Marc Franklin, Nintendo’s Director of PR, says:
“…what you’re seeing is this average business model, the typical business model of, say, the five to six year generation of hardware is just not valid anymore. The Wii is a very approachable, accessible platform that’s going to interest gamers for years to come.”
Game consoles kept coming out due to increased graphics. Since we have hit the level of ‘good enough’ graphics, now the emphasis has shifted to the user interface which is easily updated through a new controller (hello Motion Plus).
One of the reasons why the Wii will last so long on the market is the precedent of prior market expanding consoles: the Atari 2600 and the NES. Both widely grew the market (in terms of household penetration) unlike the Playstations and other systems. Atari 2600 and NES became legendary systems on a pedestal higher than the ‘upgrade’ systems like the SNES or Genesis or N64. Wii is set to join these two ‘godly’ consoles. This market expansion will coast Wii’s sales into future generations. It is like why the Atari 2600 was still desired despite 16-bit consoles being around.
But the third and most interesting reason why the Wii will keep selling into infinity is because of the Virtual Console. These timeless classics will still be selling ten years from now (where many Wii games won’t). I’ll likely pick up an additional Wii or two to hook up around the household, somewhat like having a NES/SNES/Gen/etc. in each room.
This post probably seems ‘obvious’. But keep in mind that hindsight changes things. Let’s not forget that PS3 had ‘ten year plan’ and that Wii would be obsolete within a year due to ‘gimmick’ controller.
The longetivity of the game console depends on its entertainment value, not its technology value. The entertainment value of the Wii, especially with the Virtual Console, is going to ensure we see this system still on shelves, selling, ten years from now.
