Hey all, for a couple of weeks now I've been mulling on this idea about Nintendo and their long term aims for Wii and I'm interested to see what other people think. I might be smoking crack, or the gaming press are blind but I have yet to see any gaming site or podcast come up with this topic and discuss it how I'm proposing it should be discussed. This is a long rant and I don't have time to dedicate the days to it that I should, so my apologies in advance. Hopefully it will start something that you want to carry on.
What I'm proposing is that Nintendo may in fact be trying to turn the Wii into a piece of electronic furniture just like the TV, Stereo and DVD player are at present. I also think that up until now, they haven't really made this part of their plan known and I'd almost suggest they've been keeping it a little silent until they're prepared to move on it. Us gamers, and even the casual crowd still view Nintendo through rose coloured gaming glasses - they are still a games company, albeit a more broadly focussed one.
What I think that Nintendo may be doing is positioning themselves - through great design and marketing - where they can at some point start to become so much more than a gaming company. With Wii they didn't just go for a console that had a casual focus, they designed a total package. Now most people are probably saying "Yeah, we understand that!" and I would say that I don't think people really do understand it - or at least don't understand the implications. The gaming press seems to have missed this entirely and I've read nothing about it anywhere, and maybe (Although unlikely) Nintendo have missed it and I'm the only one thinking they are going where I think they are going.
Let me start by listing the combination of things that got me thinking in the first place.
First, is the price. Wii is at a price point that mainstream consumers don't think too much about if they want one. A higher price would have had two detrimental effects. Firstly the early adopters are often hardcore gamers and if the price was closer to 360 we might have seen people who were tossing up which one to get move to the 360 and those that were getting a 360 and wanted a Wii as well would have had a hard time getting both. Then with less people owning Wii's we'd have less people telling others about them and letting them play them which is the key way to understand Wii. The second effect, and arguably most important, would have been in the casual's. Consumers do care about money even though Ken Kuturagi would like us to believe otherwise and a console too costly would give it a perceived "luxury item" status - that's bad if you're targetting mainstream - this we know.
Second smart move was the Industrial Design. The Wii looks nice and it's tiny and low powered; it's something you would have in your lounge in your entertainment centre and wouldn't destroy the aesthetic of most family's lounges. I don't think the 360 or PS3 has this. The PS3 might look great to a technophile, but this isn't the market Nintendo are worrying about. The 360 looks more like a regular game console and that in itself is off putting for the maintream. I believe a lot of mainstream people want their lounges to look like lounges. They'll have a few gadgets but as soon as it starts looking like the Tardis, it can put them off. Quality and simplicity of living space is important - hence all of Nintendo's "white room" ads.
Third - User interface. The Wii Channel system is instantly recognisable by people; it looks like a TV station. You understand that there's different stations with wildly different content. The channel icons are huge, graphical and animated, so are easy to distinguish and access. The interface isn't cluttered and has a small number of options immediately visible and accessible with the most common options you use on the initial screen. Other systems have lists and tabs and tiny icons, which to most people look like a computer and hence, more complicated. Take XMB, really do you think mum and dad who haven't used a game machine before could survive using that thing, let alone it's controller. Which brings me to the next thing.
The one item that I think is totally underestimated and what got me thinking about all this in the first place is Wii's controller. Not only does the Wii Remote open up a wider range of game possibilities, but it is the perfect device for a home appliance. The thing looks like a remote control, feels like one and is something you wouldn't mind having on your coffee table like your other remotes. Most importantly though is that it is almost a perfect navigation device, and navigation and usability are a big part of gaining acceptance (Look at iTunes and the iPod). Just picking up a remote and pointing to what you want is a lot more user friendly than picking up an unwieldy controller and up-up-upping to highlight your item or select another tab. Selecting, clicking, dragging, drawing are all intuitive and easy to do with the Wii Remote. This simplicity is what enables people to take their first step, knowing they can learn it fast.
And finally, The Payoff. I didn't use the term titles as that implies gaming and I don't want to stay focussed on that. When we buy something we do it because it gives us a payoff. We buy a DVD player cause we can watch movies in good quality. We buy a TV to watch entertaining shows, documentaries, news. We buy magazines to keep informed. We buy a certain item because it tastes nice, suits our room or makes our friends laugh. So the first thing we need to look at with Wii is what is the payoff? What does it give consumers? Well, in the industry's past, and during most of the Wii's life to date, we've considered the payoff to be entertainment through games. Games for us the core gamer, and now games for mum, dad, and the family. With WiiFit there's a change as the payoff will now include fitness and not just entertainment, but there is so much more that could be done. We've seen a taste of it with the News Channel and Voting channel and I'm sure it's not only me who's been chillin out on their Wii and wished they could just quickly access a movie trailer, order a movie or play their iTunes music and there are many more possibilities:
* TV Guides, or Cinema booking channels.
* Blockbuster or Netflix rental channels.
* Imagine the Oprah Channel, where you can get easy access to Oprah's content.
* CNN or BBC could offer their services in a channel. Custom built for easier access than going to a Web browser and WiiConnect24 support.
* iTunes channel. Integrate with your iTunes library, with visualisers etc
* Encyclopaedia Brittanica channel and other educational channels.
* Tele-schooling channels.
* Barney or Play School
* Sports guides and scores channel - or a channel for your favourite team(s).
* Hardware integration. This will be the best way to entrench Wii into the home - when manufacturers start integrating with Wii like home security systems, Wii Tivo channel to control your Tivo etc.
Now, looking at that list you might be going "Hey but I can do this on my PC already!" and I would agree, a lot of it you can. But the combination of those channels and the four other elements is what makes it unique and far superior to a PC solution. People don't want PC's in their lounge cause they're generally ugly, big, hard to use and just all round not well designed. Using a mouse isn't ideal when in your lounge. An operating system's user interface isn't ideal - it's too general. Nintendo concentrated on the interface, both graphical and physical - they "pulled an Apple" if you will - and I think that through gaming, Nintendo stands a chance of really disrupting a number of industries, not just gaming.
Who knows, in two years we could see TV's with built in sensor bars.
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