Wii considered a hot toy - for kids

Stan Beer
Thursday, 02 November 2006 06:10

Opinion and Analysis

It is true as I stated from the beginning that I'm not a gamer. But that's just the point I have been trying to make all along. I am smack dab in the middle of the new target audience that Nintendo is trying to convince to discover the delights of gaming with Wii.

Nintendo's middle aged CEO, or so the story goes, believed that if he could create a console that he enjoyed playing games on, then other middle aged people would also enjoy playing games on it and buy it for themselves as well as their families. It's a nice theory but anecdotal evidence suggests that, while many middle aged people will certainly buy Wii for their children, unless they're already veteran gamers, few will buy a Wii for themselves.

Gamers of course will buy Wii buy the truckload just for the "unique gaming experience" and, as some have indicated to me in correspondence, many will end up owning all three major consoles.

But, as I have said and will say again, games alone are not enough to attract a non gamer to buy a console. However, a device that can be used as an all purpose family entertainment center is a different matter. Both PS3 and Xbox 360 provide non gamers with access to a range of non gaming entertainment features, including an economical way to get themselves a high definition video player. Therefore both will outsell Wii.  PS3, with Sony's huge installed base of PS1 and PS2 users, will be the market leader.

My colleague, Alex Zaharov-Reutt, who has played with Wii, mentioned in an article yesterday that Nintendo is considering adding DVD playback capability to Wii. If that's true, then perhaps Nintendo has got the message that if you want to widen your audience, you need to widen features that appeal to them.

One Nintendo site suggested that my articles indicate that sometimes I like Wii and other times I dislike it. In fact, I neither like nor dislike it. I'm merely trying to explore whether Nintendo's strategy of reaching out to a wider audience with Wii is likely to succeed. Wii will no doubt be a great seller for Nintendo - it's a hot toy. But it won't convince many adult non gamers to start playing console games.