That is a lot of Wii.
Obviously, anyone who has common sense will conclude that Nintendo is not coming out with a new HD version of the Wii in 2009… or 2010… or 2011… It just isn’t happening.
Most likely, we will see the following:
First, bundles (especially with Wii Motion Plus and Wii Fit)
Second, colors (Black Wii. Pink Wii. Red Wii. Etc.)
Third, *maybe* a Wii with extra functionality. Not a DVD player (as it is likely too late for that) but maybe something else.
Last, after all other options, is a price cut. Not dropping prices is a big element to the Blue Ocean Strategy.
And by the way, why are the hardcore still going bonkers over Wii sales? I mean… c’mon! It has been years since the system came out.
Speaking of the hardcore, I don’t believe their problem with the Wii is what they say it is. Wii has a very large game library. Wii also has some very good games. What I think is driving some gamers nuts, especially young males and, very much so, married males is the absolute lack of testosterone games.
‘Testosterone Games’ are what I refer to games that are designed around manly actions (I don’t mean it as a diss. I am just using it as it is a good identifier). Testosterone games are games that you only see men play. They include racing games with realistic cars, World War 2 games, First Person Shooters, First Person RPGs, and anything with significant gore and violence.
Every generation, there is a ‘Testosterone Console’ that has nothing more than Testosterone Games. Sega Genesis really pioneered the Testosterone games advertising out. The 16-bit War was Sega and Nintendo try to out-testosterone each other with their advertising and how ‘edgy’ their games were. PlayStation stole that thunder, and Xbox took it away from PS2. Xbox 360 obviously is the ‘testosterone console’.
While Microsoft has made many mistakes, getting the Testosterone Market was well done. Unfortunately, getting the Testosterone Market often means losing the Children Market (no one will get a five year old an Xbox 360) or the Estrogen Market. Fortunately for Microsoft, the Testosterone Games are the bread and butter of the industry for the most part.
With current economic times and Nintendo making these sales numbers, does it not sound prudent to study Nintendo, ask, “How is Nintendo doing this?” Even now, people look at me weird if I speak of my interest in Nintendo’s business strategies. If I said Apple’s business strategies or Google’s business strategies, they would give me a high five. But Nintendo, who is making more money than they are, gets me a blank stare. It appears I could only get the same reaction if I said, “I enjoy studying the business strategy of Fisher Price.” Fools!
On a more humerous note, the news industry is in big, big trouble. The newspapers are very much a disrupted industry. But their problems range from much more than being disrupted by alternate sources such as the Internet.
This time, last year, the newspapers were saying that we were in economic ruin because of record high gas prices (which is considered a laugh now) and ‘other concerns’. While economic times are bad, they are not as bad as is being presented.
Newspapers are consistent in that they print only bad things about the economy and the market. I have never heard them report good news. If there is good news, such as oil prices falling, then it is actually bad news because now the oil companies (who only months ago were the villians) are now the victims.
Now the newspapers are going bankrupt.
This is an important lesson to anyone who holds ‘arrogance’ at the market. The newspapers literally thought they were ‘above’ the market. After all, they were so important that they were doing journalistic crusades, and that is more important than how the market percieves them. They likely told themselves that in order to feel better. But after a while, they began to really, truly, believe that.
So when any industry says, “The market doesn’t really matter,” or “Sales don’t matter anymore…” I can safely say that such an industry will not remain around much longer. Consider some hardcore folks who are now saying “Sales don’t matter” because it is filled with ‘casual filth’ while the hardcore games “are Art. Michelangelo could not have created something more superb!”
Only the customer determines the value of the product. The publisher doesn’t get to determine the value of their product. Yet, newspapers did this and ignored to even insult the customer. You don’t sell by telling the customer what the value is.
For ‘Testosterone games’ on Wii, I wouldn’t blame developers. I am sure they would be as ready to make such a game on Wii as on any other system. The bottlenecks are the publishers. It is so laughable, but they simplistically view the market in the stereotypical demographics. This is why they keep playing follow the leader. Family games sell well on Wii, therefore, let us make only family games. Testosterone games sell well on Xbox 360, therefore, let us only make Xbox 360 games. Blazing Lazers sold well on Turbographix 16, therefore, let us only publish space shooters onto the system. That type of thing.
When people say they want ‘third party games’ on the Wii, what they are really saying is that they want game publishers to follow the Blue Ocean Strategy. Instead of making yet another Family Friendly game inside a sea of family friendly games, why not make a Testosterone game?
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