Nintendo Wins

I've been dealing with IPTV and stuff for a while - time to take on something else.

So here we go. Nintendo is awesome.

Specifically, if the assertions about Wii production are true, Nintendo has just given a huge black eye to both Microsoft and Sony.

Here's why. Microsoft and Sony have found it difficult to encourage people to upgrade their machines for any other reason than increasing frame-rates and pixel count. While Microsoft was the first to introduce really robust online integration with their first console, the Xbox, the Xbox 360 basically only increases the pixel count. A similar story with Sony. Despite a whole new processor architecture and inclusion of a Blue Ray player, the Playstation 3 is basically about making more pixels hit the screen. Hurray.

Nintendo has willfully taken another approach. They've rejected the idea of technology for technology's sake and instead are pursuing technologies that are accessible for low cost while simultaneously making big strides towards making things more fun. Nintendo is the only one in the video game industry that's really innovating in big ways. Microsoft would counter with talk about how they are integrating Xbox Live with your cell phone, but I don't see that as a huge thing. Rather, getting people who don't consider themselves to be gamers to actually start playing games, as Nintendo is doing, is the achievement. Nintendo is doing this by making games fun again, something that Microsoft and Sony have apparently forgotten about. Now it appears that Nintendo is producing enough Wii consoles to get one in every house in America that wants one, and for significantly cheaper than the competition. Nintendo Wins.