Photo by Earl - What I Saw 2.0So far the Nintendo Wii has made a profit of, and I'm estimating here, eleventy billion dollars.
If you followed the industry through gaming press and websites though, you'd think it was the biggest failure since George Clooney flashed his Bat Credit Card.
Video game geeks, like their counterparts across popular culture, often develop ownership of their particular obsession.
While I have the ability to rattle off everything that Wolverine has ever accomplished, it rarely comes up at a dinner party. When the need arises though, I'll rapturously discuss the effect a sudden loss of adamantium can have on a mutant healing factor over a three, six and twelve month timeline.
And when comic book movies go widespread, it's hard not to feel like something special has been taken away.
It's hard not to feel like you're in some kind of exclusive club that others do not understand.
Video games are the same, "hardcore gamers", who are basically the biggest game geeks of all, discuss arcane issues online that the casual gamer would never consider.
In opening up gaming to the masses with the Wii, Nintendo seems to have sparked the ire of the hardcore crowd.
The strategy of the Wii was pretty simple: Make a console that appeals to people who have never gamed. Make it cheap. Focus on accessibility rather than technological dominance.
It worked. People are buying the thing faster than they can be produced.
It's in contrast to the XBox 360 and Playstation 3, which continue the throughline of increased technological grunt to appeal to the existing audience.
Hardcore gamers, and the gaming press that services them, don't seem to like the Wii. They find it ugly and shallow, with few intense games and last-year's tech.
They're all fair statements, but they do miss the point. The system is not built for them. The Wii is for everybody else.
Even the fact that most Wii owners buy very few games - maybe Wii Fit and that's it - isn't a big problem for Nintendo, as they're the only producer that makes a profit off the console itself. The others continue a model of losing money on hardware and making their profit in games.
I was a hardcore gamer as a kid, but I'm not any more. It really comes down to time - I don't have enough of it to play. I love video games, and ponder them relentlessly, but the bite-sized Wii goodness serves me well.
So I like the Wii. I like the others too. But the people who discuss these things online trend towards hardcoriness, whereas the casual masses who drive the Wii's success are content to play.
But while the Wii is something new, its being tested against existing benchmarks which aren't appropriate. The casual audience is not catered for and its a shame that's missing from the visible picture.
This leads to a skewed perception online. But across the land, people are quietly swinging their wiimotes, oblivious to the storm.
It's hard not to feel like you're in some kind of exclusive club that others do not understand.
Video games are the same, "hardcore gamers", who are basically the biggest game geeks of all, discuss arcane issues online that the casual gamer would never consider.
In opening up gaming to the masses with the Wii, Nintendo seems to have sparked the ire of the hardcore crowd.
The strategy of the Wii was pretty simple: Make a console that appeals to people who have never gamed. Make it cheap. Focus on accessibility rather than technological dominance.
It worked. People are buying the thing faster than they can be produced.
It's in contrast to the XBox 360 and Playstation 3, which continue the throughline of increased technological grunt to appeal to the existing audience.
Hardcore gamers, and the gaming press that services them, don't seem to like the Wii. They find it ugly and shallow, with few intense games and last-year's tech.
They're all fair statements, but they do miss the point. The system is not built for them. The Wii is for everybody else.
Even the fact that most Wii owners buy very few games - maybe Wii Fit and that's it - isn't a big problem for Nintendo, as they're the only producer that makes a profit off the console itself. The others continue a model of losing money on hardware and making their profit in games.
I was a hardcore gamer as a kid, but I'm not any more. It really comes down to time - I don't have enough of it to play. I love video games, and ponder them relentlessly, but the bite-sized Wii goodness serves me well.
So I like the Wii. I like the others too. But the people who discuss these things online trend towards hardcoriness, whereas the casual masses who drive the Wii's success are content to play.
But while the Wii is something new, its being tested against existing benchmarks which aren't appropriate. The casual audience is not catered for and its a shame that's missing from the visible picture.
This leads to a skewed perception online. But across the land, people are quietly swinging their wiimotes, oblivious to the storm.
3 comments:
the wii is a gateway drug !
If it doesn't sell enough, it will go the way of the dinosaurs, despite the efforts of its 'hardcore' followers.
I am not a hardcore gamer. I am not a gamer full stop. I'd rather do many, many other things than play a video game, but I like the Wii, so your point feels proved. ^_^
I had no idea that hardcore gamers felt animosity towards the Wii though. This makes me sad for them! T-T
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