The Next generation: Nintendo's Magic Wand

Nintendo have the most loyal fans in the world without question; quite frankly Nintendo could re-launch the Super Nintendo in a shiny glossy new casing and easily sell 20 million units over the course of the next generation, a comforting thought if you are about to go head to head with Microsoft and Sony in a console war.

Over the past decade Nintendo have gradually lost their hold as the default choice for a consumer looking for a games console, due in part to their own stubbornness and in part to the boom the games industry has experienced since the introduction of the Sony Playstation in 1994. Nintendo hope that the Revolution will spearhead their assault on the mass market and force them back into contention for the coveted title of “first choice” for the gamer.

“The Nintendo Revolution will be the console of choice for the gamer” claims Nintendo President Saturo Iwata, and who are we to argue, after all Nintendo brought us Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong some of the most iconic representatives of the games industry. Throughout the slow and progressive unveiling of the Revolution Nintendo have remained unmoved in their philosophy of simple and fun games, stating repeatedly that they are going after a different market to Sony and Microsoft, that overwhelming the gamer with flashy graphics and buzz words like “high definition” is not the key to increasing market penetration for the games industry, but that a television remote is.

The gaming press have showered Nintendo in praise for their daring since the Revolution controller was announced but are still unsure as to whether or not it will have any sort of positive effect for the gamer. We still haven’t seen the controller in action with a game and that is what will define whether or not the controller will indeed offer the revolutionary experience being promised. The basic premise of the controller is that using sensors the user will able to control games by waving the controller around to effect what’s happening in the game, for example a match of Mario tennis would play out with the you waving the wand around as if it were a real tennis racket. As I said we are yet to see the controller in action on anything but tech demos so obviously the tennis example is an assumption, however it’s the controller’s design that gives Nintendo an interesting advantage in the quest for the mass market consumer.

Since the introduction of the television remote the design for the handset has never changed much and by default controllers for set top boxes from VCR’s to DVD players have followed the same design method, we’ve grown comfortable with the simple rectangular shaped handset and its become the most natural way to control whatever is coming through our television sets. To date videogame systems have adopted the joypad two handed control method and in a sense alienated the mass market consumer with what at face value seems like a complicated and convoluted method for controlling a videogame. With The Revolution controller, Nintendo hope to create a familiar and simple way for the non gamer to play videogames and are hoping it leads to a new market for the Revolution console. Whether or not the non gaming consumer will welcome the Revolution purely based on familiarity will be up to Nintendo’s marketing men, Reggie Fils-Aime and his team, have been adamant that they will go after the young gamer and growing female markets to diversify the gaming community and increase market share, using the magic wand may be the answer.

Big name publishers are going to be key in the next generation, as budgets get bigger and commercial success more vital, key studios will be banking on developing for systems that provide the biggest market base. The Revolution poses an interesting proposition for small to medium size developers as it provides a cheap and easy to develop for platform on which to display their works, encouraging new IP and original content. EA, Ubisoft and Konami have all committed to the cause and of course the most important developer for the console Nintendo themselves are on board, so unlike with the Gamecube early on at least Nintendo have little reason to be concerned. To their credit Nintendo have designed the Revolution first and foremost with ease of development in mind. The system on paper is slightly more powerful than the original Xbox however, as we’ve already discussed, this falls perfectly inline with Nintendo’s message for gaming in the next generation and gives them an advantage in a key area, price. The Revolution should according to common sense be the cheapest of the 3 next generation consoles falling somewhere in the £150 - £200 ($200 - $300) price range and that more than any other factor will allow Nintendo maximum opportunity to penetrate the non gaming community.

Good games, that is what it comes down to, and for an insight as to what Nintendo’s intentions are for the Revolution you only have to look at their Nintendo DS handheld machine. I stated earlier that Nintendo have been about simple fun games and they are showing with the DS and games like Nintendogs and Brain Age that that’s exactly what they are going to continue to provide gamers. Sony’s PSP entered the market last year with analysts hyping the machine to squash the DS. High quality graphics, movie playback, music playback and web browsing the Sony PSP on paper had everything to take on the DS and win, however the DS has consistently week after week outsold the PSP 2:1 since its release, because it has delivered good games. The DS has been blessed with great, simple, fun games since its launch and this is the same philosophy Nintendo plan to apply to the Revolution. Ever since announcing the Revolution Iwata-San has reminded us that the Revolution will not be about graphics never once mentioning technical specifications but consistent in his claims that whilst the Revolution will not be as powerful as their competitors offerings it will provide the best gaming experience of all of them, I find it difficult to argue against Iwata when he has arguably the most important man in videogames today in his corner. In Shigeru Miyamoto Nintendo have a true visionary who, despite the flood of new games and genres polluting the market, can create innovative original content and deliver it perfectly in videogame form. Who else, based on the answer to the question “Do you like dogs?” could create a critically acclaimed and commercially successful videogame franchise?

Nintendo’s loyal fans, I am still adamant that no matter what happens in the next generation Nintendo will sell a huge amount of Revolution consoles. Established franchises based on the phenom that is Mario will almost guarantee early adoption from those with a soft spot for the italian plumber, the question is are we going to see a sudden decline in sales as we did with the Gamecube or is the Revolution going to be the commercial success that Nintendo hoping for and will your mother want one?

The Next Generation: Coming soon, an in depth analysis of "The big three"

Over the next few weeks I will put my thoughts on paper on Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo (oh and the phantom) in the next generation.

With each company adopting different philosophies and pitching a different experience to us, the gamer, Sony,Nintendo and Microsoft will be fighting for our custom over the next five years but just what are they bringing to the table?

Nintendo is first on the list, watch this space.