Forbes jumps on the “Nintendo is in Trouble!” bandwagon a bit in a recent article lamenting the lack of some GTA IV on the Wii platform. Somehow, they make a mental leap which figures that GTA IV is going to put a dent in or decrease the flow of titles and systems flying off of the shelves with the Wii brand name on them.
While I can see how they reasoned this, their logic isn’t quite holding up under scrutiny.
The misconception starts by figuring that GTA IV (which sold an impressive 6 million titles across the 360 and the PS3 in its first week alone) is going to somehow “lure” gamers away from the Wii. As if gamers were the Wii’s target demographic in the first place. Which it decidedly isn’t.
The point is, and excuse my gross generalization, the Wii is marketed to Soccer Moms and Retirement Home Bowling League Addicts. It’s not a gamer’s platform. Caveat: okay gamers do play it. But it’s not for gamers. It’s for the consumer public at large. Nintendo has pretty much admitted as such. They wanted to bring gaming to the masses, not gaming to gamers. That niche is filled already.
That’s what GTA is for.
Granted, GTA is pretty mainstream. The mass consumer public that plays it who call themselves “gamers” when they’re not fist-pounding their frat buddies and doing keg stands are buying it, certainly. But the “Nintendo” demographic aren’t. Nintendo knew this when they designed their system to be built off of last-gen hardware with next-gen controls. They know that mostly only Nintendo games sell well on Nintendo hardware, and Nintendo games don’t need dual core processors with liquid cooled GPUs to be fun. So why spend the money on them when they’d be essentially pointless? They made a calculated decision to miss that boat because, let’s be honest: Would you buy a GTA game for Nintendo hardware even if the hardware were capable of running it?
So, back to the idea that GTA IV is going to lure gamers away from the Wii. We can pretty much assume that gamers who are gamers aren’t the people who only own a Wii. They already own a next-gen system and a Wii, most probably.
Any gamers who were holding out for a next-gen system already ran out and bought one either for the Halo3 launch, or when Playstation won the Blu-Ray war. It will be interesting to see if either party actually moved a significantly larger number of units due to GTA IV once the TRST reports for April come out, but I’m thinking it’s dubious at best.
Finally, if we can all agree that Wii owners (remember, the ones who only own a Wii) are mostly folks looking for some affordable, wholesome, cheap entertainment, we have to question if they will be swayed by what is ostensibly an NC-17 rated video-game. While it’s a huge generalization on my part, Retirees and Soccer Moms aren’t exactly in the market for a game that involves you stealing cars, capping asses, and banging hookers.
I just don’t see them looking at GTA IV and wishing they had the hardware to play it. Do you?
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Tenyu // May 6, 2008 at 8:54 pm
That is the point. When Sony and MS were to put PS3 and 360 onto the shelf both were apple-polishers to Wii – “They’ll surely buy two consoles, it’s and Wii! ” And this circumstance is still a joke towards the two giants! The worry that Wii will lose is fo sho, thus, a mortal concern… Cool marketing analysis, I’m looking forward this prediction to be proved!
2 Tenyu // May 6, 2008 at 9:00 pm
For instance, here in china to posses a Wii is far more realistic to own a PS3 or 360. This may support your idea – Wii is for everyone
3 Tenyu // May 6, 2008 at 9:12 pm
So, while MS and Sony had hit the floor where is not the promised land for gamers like China, Nintendo , with proxy like iQue, has swept off all its opponents. You see, SCE China is really a stub. And PS3 360 is not even allowed through the customs, but Nintendo has won. Apart from this it’s much easier to find a GBA or NDS (and of course Wii) playa here, rather than a PS3 player.
4 Adrian Wood // May 14, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I agree on most of the points in your post, but not your conclusion. I am a gamer, one of the old-skool I-Remember-When-The-SNES-Was-High-Technology types. I followed consoles right up until I got a job, and then, unmeaningly, unknowingly, made the transition to PC gaming.
I bought a Wii because, hey, it’s *Wii*. It’s cheap, and cheerful, and most of my none-gamer friends can get with it. Besides, the only alternative was the 360 (with pay-per-month multiplayer? Buhh?), with the PS3 being late and not ready.
But now… Now, the 360 has a library of games that would be worth getting if the best of them weren’t on PC or coming out for it, so that puts that out of consideration. Which leaves waiting however long it takes for GTA4 to make it to the PC, or buying the scumbag of the console world, the PS3.
I hate the PS3. It’s noisy, cumbersome, not as powerful as it should be, and it doesn’t have games worth a damn right now. But I also know that, one day, I’ll look at MGS4, and GT5, and LBP, and I’ll have to buy one. So I’m doomed; the worst system available is the one I have to buy. And if only I could find somewhere that had a copy of GTA4 in stock, I’d have one sitting under my TV right now, snarling at my, making me cringe every time I glance at it, knowing that the wrong choice was the only one to make.
..I forgot my point. Sorry about that.
5 Ryan // May 15, 2008 at 11:05 am
I consider myself a hardcore gamer, but being a recent college grad, my financial situation can easily be guessed. As a kid, I eagerly awaited the next Nintendo console, and int he current race, with no funds for a truly 1337 home set-up, or HD console, my choice was pretty fixed. While the Wii may be lacking inth e sheer quantity of jaw-dropping third party titles, enough bones are tossed our way int he way of No More Heroes, Okami, and RE:4 Wii Edition, not to mention Boom Blox, that a budget “hardcore” gamer can get his fix. That being said, I am currently saving my gil for another console and am torn between the beautiful symetry of a Wii60 set up or the glossy allure of MGS4… either way I need to play RE5.
All told, hardcore gamers can get their budget rocks off on Wii, but the days when one Ninty conso9le sufficed for a generation are over… and this is coming from someone who owned a Gamecube but did not own an XBOX until he inherited one, and to this day never has owned a Playstation console.
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