Will Nintendo's overconfidence be its downfall, again?

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 31 October 2007 04:17

Opinion and Analysis

With the Wii, despite its backwards compatibility with GameCube titles, as well as the online trip down memory lane Virtual Console download facility, new game availability has been an issue.

Because third party publishers were somewhat unprepared for the popularity of the Wii, as well as struggling to a certain extent with the new light-mouse style controller, we are only now seeing a reasonable amount of third party content making its way to the console.

Games such as Guitar Hero III: Legends of rock arriving for Wii, and sporting some unique Wii characteristics are a welcome but still rare trend.  Many developers/publishers pushing the technology envelope prefer to publish purely for the more technically proficient Xbox 360, PS3 and/or PC.

But Nintendo don’t seemingly care, while others tweak console specifications, pricing and bundling, Nintendo have kept the Wii to the same configuration and low price as per the launch, in fact the only changes of note were ever increasingly thicker wrist bands for the controller, as well as DVD playback for our Japanese sometime soon?

Of course there have been innovations introduced with online Wii channels.  We can now surf the net effortlessly, check the world news and weather and, at a very light level, converse with other Wii-ites around the world with the Everybody Votes channel.

In the face of continuing high demand and many awards why wouldn’t Nintendo do a certain amount of laurel squatting?  According to recent trends the fad is not waning , the Wii is seen through consumer eyes as a desirable and affordable way to expand home electronic entertainment.

The Wii-zapper, US$20 for a piece of plastic to house your Wii-mote and Nun-Chuck controller and the Wheel for driving games, are ok.  Nothing that a couple of sticks and some chewing gum could not assembled free at home.  Zelda Cross-bow training packaged with the Wii-Zapper is nice.

The sharks are circling,  Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 Arcade is a tricked up direct competitor to the Wii, offering High-Def gaming, an impressive list of software across broad categories of gaming, unsurpassed online experience and, importantly, expandability in the form of options such as Hard drives and HD-DVD players.  For only US$30 more than the US$249 Wii, it should make consumers hesitate and compare.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has ruled out an immediate capitulation to the capitalist way of fighting price-cut fire with price-cut fire.  This stand despite the Wii actually having space to move on the cost front, making money at its current RRP, unlike the Xbox 360, and more so the PlayStation 3 with expensive components the cause of monetary bleeding at the cash register.

Maybe the Wii is deep enough in consumer consciousness now, that the Xbox 360 Arcade will not make an impression.  And it is true that the Xbox 360 does not offer the unique control mechanism that sets the Wii apart from its competitors.

But for the first time, in almost a year, the Wii, on paper, has a direct competitor, in a demographic space yet to be fully exploited.  Nintendo should be wary, and prepare for a fight, especially on the software front. 

Nintendo is well positioned for this war, and have the market smarts, adaptability and proven track record of well thought out delightful surprises in the gaming space to continue their Next-gen success.