In the run-up to this past May's E3 2006 show, then-VP Reggie Fils-Aime was doing a lot of talking. He was preaching the gospel that would become familiar to Nintendo-watchers, explaining where Nintendo was going in the wake of Wii's "Revolution-ary" controller, unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show. His message: the Blue Ocean strategy, which he said Nintendo was adopting.
Blue Ocean strategy is based, appropriately enough, on a book titled Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant. Reggie says this strategy fits Nintendo because the company views the current videogame market as a "red ocean" full of sharks in the water, constantly going at each other. By pursuing the Blue Ocean strategy, Nintendo seeks to create new markets and pursue new opportunities. "If all we do is target men and boys, this industry will decline," Fils-Aime explained then. "The only way to reverse that would be to make gaming more popular, but data suggests that's not happening."
Wii appears on its face to be built tailor-made to that strategy. Its standard controller, the Wii Remote, eschews analog sticks and the 10+ buttons found on gaming controllers today in favor of a much simpler, much smaller set of buttons and technology that translates pointing and movement into game actions. It is intentionally shaped to look like a television remote to encourage those intimidated by complex-looking game controllers to pick it up and try it. As Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said before E3, "When I became Nintendo president, we decided on a new goal for our company expanding the total number of people who play games. In order to do this, we needed to target not only current gamers but two different types of consumers those who once played, but who had lost interest. And even those who had never played before."
The stage was set; everything was lined up and ready to go. Nintendo had already proven their new strategy had potential with the success of non-traditional titles such as Nintendogs and Brain Age, both targeting different groups of people who weren't traditional gaming customers. If anyone could do it, it was Nintendo, and their new hardware that seemed tailor-made for the task would lead the way.
Then E3 2006 hit.
E3 2006 was, really, a success for Nintendo. Wii was probably the most-talked about thing coming out of the show. Almost everyone who braved the line to get into Nintendo's Wii demonstration area came out raving about the system, and their feelings poured out in all kinds of press outlets. As for me, I enjoyed almost everything I played. For someone who loves most of Nintendo's output and considering my excitement for what Wii can bring me personally--I was in heaven.
What E3 2006 wasn't a success for was the Blue Ocean strategy. Oh, sure, there was a new controller in play, and the hardware in the box showed its disregard for console tradition of being crammed full of the best tech money can buy--both of these things served to establish Wii-the-hardware as different. Games were certainly played in new ways, and people were definitely enjoying it, and even finding some of it intuitive. But the games shown at the booth told another story. Based on what they were showing, it seemed Nintendo's Blue Ocean talk was less about where the company would be swimming from now on and more about where they would occasionally dip their toes... like a child afraid to get wet.
Wii appears on its face to be built tailor-made to that strategy. Its standard controller, the Wii Remote, eschews analog sticks and the 10+ buttons found on gaming controllers today in favor of a much simpler, much smaller set of buttons and technology that translates pointing and movement into game actions. It is intentionally shaped to look like a television remote to encourage those intimidated by complex-looking game controllers to pick it up and try it. As Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said before E3, "When I became Nintendo president, we decided on a new goal for our company expanding the total number of people who play games. In order to do this, we needed to target not only current gamers but two different types of consumers those who once played, but who had lost interest. And even those who had never played before."
The stage was set; everything was lined up and ready to go. Nintendo had already proven their new strategy had potential with the success of non-traditional titles such as Nintendogs and Brain Age, both targeting different groups of people who weren't traditional gaming customers. If anyone could do it, it was Nintendo, and their new hardware that seemed tailor-made for the task would lead the way.
Then E3 2006 hit.
E3 2006 was, really, a success for Nintendo. Wii was probably the most-talked about thing coming out of the show. Almost everyone who braved the line to get into Nintendo's Wii demonstration area came out raving about the system, and their feelings poured out in all kinds of press outlets. As for me, I enjoyed almost everything I played. For someone who loves most of Nintendo's output and considering my excitement for what Wii can bring me personally--I was in heaven.
What E3 2006 wasn't a success for was the Blue Ocean strategy. Oh, sure, there was a new controller in play, and the hardware in the box showed its disregard for console tradition of being crammed full of the best tech money can buy--both of these things served to establish Wii-the-hardware as different. Games were certainly played in new ways, and people were definitely enjoying it, and even finding some of it intuitive. But the games shown at the booth told another story. Based on what they were showing, it seemed Nintendo's Blue Ocean talk was less about where the company would be swimming from now on and more about where they would occasionally dip their toes... like a child afraid to get wet.