Should Nintendo Adopt A Multi-Tier System Approach?
By William on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 9:09 AM PST In Nintendo, Nintendo
Currently, Nintendo is on top of the gaming mountain. I can’t debate that fact, but should they be considering a multi-tier system approach to make sure they have all the right tools to continue competing? I think it’s unwise for them to stick with one system option. Microsoft proved strategists wrong with their strong sales for the Xbox 360 Elite.
People want choices and Nintendo needs to realize that. They could sell more systems if they had more options out there for people. Some gamers like myself loved the idea of the Xbox 360 Elite and were willing to shell out a little extra cash for it. I am positive that a Nintendo Wii Elite would also sell and possibly be even more attractive to hardcore gamers.
In the end, I think the current Wii model is already a bit dated and I really don’t see it making it through the winter without at least a modest upgrade. Some people believe that system sales are all about the low price, but that’s really not accurate at all. If a product is worth the money, people will spend whatever they have to on it. I believe it would be wise for them to continue producing the low end Wiis for people who aren’t interested in a heavy investment, but come out with a high dollar Wii for the people out there who will spend a heap of cash for it. If they had a Wii with high definition capabilities, more memory and maybe some color options, I would spend $500 on it without thinking twice. If they would put out a new elite system, perhaps a mid-level modest upgrade of the current one and continue with the original Wii, they would simply continue to dominate.
Multiple tiers of systems is a mixed bag, I think. In the case of the PS3 and the Xbox 360, I can understand it, as the high end models have a lot more hardware to offer than the lower end one. However, I don’t know what Nintendo could offer in a higher end Wii, without reworking the entire console.
High-end HD graphics? The hardware really won’t support that. DVD playback? It’s been done. Maybe a bundle with a game and an extra controller or two would work. They could even toss in a Zapper. That would be cool.
There’s a reason Sony discontinued to 20GB PS3 earlier this year. The more expensive model was outselling it 10 to 1. So, why spend the money in production, shipping, and marketing on a SKU that isn’t producing?
I miss the days of only having one console from each manufacturer to worry about.
“Microsoft proved strategists wrong with their strong sales for the Xbox 360 Elite”
How strongly is the Elite selling? I look at Amazon.com’s video games chart and I see the PS3 at #2, the Wii at #4, the PS2 Silver at #15 and the Black PS2 at #18. The 360 is at #25 but the Elite is way down at #95.
You could say it because they don’t have it in physical stock but that also applies to the Wii at #4. In fact the PS3 was sold out on Amazon last week but it was still in the top 2 all week.
I totally agree, the Wii does need spoilers
I think it’s silly to assume that the Wii is incapable of Dvd playback or HD graphics. Seeing as how the Wii is at least as powerful as an Xbox and, Xbox had several games in 720p, therefor it is more then possible for the Wii to produce that level of graphics. I know I was reading an article in IGN at one point where Nintendo stated that they might enable the Wii for higher level graphics and Dvd playback through firmware at a later date as HD adoption around the world increased. Personally I think that Nintendo is the only company doing the right thing in regards to HD at the moment considering very few people actually have HD capable TV’s at home anyway. The fact is that by taking HD out of the development question it moves focus back to making games that anyone with a 13 inch Kmart tv can enjoy, instead of making games that only people with a Sony Bravia 42inch 1080p tv can enjoy as intended.
As stated above I personally believe that they are limiting the console to 480p to get developers thinking less about graphics and more about game play. I mean after all textures in the 720p range take up lots more development time and space on the Dvd.
For those that say “well if it was possible then they would just turn HD on and let developers make their own choice about HD” I say this. If any development company knows that the system is capable of 720p or 1080p they are likely to take development time/dollars away from content and put it into 720p textures. The reason for this is simple, they don’t want to develop the only game for that system that failed to utilize most of the systems potential. Thus the game development once again shifts from games everyone can enjoy to games only the elite/rich can enjoy properly. This is why Nintendo’s move of limiting to 480p is so important to the console. After all if you are one of the new target crowd (grandparents for example or possibly those middle aged parents with kids in college) having to replace your tv just to play a game is a major turn off.
Rather then spending all that time filling disks with textures developers are filling the disks with content. Games like Mario Strikers and Metroid Prime are all going to be bigger and better then their predecessors with far more content then ever before. The Wii is even getting the same Madden 08 content (Minus the higher end textures of course) for the first time in years.
So I guess what I’m saying is that the Wii doesn’t need a Wii Elite, it just needs HD adoption to get the point that Nintendo feels enough people will actually benefit from them making the change.
I won’t buy a wii till it supports hd resolutions, real surround sound, and real controllers. In other words, when it becomes a real console like 360 and ps3
People do love options and HD is just another one of them. They want to keep the flow as it is theyre going to have to give it’s customers more options just like that little Gun dealy they came up with for shooters.
There is nothing wrong with how the Wii is selling, obviously. Nintendo understands that people don’t necessarily want options. I’ve been a gamer for 25+ years and the recent “tiers” for consoles is silly. I just want a console that will play the games I want without thinking. And price is VERY important.
Plus I don’t think Nintendo is after the crowd that is looking for complex choices. They’re going after a less-than-hardcore group of people, which is smart and needed – as the sales and demand have shown. Nintendo has (once again) grabbed the attention of middle gamers and that is very important. They have distinguished themselves by NOT being like the others and it’s working.
I can’t afford video games like I could in high school or college. I don’t have expendable income now like I did then, so I have to pay attention to where I spend my gaming dollars. It doesn’t matter if the “next tier” is better…if it costs me $100 more forget it.
The adults-with-responsabilities gamers (ie, 30-somethings) need systems like the Wii. We have limited dollars to spend and aren’t as hardcore like we once were, so we need something simple that will work but be fun. Plus it may also need to be fun for the family too. Wii can and does that right now. Other consoles don’t, but then again, the others are targeting an entirely different demo of people. Bells and whistles don’t mean as much as they once did.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with the way it’s selling now, but it will not continue into 2008 without some upgrades. I’d say my prmary concern with the Wii is the lack of memory. How are people expected to download all the VC titles when storage is short on the console. It really needs a nice hard drive at minimum. Of course, many people can only afford the bottom line system which is fine, but I do think they can expand to a more serious group. Price matters some, but for the most part it really doesn’t. If people want something badly, they will buy it, particularly serious gamers.
“when it becomes a real console like 360 and ps3″
This just in. The wii is a pretend console.
“I’m not saying there is anything wrong with the way it’s selling now, but it will not continue into 2008 without some upgrades.”
I have an honest question for you. 2 years ago when they announced the Wii and shortly after when IGN leaked the specs that confirmed it had no HD, and no DVD playback and no HDD, did you EVER in a million years think it would catch the 360 in sales in under a year? When they announced the name, did you ever in a million years think the name would be so incredibly successful?
Personally, I did not. I thought no HD and no DVD and no HDD would mean this was Nintendos last console. I thought this was all a mistake on the level of cartridges on the N64. I thought the name Wii was an enormous error in judgement. BOY WAS I WRONG.
That being the case, I’m done second guessing Nintendo. They clearly see something most of us did not. Lets see where they take this before we declare it a failure in 08. The little white box has surprised us ALL so far. It may just continue to do so.
they definitely surprised everyone, but I still think that it will not last much longer without some upgrades. The system and games is not what is selling the Wii right now.. it’s the master marketing job they have done. It’s basically like a bandwagon of sorts. Sure, the system is fine now for casual gamers and even people who don’t even consider themselves gamers. What I am saying is that there is always room for improvement and I hope they do not sit back with the current hardware and think everything will be fine forever. Nintendo still has a large audience left that is untapped and a few simple advances would secure their position at the top for at least another year.
“I still think that it will not last much longer without some upgrades.”
Thats my point. If you are like me and thought the Wii would fail to begin with (and think most core gamers did), then your (and my) estimation of what the Wii is or is not capable of in the future is meaningless. Having been blind to the potential of the Wii in the beginning, it’s likely we are still blind to it’s potential. In fact, since they have yet to meet demand, we have no idea what it’s current potential is. It’s likely that Nintendo has not played it’s last card in pushing this thing as far as it will go. Wii-Fit could easily push this box even further into the love-in that is the mainstream media for another year. If they release Wii-Fit in January, it could be a new years resolution fueled diet fad the likes of which we haven’t seen in a decade.
That being said, I totally agree with your premise, I just think your solution is a bit misplaced (or at least overshooting). Obviously the inclusion of any more “horsepower” (CPU, RAM or GPU improvements) for gaming is a no-go since it would split the base and force devs to develop for 1 group or another, negating the benefits of the upgrade. This is part of the failing of the 360 Core system and its lack of HDD. Upgrading to HD output would create a similar split forcing devs to decide which market to design for. The universality of the platform is a major strength for devs and for consumers, and the no HD resolutions stance dramatically decreases the development time and cost enabling smaller leaner projects.
I think they need to REV the hardware in more subtle ways that will go unnoticed by the casual market and still go a long way to please the core demographic. I think they need to release a firmware update that gives the ability to run VC games directly from the SD card. I think need to online enable games like Tecmo bowl and/or create leader boards for appropriate VC titles. I think they need to enable game saves directly to the SD card. I think they need to enable the user to copy/backup gamecube gamesaves to the SD card and allow the SD card to emulate the gamecube memory so you can eliminate the need for cludgy GC memory cards altogether. I think they need to introduce a demo channel, both for VC titles and in-store titles. Due to possible storage issues, they need to support larger SD cards or an external USB drive, preferably not one that you buy from Nintendo. DVD playback would be nice but pretty trivial. A music channel allowing you to play music off your SD card is a must. If they implimented these changes, it wouldn’t effect the casuals, split the base or raise hardware costs and it would go a long way to showing the core gamer that you are serious about improving THEIR experience as well. Thats my opinion, but like I said, I was TOTALLY wrong about the Wii from the start so my thoughts don’t reflect what may or may not come to pass.
The guy who wrote this is totally a dreamer. I mean, there’s really not that much proof that the elite is actually doing that well. If it is, it’s too early to tell.
As for a device that will cost you $600 dollars, no. I mean, it that were true, ps3’s sales wouldn’t have doubled when the price cut was introduced. And besides, you can live better without the ps3. Maybe a car, but not a ps3. At least you wouldn’t be down $600.
“People want choices and Nintendo needs to realize that”.
What you need to realize is that Nintendo will always do what they want. We wanted Sonic in Melee, they gave us Pichu.
Right now, they don’t need advice on how to work their strategy. What you’re offering is the same thing that Microsoft and Sony are doing. With the areas Nintendo is heading;pheripherals: Wii mote, wii zapper, fonix(voice something or other), balance board,etc. Who knows, maybe someday they’ll come up with virtual reality worlds you play in your head.
Point is; They know what they’re doing, let them decide.
Don’t you dumbass, wannabe hardcore, fans understand that Nintendo has it all planned out. No memory for the vc; they probably have something in line for that. No DVD, HDD, HDVD; don’t worry about it, they’re cool. What? Sony added new powerful processors; hey, it’s okay, Nintendo already did something about it. Huh? Xbox 360 is now xbox 666; it’s okay, Nintendo already hired Jesus, buddah, Joseph Smith, Moses and 1962 Harlem Globe Trotters.
So basically we all think Nintendo should do something and we all know we’re dealing with Nintendo, they’ve been around for a lot of time, we all agree they know what they’re doing. Alright?
“we all agree they know what they’re doing. Alright?”
And that extinction is a troll. Don’t forget that. We all agree on that as well.