celine said:
I am not clear on budgets. The only ones we will know for sure is when games like Fatal Frame and Conduit come out. I never specifically mentioned budget. I meant developers put good effort and made good games that the Wii was originally advertising as its strength (innovative games like Boom Blox and Blastworks and Zak and Wiki) but in the end, found no more market than the less worthy developers who knew how to market to the non-gamers.
Uh Fatal Frame 4 was founded by Nintendo while Conduit is entirely founded by the little indipendent developer HVS. The games you cited has all mid/little marketing push because they all cost very little to make ( both Boom Blox and Zack failed to marketing IMO cause they target wrongly the children demographic ).
Generally more you spend in a game and more you'll advertise it to try to get more sales possible to recoup cost and make profits.
And what I really meant was that sales don't lie but they hardly tell everything. Too many variables into what sells. Something selling can be from a various number of factors and quality or value is not a mandatory requirement. I also clearly am of the position that Nintendo is doing things right in the business sense(for now) but not necessarily doing good for gamers.
I didn't say great sales tells everything. I only said that if something sell great than rarely it is by accident. You can try to study and find the motives of the success.
I think you've misunderstood me. I never said that raw power is the next right step, otherwise it would be PC gaming thats dominating. Its proper advancements. The Wii-mote to me, seems somewhat half baked. Motion + might change this but as soon as the Wii released and I got my hands on Zelda, I realized this was not what I was hyped for. 360 and PS3 has the ability to appease many customers and now 360 is also cheaper. Its just that the Wii is advertised as a non-gamer system yet the others are not advertised so. My father has no issues playing games like Geometry Wars, Streets of Rage, Castle Crashers, Burnout and even GTA4. These games clearly have their own advantages towards the casual market but is mostly advertised to core gamers. The 360 and PS3 are surpassed by the Wii in this sense because the Wii has a clear marketing gimmick and sells its system as tailored for the non-gamer and at a lower price point. We must not forget that the cost is also half of the Wii's success. At 400 dollars at launch, the Wii would not see the sales its seeing now.
MS and Sony spent to much on the graphic/power side of their console when graphic has become a commodity for many. Zelda TP is a bad example ( it isn't the Zelda for Wii  ). MP3 is a better example of what the wiimote+nunchuck can do.
Yeah price is important. But no matter the price, a product that nobody want to buy will not sell ( see GC ). BTW do you know how can Nintendo sells Wii at "cheap" ( still above 200$ ) making huge profits ? They broke the balance between cost and value ( Blue Ocean Strategy for the win ).
Disruption is a Nintendo marketing gimmick and things that analysts use to generalize a situation in a detailed way(yes I know it sounds contradictory..) as to make themselves seem more credible and in control. The truth is, this ignores so much of the realities of this generation and the motivations behind each company. MS is not after the casual market first and foremost. Its after the Media-PC market and they would much prefer to set themselves up as the premier digital distributor and provider of online gaming over say, having a very affordable Xbox that does what the Wii does and makes tons of money on hardware sales. Even if the Xbox did come out with the exact same plan as Nintendo, they would not be ensured success either as they do not have the brand power of Nintendo when it comes to casual games.
MS is simply spending tons of money to build a foundation for something much bigger and we all know what this is. The PS3 was also radically different. It launched at an INSANE price, and its STILL catching up to the 360 with barely any games to support it... If Sony was to release the console earlier, sealed its exclusives and not included Bluray so as to launch at a reasonable price between $300-400, I am 80% confident that it would have beaten the Wii and the Xbox would be dead last in terms of third party support and sales. Instead, they opted to win the format war by forcing Bluray on gamers. Only time will tell of Bluray's victory was the right choice in the long run.
No. What is a gimmick is the whole casual/hardcore thing. Oh and do't forget the mother of all gimmicks in the recent year in the industry: the so called "HD Generation".
What is Nintendo doing ? They are offering a different ( and more profitable ) set of values ( to replace the old set of values ). What Nintendo is doing has a long term effect if succeded. They will change the rules of the game and create a new league of gamers fond with new values.
Make no mistake, many Wii owners are seasoned gamers who start to become bored last gen, others are lapsed gamers cut off by the increasing complexity of games, others are true PC gamers who know the distinction between PC and console ( all example you can found here in this forum ).
Last if you think "Disruption" is only a marketing thing then fine. I'm not interestedn in argue about it because there are already a few books written by Christensen that talk about it ( he is the man who coined the term ).
It isn't any harder to say Nintendo's way is wrong than saying MS's way is wrong(in the OS market) or McDonalds way is wrong. Many people say McDonalds is evil because of its success. Many people say MS becomes complacent with its success. There isn't an exception for Nintendos dominance in the console market of casual gamers. Nintendo has captured a new market of gamers which is why they are successful. They use marketing terms like "legs"(such an irrelevant issue) and disruption(as if all companies have the same goal) to appear more in control than they are. As far as I can see, the Wii's success is pretty short term. Casual gamers are not loyal and are really untested waters. They would have to seriously have to offer something incredible next generation in order to stave off the standardization of motion controls.
Nintendo problem was that they depend entirely on the VG industry and the industry was headed to stagnation or decline ( and surely diminishing profits ). They needed to do something and they did. This is why terms like "legs" or "disruption" matters. If you didn't follow Iwata/Reggie speeches before Wii launches then I don't think you'll understand this.
Wii success was easy to predict
|
