ulo.tricho.us

Now that it’s fairly well established that the Nintendo Wii is going to be awesome, I’ve been thinking about what changes we might see over the Wii’s life cycle. Revised versions of consoles launching a few years into the life cycle have become somewhat expected; even the venerable Nintendo and Super Nintendo both had late revisions as they moved into the budget category at the end of their lives. The revised slimline PS2 was actually hard to come by when it launched, although both the Slimline PS2 and the Gamecube v2 actually had less functionality than their original models. The revised PS2 dropped compatibility for the poorly-supported hard disk attachment, although it included an ethernet port that the original lacked, while the revised Gamecube actually dropped the digital a/v out port.

Interestingly, Nintendo dropped the digital port — required to play gamecube games at their highest resolution — for cost-cutting reasons, although they quietly offer to replace your digital-portless-gamecube with one from their private stockpile if you bought a gamecube expecting to get component video out of it. So, those two revisions could both be considered downgrades.

There haven’t really been any upgraded console revisions yet; from one perspective, releasing a revised console with better features is a great way to piss off anyone who bought the previous revision, and it’s not good to fragment the universal compatibility of a console and its software, which is still a big edge over PC gaming. However, Nintendo has shown that substantial hardware revisions can be successful; some of your most hardcore fans might even buy a new one just to get that new feature. The catch is that Nintendo has restricted this practice to the handheld space so far. From the Gameboy to the Gameboy Color, from the Gameboy Advance to the Gameboy Advance SP, and now from the DS to the DS lite, these have all been successful — but not insubstantial — revisions to established hardware platforms, some even creating forks in the software market that might have seemed inadvisable.

One of the big arguments about the Wii back before the excitement about the software had begun to build was that it would be the only console in this next generation that had no support for HD television resolutions. It was such a frissom, even among the fanboy faithful, that I remember being incited to send a contact us email to Nintendo complaining about their decision, which I wouldn’t usually do. While it’s now more clear that Wii isn’t really intended to be competitive with the next generation at all, the fact remains that many potential Wii buyers (myself included) have invested in HD displays, and we don’t even decide what to have for lunch without thinking about if it would look better in HD. I don’t think that HD support is a dealbreaker in any way for the potential Wii buyer who just wants to play Super Mario Galaxy, but you combine these early-adopter market dynamics with Nintendo’s established upgrade habits, and I think there’s a possibility that we may someday see a Wii-HD as an upgraded model with HDMI out and support for HD resolutions.

Nintendo has also shown that you can introduce new hardware features midway through a products life cycle without creating true software compatibilty problems; look at the Gameboy / Gameboy Color transition, where titles started supporting both formats, with color only available on the properly equipped units, of course. HD could just be one of those little icons on the back of the game case that shows what peripherals the game is compatible with and how many players can play at once, etc.

I think the market success of the Wii will make the business case for a Wii-HD, maybe in 2008 when sales are really starting to hit their stride and HD is that much further along the adoption curve. Let’s face it, all us launch day saps will line up all over again just to see Monkey Ball in 1080p, won’t we?

The internets have been afire the past few weeks with venting, acceptance and denial about the final name of Nintendo’s next videogame console, formerly known as the Revolution, and now known as Wii.

Yes, Wii. If you’re saying Wuh?, Nintendo of America was expecting that you would say that, so they helpfully provided 150 words to attempt to explain it to you:

Introducing … Wii. As in ‘we.’ While the code-name ‘Revolution’ expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games … and each other. But you’re probably asking: What does the name mean?

Wii sounds like ‘we,’ which emphasizes this console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

Wii has a distinctive spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play. And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd.

So that’s Wii. But now Nintendo needs you. Because, it’s really not about you or me. It’s about Wii. And together, Wii will change everything.

Now, you could put me in the crowd that hoped it was all a joke, but that would have been very out of character for Nintendo, and just because the trademark hadn’t shown up yet didn’t mean that they had not secured it. In our workshops, and just in conversation, I do a lot of talking about videogames to nongamers, and it has without a doubt gotten much harder to talk about Nintendo’s next console with its nutty new moniker. The story used to be the promise of the intuitive controller and the virtual console; right now, it is tough to get past the Wuh? effect.

There’s no doubt that the name is unique, googlable, and viral; it makes it clear that Nintendo is on a different playing field from the Xbox 360 and the PS3, and that’s a good thing. However, the name is just such a head scratcher, and rings of bad such bad decision-making to most ears, what I really wonder is, how big of a fit did Perrin Kaplan throw when this news came down from Osaka.

I guess I’m making the assumption that this name is not the product of an english-speaking marketing genius as Gabe and Tycho envision; it just seems exactly like the sort of thing that a high-end Japanese marketing firm would come up with, sort of like Calpis (the beverage), or Pumpkin Poo (the restaurant). Say ‘Nintendo Wii’ in that deep, serious, Japanese commercial announcer voice, and it makes a little more sense.

From a management perspective, I enjoy pondering the clues about Nintendo’s political structure and power balance that might be gleaned from the fact that they appear to be rolling with a name that no english-native executive could possibly have agreed to unless deluded or under duress, although that’s common. Did it matter what NOA thought about the name? Did they have to pretend they liked it? Does it just not matter what any of the territories think? Was there ever even a conversation including Iwata-san (or at least his sinister agents) in which it was clear that they were considering naming the console Piss? Or perhaps, Piis.

In the end, I think it’s unlikely that the name will seriously hurt US sales, and it’s possible it may help sales (which is, after all, the idea), and it will feel familiar in time. It’s safe to say that most of us talking about it so furiously these days have already made up our minds about whether we will or whether we won’t, um, get a Wii, and most of us already decided to buy one no matter what it was called.

Also, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and the fact that it was announced 3 weeks before e3 says that it’s here to stay, and, if you’ll notice, the venting is almost done, well, venting. I think we’re going to see some great stuff for the, er, the Wii, this week and the, uh, wiiaction will be yesterday’s news.

Last week’s biggest surprise was the announcement of Nintendo’s new design for the DS. It had been rumored for weeks, and the fan mockups have been flying fast and furious, with some hitting very close to the mark.

What’s most interesting about the announcement of the new design is that the day before the announcement, the General Manager of Nintendo UK said he was not aware of a redesign in development, even though Reggie knew something back in November. The very next day, the pics were all over the web, and there was much rejoicing.

So, is this bad message control, perfect message control, or did he honestly not know? Is Nintendo getting all cagey, or so ossified that a territorial suit was not aware of a major product announcement? The most likely explanation is perfect message control, but I’ve heard that Nintendo of Japan doesn’t necessarily keep the left hand informed.

Nintendo’s brilliant ‘and then there’s the Revolution‘ strategy for the next generation requires cachet by the truckload, and getting the ascendant DS in tune with what we’ve seen of the Revolution’s aesthetics thus far says that the integration that Nintendo’s got in store for us is going to raise the bar considerably. The stylish new look also helps the DS compete with the ultra-slick but nearly gameless PSP on a level where the PSP had previously had an undeniable edge.

Nemo’s already getting an ‘old’ Kart DS bundle for his birthday to settle the household squabbles over my DS, which I apparently don’t get first dibs on, even though it was a Father’s Day present!  The new DSlite will be hard to resist. I wonder what the eBay market for a used ‘old-style’ DS will be like once this hits, since we surely don’t need 3 DS’s in the house.  Although, family mario kart night could become a new tradition…