Here’s my take.
The Nintendo Revolution’s “freestyle” controller, a.k.a. “the revmote”, looks like a simplified T.V. remote control (casual and non-gamers be happy), but is actually much more advanced and innovative (hardcore gamers rejoice.) The revmote’s unique functionality has caught the gaming community by surprise, and Nintendo’s strategy doesn’t stop there.
Nintendo is known for its innovation, but who would have thought they would completely reinvent the wheel. Comparing this freestyle controller to traditional models is like comparing a car with a steering wheel to a car that knows where you point, goes where you point, and stops when you make a fist. It’s almost a crime to the mind to jump from our unbroken conventions to convention breaking revolutions in one step, but Nintendo believes one step to fly northwest is better than two steps to turn up and left. Nintendo has up and left convention, and for some, that just may not fly.
If you were ask Nintendo why they would leave their traditional market in the dust, they would say that they are taking all conventional gamers with them into the future, where they will join non-gamers in an expanded market in which everyone benefits from Nintendo’s unique strategy and system features. In this new, expanded market, Nintendo’s strategy of using a simplified control scheme, the backward-compatible virtual console, and non-games that appeal to the masses seems to clearly make them leader of the new-school. The only thing keeping Nintendo from achieving this dream scenario is their ability to expand their market in the first place, which they are proving fully capable of with the Nintendo DS. Competitors –watch and learn.
If I were Sony or Microsoft, I’d be studying Nintendo’s every move and watching the market like a hawk. I’d be putting money into must-beat-Nintendo R&D to make better games for the newer, broader market Nintendo creates. But there is a problem for Nintendo’s competitors that cannot be easily fixed. Sony and Microsoft have more than likely priced themselves out of the newly expanded market, which either forces Nintendo into a market niche or gives them the edge in the market as a whole. My bet is that the revmote will give Nintendo the edge in key genres, notably 1st Person Shooters (online Halo killers), RTS (real-time strategy) and action/adventure games, not to mention all their 1st party franchises and original offerings that always validate your initial investment.
The edge also comes from 3rd parties that can’t seem to resist the revmote’s appeal, just like the entire gaming industry including its current and future consumers. Put a Nintendo Revolution with the revmote and a game that makes ingenious use of its functions in front of any type of gamer, whether a 49 year old Sony exec or 8 year old XBOX fanboy and you’re going to hear a lot of “can I play?” Hell put it in front of a little girl with a Nintendogs remake or a lifestyle/self-actualization “non-game” in front of an adult and hand them the remote. Systems will be sold that day. Demo kiosks will appear at your local Office Depot, right next to the Apple I-Pods.
If this Revolution is any better than its hyped up to be, which I’m sure it will be by its release, you might just see Nintendo come out somewhere about the top, with Sony and Microsoft’s R&D departments wearing Nintendo slips under their dresses for the generation after.
The Nintendo Revolution is a new paradigm, a new standard, and a new life for the industry.
Topic: new Rein interview (Read 19309 times)
