Nintendo's Rapture

[Arius Dion]

Friday, June 5, 2009

 

Nintendo’s Rapture

 

I came across a well written article from an informative site. http://nintendodpad.com/Welcome/News/Entries/2009/6/5_Nintendo%E2%80%99s_Rapture.html

With E3 over, and Nintendo showing off it’s software lineup, I couldn’t help but wonder why people can’t pick up on what Nintendo is doing.

Sony and Microsoft both showed their expected motion controls, but Nintendo really didn’t seem to care. Nintendo has it’s Blue Ocean Strategy and they will stick with it through thick or thin. The disruption of Nintendo is finally being felt like never before in games, but with Sony and Microsoft already having huge processors and showing their motion controllers, what will Nintendo do?

 

Nintendo will not fight with Microsoft and Sony over motion controls and once that blue ocean turns red expect Nintendo to retreat to another blue ocean. Reggie has been quoted as saying “We are making precision control a reality today. We’re focused on the reality of today of how to drive that in an important way within gaming. We’ll let our competitors talk about what might or might not be in the future.”

 

Notice how he said “today” because that means by the time Microsoft and Sony come full force with their AAA motion control titles they will have missed the boat and Nintendo will have started another blue ocean in another area of gaming.

 

With Nintendo it seems as though the first couple years was to introduce motion controls as well as the Wii to the public, but now we are seeing Nintendo really bringing out their guns. Reggie said “Everything that we touched on (at E3) really strikes a chord with the type of consumer we’re going after.”

Even Miyamoto has agreed with this same type of approach, “We hope in the future to go ahead and work with people to again make games that are maybe more skewed toward a more focused audience.”

 

Nintendo has stated that their goal with the Wii and Ds have been to incorporate more new-comers into gaming, but it seems that stage is in full effect, and the new goal is to turn those new-comers into actual gamers not the casual bunch Nintendo has only been stereo-typed as having. We are started to see hints of that even in the most casual looking of games.

 

Wii Sports was bundled with the system in most parts of the world, and was a way to generate new-comers into gaming with it’s ease of use and family friendly look. The game was fun and really sold the system once played by the individual, but we now look to Wii Sports Resort. The game will be bundled this time with Wii MotionPlus, and will have similar social activities. Instead, this is not the Wii Sports that introduced non-gamers to Wii, but will be the gateway title which will turn the newly transformed casuals into actual gamers.

 

Miyamoto has even said that this game will help “improve skill” among the casuals playing it. We have a feeling New Super Mario Bros. for Wii will also have this affect upon improving skill. “The gaming population is shrinking. And one of our goals is to bring that back up.” explained Miyamoto to Ign. You are starting to see this second wave from Nintendo right now.

 

While Nintendo converts casuals into gamers they will still be creating casuals, don’t get me wrong this will happen, but it is important to see that Nintendo is creating paths now for those casuals to go in advancing their skills in gaming.

 

New Super Mario Bros. will be a title to really look out for. If the Ds game is any hint we could see this title be the biggest seller Nintendo has had this gen (excluding Wii Sports, and WiiPlay). people really under-estimate the power a 2D Mario has over gamers and non-gamers. Platforming turned everyone into gamers if you born in the 80’s or before. With so many games being of a mature themed, and with controls schemes that a casual would run away from, platformers are always a great genre to introduce people to.

 

With E3 2009 over it’s no secret what Nintendo is trying to do. The same thing they did with the Nes, non-gamers to casuals to gamers. This whitewash in gaming doesn’t come often either, usually every 20 years. So for everyone else just sit back and watch gaming change. While Microsoft and Sony fight over who has the bigger processor or who introduced motion controls better, Nintendo will have already changed the face of gaming back into what it used to be before consoles tried being pc’s.

 

Iwata- “Video games are meant to be just one thing, fun. Fun for everyone.”