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No More GameCube, Wii 2.0 On the Far Horizon
The little purple machine that could is no longer being manufactured. Hardware revisions are in store for the Nintendo Wii eventually. These announcements aren't terribly shocking, but they're still interesting admissions from Perin Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America. GameDaily has the interview, which also discusses Wii sales, the lull in games, new IPs, and some details on plans online. Don't worry, you won't have to buy a new Wii anytime soon. Kaplan is immediately talking about the planned Japanese version with DVD Playback capability, but does say 'Sure, absolutely' to the question of whether we'll eventually see hardware changes on the order of the DS/DS Lite.
How about "Vagoo"?
I would be happy if the Wii was available in the stores.
I'm anxiously waiting for my Wii Zapper. I think that will bring a whole new level of fun to muliplayer shooters. Before worrying about Wii 2.0, they need to get the zapper out and relase a new bond title for the Wii.
New hardware? Gah. The abominable hardware upgrade tactics they used on the game boy (2-3 versions of each!) really shouldn't be taken to the console market.
Care about privacy? Read this!
I have read elsewhere rumblings that the complete hardware setup in the Wii is ready to support DVD playback but Nintendo are waiting on software from a third party that is being developed to enable such a feature. Muck like the Wii browser being developed by Opera. I think this is more rumor than fact at this stage.
I am sure any Wii 2.0 will be much like the Playstation2/Plastation 2 Slim, or the Playstation/PS One type of upgrade. You know, CPU and GPU manufactured with a 60nm of 45nm technolgy resulting in lower power consumption and lower heat dissipation resulting in smaller headt sinks etc. I doubt the feature spec will be much, if at all different.
I don't think they need a new hardware revision for that. The Wii (like the early Gamecubes) uses a custom cable connector. That connector sends the data in its own format that can then be translated into Composite or Component. (Depending on which "cables" you use.) I imagine that an HDMI "cable" for the existing hardware is not out of the question. Just not very useful at the moment.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
If the Wii lineup reminds you of the DS launch lineup, then you are looking at the DS launch through the cloud of nostalgia. There was absolutely nothing to play except for a barely playable port of Mario 64. I thought I had wasted my money for over a YEAR.
The Wii launch lineup is far better than the DS, or the PS2 for that matter... anyone who disagrees can have my copy of Fantavision.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
GameDaily BIZ: The Wii did quite well this holiday season. At last count Nintendo sold over 3.19 million units worldwide. Did you expect to sell that many or did that level of success surprise you a bit?
Perrin Kaplan: We actually projected really strong numbers like that before our launch, because any public company needs to do that... But again it was a really high risk to bring out something that innovative and different and we are really kind of in awe that consumers are so high on the product. I mean we had hoped for it, but when you do something that different you never really know how people are going to react, and the fact that everybody--teens, dads, moms, cousins, young kids--everybody is totally into it, and then the DS is selling extremely well... we're kind of in awe of all of it. It's a great, great thing and I think it means a lot of good things for the whole industry.
BIZ: That was actually something that Doug Lowenstein talked about earlier today in his speech. He said that the industry needs to take more risks, and shouldn't rely on the same type of content over and over. And he specifically mentioned the Wii and Will Wright's Spore...
PK: Well, consumers are really savvy. They've been enjoying [what the games industry offers] for a long time, but I don't think [purchase patterns] reflected a healthier appetite. Buying games has been sort of staying level, but I don't think people were feeling inspired. In fact, some of the core gamers were like, "I thought I was getting bored and I wasn't sure, and now I realize I was totally getting bored. And I now I feel reinvigorated." And those who've left gaming, we need them to come back in order for the industry to grow, and then those who've never played, we really want them to enter the fold because it's very fun. So yeah, we've got to get risky and get out there, and obviously sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.
BIZ: Nintendo built up a lot of momentum over the holiday season, but what's the plan to keep that momentum alive and well? Inevitably there's going to be a lull, so how do you keep the buzz around the Wii and people buying it?
PK: Well, there's various buzz now. If you look on the Internet, there's everything from how to hold your own Wii party to how to do a Mii parade to change Mii codes to how to lose weight... all these different branches that have come off this tree. So the momentum has not slowed down. Conan O'Brien and Serena Williams were just playing Wii Sports tennis on TV the other night; that's the kind of stuff you thought would only happen during launch and it's still fast and furious. There's a lot, a lot of talk about it. You have to remember that even though you played the Wii many months ago, it's still new to a lot of people; there's a lot of "eurekas" to be had by a lot of consumers. So for us I think it's just about continuing to get the product out there, letting people have a chance to touch and feel it themselves and play it, because hearing about it is one thing; seeing someone play it is another exciting thing; and the third thing is if you play it yourself, for the most part, 99% of the time, people are like "I love this!"
BIZ: How much credit would you give Nintendo's marketing team for this early success? You've had some unique marketing where you took the Wii to an AARP convention, advertised with Oprah...
PK: Yeah, a lot of that actually started with the DS with Brain Age and Nintendogs and our efforts to try to take those products and populate it into different kinds of audiences. You know, the AARP thing was a little bit tough at first. They were like, "We don't really want to talk to you because we're all grandparents and we already buy stuff for our kids," and so we said, "No we want to talk to you about you." It took several attempts for them to finally say, "So why do you want to talk to us?" And it's because we have products for them as well now; so it really started with the DS and has continued on with the Wii. But I will say, at the end of th
I DRTFA, but I just wanted to note that just because the Gamecube is no longer being produced does not mean that there will be no more Gamecube games, thanks to the backwards compatibility on the Wii.
Only last year was the last Dreamcast game released (in Japan), and the system has been out of production for at least four years. Every once in a while a PS1 game is still released, because it can work on the PS2. Since the Gamecube will be cheaper to produce for than the Wii, and there's a fairly good chance that many of the consumers will have the 'Cube controllers or easily get them.
The PS3 will also see a lot of this with PS2 games, especially with the massive increase of PS3 production costs.
Gamecube controllers will probably also see continued production by third parties, seeing as how they can be used with VC games and are generally cheaper than the Classic controller.
It does look like Nintendo is ditching the Gamecube internally, though.
How do you "beat" Animal Crossing?
You build the biggest house possible, buy at least 1 of every item including all NES games, and owe nothing. At that point the only thing Tom Nook can sell you is time with his wife effectively making Tom your bitch for a change.