Skyward Fire

Until a year ago, I never understood the success of Nintendo Wii. I always thought it was the best selling console with the worst line up of the videogames history, and so did many others across the world. I refused to agree with NPD numbers, and so did many PS360 owners everywhere. But then again, I’m not a kid, I’m no mother with a child, I’m no grandparent with grandkids, I’m no aunt or uncle with nieces or nephews, and neither am I a casual gamer. And quite a marginal number of gamers who might be reading this article won’t consider themselves casual gamers either, so it’s safe for me to make that statement.

For the gift giving crowd, the Wii is by far the best console amongst the basic three to choose from. Especially with it’s line-up of fitness games, it’s also by far the best console for the holiday season with many women looking to work off all that food they eat during the holiday season. January’s NPD very much reflects what the sales figures were like for the Nintendo Wii and the games lined up for the same over the stretch of the holiday season in 2009. We’re talking about games that are family and party friendly, unlike what we usually have for the PC, the PS3, and the Xbox 360.

The lack of games that more gamer oriented (‘hardcore’, as some might put it as) people would find attractive is also a reason for the kind of stereotype that the Wii has become. Wii is no longer a fad, and is going to continue to sell more units inline with X360 and PS3 going forward. One month out of the year doesn’t diminish in anyway the trend that was established over the course of the whole year.

That said, this isn’t to say it won’t continue to outsell the HD consoles month to month, but it probably won’t dominate sales month to month as it did in past years. And it will also continue to dominate December sales figures until we move onto the next generation of videogame consoles.

Two days ago, I celebrated another birthday. And I had one hell of a party thanks to my friends and family who are the best people I have ever known. I should have done this that day itself, but considering the lazy ass I really am, here it goes. There’s a list below of people who wished me for my birthday.

Those who wished on Facebook – Jazzie, Natasha, Shilpa, Audra, Disha, Avi, Manya, Ajita, Haza, Amjad, Sonia, Ritwik Bhai, Ninzy, Shobit, Vishwajit, Christine, Deepak, Aaron, Shirin, Ahana, Priyanka, Satwik, Joesph, Trisha and the friendly neighbourhood folk from Xbox Live.

Those who wished on Orkut – Vaibhav, Wasif, Kislay, Nicole, Shashwat, Soumalya, Preeti, Ritwik (Brutality) and Vivek.

Those who wished through email – G Krishnakumar and the very helpful folks from Sony Japan

Those who wished on Twitter – Deep, Reetesh, Shadez, Sathya, b50 and Harshad

Those who wished on Phone – Komal, Saba, Sana, Shruti (the very dear friend), Sohil, Chris, Ahana, Ninzy, Nathan, Ritwik, Sonia, Ahana, Ninzy, Priyanka, Vishal, Doc, Shawn, Shweta, Abhinav, Adrian, Eric and Priyanka

Those who wished on IM – Jenson and Nitesh

Those who showed up – Dad, Trisha, Sonika, Tara, Sree and more family folk.

And now, time for a few special mentions. First up, my mother, and obviously my dad, without whom I would never have been here in the first place. Thank you for the five odd cakes I cut last week. Then, there’s the lovely Komal, who had her birthday a day before mine. I was excited about her birthday more than I was about mine. How can I forget the very gorgeous twins – Sana, and Saba. Komal, Saba and Sana sang me the birthday song over the phone. You guys rule. It was amazing to talk to you.

Then there’s this one person who I expected to call me up but she didn’t – Disha, but you know I still love you very much. Then, Sonia gave me a Lorenzini shirt. The biggest surprise this year was the fact that my cousin Trisha flew in all the way from Dubai just for the heck of celebrating my birthday with me, and so did her sister Tara, from Mumbai, and they together gave me Fallout 3 for the PS3, a 12 month XBL Gold Subscription, and Call of Duty 5 for the X360. I also have to thank the lovely cousins for the beautiful dinner that evening, and the getting drunk part that followed. I got a Brioni gift card from Priyanka, and another Amazon gift card from Ahana. Natasha says her gift will come in a little delayed. Doc gave me the AC/DC’s special edition Black Ice DVD. Thanks to Abhinav, I now on Dead Space, Left 4 Dead and Red Alert 3. It’s not his fault though, if I pre-owned the last two. I can’t say I mind keeping two copies of the same game. And with all credits to la familia, I am richer by thousands.

Last, and certainly never ever the least, I must mention my fiancé Shruti. In spite of the disctance factor and the deal with her being all the way in London and me over here in India, you were so close to me all day long. Thank you for that. Thank you for pulling off karaeokes with me all day long. Thank you for the Star Wars boxset and those vintage issues of GDM I had been on a lookout for ages. Thank you, each one of you, for making the day so extraordinary in every other possible way.