii has been a success beyond anything anyone could have imagined. It’s not just the sales numbers – almost as much as the 360 and PS3 combined – it is the way in which the system has created entirely new markets for gaming. Though the format has become increasingly more popular since the early 
days, gaming is still very much a third rate form of entertainment. It has only percentages of the audience that film enjoys and doesn’t have the broad appeal of music, but the Wii has helped to change that and brought millions to the format who had previously ignored it entirely.
Gamers, hard core gamers, have a much different view of the system, deriding it as soft and underpowered with little appeal or purity for the medium. Of course the same thing could said for films like ‘Star Wars’ or even ‘The Wizard of Oz’ which in their own way helped to push their medium further into the public consciousness. Regardless of what critics say the Wii and the wave it has created will be felt for the rest of the life of videogames. However, Nintendo isn’t totally satisfied with the already crazy sales numbers and game changing demographics, as evidenced by the recent revelation that a new, sleeker black version of the system is on the way. While that news is no doubt good for the company, it is also good news for retailers, one of which, Gamestop, has decided should be looked at differently.
“Everyone knows that rush on these things is going to be huge, just as big as the Wii has always been, and we are preparing for that even though it’s a couple of weeks away. We’ve told stores to keep a special section set aside just for the new systems and to keep it away from the other machines,” said a Gamestop insider. “WE want to make sure that things go smoothly and the best way to do that is to keep the black Wiis away from the white Wiis and all the other machines back there. It just keeps everything back there organized.”
Reportedly, stores have already begun reorganizing the back of their stores to prepare for the incoming black machines.
“Gamers are of course the biggest critics of games and the Wii has endured a great deal of wrath from them, sometimes for good reason. There is an element, a valid element, that supports the idea that the company basically went away from what it was in pursuit of dollars and market penetration, but that is mostly a cover,” said Scrape TV Gaming analyst Graeme Hawthorne. “Gamers, the guys who play endlessly, are obsessed with graphics and complex storytelling which is what the Wii does worst. The medium has evolved from arcades to film-like game play and that is what the Wii has largely rejected, so naturally they are going to have a lot of bile for the system.”
The black Wii is apparently exactly the same on the inside, though Nintendo is apparently betting that they will judge it on looks alone.
“Frankly, they both look the same to me. As an analyst I think it will have limited appeal, I think it will cause a temporary spike but when people realize that the changes are only skin deep they will reject it in the same way. As a gamer I feel very much the same way, though I do like the machine no matter what colour it is,” continued Hawthorne. “I can’t comment on Gamestop’s organization policies but I imagine that in the short term the machine will be isolated, but eventually it will be integrated into the regular stock cycle and become just one more SKU, but we will see.”
There is apparently no truth to the rumour that the system will come with a larger remote. The new version will apparently not be sold in Arizona.
Douglas Havermore, Games Correspondent
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