As I looked on this weekend I saw two family members that have only condemned video games in the past stand up and without hesitation grasp the wiimote. Not only did they play Bowling in Wii Sports but they played it well. So well that they beat me, and I’d been playing the game for a week. In addition to playing bowling they gleefully played Golf and enjoyed it. In that I saw the power of the Wii and it was… well… powerful.
During the build up to launch Nintendo has sung out their desire to reach non-gamers and that the Wii will do it. I believed them but I was still shocked when I saw it happen. These guys of which I speak probably won’t be buying a Wii anytime soon but they really did play it and enjoyed it.
I expect that this incident was repeated at many residences over thanksgiving and will certainly be repeated in many more before and during Christmas. Nintendo made a brilliant move packaging Wii Sports and because of it consoles will sell; but will the Wii really result in the Blue Oceanthey wished? I suspect it will but games like Wii sports must keep coming and I’m not sure that that’s going to be easy.
Nintendo touts Brain-Training as a success with their blue ocean strategy which it was (and is). But the Wii is different than the DS. Games that monopolize the television need to be social which is why Wii Sports is great. Wii Sports excels at moving a family from their table games (cards and board games) to something on the Wii, not an easy task. For their blue ocean plan to work and actually get a lot of people to play games regularly that normally don’t they need do more than move people off the table, they need people to stop watching their favorite shows when they want to veg and Wii sports won’t make that happen. Games are work and the television is not. Until games become as easy as TV or more entertaining to justify the work (they have a ways to go) in the television crowds eyes the Wii won’t become something people use every night.
Nintendo is going to take a chunk of the table players and although I can’t envision the successor to Wii Sports I’m sure it’s coming and it will get people off the table. After the initial de-tableizaton there will be some internet games that the table crowd will play which allow socialization when proximity is difficult but this won’t be too significant (at least not for the next three years). So far, what Nintendo has demonstrated is great and it will be the best selling game console of the next three years, but will it be the Blue Ocean? Can they get the TV crowd?
Possibly. And if they do this is how it will happen:
Reality TV. There has been a trend in television towards interaction. If Nintendo can come up with some sort of interactive show that becomes a weekly event that people schedule then they will have truly won the blue ocean. It’s possible but it won’t be easy. When it happens (and it will–it’s a matter of how soon) people will begin to leave the television. It won’t be fast but it will be significant. 10 years from now the cable box will be the video game box. Will Nintendo be the ushers of the interactive TV revolution? They may. The News and Weather needs to be good so people have the opportunity to latch onto other channels (I wish there was a hard drive in the thing). If the TV crowd begins to go to the Wii for news and weather regularly then another channel has a chance of getting them.
In closing I’d like to wish Nintendo good luck. And I await the channels. Get them out before Christmas lest you miss out on the opportunity to get millions of free demonstrations of the magic of your console to those who won’t see it otherwise.
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