Follow the leader

Another article from Wired serves as an inspiration for this post. Next month, E3 is back with all the glitz and the babes-in-tight-outfit romp. Two years have passed, and I bet lots of people have missed the fun (not to mention the scantily clad models).

One of the rumors is about a motion-sensor controller being introduced from Microsoft and/or Sony. What a surprise! I think Nintendo has already something similar out for the past ahm let me count, three (?) years.

Nintendo gambled everything with the Wii console. If you remember the great, but unfortunate, Gamecube, you can see in what risk Nintendo was. The problem with Gamecube was that the games were too-family oriented, too.. childish if I may say. I have had great fun playing Monkey ball and rolling a monkey in a ball around, but it never crossed my mind to spend a penny on Gamecube.

As a result, Nintendo had to risk. What could be an innovative, breathtaking and easy way to bring more people to play games? In addition, of course, to sticking with Nintendo’s style of games.

Out came the Wii and its controller and the announcements back in 2005. During that year, I was in Dublin, in a computer games/graphics conference. People from Sony were there, presenting the new Playstation. Everyone was dumbstruck by the processor, the graphics, etc. Awesome. Many conversations with friends followed, most of us agreeing that Nintendo had lost the plot before it even begun, because the graphics were crap.

How wrong I was.

I think I feel that after a bit of playing in exquisite-looking graphics, even the most drooling and demanding player will stop paying attention. I am not saying I endorse crude polygons that poke your eyes out. I am just saying that Nintendo found a market that was previously oblivious to the world of games. That was the 80% of people I personally know.

Most of my friends do not play games. Now, they all know Wii, they want a Wii or they have played on a Wii. That is amazing, and shows that the guys over at Nintendo actually discovered what would make games reachable. A keep it simple approach, use your controller as you use your TV remote.

Congratulations Nintendo, you have my unwavering admiration. You have even made me, a PC gamer, buy a console for the first time in my life.

~ by pixel on May 29, 2009.