Blue Ocean Thinking: Nintendo Wii

September 14, 2006 on 1:31 pm | In General Gaming, Technology, Playstyles, Innovation

While I'm an MMORPG fanboi, I've also been following the seventh generation consoles on and off for awhile. This is not because I'm all enamored of the graphics. Rather, it is because each company is attempting something unique, something to both grow their market share beyond the core 18-34 male purchaser/player and, in some cases, beyond gamers themselves.

Throughout the year, my eye has been on the Nintendo Wii. This is likely the first console I'll actually buy since the Nintendo 32bit machine from the mid-1990s.

Today this decision was nailed home for me.

In a Gamasutra article, they reference this New York Times article (requires login) which details some new information about the Wii:

• North/South American Released: 11/19.
• 25 Games for launch
• Standard AAA titles will go for $50, which bucks industry trend of $60+
• Includes the digital delivery of classic games they expect to list for between $5 and $10.
• Integrated photo support for TV display as well as News and Weather "channels".

Add to the above their already way-innovative controller, and expand the "classic games" to include every Nintendo title ever made, and we have a system that could conceivable appeal to every Nintendo fan there ever has been and talks specifically to people who don't want to learn to play even higher-resolution games on the same old controller.

While Sony and Microsoft duked it out for dominance of the high-end graphics space in the last generation, Nintendo quietly talked to an audience neither of the other two even bothered to address. And then, earlier this year when the Wii Controller was revealed, both competitors fell over themselves trying to capture Nintendo fans by saying things like "oh, yea, the Wii will be a great second system to our PS3/Xbox!"

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Meanwhile, Nintendo is effectively saying that competition between Sony and MS is irrelevant to them. The very essence of Blue Ocean thinking.

Now, this isn't to say the competitors aren't thinking innovation either. Between the Xbox Live Arcade/Marketplace and Live Anywhere ideal, and Sony's own Virtual Console, this new generation is less about raw graphics and speed and more about what-else-can-it-do.

And that's an important development in my mind, beyond the innovations of expanding the playerbase. Many of us have watched the rise of platform independent media consumption, watching movies on cellphones, making phonecalls through Second Life, that sorta thing. But to date, the Living Room/Den of a house has been a sanctuary away from this always-on connectivity.

This new generation of consoles stands to change that. Photos on the TV, streamed movies from the computer, banking on a console, it's all converging. Now whether people want this, or continue to relegate their consoles to the media room remains to be seen.

Personally, I expect the adopters and deniers to be separated by generation. And for both groups to find commonality with the Wii.