Hopefully everyone has had a great term and is in reasonable shape for finals. If you were able to pick up some of the great deals on gaming systems/ accessories/ and games this weekend for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, remember to still try and at least pass your classes before diving into your new entertainment media.
For the last few years I have been writing about the big three consoles, Sony’s Playstation 3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and Nintendo’s Wii (that just sounds inappropriate), but those are all now officially ‘last gen’ systems. The last couple weeks saw the release of the new Nintendo Wii U console, the successor to the Wii – well, kind of. The really interesting thing about this console launch has been how quiet it is, you probably didn’t read about any riots and huge line-ups at stores for opening day release, low supplies likely to sell out or failed pre-orders of systems. That’s because there really hasn’t been much difficulty in sales. But that’s not necessarily a good thing because in my opinion, that means nobody cares. Think about it, have you seen commercials for the Wii U plastered on the TV screen or all over websites, have you been hearing news stories about the upcoming release? No, there hasn’t been anything of the sorts. Why are there still news reports asking what the must-have gift will be for Christmas? That should be an obvious answer – it should be the Wii U – well, if Nintendo was actually handling this launch properly.
I think this apathy towards the launch of the Wii U might have something to do with the casual nature of the Wii fan base. The Wii has seen massive sales over its life span due to the easy learning curve for all ages, I’m sure the seniors in the retirement home bowling competitions will back me up on this claim. So how many of these Wii owners are going to rush out to buy Nintendo’s new console? Not very many I’m guessing, and that could also be due to the change in Nintendo’s naming convention. When you think about gaming from the perspective of Sony and Microsoft you instantly think of the Playstation and Xbox brands. When their new systems are finally announced Sony’s will be called the PS4 and Microsoft’s will be the Xbox 720 or something else, but it will maintain the Xbox branding. Both these companies have created a branding that is associated with advancement, you know the PS3 is in the same family as the PS and PS2, but you also know that it is better. With Nintendo there is no central brand, and no way of determining a hierarchy if you don’t know the release dates or specs. Most people know that the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) came before the GameCube, which was before the Wii, but there is really no way to know that from purely from the names or appearance of the systems themselves. With every new release Nintendo has come up with a new name with some amazing hidden Japanese meaning I’m sure, until the Wii U. This console is the first of the next generation, but I don’t think anyone without some basic knowledge of the gaming industry will realize this. With both Xbox and Sony releasing slim versions of their consoles (or a slim and slimmer version in Sony’s case) there is real potential for people to mistake the Wii U for a new iteration of the Wii and not as a new console.
Another problem is the amount of borrowed content from the Wii. The Wii U looks very similar to the Wii (in the same kind of style revision of the Xbox 360 to the Xbox 360 Slim), and even reuses the Wii controllers. I’m sure the average consumer walking through the gaming section of Future Shop or Best Buy is looking at the Wii U and thinking: “Oh look, a new version of the Wii, just like the DS, DSi, 3DS, but I already have a Wii, I’ll wait until Nintendo releases there new console like Sony and Microsoft”. The worst part is that this ‘new’ Wii now has to compete against the Xbox 360 and PS3, which are both selling for significantly lower cost, and have very similar capabilities.
Of course these are just my own theories, but I will definitely say that I am worried about Nintendo’s future in the console industry, at least in terms of hardware. While Nintendo has great intellectual properties in the form of Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, etc. they have fallen seriously behind in terms of hardware in the console battle. The Wii was basically a beefed up GameCube, still limited to standard definition and simplified games, but with a fancy new controller scheme. Now Nintendo has released its next generation console ahead of everybody else (so far in advance that we don’t even know any details about its competitors) but with only marginal increases in power over its rivals. The Wii U has the potential to be better than the Xbox 360 and PS3 but it will take some time for developers to fully realize the capabilities of the system. But the most serious problem is that people are comparing Nintendo’s Next Gen console with Microsoft and Sony’s Last Gen systems – this is really bad for Nintendo. If your nearest competitor is comparable in quality, but significantly cheaper and soon to be replaced with a brand new, more advanced console – then you have an even larger problem. What happens when the new Xbox and Playstation come out? Then Nintendo will effectively be a full generation behind, again. Nintendo was able to survive due to the vast sales of Wii consoles to casual gamers, but I don’t think that many of them are going to rush out to buy a new console.
I don’t think it will be much longer before we see a drastic price drop for the Wii U to make it competitive and get it back into that low price bracket that the Wii has enjoyed. Nintendo was forced to follow the same pattern with the 3DS, slashing its price when it realized the handheld was priced too high to appeal to gamers. The 3DS has been viewed almost as a gimmick version of the DSi, it’s really the same thing but with 3D added on, like Xbox Kinect games and Playstation Move. This view from the public has severely damaged Nintendo’s ability to sell the console in the same way they did when the DS and DSi were released. The Wii U will likely follow a similar path, but it is unclear whether Nintendo will actually be able to survive this generation. Maybe they would be better suited to developing quality games for other consoles and abandon the hardware industry. This transition has been done in the past, with both Atari and Sega abandoning the console business to instead just become software focused companies (neither is doing exceptionally well, but that’s beside the point).
In a generation where two of the three consoles have improved on their graphics (HD), new peripherals and control schemes and large storage facilitating media centre capabilities, Nintendo has instead lagged behind. While they will enjoy the next few months as the only ‘next generation’ console on the market this will be very short lived. Hopefully Nintendo can make enough money during this time to survive and realize that they are too far behind in the console business to really catch up. Then they need to refocus and realize that they can be amazingly successful selling their IPs. How many people would love to play an HD Zelda game on Xbox, Playstation, or PC? How about a fully 3D rendered RPG Pokémon game? Or a new Mario game taking advantage of amazing new tech and HD capabilities? The demand is definitely there for Nintendo’s products, they just need to bring them to the masses in a different way.
Wow, that was a long rant for this issue, good luck with exams and enjoy your holidays before the next term. Until then, Keep on Gaming.
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