Stan Beer
Thursday, 02 November 2006 06:10
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
The Nintendo media release crowed with joy: "For the first time in history, a video game system is on the Toys R Us "Fabulous 15", the creme de la creme of the retailer's "Hot Toy" list." And added: "Toy Wishes magazine also includes Wii on its "Hot Dozen" list of must-have holiday toys." No doubt the Wii will be a hot toy for holiday shoppers but will it capture the additional market Nintendo's boss says he really wants - the adults who don't normally play games?
Nintendo's media spin doctors have been
working overtime to convince the market that the Wii will appeal to
adults. For instance: "At a Denver retailer event, two sisters, one in
her 20s, the other in her 30s, waited all night to be the first in line
to place pre-orders -- for themselves."
Despite being adults, however, I would venture to say that those two
sisters don't belong to the new non game playing target audience that
Nintendo is trying to win over. They sound like pretty committed gamers
to me.
A more realistic look at an adult non gamer's reaction to Wii can
probably be gleaned from an
article by Rebecca Morelle at the BBC News
website. She was invited by Nintendo to try out a range of games on
Wii. Although she admits to liking Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess,
she concludes that: "I'm not sure I am completely won over. Playing the
games was fun, and I would like to have another go on Zelda, but I'm
not sure I would spend £179 for a console of my own."
I know that over on some Nintendo sites I'm the guy that the fanboys
love to hate. One email I received described me as a "failure as a
human being" because I had previously written a complimentary article
about Nintendo's strategy of sticking to a pure games console and then
later changing my mind. And there I was thinking that being a good
human being was about following the Golden Rule!
Other emails and comments demanded that I stop writing stories about
Wii because I know nothing about games. Actually I have bought four
consoles for my kids over the past 10 years - a Nintendo 64, a PS1, an
Xbox and, recently, a PS2. I have had a few goes at Dual Heroes (which
I managed to get through to the end on a couple of occasions) and some
of the Mario style games.
