A clear disconnect at Nintendo

Reggie Fils-Aime is not the man we want to see heading Nintendo’s North American chapter. That’s not to say that he’s totally off-base with his opinions and statements, but as VentureBeat’s recent interview of Films-Aimes illustrates, the man comes across as far too defensive of Nintendo, even for a President. Maybe that’s because Nintendo should be defensive given the onslaught of Microsoft and Sony, for despite the Wii’s propensity for flying off shelves, the library of “must-have” Wii titles is fairly low compared to what’s offered by Nintendo’s competitors. Really, how long can the Wii endure with only a couple novelty titles? Isn’t it true that the average 360 or PS3 owner buys more titles than the average Wii owner?

We’ve long said that Nintendo needs a leader who’s not only willing to cater to a new generation of young gamers, but also to the original Nintendo generation, who is now grown up and wants more mature, engrossing titles. But Nintendo neglects this latter segment in much the same way George Lucas turned away from the original Star Wars geeks, giving fans a watered-down set of prequels with little weight and too much CGI. Fils-Aime, similarly, doesn’t quite grasp the desires of the old-school fanbase, but perhaps that’s to be expected from a man who marks the SNES days as the origin for his love of Zelda. It’s not as though the man was wearing diapers when the first two Zelda titles were released on the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), so what gives?

The disconnect at Nintendo doesn’t end in its North American headquarters, however. Rather, its infected the very roots of Nintendo’s core, which is why the Wii is such a paradox: for a company that stressed so many times that it’s in the business of making games, not media centers, it’s definitely odd that the Wii sets itself apart from the 360 by offering a free-to-download web browser. There are even third-party keyboard peripherals available at mainstream game shops. Where’s the gaming nexus here? It would be one thing if Nintendo wanted to firmly leverage Flash for developing small, casual games played through their Opera-powered browser, but that’s not what Nintendo’s done. Nor have they extended the ability of third-party keyboard peripherals to be used as game controllers, so as to mimic the experience PC gamers have in many titles.

And while Nintendo can access YouTube and other video sites, they missed the ball on NetFlix integration. Because they’re a stout gaming company and not willing to promote non-gaming activities? Then explain the weather, picture, and voting channels on the Wii, which clearly promulgate non-gaming activities. Nintendo’s actions are clearly going one way, while their “100%-gaming” philosophy says something else entirely. But that’s okay in one sense, because we’re no longer fighting against the PC stereotype that Microsoft so ardently opposed when they first pushed the XBox into consumer’s hands. Nowadays, we expect our consoles to do more than play off-the-shelf video game titles. What Nintendo, and to a degree, Microsoft and Sony need to firmly embrace, however, is this “totality” philosophy, instead of half-assing their media center initiatives. After all, what the Wii lacks in computational power, it can make up elsewhere, and offering channels that leverage more than just games is exactly what Nintendo needs to do.

As with the iPhone, maybe a number of features weren’t available upon initial release. What was important, however, is that the framework was intact, such that the platform could evolve over time. The Wii already has a polished, simple interface, which is far more user-friendly than the interfaces of the 360 or PS3. And the channel system, if innovated upon properly, can easily seed Wii owners with online video streaming, magazines, and music – all areas that Nintendo’s competitors have not fully explored. The difference is that if every console manufacturer suddenly invested in these areas, the Wii’s simplicity, and price, would immediately gives it a market boost, for the same reasons that it couldn’t stay on shelves for the first year it was available.

Back to Fils-Aime and his silliness:

We don’t believe used games are in the best interest of the consumer. We have products that consumers want to hold onto. They want to play all of the levels of a Zelda game and unlock all of the levels. A game like Personal Trainer Cooking has a long life. We believe used games aren’t in the consumer’s best interest.

The topic of used games is relevant to the recession, and arguably anyone with frugality in mind. Fact is, replayability is not a huge feature in most games, and its natural for people to exchange their gaming assets in the same way they shuffle other forms of media. The Zelda titles, for instance, don’t offer much to a gamer once every level has been played and unlocked – like most every other game on the market. Even games with more replayability, like, say, Fallout 3, will ultimately be consumed of its content by an eager gamer. Rather than complain about the second-hand gaming market, what Nintendo should be doing is developing games with non-liner gameplay, and perhaps focusing on a digital distribution model that would make buying games easier for customers, with the added bonus of combating physical game exchanges. The reality is that despite Fils-Aime’s ridiculous opinion, used games are absolutely in the consumer’s best interest, because in most cases, they get the same experience as buying a game new, but at a cheaper financial cost. Fils-Aime’s quasi-defense?

Describe another form of entertainment that has a vibrant used goods market. Used books have never taken off. You don’t see businesses selling used music CDs or used DVDs. Why? The consumer likes having a brand-new experience and reliving it over and over again. If you create the right type of experience, that also happens in video games.

Perhaps in Nintendo’s white towers, there is unlimited money to throw around, and bags-of-holding that make storage inconsequential, but in the real world, people really do buy used goods. Come on, Reggie, Powells isn’t that far from Seattle (you have a Nintendo-plane, don’tcha?), and there are undoubtedly many a used-book shops in downtown Seattle, too. San Francisco’s Amoeba Music is an obvious testament to the popularity of used music/movies, and again, there are plenty of lesser known stores that cater to similar crowds. And most importantly, the user’s experience is not diminished by these supply chains, because when they get home and pop their media into the appropriate player, the experience is still new to them.

In other words, Fils-Aime is plain wrong. Combating the used games market is not only ignoring revenue streams that are as-yet untapped by the console industry, but it’s also ignoring (and thus under-utilizing) the strengths of the Wii. And that’s rather unfortunate, because on one hand, Nintendo’s a great innovator of products, which is why we bought the Wii the first place. On the other hand, Nintendo is being short-sighted with the Wii, and that’s resulted in a poor game library that’s made us not want to hold onto our Wii. In fact, if it weren’t for the Wii’s homebrew scene, we wouldn’t have hooked it back up to our television after a recent move, and that’s something Nintendo, and others, needs to take note of – if homebrew is keeping buyer’s attentions, then what does the company need to do to incorporate the offerings of homebrew developers into the product?

Right now, the Wii’s growth, even its entire legacy, is wrapped up in how it will leverage its software. Gimmicks like the Wii Fit will only go so far, because they’re expressly limited by their accompanying software programs. If Nintendo wakes up and starts asking the NES faithful what they want in a system, and not just the kids of the NES faithful, then Nintendo’s stake in the console wars will be well-earned. Cooking Mama in the living room, a cooking application in the kitchen, and ubiquity that future generations will grow up with. It’s the dream Microsoft has been shooting for for years, but it’s within reach of Nintendo right now.

Tagged as: consoles, design, gaming, homebrew, mendax.org, nintendo, software, wii