In the most shocking news of the week, Nintendo has announced that they're -- are you ready? -- working to market the Wii toward women and the elderly. You know, like they've been doing for a long time with their Nintendo DS! Who expected that, huh? "We want to appeal to mothers who don't want consoles in their living rooms, and to the elderly and to young women,'' Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said. "It's a challenge, like trying to sell cosmetics to men."But is it so hard? Even more so than with the DS, the Wii sells itself. From the moment the Wii controller surfaced, even non-gamers were considering the vast possibilities the system would bring to the industry. In that same report, Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Japanese research giant Enterbrain, seemed to strike closer to the truth. "Wii definitely could become the most popular console of all time. Non-gamers can see how fun it is to play just by looking at people playing it." We here at the Fanboy offices can attest -- even our mothers and our non-gaming friends (we do have a few) seem interested in the Wii. Perhaps the best thing Nintendo could do to sell the Wii is to simply ensure their demo kiosks are everywhere. All the system needs is exposure, and it will sell. The only factor that is up in the air is how successful it might become. How many people will stop and want a longer look, and end up taking one home? Time for a little holiday sales speculation -- tells us what impact you think the Wii will have outside of the traditional market.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-21-2006 @ 7:10AM
Zachary Hinchliffe said...
For the first month or two of Wii's existance, it's going to be in extremely high demand for all the gamers. So it's gonna be hard to get in stores. Outside of the traditional market of hardcore gamers and kids whining to their parents, it probably won't start to make impact until a few months after launch, like DS.
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9-21-2006 @ 9:38AM
Kiggles said...
The only thing nintendo has to worry about at this point is making sure they have a console for everyone that wants one this xmas season. the only thing that could hurt their sales at this point is going to be shortages.
while the marketing will be important, this thing is going to be viral wildfire. just look at that mom blog where her kids didnt even have a game machine anywhere in the house, and nintendo shows up w/ some wii's and now everyone in her freaking neighborhood (and probably every single kid at those kid's school now) really want one. as soon as one house in one neighborhood gets one, every house is going to want one. parents will use it to show off photos, check the weather, browse for recipies from the kitchen, etc. kids will love it for the games. older kids will play zelda and red steel and metroid, younger kids will love wii sports and mario and excitetruck and monkeyball, and way older kids will love playing classic games on the virtual console.
nintendo really BUILT this thing, and it'd damn impressive.
Nintendo's resurgence with the DS and Wii and Sony's utter failure (and total loss of almost complete market control in under a year) will be tought in economics courses for the next 50 years, at least.
The PS3 is almost as bad as the edsel and new coke.
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9-21-2006 @ 9:39AM
TVGenius said...
Might help some parents give into the idea of a game system, based on the fact that unlike, many of the Wii's games will actually encourage you to not sit on the couch for 12 hours straight.
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9-21-2006 @ 10:52AM
Mom said...
I want one!!!!! I can hardly wait to play Baseball. I want to kill Zombies!!! I want to do whatever she of little skills can do on a Wii. Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee.
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9-21-2006 @ 11:37AM
Justin said...
Kiggles is spot on, man.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
This thing is going to explode - the the only that worries me is not getting one ASAP.
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9-21-2006 @ 11:59AM
The S said...
#2 You don't have to be a 'younger player' to play all those games you listed.
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9-21-2006 @ 12:15PM
All Your Lost Socks said...
I agree with the articles in the sense that the kiosks need to be everywhere. It will sell itself like DS -if people see it-. Exposure is what the DS relied on to get the explosive growth that it enjoyed (...sexually charged economics FTW?). As Miyamoto said, people aren't taking the Wii everywhere with them the way that they can the DS. Therefore, stores and kiosks and other peoples' homes are where it is going to be showcased. It needs to be put everywhere, and be coupled with strong, engaging and to-the-point advertising. This is where Apple used to have a really big weak point, and I hope it doesn't happen to Nintendo with something so cool.
The good thing is, game stores and even large department store chains are experiencing the same level of hype over it as a lot of consumers are, and that kind of optimism will help it become a bigger seller just because more employees will be aware that it's a Cool Thing.
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9-21-2006 @ 4:19PM
Kiggles said...
#6: pardon my language but no shit. My point was not to say the Wii is a kiddy system, my point was that there is _literally_ something for everyone with this console, and that's not just marketing PR bullcrap.
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9-21-2006 @ 5:45PM
Alisha Karabinus said...
I just want to take a moment to point out that my mother (see above, yeah, that's her commenting) is jumping up and down and doing the pee-pee (make that Wii-Wii) dance for this and she hasn't even seen much from it -- mostly just heard me raving and seen some of what we have here.
Marketing this isn't going to be too difficult. There IS something for everyone on this console... if everything comes out as well as promised. My fingers (and toes) are all crossed.
-Alisha
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