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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Can the Wii save your life?

More free advertising, YAY! Get used to it fanboys, it's not going away.

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/07/12/games-nintendo-wii-tech-cx_0712nintendo.html 

Can The Wii Save Your Life?
Rachel Rosmarin, 07.12.07, 6:45 PM ET

Santa Monica, Calif. -

Nintendo managed to sell more than 40 million Wii gaming consoles in eight months on the promise of a magic wand that lets people play tennis in their living rooms. The company can't keep the game machines on store shelves.

At the E3 gaming convention in Santa Monica, Calif., the company said that the $250 machine would make them healthier, too. And a new game by Ubisoft for Nintendo's portable DS system called "My Life Coach" will "make everything in life better," according to Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Amie. Accomplishing this would truly be a first for the videogame industry.

Based on its recent success with the Wii, Nintendo showed up at E3 with a fist full of social capital to spend. Executives felt free to introduce yet more nontraditional, wacky forms of entertainment. While its slew of new self-help games certainly expand the definition of videogames, hard-core gamers and novices alike are starting to ask, "Is Nintendo promising too much?" Nobody wants to be disappointed by the industry underdog that ratcheted itself up to first place so quickly.

While Nintendo wants gamers to improve themselves, consumers want Nintendo to improve its lineup. Sony and Microsoft both offer strong online networks that allow gamers to battle friends and strangers over the Internet.

Nintendo has been slow to bring Wii up to speed in that arena. "For our users, we think playing has to be about socializing together in a physical location," says Nintendo Vice President of Marketing George Harrison. But to placate whiny gamers, Nintendo will soon offer "Guitar Hero III" and "Mario Kart," two games with online competition enabled.

Speaking of Mario, gamers have followed the portly plumber for more than 25 years. Wii owners are fond of the familiar cast of Nintendo characters, but haven't recently been introduced to many new ones. New intellectual property from Nintendo--which used to be celebrated for its creative fantasy worlds--is limited, and fictional story lines usually come second-hand from publishing partners.

Forbes.com sat down with Nintendo's Harrison at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica to talk about catering to Nintendo's new, grayer fan-base, the appeal of exercise games and original storylines, and just how Nintendo intends to get enough boxes into retail stores in time for the holiday season.

Forbes.com: Why is it taking so long for Nintendo to make its online game-play system as strong as Sony's or Microsoft's? People want to play Wii Sports with friends and strangers across the world.

George Harrison: People's ideas of playing online hinges on existing gamers. It means playing Halo in a massively multi-player way. The online experience doesn't have to be as narrow as that. If what you want is an aggressive game you can play online with your friends, maybe the Wii isn't the best fit for that. In our attitude there are a lot more people in our new expanded audience than there are traditional gamers. We think there's a social aspect in real life, in your living room for Wii sports. That said, we do have online games coming.

Gamers older than 25 now account for 32% of all your sales. Female players make up 33% of your audience, but only 20% of your competitors.' What are you doing to reach these people, and how will you keep them interested?

We used to buy TV ad time that addressed consumers ages 6 to 17. But for Wii, we spent most of our money on adults 25 to 49, leaning toward women. For the first time ever you'd see videogame advertising on programs like Dancing with the Stars. We used to put a lot of emphasis on sampling in the stores with retailers. But we thought that adults would not go into the videogame aisle--and if they did, they'd see five teenagers huddled around a demo machine, and it would be off-putting. So we brought it into the malls. We sent a few units to Norwegian Cruise Lines--we didn't know what would happen. They reported huge lines of people waiting to play. Now there's a Wii on every Norweigan cruise ship. We had to find a way to get non-gamers to play.

Many of your games are from old, familiar franchises. Are we going to see any new story lines, characters and intellectual property from Nintendo coming down the pipeline?

One of Nintendo's most valuable assets for our business is our franchise characters. We're going to continue to use them. I think a lot of people underestimate just how hard it is to create a new character. We've been successful at spinning off characters. In terms of a complete breakaway into new IP--the introduction of brain-games a couple of years ago for the DS was a radical departure. You saw Wii Fit introduced--that was the most unusual game unveiled at E3! In terms of fictional stories--we're augmenting what we do. We're changing our thinking about what defines a viable piece of entertainment software.

Fitness as a gaming genre isn't entirely new. What inspired the new Wii Fit game?

As [game designer Shigeru] Miyamoto ages, this has been his personal experience, to want to be healthier. We've also seen games moving toward this idea, such as Dance Dance Revolution. But even Nintendo had a Power Pad for the floor back in the 1980s. Physically engaging interfaces have been around for a while. In the 1990s, Nintendo had a relationship with Life Fitness, which made exercise bikes. We made a game for their stationary bikes back then.

Is the limited supply of Wiis at retail a sign that Nintendo is artificially restricting the number of units, or is this all that Nintendo's manufacturing process can bear? Is this a strategy?

This is the limit of our production right now. Since our business of selling hardware is not flat over the year--it goes way up around the holidays--we try to strike a balance with our parts suppliers. They'd rather have to make the same number of parts each month. Our total inventory is only 2 1/2 weeks worth of supply. A normal supply would be six weeks. Right now we're living hand to mouth, and it's not clear that we're going to get on top of that in time for the holidays.

Many people say that you're lucky to have this problem. Isn't there also a downside?

The scarcity has been a benefit because the desirability of Wii remains high. We do get concerned that while existing gamers are going to run from store to store every day looking for one, we're not sure that this new expanded audience will. They're interested, but they're not going to spend their lives searching for it. They might give up for a while, but we don't think they're going to say, "Gee, I can't find a Wii, so now I can go pay $600 for a PS3 instead." It's not that kind of a trade-off. At our New York City store at Rockefeller Center, we put out 50 to 75 units per day. We open at 9 a.m., but every day people are lined up at 5 a.m. We're sold out by 10 a.m. every day.



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40 million? I think 9 million is the more accurate number........

Confusing it with the DS......



Xbox Live Gamertag - Deathscythe X

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Great. Did the Wii also save the people of Rwanda from genocide? I think it did...



Thanks to Blacksaber for the sig!

I lost interest after the first sentence.



I heard they are using the Wii to help broker a peace treaty between North and South Korea. Now all we need is Wii Reverse Climate change.

Hmm, Forbes is evidently not the bastion of quality journalism.



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It's funny they got must have got the sales figures for the DS mixed up with the Wii.



I beg to differ. So far the Wii has felt like it's destroyed my wrist and elbow. . .

Damn you Wii sports!!!



A thief shot me this morning and fortunely I was carrying my wii in my chest for some reason, the bullet hitted the wii, and now I live, the wii truly saved my life, but i need to buy a new wii, damn you thief! 



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They act like the Wii invented exercise... jesus christ. Have these people heard of walking or doing push ups?

'Can the Wii save your life? More at 11 on the news...'



Thanks to Blacksaber for the sig!

What cant the wii do?

You meet the nicest people playing a wii.