Nintendo has become a "fast food machine," says Pachter
"The Wii audience isn't sophisticated enough to know whether the game they're buying compares favorably to, say, Gears of War or LittleBigPlanet, because they probably don't own an Xbox 360 or a PS3," Pachter says, as part of a new Gamasutra feature examining what it takes to create a hit Wii title.
"They buy the Wii games that they buy for the same reason that people go to McDonald's," Pachter says. "McDonald's doesn't win a lot of restaurant critic awards but they are approachable, they're consistent, and you know what they're going to serve you."
"I mean, who sells more food -- McDonald's or Ruth's Chris Steak House, which certainly serves better meat? Nintendo has become the fast food machine. Sony is very much the high-end restaurant (So last gen Sony was McDonalds?) And Microsoft is somewhere in between."
Concept is essential to attracting this audience, Pachter asserts, even more than its gameplay and feel. From the analyst's perspective, the more easily recognizable a game's concept is, the more successful it can be.
"If the concept is right, if the recognition factor is there, if you 'get it' from what's on the box, sometimes the game doesn't even have to be that good in order for it to sell," Pachter says. "When a housewife is in Wal-Mart and sees Jillian Michaels' face on Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 for Wii, nobody has to explain it to them."
"They recognize her from TV's Biggest Loser, they know they have a Wii Fit Balance Board at home, and they buy the game. Do they know whether it's a good game or not? Doesn't matter," he adds.
"For example, I thought THQ's de Blob was a really great Wii game, but Ubisoft's The Price Is Right outsold it 3-to-1. So did THQ's Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader: Make The Grade. That's sad. But it tells you who the audience is."
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What an obnoxious as-h---e, Wii is McDonalds, PS3 is fine restaurant - Only Wii sells on recognition factor? GoW, Halo, MGS, SF4, etc. Do i need to go on. People buy crap whether your a core gamer or casual, its true
Anyway Discuss,
Tune in next week as Pachter will again try to extract his own lips from his own ass
edit update - 590k de Blob, 350k Price is Right, 270k 5th Grader
“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.
