Woo! Finally got a Wii.
My eldest son was 7 today and he got a Nintendo Wii for his birthday. I actually bought it about a month ago because I saw it in stock in the local Blockbuster and they only had one. It’s been hidden all this time. It came with Wii Sports but we also bought him Mario Galaxy which should be great fun.
It’s my first next-gen console; I don’t own an XBox 360 or PS3 (yet). This is simply because there are so many great games still to play on PS2 and Gamecube (and PC), plus I don’t get enough time to play games anyway. However, a friend of mine called Will said “Come on Jake, you’re a game developer, you’ve got to stay abreast of games market and get a next-gen console” (or something like that). And that was all the convincing I took 😉 Thanks Will!
The good thing about being a game developer is that I can put all games and game related hardware through my company as an R&D expense and claim back the VAT and also pay less tax at the end of the year which means that I end up paying about 66% the real cost (e.g. £100 retail minus 17.5% VAT = £85.11, then subtract about 20% saved on year end tax bill = £68.09).
OK next up, a visit to GameSpot to build a wish list of top-rated Wii games…
March 27th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
About time you caught up 🙂
I hadn’t thought of writing off gaming expenses either. I should do that – after all, I buy them for “review purposes”. Going to ask my accountant about this the next time I see her 🙂
March 27th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I used to do IT consultancy and I did some work for an author and he wrote almost EVERYTHING off as an expense because he said whatever trips he went on were all for inspiration for his novels. Even though I write casual games, I can write off a shooter or RPG because I get ideas from the interface, or particle effects, or powerup system, or screen transitions etc.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Good move! I love the Wii I bought myself for xmas (although I haven’t had time to play much until recently). I have no idea about your taste in games but I have to recommend a few:
* Zelda: Twilight Princess – just brilliant.
* Trauma Center: Second Opinion – amazingly cool operating game. I got hooked instantly.
* Mario & Sonic at the Olympics – I don’t care what the critics say; this is so much fun in multiplayer.
* Fire Emblem: Something Something – first Fire Emblem I’ve played in years and years, and I love it! Dull graphics but awesome strategy game.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Thanks for the recommendations! Zelda was on my list for sure and I’ll check out the other ones too! Ideally most of the games I get should be suitable for small kids, but I can get the odd game for adults if I play it at night.
March 27th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
We don’t have a Wii ourselves, but my 7 year old has played at a friend’s house, and really enjoyed the “duck hunt” game part of Wii Play — it may be worth getting, especially if you want an additional controller anyway.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Ah thanks, yes I do want an additional controller! (got two boys you see + there’s me of course!)
March 27th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I got my son a Wii for his seventh birthday last February (2007), we only had it for at most 8 weeks before we sold it on as my son’s interest in it dropped. He was more fascinated with my Xbox 360. So, we sold it and got him an Xbox 360, which we now have two of. It’s been over a year and he is still playing it at every opportunity, its great fun when we are playing online in the same team.
Without doubt, the Wii is a great, innovative product, but unfortunately it just wasn’t for us.
BTW: Wii Sports boxing is a great way to get fit. It’s even more fun if you record someone boxing, flapping and flailing all over the place and then you overlay an audio track, such as YMCA.
March 28th, 2008 at 1:09 am
I’m still interested in an XBox 360 (mainly for the XBLA) and a PS3 just to keep up to date so may well get one later in the year. Thanks for the boxing game tip. It could go both ways, he may end up more violent towards his little brother or he may take it out on the game, who knows. I already teach Aikido to keep fit, but I guess there’s no harm in some more training 😉
March 28th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
[…] has finally bought a Wii, and whilst not playing games is thinking about making money by selling the […]
March 30th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
One drawback to the Wii Play game from your point of view is that it only has two-player games, as far as I could tell when my son’s friend demoed it for us. I will look forward to future updates.