There is an editorial on Wall Street Journal Online about Wii Music being a ‘flop’ with other typical drivel.
The legendary game guru, who was the brains behind Nintendo’s Wii console and the creator of Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda, is facing a disappointment this holiday season. His new Wii Music game, in which players shake the Wii’s controller the way an instrument would be played, has been greeted with skepticism, even from loyal fans.
Loyal fans thought Wii Sports was ‘stupid’ and were extremely skeptical about the game. And loyal fans reaction to Wii Fit was to believe it was the apocalypse of gaming.
“It could be Nintendo’s first flop for Wii,” said Benjamin Schachter, an analyst with UBS Investment Research.
What is Benjamin Schachter’s definition of a flop? Not having the same impact as Wii Sports and Wii Play? Consider that no game since 2006, and could even be decades (as occurred with the games that made the NES a hit) haven’t had a greater impact sales-wise than Wii Sports and Wii Play. Many of these Wii titled games have the benefit of new hardware attached such as Wii Fit. Wii Music lacks these benefits.
Wii Music popped up as number 10 in November’s NPD chart. And the shelf life of Wii Music will last as long as the Wii does, so it is likely to be an evergreen title. Sales of the game are fine and certainly not a ‘flop’.
It is, undoubtedly, going to have less impact than Wii Sports or Wii Play. But to keep in context, all games today have less impact.
In an interview, the famously private Mr. Miyamoto said he isn’t bothered by how Wii Music is performing so far. “I don’t expect Wii Music to be an immediate hit,” said the boyish-looking 56-year-old, who joined Nintendo in 1977 and now runs its game development. “It will be a steady long-running seller that will spread gradually by word-of-mouth.”
Wii Music is an evergreen title. It is selling decently now, and it definately will keep selling a year or years from now. Nintendo isn’t sweating it.
Consumers have been slow to seize on the idea, though. The Wii console, which has sold more than 36 million units world-wide since its release two years ago, continues to outsell other game machines by wide margins. But initial sales of Wii Music, which hit U.S. stores in October, have lagged rival music games as well as older Wii titles. Wii Music sold 297,000 copies in U.S. stores in November — half as many copies as two Nintendo games, Wii Play and Wii Fit, that have long been on the market, according to research firm NPD Group Inc.
Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard Inc.’s latest music game for the Wii, Guitar Hero World Tour, which was also released in October, sold 475,000 copies in November, said NPD, which tracks U.S. retail sales.
Wii Music has a handicap, compared to other Wii games (and even ‘music’ games), in that there is no new hardware attached to it. There is a weakness in the game design itself of Wii Music, but this weakness is never elaborated (in WSJ or anywhere else I have seen). The weakness of Wii Music is Nintendo relying on ‘user generated content’ to be the meat of the game. Since ‘user generated content’ is everyone’s favorite fad right now (including Iwata), no one blames Wii Music for relying on ‘user generated content’ to be the meat of the game. Rather, they trot out the old scarecrow of ‘casual games’ for its weakness.
Nintendo could use a new hit. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said in an interview earlier this year that his company has realized all of the ideas it had when it first conceived of the Wii. Nintendo’s stock, which more than doubled in 2007, has plunged about 50% so far this year.
Let me add the line: “Nintendo is about to go third party.” We’ve heard all this before.
Nintendo is NOT the one in trouble right now. Nintendo also is NOT the one that needs a new hit. Nintendo is doing better than anyone ever dreamed, including Nintendo, and people still can’t get past the lens that ‘Nintendo is going down’.
Still, Mr. Hinkle said he has been underwhelmed by Wii Music. “I know what Miyamoto was doing with the game, the demographic that it was targeting, and that the game was designed to introduce folks to music, but as a real musician myself, I found the game to be a little too basic for me,” he said.
Nintendo does not aim games at certain demographics.
Anyway, the article then goes into the typical drivel. For some reason, newspaper people are obsessed about how much money Miyamoto makes as well as the senior staff at Nintendo (yet, I never hear this about the senior staff of the Xbox and Playstation divisions). There is also too much focus on the personality of Miyamoto. Miyamoto is fine and great, but the focus of the story is Wii Music.
I can’t shake the feeling that all journalism about gaming, mainstream and enthusiast, is developer centric. In the past, it was customer centric. Nintendo Power never talked about the developers except rarely such as that four page story on Miyamoto on the making of Super Mario Brothers 3. In the 80s, people might have known Nintendo was ‘Japanese’ but many didn’t realize most of the NES games came from Japan. Nor did they care. Aside from EA games, I can’t recall any real focus on the developer aside from Garriot (Ultima), Monleaux, (Populous), Meir, (Pirates), and Roberts (Wing Commander).
I think the problem with modern game journalism is that it talks to developers as if they matter. They don’t matter. Who cares what a developer says or thinks or believes? What matters is what the customer says, thinks, and believes. But it is much easier to interview a developer because the companies enjoy promoting themselves and developers like to play make-believe that they are a rockstar.
When Wii Sports and Wii Fit came out, smart stories focused on the customers. How were they playing the games? Were they addicted? Were they having house parties? We were getting these customer centric stories, I believe, because journalists had no idea why the Wii was selling like hotcakes.
I believe a better story written on Wii Music should focus on how customers use the game. Do they play it often? How do their children react to it? Would they rather play Wii Sports? And interviews with a website owner is not the same.
Fans shouldn’t worry about Nintendo’s fall 2008 lineup. The reason why is Motion Plus. Do you want your core game, or even new casual game, to be with Motion Plus or without it? I’d expect you’d want the new Motion Plus (it is going to be so hard to play regular Wii games after that). Nintendo delayed all their projects to use the motion plus, including any new Mario, Zelda, or Pikmin projects. Animal Crossing wouldn’t use it so they positioned it for this fall.
The real question no one is asking about Wii Music is why wasn’t it delayed for Motion Plus? I have an answer for that.
Nintendo is not just a conservative company in money but also in content. Why throw out good content when it can be used to make additional cashflow? Wii Music, showed off during E3 2006, has been in the making for years. Nintendo was just unsure to how to make it. But the original Miyamoto game ideas for the Wii were:
Sports Pack (became Wii Sports)
Controller Pack (became Wii Play)
Health Pack (became Wii Fit)
Music Pack (became Wii Music)
These original plans for Wii was what Nintendo wanted to get out in some form. The problem with Wii Music isn’t that it is about music or that it is ‘casual’, it is because the content of the game is ‘user generated content’. Nintendo’s vast advertising apparatus is propping the game up. After the holidays, we will see if Wii Music swims or sinks.
Now with Motion Plus, all the dreams gamers wanted when they first saw the motion controller are likely to be realized. Sword fighting can be done much, much better with Motion Plus. Hello Zelda with motion sword fighting.
Nintendo MUST design games around Motion Plus if Motion Plus is to succeed. The gap of Nintendo content of latter 2008 should not be taken as a sign that ‘Nintendo is resting on its laurels’ or that ‘Nintendo is going all casual’. It should be taken as a sign that Nintendo has switched development toward Motion Plus, and the upgrade to the disruptive sword is about to begin a new cycle of the Wii.
Malstrom's Articles News 