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How Wii Is Creaming the Competition
CNN has a report on the Wii's success in the games marketplace right now, referring to their sales dominance as 'creaming the competition'. The article tries to break down exactly why Nintendo's console has sold so successfully, discussing the system's marketing, engineering, and philosophy. "Next, engineers settled on a new approach for the Wii's looks. Just as the DS shunned the Game Boy name to appeal to a broader audience, the Wii would adopt a sleek white exterior instead of the toylike loud colors used on the GameCube. Even CEO Iwata got involved in the design process; at one point he handed engineers a stack of DVD jewel cases and told them the console should not be much bigger. Why so small? To work with the motion-sensitive wireless controller Nintendo planned, Iwata reasoned, the console would have to sit directly beside the TV. Make it any larger and customers would hesitate to leave it there. " Their sales strategy is working in spades. CVG reports that at least one analyst thinks that Wii demand won't be met until 2009. This past weekend Chris Kohler had an interesting comment on the 'ambassador programs' Nintendo ran in advance of the Wii's launch, and how that might tie in to the system's financial success.
With a new gimmick, great brand name and at half the price is there really any wonder why?
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
The Wii is not a threat to the 360 because the only market segment that overlaps between the two is also the market segment that would not think twice at buying both. Nintendo and Microsoft strategically position their products to harm Sony, which tries to have (almost) as broad an appeal as the Wii and fails largely because of the price point, and tries to be as hardcore as the 360 and fails largely because of the lack of games. Both companies working together strengthens both their positions and damages their mutual competitor.
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This reminds me of how Palm succeeded where Newton failed. I liked the Newton, but Newton design was driven by a futuristic vision. Palm design was built around simple practical aspects of the user's experience, such as the utility of carrying the device around in a shirt pocket comfortably.
You'd think human centered product design would be a no-brainer, but clearly its harder to do than it sounds. It isn't just getting the details right, its being bold in choosing not to do things. Making shrewd decisions not to do things conventionally thought necesssary characterize the breakthrough designs of the Wii and Palm.
I think the reason that we see so few excellent product designs is that its hard to let go of preconceptions. So much of business runs on swagger.
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Repeat after me: "I, state your name, am NOT in Nintendo's target demographic."
You are most likely male, between the ages of 18 and 25. You are not who Nintendo wants to sell these things to. They want to sell to adults, with careers and families, who want to pick up a game to play for 20 minutes -- not hard core gamers. They want to sell to thirtysomethings (like me) who played NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbografix, etc. back in the day, and want to share the games they used to play with their children.
They want people who can pick up a game and have fun for the short amount of free time they have. It's hard to do that with an Xbox or PS* -- it's not fun getting pwned by some 12 year old with nothing better to do with his time than play Halo for 40 hours a week.
It shocks the hell out of me that they were the first ones to realize this market even exists.
Nope. You can either do that or you can attract other customers and expand the market. It doesn't matter if the competition is getting the same absolute number of customers they would have anyway, as long as they're still getting relatively much fewer customers than you.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
That is not what took place. The Dreamcast sold well but then slumped badly after Sony promised the moon with the PS2. Even if you only look at the sales figures in a vacuum - a drop in hardware sales does not indicate, to me at least, a problem with widespread piracy. If anything, piracy should have helped to move more numbers of consoles.
I have figured out the secret to the success of the Wii. Women like it. People have been talking about the elusive "woman gamer" for some time. Nintendo finally found them. Last weekend some guys from my office went to a party that featured a Wii. They played various Wii games with a group of woman until past midnight. One guy even scored. That would not have happened with an Xbox 360 party.
Where do you live, and what do you charge for shipping???
As a rule, I never trust dark brown ketchup.
It's even more interesting when you factor time in
The 360 has been on sale for 18 months
The PS3 and Wii have been on sale for 6 months
The Wii has sold about twice as much as the PS3 in about the same amount of time
The Wii has sold about 2/3 as much as the 360 in about 1/3 of the time.
If nothing dramatic changes the Wii will be the best selling next-gen console by the end of the summer. Of course Halo 3 and GTA 4 could very well kick start the HD console sales in the fall. Either way, Xmas 2007 is when the first real battle of this generation will take place.