wii party ideas

Interesting piece in AdAge about the growing Wii-themed party phenomenon. That is part of a trend where "video gaming is beginning to transcend the solitary boy-in-the-basement stereotype with a new generation of gamers including women, older people and younger children who want to play in a more social atmosphere."
Take a look below at evite's wii party ideas (an online party invite company):

wii infiltrates the culture

After just a few months of its release, Nintendo's Wii (yes, again) is already becoming a dominant part of our culture.
As of this morning, a search on Flickr and YouTube showed the following results:

nintendo gets it!

Corporate culture is one of the most important aspects of an organization. For mega corporations with thousands of employees all over the world, that's what holds a company together, their set of values.
There's no amount of micromanaging that can teach how a customer service rep should do his/her job, but tell them what the company values are and somehow they'll figure out what to do.
Take a look at this post from saska, about her surprising experience with Nintendo's customer service.
Now read this article in the "Washington Post" about Nintendo's video game guru Shigeru Miyamoto (photo on the left) keynote speech at last week's "Game Developers Conference", in San Francisco.
Miyamoto, creator of "Mario Brothers" and "Donkey Kong", told the audience, "developers should resist the temptation to create only sequels of established hits and games based only on horror and revenge". Speaking about his own approach he said, "I always want that first reaction to be emotion, to be positive, to give a sense of satisfaction, glee... Certain obstacles may temporarily raise feelings of suspense, competition, even frustration. But we always want that final result, that final emotion, to be a positive one."
If you read both articles, it's clear there's a common thread there, and that's why Nintendo seems poised to take over the gaming world.

Reference:
Konrad, Rachel (2007). Nintendo Guru Wants More Happy Games. The Washington Post. March 8, 2007 (here).

did nintendo copy xavix?

Have you heard of a game console called Xavix? I saw it at the store yesterday and, surprised, I thought to myself "hmm, already a Wii copycat"! Then later I checked on google and to my even bigger surprise I learned that Xavix was actually launched on September 2005, a full year before Nintendo's Wii!
Xavix, made by a Japanese company name SSD, basically has the same principle as the Wii, it's an interactive motion controlled gaming console. There are a few differences though:
- The remotes resemble actual sports equipments (boxing gloves, tennis rackets, golf clubs, etc.) thus rendering a more realistic experience (not sure whether this is necessarily better in terms of pure game enjoyment)
- The view on the screen doesn't show your 'avatar'. The ball comes straight at your face in a tennis game, for example.
- Nintendo's marketing is much more focused and clear. Xavix seems uncertain of what it wants to be: a video-game or a fitness device. From their website: "Xavix is a revolutionary way to interact with your TV. From your favorite sports to high-energy workouts..."
Take a look for yourself at xavixstore.
Also check out this commercial on YouTube.

wii winning the video-game battle

It's still a little early to tell but Nintendo's Wii seems poised to win the battle of the video-game consoles. According to the Financial Times (reg. req.), it "has soared past Microsoft's Xbox 360 in sales and opened a huge lead over Sony's premium-priced rival, the Playstation 3".
Still according to the article, a Merryl Linch analyst predicts that, "by the year 2011, almost a third of the Japanese households, and almost 30 percent of all US households will own a Wii". That's huge! If we take into consideration only the households with children, that percentage would increase considerably.
Wii's success is a great example of non-linear thinking, of winning the battle by playing a whole different game.
On Wii's website, there's a very interesting interview series with the team that created and developed the console. Hosted by Nintendo's president, Mr. Satoru Iwata, it gives a glimpse on the approach the team chose for the project. See this statement from Mr. Takeda, who led the project:
"...if we had followed the existing Roadmaps we would have aimed to make it “faster and flashier.” In other words, we would have tried to improve the speed at which it displays stunning graphics. But we could not help but ask ourselves, “How big an impact would that direction really have on our customers?” During development, we came to realize the sheer inefficiency of this path when we compared the hardships and costs of development against any new experiences that might be had by our customers... After speaking with Nintendo's development partners, I became keenly aware of the fact that there is no end to the desire of those who just want more. Give them one, they ask for two. Give them two, and next time they will ask for five instead of three. Then they want ten, thirty, a hundred, their desire growing exponentially. Giving in to this will lead us nowhere in the end..."
As I said in the beginning, the battle is still in its early stage, so let's see how it develops, but according to Credit Suisse analyst Jay Defibaugh “there has always been a strong concern that the Wii was gimmicky...but each passing month assuages that.”

Reference:

Lewis, Leo (2007). Nintendo's Wii Outsells Rival Consoles. Financial Times. February 21, 2007.

about the future of gaming, computers

Some interesting bits on the blogsphere, dealing with trends in the computing and gaming industry. Somehow they're all interconnected, though I can't quite explain now.
- Steve Johnson muses about the Nintendo Wii (amazing how the Wii is bringing long lost consumers to the category)
- Momus writes about the age of the ubiquitous computing (and mentions the Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project)
- Mark Cuban discusses the future of computing and gaming, and the implications for Microsoft, Apple, Google, Sony, etc.

wii at the science museum

The Science Museum in London has a great exhibition exploring the history, technology and culture of computer games. You can play some of the classic games of all time, like Pongo, Super Mario, and PacMan, among many others.
The highlight of the exhibition is a special Wii and Playstation zone. We went there last Thursday and tried the Wii. We played tennis and it was a blast, really fun. Just one warning: although you don't get to run like in a real tennis match, it's advisable to warm-up at least your upper-body because the arm movement is pretty much what you would do in the real thing. If you don't do this, you'll feel your arms sore the following day (as I did).

wii have a problem

Some early Wii users are already reporting having troubles with the console. No, it's not a bug. It happens when they swing too fast (playing bowling, for example), and accidentally let the remote slip from their hands. What's the result? A smashed TV screen, and a broken remote (apparently the remote strap is not that strong). (via Yahoo!News)
I wonder though, is it really an 'accident' or does the interaction with the game feel so real they actually release the remote believing they've just released the ball?
On the other hand, and I guess this ends the discussion, The Onion made a "feature by feature" comparison between the Wii and the PS3, in which the Wii definitely comes on top (via Michell).
Me? I'm 'totally' leaning towards the Wii (despite the broken TVs). I'll just make sure I don't buy the bowling game and will try to get a stronger strap somehow.

wii vs ps3

Christmas season has definitely arrived. My wife and I have been shopping for a new video game for our 7-year-old son. We're torn between the PS3 and Nintendo's Wii (as is the rest of the world, I guess). So let me show you our recent experience looking for some information in their websites.
If you visit Wii's website, you'll notice that Nintendo's focus is on clearly establishing that there is a new way to play video games now. Take for example this Wii commercial (here), where two Japanese "Men In Black" knock on people's door inviting them with the catch phrase, "Wii would like to play". Pretty cool.
You can also view how people from different parts of the world interact with the games using the new virtual console (here). You really get the impression that it's a whole new "ball" game. I was completely blown away by these videos. The days of playing video games sitting comfortably on the couch are definitely over.
Now take PS3's approach in comparison. If you visit PS3's website, you'll have the impression you are entering the set of Kubrick's "2001. A Space Odyssey", with some mysterious black machine sitting in the corner of a cold white room. All you'll find is technical information, and lots of pictures of the console itself. If their goal was to show that this machine has supercomputing powers, I guess they succeeded. My question is if that's what it takes to sell the product.
And the commercial is really creepy (this is the US commercial. See here).
Now, which one would you prefer?
To be fair, one point we have to acknowledge is that both machines offer different performances (at least in terms of graphic quality) and analysts say that the PS3 is really a supercomputer for the price of a PC (see last post). Their suggested retail prices reflect that difference, the Wii selling for US$ 250.00, about half the price of a PS3.
And we? Well, I personally loved the Wii, but we won't be able to buy it now (nor the PS3) as both products are not going to be available for this Christmas anyway, after all this hype (which reminds me I have to buy something else for my son). So, we'll have more time to do some more research, but I have a slight suspicion that we're going to buy both of them in the end (such kid spoilers, I know).

sony losing money selling ps3

You really can't have any more secrets in this world. A company called iSuppli dismantled a PS3 to analyze its components. They reached the conclusion that Sony is losing up to US$ 300.00 for every PS3 unit they sell, depending on the configuration. “It’s common for video-game console makers to lose money on hardware, and make up for the loss via video game-title sales. Still, the size of Sony’s loss per unit is remarkable, even for the video-game console business,” iSuppli said. Still according to the company, the PS3 has “more processing power and capability than any consumer electronics device in history,” and consumers are to gain because they will get a supercomputer performance for the price of a PC (via Yahoo!News).

playstation 3

This via Jean Snow.
Today, Saturday, is the launch of Playstation 3 in Japan. Jean went last night to Ikebukuro, at midnight, to check out the queue. As expected, there were already some people prepared to wait through the night to get a PS3.