I'm going to file this one in the ridiculous overload category of my brain. My buddy Yang sent this to me and I almost had a fit. After owning a Wii for almost a year, I really believe Nintendo's going to have to change their business plan if they want to stay afloat in the long run. Since hardware sales can only go on for so long, they're going to need some serious attach rate boosts, not to mention a decent online play and delivery system. Unique originals would also be nice, not just roms of old games.
Let's just step back at take a look at the top two selling Wii games:
Wii Sports - 17.85 Million
Wii Play - 9.23 Million
Those two numbers eclipse everything else on the Wii sales charts. And looking at the top ten games, only 2 are not first party, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games and Cooking Mama.
Even Best-Buy has gotten through to their skull what the Wii's target demographic is, and that is, ladies and gentlemen, not core gamers. Trust me, I love my Wii, and the few games that shine on it, but that's not going to be enough to keep Nintendo going in the long-run. Most people drawn in from outside the core gamer community view the system as a one trick pony, interested only in the few games that emulate vauge semblances of real-life experiences. The gamers on the other hand are dissapointed with the gimmicky use of the motion controls. Is it any surprise that the most hotly anticipated title, Super Smash Brothers Brawl uses multiple control schemes and plays (in my opinion) the best on the classic Gamecube controller?
I challenge you, dear readers, to stop by the Wii section the next time you go shopping and really take note of what titles are being sold for the system. It'll surprise you to learn that over 70% of all Wii games are developed in the US, and you'll see why.
Enough hating?
A post I wrote up about Interface design and the Wii a while back.
Comments (1)
Al, you make some interesting points but I think you're missing the point that Nintendo HAS changed their strategy (from previous generations) and it was out of necessity. What you're suggesting sounds like they return to the GameCube strategy.
In Nintendo's entire existence as a company, they've only had one single quarter where they weren't profitable, and that was during the GameCube era. Their marketshare had been continually sliding against two competitors who had much more money and more resources than they had. Expecting Nintendo to compete on hardware or tech is foolish. They looked at their core competencies as a company and realized they are better at one thing than the competition, and that is making game software.
Yes, the top two selling titles are Wii Sports (a pack-in in the US) and Wii Play. However, these are success stories for Nintendo. Do they care if new gamers see the system (currently) as a one-trick pony? Of course not, they're making money every time they sell a console. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Sony would kill for a new IP to sell nearly 10 million copies on their console. Meanwhile, Wii Fit has sold over 2 million and counting in Japan alone. NOA announced they're backing up the game's release in the US with their biggest marketing campaign in their history.
Nintendo has developed this new strategy not expecting new gamers to buy 20 titles a year, but rather one or two. They're hoping that this number increases over time so that as these non-gamers start looking at gaming in a different way, they'll go to the Wii and related platforms to meet their needs.
Yes, the gamers are disappointed in many titles, but that's not really changed from previous generations, is it? GameCube had the smallest library of software and usually the worst version of multi-console ports. That wasn't going to change with the Wii. Nintendo itself can't make enough software to keep gamers happy with just their console. Third-parties have shown a lot of disdain for Nintendo, especially in America, and as we've seen so far basically every big "gamer-oriented" project was designed for 360/PS3 hardware. Nintendo has learned that they can't compete on hardware, so they're going to compete on different things. Now, with the Wii dominating gaming, third-parties are going to be forced to pay attention or risk missing out on what may turn out to be the biggest expansions in gaming ever.
It's not like gamer-oriented games aren't doing well on the platform, it's just that most aren't very good. Resident Evil 4 did fantastically on the Wii despite being a port. Brawl will sell millions, and Mario Galaxy has done impressively. We'll see what happens when titles like Monster Hunter show up on the console. But really, if you were a hardcore gamer, would you only own a Wii at this point anyway? Nintendo knows you're getting your hardcore fix from a lot of other places. They can't fight against Call of Duty 4/Halo 3/Final Fantasy 13/MGS4 etc. by themselves, and after the GameCube they sure aren't going to try.
Posted by RJ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://interactive.usc.edu/members/ayang/nav-commenters.gif)
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March 28, 2008 5:10 PM
Posted on March 28, 2008 17:10