Topic: The Underserved Market

[couchmonkey]

Some thoughts, as I read a couple of recent "Iwata asks" articles on wii.nintendo.com:

Sega Genesis is thought to have captured the teenage market in its day.  The kids who were outgrowing Nintendo switched teams because Sega wasn't afraid to dig into more mature content.  Sega manipulated this to its advantage by running a lot of advertising that portrayed Nintendo as uncool and behind the times.  Sega does what Nintendon't...or whatever.

Sony Playstation is thought to have captured the young adult market as well.  Those teenagers grew into adults and Playstation/PS2/Xbox was the place to get the adult products.

I grew up in the exact generation of consumers that Sega and Sony took from Nintendo.  I now see a new problem for our generation and that problem is time.  I've said this before and I'll say it again: I don't have the time to play many 80 hour games anymore.  Just learning complicated new games is too much of an investment sometimes.

Reading some of the Iwata Asks articles I feel like Nintendo understands this issue.  Just plain work and a social life can make it hard to get into today's complicated games and once you start raising a family...well, I know more than one family man that has practically retired from video games because there just isn't time to play anymore.

But Nintendo is building a family-oriented console.  It's designed with families playing together in mind.  In an age where the media screeches about obese North Americans and their obese children, Nintendo has built a system that requires movement and that will feature titles focusing on sports and health.  Healthy video games!  For your whole family!  And not only that, they're easy to learn, so you don't have to invest an hour or more just to learn how to play.

Meanwhile Sony and Microsoft are catering to the same 12-25 year old crowd as always.  Some of their consumers are going to outgrow them.  New ones may take their place, but I think Nintendo is the only company actively seeking to keep the 25+ demographic engaged.

[Nick DiMola]

I totally agree with this point. My time for videogames is extremely limited, so DS has reigned as my #1 played console because I can pick it up, play for 20-30 minutes and then stop. I may not be 25+ just yet, but I am just about to graduate college and get married, so time is a little crunched right now. I think if the Wii can capture the essence of the DS but also offer deep engaging play experiences for other gamers, it will have more subscribers than any of the other consoles.

[Ceric]

Spak-Spang and I are in a similar situation.  We are going to graduate and were both hitched.  Time is not a thing we have a lot of and it's dwiddling.  Once I have a kid my gameplaying days are pretty much over...

[WuTangTurtle]

My Production Management class was actually talking about this, he even went as far as to poll the class at who bought an Xbox 360 (only 2 ppl out of 12), going to buy a PS3 (0 out of 12), and having his point made he didn't even have to ask about the Wii.

[Griffin]

I refuse to believe that logic Ceric (although depending on the type of person you marry, I could be swayed). Your gaming will just be put on haiatus (sp?) for about.... ugh.... 5-6 years? then you just play with your kid after they do their homework. Then you can school them all over again.


(At least, that's what I'd do if I ever had a kid)

[IceCold]

Great points - this market has so much potential and buying power that it would pay off huge if Nintendo got their support. However, they would still have to make more games that appeal to this market to keep them buying.. Nongamers who have time can be converted to playing traditional video games, but people who don't have much time anyway probably won't play traditional games even if they get hooked onto these new types of games.

[wandering]

Underserved? More like undeserved.

I'm sorry.

[Ceric]

Quote
Originally posted by: Griffin
I refuse to believe that logic Ceric (although depending on the type of person you marry, I could be swayed). Your gaming will just be put on haiatus (sp?) for about.... ugh.... 5-6 years? then you just play with your kid after they do their homework. Then you can school them all over again.


(At least, that's what I'd do if I ever had a kid)

But thats a whole generation of gaming missed... (Actually I personally figured that once they were over the age of say 3 and not so utterly dependent on me I'll have about as much time as I do with college and a job.  Then once there out of the house I'll have more time then ever because work can stay at work.)

[couchmonkey]

What brings this even more into focus for me is that since I went back to being single, I've got a lot of gaming time.  While I was dating I only played for an h our or two per week plus whenever I could convince my girlfriend to play.  It used to be like this all the time, but I don't intend to stay single just so I can play Nintendo for 8 hours a week.

Undeserved market, LOL.  Funny, but that's what a lot of gamers are going to seriously say, much like computer nerds once scoffed at the idea of an "operating system", and later, "windows".  If you can't write machine-level code or memorize command lines you don't deserve to use computers!  What they didn't realize is that the market wanted to use computers and only needed the barriers to be removed.  

Dads and married dudes want to play video games, but they need to convince their wives (and themselves) that games aren't a complete waste of time.  My dad wants to play video games, but he needs to be able to learn the games in under 5 minutes and not forget how they work after not playing for several months.