At the start of the year, I lauded Nintendo for their radical and groundbreaking 'Revolution' concept. As a casual gamer, one of my favorite experiences is introducing and sharing my video game experience with friends, family and co-workers. However, my interest has severely waned as name changes, price gouging, suspect timing of this consoles release and other nitpicky crap have reared themselves. I must ask, "Am I the only one who gets less and less interested in the Wii with each new announcement?"
Like most people who have an interest in gaming, I was a huge proponent of the Revolution game console during the intitial announcements of the system. I think Nintendo had a tremendous opportunity to let gamers, and non-gamers alike, in on an experience that could change perspectives of this video game business and make games a group/party event. With the most recent announcement (9/14/2006), Nintendo has managed to put this console out of the range of most casual customer’s pocketbooks and the release date makes it less of an impulse buy for most parents this holiday season.
Sure, they are packing in a Nunchucku controller and WiiSports, but a system that uses architecture that currently costs Nintendo $25 a motherboard to create and about $65 in memory, CPU and other components shouldn’t be used to take advantage of their fan base. In addition, the cost of peripherals if, for example, you would like to play games with your family is astronimical. A Wiimote will cost consumers $40 and the Nunchucku will cost an additional $20. If you wanted to play a four player game of WiiSports with your friends and family, you would need to shell out another $180 in controllers alone.
The release date is a very suspect move on Nintendo's part. Releasing two days after Sony shows that Nintendo is not making this a game machine for the masses, but a machine meant to compete with the current generation of game consoles. If Nintendo had the jump out of the gate by launching in October and having a secondary shipment scheduled for November 19th would get the console in the hands of those who want it early and not eating into the inventory scheduled for little Billy’s stocking this holiday. Launching that close to another console, and the same week of Gears of War will just let mom and pop know that this is just another machine like the one I purchased two years ago that is now collecting dust on the shelf.
Another issue of the release date is, like it or not, it speaks to Nintendo's lack of confidence in their decision to differentiate. The Wii was supposed to defy convention and break out of the video gameplay rut we have been plagued with since the PlayStation; where graphics define gameplay. Nintendo made bold statements and assured, through their iPod like video demonstrations that this system would be played by grandparents, metrosexuals, and loners alike. Pushing this system out till after the PS3 release is a move that expresses some degree of 'cold feet' with breaking away from the paradigms that have grounded video games for nearly 10 years.
Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, Nintendo has bumped the GameCube release date of Zelda: Twilight Princess until December 11th. That should say that they are beginning to worry about their own GameCube console pulling consumer dollars away from the Wii.
I wouldn’t have balked at a $199 price point and $150 would have been ideal, but $250? That’s just rude. But who cares, right? Everyone’s going to buy one this holiday, right?
I just wanted to vent for a moment to say that I am no longer interested in swinging Nintendo's stiff white wand around anymore as they seem happier shining their Wiimotes up real nice, turning them sideways and shoving them straight up consumers' assholes.
Screw you Nintendo, and your little machine too.
