Wii: The Green Machine

So most people have always known that the Nintendo Wii is the most user friendly of the next generation consoles, but did you know that it’s also the most environmentally friendly as well? According to this great Power Consumption Guide by Carl Nelson over at hardcoreware.net, the Nintendo Wii uses about one tenth of the energy than that of an average gaming computer, a PS3 and an XBOX 360.

While the PS3 often peaked at 199.7 watts, the Wii only peaked at only using 18.4 watts during game play. During idle the Wii uses considerably less energy  unless Wii Connect 24 is on. When it is on, the Wii uses more energy than both the PS3 and XBOX 360, but still overall is not that bad.

Another thing that I have noticed personally in comparison with my Wii and PS3 is that I have to charge my PS3’s controllers more often than I have to charge my Wii batteries. One of the things I attribute this to is that the PS3 does not have a timed auto shut off for its controllers that will turn them off if they haven’t been used in a while. Thus when I come back to my PS3 after work or school I will often find the controller dead because it was on the whole time.

So what does all of this mean for the Nintendo gamer? Well not only are they saving money on their electrical bill, but they are also helping reduce CO2 emissions that is produced for the electricity we use at home. Will playing your Wii over your PS3 or XBOX 360 help prevent global warming? No, but at least you can feel a little better about it if you are concerned for the environment.

Why the Wii Will Remain on Top

Ever since the start of the next generation video game console war the Nintendo Wii has dominated the charts and has been declared the winner from early on and is still bringing in astronomical numbers to support this claim. Many video game analysts saw this coming due to its lower price and revolutionary new way to control video games, but most did not expect its sales figures to still tower over the competition nearly two years later. Sony’s next generation PlayStation 3 has far superior technical specifications and hardware and many people expected its sales to slowly rise due to better implementation of its hardware. This was Sony’s approach to the last console war (between the PS2, Xbox, Game Cube, and Dreamcast), and it worked magic for Sony putting them in a prime spot, with a large fan base and brand creditability, as the forerunner before the start of this console war. Yet nonetheless it has been nearly two years since the beginning of the next generation console wars and according to a recent report by independent marketing group, Nintendo not only is still in the lead but managed to do extraordinarily well in this last month of March in terms of sales figures (Game Pro). But why is it that the Nintendo Wii can outsell both of its competitors in one month and people still argue that the Wii will lose the console war (Nesbitt) and market analysts still say that in a few years another console will be the winner (Kotaku). While many people have little faith in Nintendo’s ongoing success there are many reasons why that success will remain and still hold Nintendo as the king of the console wars (for at least this generation).

One of the many reasons that the Wii sold nearly 721,000 Wii consoles in March of this year alone (McDougall) was due to the launch of the highly anticipated sequel to the bestseller Super Smash Bros Melee, Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Nintendo Wii. According to marketing research Brawl, which is an exclusive title for Wii, sold 2.7 million copies in March alone. This “exclusive title” strategy has been Nintendo’s ace in hole since the original Nintendo console established a fan base around Nintendo licensed characters such as Mario and Donkey Kong. Exclusive games are key to locking in an audience to a brand and establishing a strong cliental. Out of all the game developers and game companies no one has as long or well established of a list as Nintendo does for first party games. The fact that most of these games have been around for several years and have seen many incarnations is an indication to the buyer that when purchasing a new Mario, Zelda, or Metroid game; it will be a quality game that has been well refined and polished. If a consumer decides that they enjoyed that game and would like to play the next of that series when it releases that consumer will also have to own the appropriate Nintendo console to play that game. This is a classical case of “branding a consumer” which makes consumers associate with a specific brand to ensure that, that customer will not only purchase Nintendo’s product this time, but also for future purchases.

Along with the Wii’s exclusive titles, Nintendo has been pushing third party developers to create and port more games to the Wii so that a Wii owner will not feel like they are missing out on other games by only owning a Wii (which is exactly the way Nintendo wants Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners to feel in regard to the Wii). This concern over a large selection of games to entice a large selection of gamers for the Wii is something that skeptics of Nintendo have been citing as one of the reasons the Wii will not continue to outsell the other consoles. A Los Angeles Times article voiced this concern from Van Baker, a consumer technologies analyst for Gartner Inc. who said “Its appeal is primarily to casual gamers, and there’s a serious question about how long casual gamers will stay engaged with the platform. It wouldn’t be surprising to see them lose interest after a relatively short amount of time” (Pham). Baker said this about a year ago and it has not held true due to his false assumption that its primary buyer of the Wii would be casual gamers. In all of Nintendo’s marketing glory, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, Cammie Dunaway, acknowledged this obstacle overcome with this statement that accompanied last months remarkable sales figures. “Our momentum has not let up since the holidays and we expect it to continue throughout the year. We have the industry’s strongest lineup of games for everyone from core to casual gamers” (Nintendo). Beyond a broad lineup of quality games, exclusive titles, and brand loyalty, Nintendo has done many things specific to the Wii itself as to guarantee its continuing sales and triumph over the competition.

The Wii has received much criticism about its inferior hardware in comparison to Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Its inability to play games or movies in high definition video and sound along with not being able to handle some new games because of its lack of processing power is one of the main reasons that critics of the Wii have written it off as dead. In that same LA Times article entitled “Can Wii prolong winning streak?” Van Baker said that “The Wii in a couple of years is going to look like old technology with low resolution, (and) slow performance. People may not be accepting of that” (Pham). Again while this prediction may hold true in some senses he makes the assumption that graphics and processing speed are the main factors in purchasing a video game console. This assumption is proven to be faulty by recent market research from NPD Group, an independent marketing group, which says that the most important elements gamers look at when buying a console are: having appealing game titles, backward compatibility, wireless controllers, Wi-Fi capability, and the ability to play online (NPD). While the first element is a huge reason why the Wii has been selling better than its competitors; Nintendo has nailed the other ones as well. The Nintendo Wii not only plays all Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo Game Cube games, but it also has a virtual library of 220 games from 12 different systems (according to the Virtual Console Wikipedia) which is updated weekly and gives gamers the ability to go online and download games onto their Wii system. The games available span from Nintendo classics to games that use to compete with Nintendo games in pervious console wars. Sony has tried to emulate Nintendo’s Virtual Console with its own online store but has not seen the same success due to lack of games and non-user friendly design. Sony’s new and updated PlayStation 3 has also lost the support to play most old PS2 and all old PS1 games due to the removal of the hardware that enabled backwards compatibility in efforts to cut production costs of the already costly PS3 (Doeer).

The next thing that gamers look for when purchasing a console according to market research is compatibility of wireless controllers. While this is something that all three next generation consoles boast, Nintendo has one upped the competition again by revolutionizing the video game controller as we know it and expanding the realm within which video games were once confined to. While this was a huge factor in the Wii’s initial success, and a reason for its continuing sells figures, this is how Nintendo has been able to turn people traditionally described as “non-gamers” into “casual gamers”.

The last two elements that gamers want when shopping for a next generation console is Wi-Fi support and the ability to play online. While Nintendo has been criticized in the past for overlooking these elements, they made sure that they would not hear those criticisms again by giving the Wii not only both of these features but made these features user friendly and accessible. While the amount of online payers for the Wii still cannot even compare to Microsoft’s popular Xbox Live online gaming service (which has the benefit of having a huge head start as it launched in 2002), slowly more and more Nintendo games are finding their way to online games and matches as more online enabled games release and gain popularity on the Wii. Not only is it becoming easy for Nintendo gamers to find games online but they don’t have to pay for a service like Xbox Live which costs about $8 a month. On top of that and the ease of connectivity through Wi-Fi, the Wii has the most accessible and intuitive web browser of the three consoles; developed by Opera specifically for the Wii which makes actually surfing the web through a Wii not only a possibility but a realistic alternative to computer browsing.

So while the Nintendo Wii may not be the fastest or prettiest console, Nintendo knew exactly what it was doing when they built it. The key to Nintendo’s success and the reason why the Wii will continue to succeed is hard to say exactly because it is a combination of many different market and design factors along with many external and unknown factors that cannot be calculated or determined. But the one thing that can be said with regard to the Wii’s success is that it is heavily due to Nintendo’s intimate knowledge and understanding of its consumer along with the ability to deliver the goods based on that knowledge. This is what put the Wii on top since it released, and this is what will keep it there.

Works Cited

Doerr, Nick. “Goodbye, Emotion Engine, you were quite useful.” PS3FanBoy.com 09 July 2007 24 April 2008 <http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2007/07/09/goodbye-emotion-engine-you-were-quite-useful/>.

GamePro, “Wii Outsells Combined Xbox 360, PS3 Sales in March.” PC World 17 April 2008 24 April 2008 <http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,144790-pg,1/article.html>.

Kotaku, “Analyst: Xbox 360 To Win The Console War.” Kotaku, the Gamer’s Guide 24 April 2008 <http://kotaku.com/gaming/analyst/analyst-xbox-360-to-win-the-console-war-215076.php>.

McDougall, Paul. “Nintendo Wii Sales Trounce Xbox 360, PlayStation 3.” Information Week 18 April 2008 24 April 2008 <http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207400644>

Nesbitt, Brett. “The Top 5 Reasons The Wii Will Lose The Console War.” Qtions Blog 08 April 2008 24 April 2008 <http://qtions.com/2008/04/top-5-reasons-wii-will-lose-console-war.html>.

Nintendo, “NPD Reports Nintendo’s Solid U.S. Sales for February.” Nintendo of North America News 13 March 2008 24 April 2008 <http://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/detail/6nUWwCOu1jsNuHKUpCR8eRr6Vl1VBST_>.

NPD, “NPD Press Release - November 12, 2006.” NPD Marketing Group 13 Nov 2006 24 April 2008 <http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_061113.html>.

Pham, Alex. “Can Wii prolong winning streak?” Los Angeles Times 29 May 2007 24 April 2008 <http://globaltechforum.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=rich_story&channelid=3&categoryid=9&title=Can+Wii+prolong+winning+streak%3F&doc_id=10825>.

“Virtual Console.” Wikipedia.com 24 April 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Console>.

You got PWND at YOGA, n00b!

Like most avid video gamers, I do not go out much and do that thing called exercise or play “real” sports. I prefer to stay inside and “pwn n00bs” in Super Smash Bros or Counter-Strike. So when I heard about the Wii Fit, I got a little bit excited about the fact that I can now have fun playing video games while getting exercise. It’s kind of like slipping vitamins into something tasty and unhealthy.

The current dilemma I face is the question of whether I really want to shell out $90+ for a fancy DDR pad which might make me look like even more of a fool than DDR already does. Wii Fit hits stores on May 21^st and is already on high demand for preorder, and will likely be another hard-to-find title in stores when it finally comes out. Amazon is offering the Wii Fit for $89.99 plus free shipping on their web site, which is a pretty good deal considering that you can save the money usually spent on gas and put it towards another game.

But the big question is whether or not I will actually enjoy Wii Fit. I mean, I’m sure it will be interesting and fun for a little while. But after the first week or two, will I just go back to playing Smash Bros and forget about about my overpriced toy, or will I call the guys up for an intense session of yoga? It is kind of hard to imagine the latter, and even so, I don’t think there would be any of the normal video game antics that go hand in hand with most games. I can just see my friends now yelling “YOU GOT PWND AT YOGA N00B!” at each other as they fail to assume the correct positions. Which brings up the question of multiplayer accessibility altogether, which ignores the underlying and more important question of how gamers will actually use Wii Fit? Will it be a fun multiplayer mess around sort of game (along the lines of DDR or Wario Ware), or will it be a gamer’s dirty little secret (like DOA: Beach Volleyball) that he keeps hidden because he doesn’t want anyone to know he enjoys a little Tai-Chi in the morning.

Wii Want More? Rumor or Real?

According to this Nintendo Press Room document, a new Wii Channel called “Wii Want More” will bring more downloadable content (DLC) to the Wii this May. This shows that Nintendo may be following suit of Microsoft’s popular Xbox LIVE and Sony’s not so popular DLC store that offer users the ability to purchase additional content to games.

Along with this announcement came the mention of a few of the first games to receive DLC, notably Super Smash Bros Brawl, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Mario Kart Wii (which is already out in Europe and Japan, and comes out in America on April 27^th). This news is huge for Brawl fans and Nintendo fans in general, but many people have been speculating if it was an early April fool’s joke by Nintendo. Since no other official mention of it has been made by Nintendo, many bloggers are insisting that it was a prank.

Personally, it doesn’t matter to me if this is a joke or not. This display not only shows that Nintendo knows what its fan base and customer wants from it, but also that they can provide what they want as well. Nintendo has always been slightly behind the pack when it came to internet connectivity and usability with their consoles, but they are slowly starting to change that with the Wii. A DLC channel would be a step in the right direction towards having the accessibility and connectivity of an expansive network such as XBOX LIVE.

The online response this has created will surely stir up some bad feelings among Nintendo fans if this does end up being a hoax. I mean what Brawler wouldn’t get excited and giddy at the thought of four new characters and new stages and for free (if downloaded in the first month of the channel’s release). Can life get any better? Oh yeah, with additions to Twilight Princes…yes just maybe it can. But I guess Wii will have to wait and see if this fantasy is real or if Nintendo will just leave us wanting more.