It's no secret that Nintendo's focus has changed since the days of the GameCube. And, realistically, who can blame them? The GameCube performed pretty poorly in the face of Sony's PlayStation 2 juggernaut and the original Xbox from Microsoft—whose successor is currently the de facto place to go for the oft-mentioned "core gamer."
Contrast those days with today's run-away success of Wii, particularly Wii Sports and Wii Fit. Both the machine and the Balance Board-included software are still difficult-to-impossible to find at retail. It should be no surprise that Nintendo has focused their biggest press event of the year in America—E3—on these performers.
This is why it sort of confuses me when Nintendo fans, who I expect would be observing the company closely, lined up with huge expectations just prior to the press conference and pronounced the company dead to them just as it ended. It was almost as if they expected the company to turn its back on its success.
Taking a wider and more thoughtful view, I think, makes much more sense.
To really look at the situation objectively, one needs to consider the nature of Nintendo's diverse audience. (I do have to caution against making the mistake of trying to drive a wedge and divide it into two; even while there are Nintendo customers with wildly differing tastes, Nintendo's software catalog isn't divided into "us" and "them." That said, there are certainly opposite ends of the spectrum that largely prefer Wii x titles or the latest entry in the Zelda series.)
Chances are, if you're reading us, you lean toward the harder-cored end of the spectrum. Let me ask you a question. Where do you get your gaming product news? Do you open up the newspaper and read the report filed by the AP reporter that likely appears only two or three times a year, when they send him off to conferences like E3? Or do you have a daily ritual of hitting up game-centric Internet news and forums?
You are a consumer of specialist media. It is certainly true that in the past, E3 was the place where a lot of what you cared about made its debut. This is changing now, though, along with the gaming market itself. Nintendo no doubt realizes that their marketing bucks aren't best spent announcing titles that you'll discover hours after the press release goes out anyway. They realize that cash is better spent getting the message out to the audience that isn't captive.
"But, Matt," you say, "Microsoft, Sony, and all the others are still pumping out trailers for games I think I might like at their conferences." I'd argue that Microsoft and Sony, despite a little experimental toe-dipping into the casual market, are still almost entirely companies whose product lines are targeted to you. It doesn't make sense for them to switch up their message, at least not until they're ready to put an actual effort to marketing a product and image to the demographics Nintendo is currently running away with.
Nintendo has a new market with a short attention span to maintain. For all the "Wii is a fad" predictions floating around since Wii Sports took the market by storm, you'd think this would be understood more completely. In the meantime, when they have something to show to you, they'll do it. Probably shortly before it's ready to hit the shelves, as is their wont as of late.
My advice is to be patient. If you've got an itch, and Nintendo's not got anything out for you right now—which wouldn't be surprising, considering they metaphorically blew their load in Wii's first year and change—consider checking out some of the releases other developers and publishers are putting out for the DS and Wii. Many of them shine with real potential, I think; I'll be highlighting a few over the next few weeks here, as well as some lesser-known titles (some of which are already out) that have convinced me I won't have to box up the DS or the Wii in the foreseeable future. Stay tuned.
This is why it sort of confuses me when Nintendo fans, who I expect would be observing the company closely, lined up with huge expectations just prior to the press conference and pronounced the company dead to them just as it ended. It was almost as if they expected the company to turn its back on its success.
Taking a wider and more thoughtful view, I think, makes much more sense.
To really look at the situation objectively, one needs to consider the nature of Nintendo's diverse audience. (I do have to caution against making the mistake of trying to drive a wedge and divide it into two; even while there are Nintendo customers with wildly differing tastes, Nintendo's software catalog isn't divided into "us" and "them." That said, there are certainly opposite ends of the spectrum that largely prefer Wii x titles or the latest entry in the Zelda series.)
Chances are, if you're reading us, you lean toward the harder-cored end of the spectrum. Let me ask you a question. Where do you get your gaming product news? Do you open up the newspaper and read the report filed by the AP reporter that likely appears only two or three times a year, when they send him off to conferences like E3? Or do you have a daily ritual of hitting up game-centric Internet news and forums?
You are a consumer of specialist media. It is certainly true that in the past, E3 was the place where a lot of what you cared about made its debut. This is changing now, though, along with the gaming market itself. Nintendo no doubt realizes that their marketing bucks aren't best spent announcing titles that you'll discover hours after the press release goes out anyway. They realize that cash is better spent getting the message out to the audience that isn't captive.
"But, Matt," you say, "Microsoft, Sony, and all the others are still pumping out trailers for games I think I might like at their conferences." I'd argue that Microsoft and Sony, despite a little experimental toe-dipping into the casual market, are still almost entirely companies whose product lines are targeted to you. It doesn't make sense for them to switch up their message, at least not until they're ready to put an actual effort to marketing a product and image to the demographics Nintendo is currently running away with.
Nintendo has a new market with a short attention span to maintain. For all the "Wii is a fad" predictions floating around since Wii Sports took the market by storm, you'd think this would be understood more completely. In the meantime, when they have something to show to you, they'll do it. Probably shortly before it's ready to hit the shelves, as is their wont as of late.
My advice is to be patient. If you've got an itch, and Nintendo's not got anything out for you right now—which wouldn't be surprising, considering they metaphorically blew their load in Wii's first year and change—consider checking out some of the releases other developers and publishers are putting out for the DS and Wii. Many of them shine with real potential, I think; I'll be highlighting a few over the next few weeks here, as well as some lesser-known titles (some of which are already out) that have convinced me I won't have to box up the DS or the Wii in the foreseeable future. Stay tuned.