Miyamoto's Mistake and what it'll cost the Wii

[Ail]

noname2200 said:

Gamerace said:

noname2200 said:

As to your other point, you are right, MS and Sony are not well positioned.  However they are masters of marketing and that's the danger.   Sony used false marketing to push Sega out of the console business (claiming PS2 would be more powerful and cheaper), used marketing to label GC a kiddie system - a label Nintendo never escaped last gen despite having more 'core' games for GC than Wii.     If they can convince people Wii is a fad, which admitted is still a big IF then Nintendo could be challenged to maintain it's market dominance.   My point is they may have given the competition an openning.  That's all.  We'll see what happens. 

I considered that too, but I don't think that's the case, to be honest. I meant what I said about Sony and Microsoft's Gaming divisions not really knowing what the mass public thinks; the examples of their past successese are, I believe, examples of how they were able to manipulate the traditional gamer (13-25 male) into thinking what they wanted them too. The vast majority of the population, though, probably never heard that the GameCube was "kiddy," let alone cared. They bought their PlayStations because that's where the games that appealed to them were at the time, not because the other systems weren't cool enough for them.

And that, I believe, is the problem they face now, marketing-wise. Sony and Microsoft don't seem to know how to talk to the demographic that is increasingly visible and potent in its buying power, and Sony at least is getting rid of the few executives who have that knowledge and skill. They can try to portray the Wii as a fad, of course, but they've been trying to do that for two years with no success, and I don't really see why they'll succeed if Wii Music fails.

You did, however, allude to another argument which I believe has merit, namely that Wii Music's (relative!) lack of traction may slow down the Wii's momentum with the general public. After all, for all our talk about "casuals" being a monolithic group they are composed of far more diverse sub-parts than traditional gamers. And if Nintendo can't find something new to attract folks after Wii Sports and Wii Fit have tapped themselves out, they'll face their first real hurdle this generation.

Still, I woulnd't worry about it for two reasons: first, Wii Music hasn't proven to be a failure yet, not even in the sense you meant, and I'm actually pretty sure it'll do a good job in the long run of further expanding the Wii's userbase. Second, the momentum from the earlier games is still going strong after all this time, and will likely be sustained long enough for Nintendo to come out with the Next Big Thing.

One last note, this one about Japan: at this point the Wii's sold more there than the PS2 did in the same timeframe. It's actually doing fantastic there too; it only looks bad in comparison to how smashing it's doing here in the West. Although the Japanese migration to the handhelds is something that all three console manufacturers are going to have to compensate for in the future.

 

That was true for the first year of the Wii, that is not the case anymore. The PS2 had a stronger second year than its first in Japan, the Wii had a weaker second year and the PS2 sales in the same time frame caught up with it and passed it recently...( you could argue that's because the PS2 was in holydays sales at this time in its release but it actually closed most of its deficit out of the holyday period).

The Wii was the faster console to hit 5 millions units sold in Japan, the PS2 will remain the fastest one to hit 8 millions and probably keep the awards for the later landmarks...

Both console were supply constrained their first year but once the stock issue was fixed PS2 sales increased, Wii sales did not in Japan but actually dipped...

Comparing 2008 and 2007 the Wii sold 500k units less so far in the same timeframe ( Jan-Oct 25th).