On Sunday my girlfriend rose early in the morning to meet my needs. I had to have it, and she had to give it to me. What was it? The Nintendo Wii of course. We waited at a close approxomation of the crack of dawn in line outside a Target in subzero tempertures, knowing that Wiis were in stock (a Target employee had tipped us off 3 days before). I haven’t owned a video game console since the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System. Sure, I have often had access to a Playstation, Playstation 2, and XBox, but my interest in gaming has only been rekindled by the Wii’s innovative control system. At $250 for the console, and another $50 for Zelda, the purchase set my girlfriend back quite a bit - but she wanted to give me something for my birthday - and she knew this was the only thing I wanted. I’m rarely in want of anything (or at least anything material). Normally, I would pooh pooh consumerism and especially pooh pooh something that could be anti-social, but now that I’m a victim of this consumerism, I’ll try to make an argument for the Wii.

First off, I’m impressed by the game system. The motion sensing controls really do break new ground. The combination of the speaker and rumble pack in the Wiimote works effectively at making it feel real. Without the audio and tactile feedback, swinging a remote around would feel, well, like swinging a remote around - not that fun. Kudos to Nintendo. Full Disclosure - I’m a recent owner of Nintendo ADRs (NTDOY). I think Sony has really dropped the ball with the PS3. Between the Wii and the already established XBox 360, Sony is being pushed out of the 7th generation console market. The PS3 is not selling as it needs to from what I can observe. There are no lines for the PS3 and the console can be easily found in stock. There is no must-have game for the PS3 and the system only offers marginally better graphics than the XBox 360. The gaming market is fickle. Nintendo once ruled the roost, but they stumbled and gave Sony a chance to become the dominant force in the market. The tides I believe have now turned again.

Getting back on topic, as this is suppose to be a personal finance blog, why is the purchase of the Wii a good thing financially? In general buying stuff is bad, at least when it comes to personal finances. Hobbies are expensive. However, it’s not about not having hobbies but rather substituting more expensive hobbies with cheaper ones. My hobbies are: eating out and going out for drinks. Both of which are expensive. The Wii, given its user interface, is ideally suited for games with a good measure of in-person interaction, such as Wii Sports. This quality of the Wii presents an opportunity for me to cut back on my two other hobbies.

As I see it, I spend at least $25-$40 on dinner out and or drinks.
wiicost table

Pretty much if I curb by nights out by about 12-15, it’s pretty much break-even on the cost. Of course, since it was a gift, I didn’t actually spend any money, but the point still holds true. Instead of going out for drinks with my friends, I can now have them over to play Wii. Very middle school and very cost effective.