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Has the Wii doomed Nintendo’s next console to failure?
16 September 2009
At the time of writing there is little doubt that the Nintendo Wii leads the current generation of home consoles in terms of hardware sales by some margin.
The console sits comfortably in its lofty throne; peering down on the ongoing tit for tat battle between Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3, its competitors almost dismissive of its success and perhaps already resigned to achieving no more than second place.
But whilst Nintendo’s current position on the console summit may have originally been unexpected and somewhat unprecedented; have the company scored an own goal in the long term? Could the success of the Wii actually doom its future successor to obscurity?
The Wii launched to a flurry of publicity; not just from the gaming press as you would normally expect, but from virtually every major news outlet. Nintendo’s simplistic design concept combined with the ‘innovation’ of motion control with the Wiimote captured everybody’s attention, not just seasoned gamers.
The coup de grace was of course Wii Sports, a game which perfectly demonstrated what the system was about in a way everyone (and most importantly non-gamers) could understand. Even Grandma could understand the concept of “It’s Tennis and I just swing the wand thing like a racket to play” and suddenly Nintendo had overcome the daunting prospect of getting to grips with a foreign looking controller full of buttons with devastating effect.
The Wii became more than just a console; it became a lifestyle accessory in the same manner as Apple’s ever successful iPod. Surely with such success, such a high profile image, any successor should stand a high chance of success?
However things may not be as clear cut as they seem.
The consoles attach rate (the average amount of games purchased per console owned) has been lower than that of the Xbox 360 (which has a lower installed user base) for some time, and has recently also been overtaken by the PS3 (whose user base is also currently lower).
There could be many reasons for this; for example, could it be that the Wii’s assumed large casual gamer user base simply does not like to game as often as the more traditional console buyer? Or is it something else? Does in fact the novelty factor of the Wii wear off?
Consider for a moment the people you immediately know:
The seasoned gamers – these are the people who most likely own both a Wii and another platform; whether it’s the 360 or PS3 or perhaps even a gaming capable PC. How often do they use their Wii? Do they use it as much as their other system?
The casual/new gamers (delete as applicable) – these are the people who in the past have not really been into games, typically a family and they perhaps owned a Playstation once. How often is their Wii used?
You see in my experience, the majority of people simply do not use their Wii, or at least they don’t use it very much. It sits there stylishly on display by the TV, its white exterior stealthily hiding the dust that’s gathering. It comes out to play when guests visit and typically its Wii Sports that spinning in its drive whilst the guests ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’ at how clever it is.
These people buy a few games here and there but find little, if anything, that truly recaptures that feeling of playing Wii Sports for the first time. This unfortunate path is not helped by the sheer volume of titles available on the Wii; far too much of it shovel ware that hides the few gems.
Even the true gamers I know rarely play their Wii; sure they will play the traditional classics such as Super Mario, Mario Kart and Zelda but for the most part their too busy playing Call of Duty 4, Halo or GTA online on their other platform of choice.
Wii Fit in many ways echoes everything that’s good and bad about the Wii. A great lifestyle idea which captured the attention of masses; again brilliantly marketed and with the sales figures to match. But yet again few people I know ever use it, it’s become a thing of novelty which people love to talk about but simply don’t use.
And this is where the problem lies for the Wii’s eventual successor. How do you get people to pay for a ‘novelty’ twice? Will people really see a future Nintendo console as innovative and a must have machine or the follow up to that smart little machine under the TV that we hardly ever use?
Will the kids who’ve grown up with the Wii want more of the same now their older or will they want to progress away from ‘My First Console’ onto something perceived as more gamer orientated like the Playstation and Xbox?
The Wii may dominate now but its future successor’s fate is far from assured. The very image that Nintendo has created and gained so much success for with the Wii may very well be the reason that any successor will be doomed to obscurity.
