Hi Sean, I read your last two articles about anti-content. I was surprised that you mentioned Girl’s mode as part of Nintendo’s failed anti-content strategy. From what I recall, Girl’s Mode sold excellently in Japan, so doesn’t that put a hole in the anti-content theory? I haven’t played it myself, but there are many males on the message boards who have and they claim it is a good piece of software.
Anyway, keep up the good work.
I admit I wasn’t paying too much attention to the sales charts in latter 2008 and early 2009 which is when the game would have come out. But I do not see ‘Girl’s Mode’ anywhere in the sales chart now. Unless it is going by some other name, it has worked its way out of the Japanese sales list.
Let us listen to what Iwata said from his Investor’s Briefing from January 2009 to March 2009:
QUESTION: I think Nintendo has been strengthening the development of User Generated Contents that utilizes the Internet, as witnessed in your collaboration with Hatena Company (on “Flipbook,” a DSiWare software). Also, when I looked at the Japanese year-end sales, Girls Mode for DS sold very well. I understand that this software played a significant role in revitalizing the DS market in Japan. I would like to know how you evaluate this software and the possibility of launching such titles in the overseas markets in the future.
First of all, the reason why we feel the potential of the User Generate Content (UGC) through the Internet is because the fun that is generated by UGC can be appreciated by a higher percentage of our consumers as a fresh experience.
In the dawn of video game history, consumers used to react positively to the ideas that game creators incorporated into the software, but they gradually got accustomed to the existing surprises. Then, an increasing number of people started to come to expect the surprises in the software and it became increasingly difficult to offer them fresh surprises. What’s worse, once they experienced almost all the game elements, they felt that there was nothing more for them to experience. Once they see the game creators’ ideas, they give up playing with the video games or sell the hardware to the second-hand shop.
We hope that the consumers don’t reach a point where they would feel that they’ve experienced all that is there to enjoy. We would like our consumers to enjoy a software as long as possible. If one game can be played for a long time, it means that the consumers have a high level of satisfaction. More importantly, if one product can continuously provide consumers with fresh surprises, it can lay out a good foundation for our next steps.
When we thought about the many possibilities of games in this way, we started to think beyond the configuration where game creators develop all the experiences. This was supposed to be the appeal of network gaming. However, before UGC surfaced, network gaming had usually meant that a number of people were gathered in one place in order to compete with each other. With competitive games while some people become very excited, we saw that the platform became too intense for novice players to join as they felt the widening gap in the skill levels between an experienced and a new player.
Because Nintendo has been striving to expand the gaming population, the more we went towards that direction in network gaming, we felt that the hurdle became higher for those who were not accustomed to playing video games to enter into the market, and that this was not the solution to the problem. While we can solve the issue of having others develop game experiences, we could not solve the other issue of having as many people as possible enjoy video games.
This is where UGC comes in. There are some people, although they may be a minority, who love to create something creative, share that with others, and enjoy seeing other people being entertained or responding positively to their creation. At the same time, great majority of people are rather passive and love to applaud the creative efforts by others and enjoy playing with them. In other words, UGC has the unique characteristic that, regardless of their game skills, people on both sides can enjoy.
An example from Nintendo is a DS game called “Band Brothers”, which has a music composition mode. Players can compose music and submit the music to our server, which can then be downloaded and enjoyed by others. Roughly 10 times or even 30 times more people are enjoying the downloaded music as much as the number of people who are submitting, and both sides are happy. This is exactly what we would like to realize with the DSiWare software called “Flip Book.”
The reason why we have seen the results that we’ve had with the “Girls Mode” software you just mentioned must partially be because we were just fortunate to some extent, and also because the consumers were there where we thought they might be, responded to it, and received our message. Plus, a number of fans were able to enjoy a very unique and unprecedented experience for them where they are able to operate their own shops on the Internet, have people visit their shops, and purchase products there. Such an extra note of surprise appears to have acted as a trigger to let the fans enjoy the whole experience.
By the way, when we announce that a new “Mario” or “Pokemon” software is developed, marketers of Nintendo products all over the world naturally look forward to the launches even when they do not know the contents of the game. On the other hand, when we make a presentation to the same people about software which has had no previous track record and no name recognition, their reactions are not positive for most cases. I am not trying to offend our people in overseas marketing companies at all, and actually, their attitude is quite natural. If one is presented with two products, and the successful sales of one of them is guaranteed, and if they have to anticipate allocating a lot of resources to sell another, it is only natural that people have higher expectations for the one guaranteed to sell.
As examples, “Nintendogs” and “Brain Training” were initially launched overseas with low expectations from the local marketing people. Their natural reaction at first was to question whether a software like this would really sell in their local market. Then, some of them started to believe in the new market potential of the product and, as a result of their hard work, we have the situations like today. We had similar histories with “Rhythm Heaven” and “Girls Mode.” While we were developing these software and before we were able to show some results in Japan, I do not like to admit this but they received relatively cool reactions. However, once we were able to show some result in Japan, they started to understand that there must be something unique about the software that will make it sell. Then, they start the serious analysis, and the number of people who start to show positive reaction increases locally. Those who show positive reaction then explain to those around them the reason why the software is unique. Before you know it, there are many supporters of our products overseas.
Once again, it is very natural that these unprecedented things are hard to comprehend. I have never thought that there is something wrong in the ability of our overseas marketers to review our products. Rather, we are establishing a system where we produce some tangible results in Japan first and thereby encourage overseas people to get excited in order to sell them locally, and I see no issue with this system. Overseas subsidiaries are looking forward to the launch of “Girls Mode” and “Rhythm Heaven” as strategically important products in the next fiscal year.
Iwata is connecting “Girl’s Mode” to the Internet as the bold above should show. My “Anti-Content” post was that emulating how content is done over the Internet is wrong because the Internet is an oral medium, a discussion medium, and is pretty much devoid of content.
When I wasn’t playing game consoles for 15+ years, I was playing PC games. And I did play many PC games for many years through user made content and mods (and I made some myself). What I discovered was that user-generated content was made only mostly through high school kids and other young people with too much time on their hands (and their desire to become ‘game developers’). User-generated content was also made when there was nothing else to play.
Let me use this very real example. When Warcraft 2 and Red Alert were the only RTS games on the market, people began editing Warcraft 2 and Red Alert, made many mods and maps for them. These maps and mods often introduced new gameplay possibilities. As an aside, I helped tested and hosted a friend’s Red Alert map called only “hjk”. hjk was named ‘hjk’ because he hadn’t given it a name, but it spread throughout the Red Alert community and was too late for it to change. The map was nothing but high crystal ore and ridges. It led to a gameplay of massive tank attacks and bizarre ‘tesla coil’ tentacle base building. Very different gameplay experience. Fun. But as soon as newer RTS games came out such as Total Annihilation, Dark Reign, and Age of Empires, no one cared about the ‘user generated content’ that was done in Warcraft 2 or Red Alert. Why play unprofessional content when cool new professional content was out? Starcraft came out soon after that.
Iwata sees user-generated content as a way to create ‘constant surprises’. In the “Game Industry”, every company seems to imitate one another much to customers’ disapointment. However, user-generated content is much worse in imitation. Most of the time, user-generated content imitates the content that came with the game. For example, Starcraft maps and mods try to emulate what Blizzard did. NES rom hacks try to emulate what Nintendo did.
User-generated content is what people make when there is no satisfying professional content around. Once satisfying professional content appears on the market, people drop the ‘user generated content’ and consume what was professionally made. All the interest in the NES/SNES hacks of Super Mario games evaporates as soon as a new 2d Mario appears.
Let me put it in another way. All the ‘user generated content’ of news and commentary on news on the Internet would, if what I said above is true, signal that a collapse of news and commentary content is occurring elseware. And sure enough, newspapers and magazines are going the way of the dodo. The reason why newspapers are dying is because they are not printing news anymore. The content is absolutely horrible in newspapers and magazines these days. It isn’t that ‘user made content’ on the Internet is better so much as that newspaper/magazine content has gotten SO BAD that the alternative user-made stuff is more desirable to be consumed. The journalists and editors will scream, very loudly, that ‘content’ is not the problem. They will say that the “Internet” is killing them. But if you compare newspapers of today to newspapers of thirty, fifty, or a hundred years ago, there is no comparison in terms of quality content. Editorials of newspapers a hundred years ago read today like ‘literature’.
Why do people come to this site? Is it because of my charming and wonderful self? Alas, for myself, the answer is no. It is because no one is talking about Blue Ocean Strategy or disruption and Nintendo. No one seems very interested in getting to the business attitudes of Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft, there is much interest. But curiously for the oldest and always profitable console company that is Nintendo, no one seems curious at Nintendo’s “business secrets”!
My point is that this site, which you could say is ‘user generated content’, was made due to the failure of analysts and all to do their job.
User Generated Content is a temporary substitute among users due to a vacuum of professional content. Once professional content appears, players drop ‘user generated content’ like a hot potato.
PS- In Iwata’s answer above, he points to ‘User Generated Content’ as Nintendo’s answer to online gaming. Yeah, I don’t think Nintendo fans will be too happy with that.
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