5

Nintendo Wii™ changes the game

Background

Nintendo is a Japanese company known for its popular video game products. However, even fans of Mario™, Donkey Kong™, and Zelda™ may not realize that Nintendo is over a hundred and thirty years old. It released its first video game console, called the “Color TV Game”, in 1977— nearly fifty years ago.

Despite its early innovations, by the 2000s Nintendo was struggling to compete in a tight video game market. Its recent consoles, the Nintendo 64™ and the GameCube™, had been successful in giving players fun and exciting games. However, competitors like the Sony

Playstation™ and the Microsoft Xbox™, had fun games too. What’s more, Sony and Microsoft, had huge R&D budgets to make their next generation of consoles even better. How would Nintendo continue to compete?

Analysis

In 2006, Nintendo introduced the Wii, a cheap system that was easy to plug and play. It focused on fun, simple, active games that anyone could enjoy. The Wii console came with a game called Wii Sports™. This was a familyoriented interactive game, and it made it easy for players to have fun together just minutes after unboxing.

Nintendo’s president, Satory Iwada, had made a decision that the company would not, in his words, “fight Sony”. That is, Nintendo would not compete to make the fastest, most powerful game console. Instead, it would follow a different strategy.

The Wii was less powerful than its competitors, but it did have one “killer” feature. The Wii Remote™, or “Wiimote”, was a motion-based wireless controller that was easy for anyone to use. Players could hold it in one hand to move around like a tool, or use both hands like a traditional game controller.

With these simple features and relatively cheap price, the Wii became an instant success. In its first year, Nintendo could not keep up with demand. By 2008, the company was producing 2.4 million units per month. By the end of

2010, Nintendo had outsold both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3, to become the best-selling video game console of that generation.

The Wii story does not have a completely happy ending. In 2012, Nintendo tried to extend the Wii’s success by introducing the Wii U™ GamePad™. It was a hybrid console and game tablet, which included a screen as part of the controller.

Unfortunately, the tablet market was also competitive at the time, and customers had no need for another similar device—especially one that was neither a great tablet, nor a great improvement on the Wii console.

In 2013, Nintendo finally discontinued the Wii and Wii U, and launched their successor, the Switch™. The Switch has been another success for the company, and includes many of the best features of the Wii and the Wii U.

Conclusion

What the Wii did best was to untap a new customer base by rethinking the kind of product that was already in the market. Nintendo realized that there was no way it could compete with giants companies like Microsoft and Sony. So it avoided direct competition by offering something new and different.

With the Wii console, Nintendo thought deeply about the user experience—that is, how and why we play games—instead of focusing on the technical specifications of the games themselves.

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Questions and extension tasks

Describe your experiences with video games.

Compare and contrast the major in this generation of consoles.

Best for Price Comments

Nintendo

Switch

Sony PlayStation

Microsoft Xbox

Other:

Other:

Which platform do you like the most? Why?

3 In pairs, think up your own original video game. Present your new video game to other groups.

Consider: target users, key features, how it is innovative, etc.