No, their approach is 'pop'. It's the lowest common denominator, and really, it's to Nintendo's merit that they managed to find it, something no one else has, but none of us really applauds 'pop culture' when it comes to other media, be it movies, music or books, which is something I think we should keep in mind. 'Chainsaws and huge explosions' is itself an oversimplification: you know as well as I do that there's no dichotomy there, the range of games isn't either 'wii sports' or 'gears of war'. There's a broad spectrum there, and that's my point: Nintendo's successfully marketed pop, they went for the mass-market approach, but there's still niches they haven't covered.
State of games: Exactly why did Wii win this generation of game console sales
- Thread starter Flux
- Start date
No, their approach is 'pop'. It's the lowest common denominator, and really, it's to Nintendo's merit that they managed to find it, something no one else has, but none of us really applauds 'pop culture' when it comes to other media, be it movies, music or books, which is something I think we should keep in mind. 'Chainsaws and huge explosions' is itself an oversimplification: you know as well as I do that there's no dichotomy there, the range of games isn't either 'wii sports' or 'gears of war'. There's a broad spectrum there, and that's my point: Nintendo's successfully marketed pop, they went for the mass-market approach, but there's still niches they haven't covered.
The war is not over yet...
And "the one who sold more consoles" is not always the winner.
And my opinion about Wii is:
If you count sales only to the ones who have purchased a console for themselves (and not to give it as a present/gift for anyone else), Wii could very well be in 3rd place.
Moms buy Wii for their crying kids. they want a "nxt-gen" console... they go to a store and get the cheapest , or the one with Mario showing in TV (not the one showing CoD4).
I have a 6 year old son. We have a PSP, PS2 and PS3.
He wanted a Wii VERY BADLY like 6 months ago. I bought one, and around 12 games. Guess what? My son (not fool at all) returned to PS3 2 months later, and Wii is under the dust now...
Wii is: WOW!!! SWEET CONTROLLER! NICE PRICE!!! I WANT IT NOW!
You get it, play a fews days, get sick of it, and go back to what you really care about.
I have around 10 friends who owns PS3. Almos all of the got a Wii later on... almost all of them just forgot they own a Wii after the first month.
And "the one who sold more consoles" is not always the winner.
And my opinion about Wii is:
If you count sales only to the ones who have purchased a console for themselves (and not to give it as a present/gift for anyone else), Wii could very well be in 3rd place.
Moms buy Wii for their crying kids. they want a "nxt-gen" console... they go to a store and get the cheapest , or the one with Mario showing in TV (not the one showing CoD4).
I have a 6 year old son. We have a PSP, PS2 and PS3.
He wanted a Wii VERY BADLY like 6 months ago. I bought one, and around 12 games. Guess what? My son (not fool at all) returned to PS3 2 months later, and Wii is under the dust now...
Wii is: WOW!!! SWEET CONTROLLER! NICE PRICE!!! I WANT IT NOW!
You get it, play a fews days, get sick of it, and go back to what you really care about.
I have around 10 friends who owns PS3. Almos all of the got a Wii later on... almost all of them just forgot they own a Wii after the first month.
Nintendo:Older people actually like to play video games.Women like games too. Well DS is a 1/3 as powerful as PSP and it outsold it. Repeat strategy with Wii and N6.
Why make an expensive console when you don't have to. Plus make a profit on it. Expect MS and Sony to copy nintendo's strategy somewhat with PS4 and 720.
Why make an expensive console when you don't have to. Plus make a profit on it. Expect MS and Sony to copy nintendo's strategy somewhat with PS4 and 720.
RancidLunchmeat
Veteran
Sony and MS will go nowhere near Nintendo's 'strategy' next generation, if anything, Nintendo will be forced to go further in the other direction.
Addressing what Nick said, it's not about 'waggle', just like it's not about 'selling to women'.
It's about time. And the time problem is two-fold, it's learning curve and time spent in game.
Nintendo created a system that has virtually no learning curve and allows you to pick up and play the majority of the games for a short period of time. You don't need to spend hours learning how to play, or hours at a time playing the system. The interface was ideal for this, not only for ease of use, but also because the lack of precision made it almost impossible to become 'expert' and make games uncompetitive against 'casuals'.
It mirrors the 'keyboard/mouse' FPS argument almost to a tee. Hardcore gamers want to be rewarded for their thousands of hours of investment in a game. They don't like the fact that gamepads remove that reward and even the playing field. The Wiimote did the same thing, but to an even bigger degree. I used to be one of those 'KB&M' FPS snobs. As I've gotten older, I don't have thousands of hours to invest. Most PC FPS, I can't even play (multiplayer) without getting schooled so rapidly it's no longer fun to play. I can work the 360 controls well enough with a small enough learning curve that I can hold my own most games. Sure, those who still want to put thousands of hours in can beat me senseless, but for the most part, the controller dictates a certain baseline of playability.
So it's not 'waggle' necessarily, it's about flattening the learning curve. Flattening the learning curve, allowing gaming experiences to last 30 minutes instead of 3 hours, and an affordable cost of entry were the keys to the Wii's success.
I think the rest of the proposed reasons (demographics, pop-culture relevance, etc..) are ancillary.
Addressing what Nick said, it's not about 'waggle', just like it's not about 'selling to women'.
It's about time. And the time problem is two-fold, it's learning curve and time spent in game.
Nintendo created a system that has virtually no learning curve and allows you to pick up and play the majority of the games for a short period of time. You don't need to spend hours learning how to play, or hours at a time playing the system. The interface was ideal for this, not only for ease of use, but also because the lack of precision made it almost impossible to become 'expert' and make games uncompetitive against 'casuals'.
It mirrors the 'keyboard/mouse' FPS argument almost to a tee. Hardcore gamers want to be rewarded for their thousands of hours of investment in a game. They don't like the fact that gamepads remove that reward and even the playing field. The Wiimote did the same thing, but to an even bigger degree. I used to be one of those 'KB&M' FPS snobs. As I've gotten older, I don't have thousands of hours to invest. Most PC FPS, I can't even play (multiplayer) without getting schooled so rapidly it's no longer fun to play. I can work the 360 controls well enough with a small enough learning curve that I can hold my own most games. Sure, those who still want to put thousands of hours in can beat me senseless, but for the most part, the controller dictates a certain baseline of playability.
So it's not 'waggle' necessarily, it's about flattening the learning curve. Flattening the learning curve, allowing gaming experiences to last 30 minutes instead of 3 hours, and an affordable cost of entry were the keys to the Wii's success.
I think the rest of the proposed reasons (demographics, pop-culture relevance, etc..) are ancillary.
From what I can recall I believe that there were (are) a number of threads with similar questions. My answer still is that Nintendo successfully created a toy and not an indimidating technologically advanced beast. The follow up to this question (which I believe has also been discussed at length) is how will the competitors react and how will that reaction manifest itself in the next generation of consoles. Luckily I have an answer:
I don't know.
I don't know.
All video games are toys. We have to remember that is what its original purpose was. A glorified playable VR toy+ TV set.
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