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Nintendo Goes Looking for the Grey Gamer
The New York Times reports on Nintendo's visit with the AARP. The Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons held a products show this past weekend, and Nintendo showed up in force to demonstrate the 'new generation' of gaming products they're offering. From the article: "Over the weekend, the company proved that it believed its own press releases. For the first time, it took its products to Life@50+, an annual event sponsored by AARP, and held this year in Anaheim, Calif. The event, intended for those over 50, attracted more than 20,000 people and featured a wide range of panel discussions, celebrities and exhibitors showcasing products for older Americans. 'Nintendo has never gone after grandparents before,' said Amber McCollom, a senior manager of public relations for Nintendo. 'We're targeting this audience for themselves, not just their grandchildren.'"
How do you keep a turkey in suspense? Don't interview any of the attendees to find out what they thought of Nintendo's booth! (GRRR!)
Unfortunately, all of the articles on Google News are just Newswire reprints of the link in the summary. I had to do some serious digging to find a story that had a bit more substance. This link gives a few reactions, photos of the event, and a video of an older fellow playing the Wii. He seems to have an uncertain, yet fascinated look on his face as he picks up a spare in Wii Sports Bowling. Very interesting stuff!
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I'm waiting for the new FPS that allows you to shoot at kids who come on your grass.
My other sig is funny.
Great thats just what we need, older people living longer, playing more video games.
But I guess they could die faster because of it, just think of grandpa dying because he was on WoW for to long.....
"AARP" doesn't mean "American Association of Retired Persons" anymore. So "AARP" actually doesn't stand for anything
(except for fucking anyone under 50 on Social Security, of course)
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
What else will be in their line-up? You know, I would actually play a driving game where the goal is to tie up traffic. If I could take a 1970's Buick and drive on the same racetracks that Burnout Revenge runs on (while they are trying to do their race), just to tie up traffic, that would be sweet...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
I think Nintendo stands a very good chance of striking gold with this strategy.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
It seems to make perfect sense to target elderly folks.
1. They are retired and have plenty of free time.
2. Many can't drive so they are confined to the house all day.
3. Many can't walk so they are confined to a chair all day.
4. Some have a good stash of disposible income.
5. They have grandkids who are definitely playing. This could be break down the age barrier between them and promote quality time.
6. They already love gaming (ie. Chess, Shuffleboard, Bingo). Can you imagine Wii Shuffleboard? It would probably be fun.
I apologize if I'm stereotyping badly. I don't mean to offend anybody.
The more people who play video games the better off gamers will be, because there is more money that goes to the games developers (and therefore more encouragement for people to create games). This is especially true of the older people- not only do they have more money, they have more influence. The idiots in congress are less likely to screw over an industry that has wide public support. As long as congress thinks games are only for people under 20, they will happily listen to people like Jack Thompson- after all, non-voters only matter if you can get the voters to 'think of the children' and support your legislation.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
The inflatable colon looked pretty popular. http://www.preventcancer.org/colorectal/events/sup er.cfm
Wonder if they could work colonic health and the new controller into some kind of compelling game.
this is a huge emerging demographic. I'm not surprised Nintendo's going after it, I'm just surprised Sony and Microsoft aren't.
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Doesn't Nintendo think that if the greys can build spaceships and travel interstellar distances....oh wait....*taking off tinfoil hat*...nevermind
sorry, i thought the title said "ghey gamers". Never mind.
Where were you when the voynix came?
My mom (late 50's) flew on Japan airlines this summer when trhey were advertising Brain Training. Once back here in the states, she went out on her own and bought a DS and the game. Not only that, she drove around to 3 stores before she found any systems in stock.
And this from a woman who had to put up with her son being obsessed with the NES back in the day. They last person who I would ever expect to buy a Nintendo on her own.
On another note, I mentioned to her the cook book and DS browser and she was definitely interested in those. NoA needs to get serious about the older gamer and start targeting them.
I've seen their demo stations with Brain Training running, but naturally they are mounted 3 feet off the floor and located in the video game section. ToyRus has giant signs advertising the game - but thats the problem -- its at ToyRUs. The last place any self respecting older adult is going to be shopping for themselves.
Why they don't have Brain Training for sale at Borders, Sharper Image, etc is beyond me. It will never appeal to older people as long as its relegated to the kids section.
These pretzels are making me thirsty.
This is just good strategy on Nintendo's part. With the touch line of games they are already doing a decent job reaching non-gamers for the DS. Applying that same strategy to the Wii only makes sense. My mother recently purchased a DS Lite after reading about Brain Age in a mainstream magazine.
This strategy might end up being the wisest instance of subterfuge in video game history. Most people who dont play games dont avoid them because they dont like them, they avoid them because they are scared of technology and the percieved complexity of game consoles. Opening them up to games that they dont have to "learn" just opens the path to other games as well. My mother had already picked up Nintendogs, Namco Museum, Brain Age, Brain Academy, Tetris DS and a Soduku game. My nephew has plotted to get her to play Magical Starsign with him, though I dont know how successful that will be.
In the long run this opens up a huge market that all the other console manufacturers tend to ignore, couple that with the unique interactivity of the Wii (which my many non-gamers will be percieved as more natural and less scary) and the Wii could be poised to dominate. Think about it, Nintendo already appeals to the grandkids, if you can hook the grandparents gaming might just make that next leap towards mainstream.
...they're gonna put out "Nursing Home" in full GTA style. Get to drive cars right into storefront windows!
O.k. It maybe time that we rethink this whole retirement thing. (Esp. so my generation won't have to pay for those baby boombers.) Let's just give them all a Wii and call it a day.
When I was in college I worked on a medical imaging research project. That was just about the time PS2 was coming out. At the time, I thought it would be great if the PS4 or PS5 could run our medical software on a daily basis monitoring the daily health of gamers. Everyone is excited by the more physical input of Wii. Well, all 3 systems have some form of on-line connection. What would it take for PS3, 360, or Wii to have a health monitoring pack as well? The really exciting part is if you could record and upload your health and have your doctor view it. Another idea would be tie it in with a service similiar to e-doc.
Two other areas that we could see actual cross platform "games" is online politics, online dating games, or just online social gatherings. The online politics would try to use the on-line and mass market features of the next gen systems for organizing "grass roots" customized politic parties. The online dating game would just be what it sounds like. Throw in a character creation tool and something that looks similiar to the Sims except the goal would be finding similiar people with simliar interests and arranging real life or virtual meetings. On-line social gatherings happen in every MMORPG. What about one designed for people wanting to use it to organize church meetings, PTA events, or school events? What will happen when people that don't really use computers can use a game console to organize their entire social life? The more that I think about it, the more it sounds that we are ready for these ideas in our "next-generation" game consoles.
The WII controller would make an admirable probe, would it not?
Not enough that parents sit their kids in front of a television all day/evening, it now seems as though Nintendo want to do the same in retirement homes across the world!
I can see it now:
Nurse: Take this pill...
Patient: Ok
Nurse: Now be a good boy and play with you wii wii thing...
When all is said and done, nothing changes...
I would like to have high hopes for Nintendo breaking into a new market but I can't just see it. People who aren't into video games are not going to buy a system for $250, a controller for $60 and games at $50 a pop.
Think about with DVDs, now a mainstream, didn't gain any steam until players were $100 and movies dropped to $15. Now think about people that love to watch movies all the time that didn't get into DVDs until those price drops, now imagine someone that would occasionally play a video game, you think if they didn't spend the money to watch movies (something they do more of), that they'll spend more money (a lot more in comparison) for something they would hardly touch?
You get that Wii down to $50 and games to $10, you can possibly crack into the parents/grand parent markets, but until that happens, I can't see people paying $350-$400 for something they'd play a few times a month (if that) and then collect dust since they won't like paying $50 for games and get tired of the ones they have.
No, I'm not kidding, but Tetris seems to be addicting for many older adults who weren't raised playing video games.
I have no idea why, but I know of plenty of people who love it...
...The number of elderly people up in arms spreading hate speech and banning Nintendo for not releasing a Matlock game?
To a noob, root is like a gay bar...and he's wearing assless chaps
The funny part is that during his younger gaming years, he was an aficionado of Avalon Hill and SPI wargames. When he got his first computer, he would play Steel Panthers, Age of Rifles, etc. He moved up to Real Time Strategy games (He loved Age of Empires), and now plays FPSs.
I don't think he's ready for online yet, though. Probably spend most of the time telling the CS babies to "watch their language". But, I'm proud of him :)
I frantically clicked on this story from Gametab thinking it was a report on Nintendo going after importers ala Sony, but because it wasn't specific I was worried it was games as well as hardware. Then I find it's just talking about people that probably don't know what a computar is. As soon as I change my underwear, I'm outta here.