Wii going after the non gamers - fat chance

Stan Beer
Sunday, 08 October 2006 10:24

Opinion and Analysis

The gaming marketplace is alive with the hype and buzz of how Nintendo Wii is going to transform and expand gaming to attract non-gamers into the market. Once again, I am prompted to say fat chance! It will take more than a fancy remote and easy to play games to attract non-gamers.

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I just finished reading about how Nintendo's middle-aged president complained to fellow board members how Nintendo didn't make games that would attract middle-aged people. Presumably he believes this is the reason that middle-aged people don't play games.

Well I have news for the Nintendo boss. The reason that most middle aged people don't play games is that more often or not they're too busy doing other things. Like bringing up children, feeding their families, furthering their careers and socialising with friends. Yes, occasionally they may dabble with a games console. But for most people over 35, life is too short for electronic games.

If Nintendo really was serious about reaching the non-gamer market, then perhaps it would have done well to take a leaf out Microsoft's and Sony's books. Both companies realised long ago that the way to get to non-gamers with consoles is to give them something other than games, such as DVD players, internet connections and video streaming.

The Wii may feature a unique 3-dimensional controller, but the device itself is so one-dimensional. Fancy having a console that plays games off standard DVDs, yet it won't even play DVD movies.

By not including a simple DVD player on the Wii console, Nintendo missed a real opportunity. Most consumers still don't give a damn about high definition video technology because it's too expensive. However, everyone wants a DVD player in their living room.

One can imagine consumers tossing up between buying an Xbox 360, PS2 (PS3 is in a different price league) and Nintendo Wii.

Many of the gamers will go for the Nintendo Wii of course because it's a novel gaming console. The non-gamers looking for a family entertainment console will look at the Wii and it's unique gaming capabilities and say, "Gee that's interesting but can I upgrade its DVD player to high definition later like the Xbox 360? What, it doesn't even have a DVD player?"