| bdbdbd said: @Resident Hazard: The country as a whole is poor. I do know that there's lots of people who can afford the consoles. But the price is a factor that prevents Wii and DS reaching 1,1 billion people potential. I also know, that Bollywood is the biggest movie maker in the world, but their problem is that they don't have a channel to the west, where the audience would grow bigger and where all the big money would be in. There's always a possibility that the next big player can come out from any of the mentioned, which makes the markets even more important. You need to tap into the market, before someone takes advantage of the big domestic market in China or India and establish itself there before entering western market. |
Oh, I know that the country's average citizens make the middle class in America look independantly wealthy, but the country itself is no stranger to modern "western" civilization, generally modern or advanced technology, or high-level education. Hell, even my joke remark of "all 1% with electricity will love the Wii" is just fine since that'd still be over 10 million people. It is funny that they would choose India before China since one would think that China is more "technologically ready" for video games than India--and it has more available customers.
If the Wii and DS find some degree of success, then home-grown game studios will be able to spring up brining fresh new industry to India. And no doubt that India would have little trouble in making games that not only appeal to their growing audience, but to some of their neighbors who may share some (or somewhat) similar cultural identities and themes.
Anyway, this is all good stuff for gamers. This generation's biggest plus is that the companies are now more willing to reach out beyond the traditional "Japanese and Western" markets. This will have the ability to not only keep this generation's steam running longer, but it broadens the ability for the next unique hit game, or bizarre and interesting niche titles to reach new audiences. Too much stuff comes from just Japan and North America. It could be a way for Asian media to better reach new audiences in other countries and regions. Maybe gaming is the next investment Bollywood needs to make to reach out beyond the Indian sub-continent. Who knows?
If Nintendo is truly successful in spreading video games to India, China, Korea, and the like, it'll only be a matter of time until Nintendo finally place themselves at a financial level better equipped to take on corporate giants like Sony and Microsoft. Not that Nintendo is doing badly now, but they may no longer be "the little guy trying to stay alive" in a hardware war overly-focused on financial chest-pounding. It'd be nice if the next companies to develop consoles (perhaps out of China or India) are more focused on gaming like Nintendo (and Sega, Atari, and to an extent, Neo-Geo and NEC before them), rather than corporate technological/computer dominance.
Does anyone know, is this generation in South America? And if so, is South America listed under "Others" or "America?"
