E3 suprises - The rise of the NON-gamers
The biggest surprise to me was the direction that Nintendo has taken the Wii with WiiFit. They’ve crossed the sacred line between casual gamer and NON-gamer. My friend in Montreal was gushing about how she loved her Wii and how fun it was… she’s a non-gamer (zero game playing experience). fLOw has the same weird appeal with non-gamers too (it’s not really a game either!), but few non-gamers have access to a PS3…
An analogy of how successful Nintendo could become is the iPod. Before the second generation iPod, MP3 players were for tech heads - computer savvy types like me who bought the Creative Nomad (a tank!) and the first gen iPod (it sucked). Now everybody has an iPod and doesn’t matter if they are computer savvy or not - the device has become accessible due to infrastructure (iTunes on Windows!) and ease of use. The iPod has become cool… mainstream… accepted.
Wii is heading that direction too. It isn’t there yet because of the current crop of games still doesn’t reach a wide enough audience. I can’t see Soccer moms wanting to play Zelda or even casual fare like Mario Party, but I can see them playing WiiFit / WiiYoga which leads them to WiiSports which then leads them Big Brain Academy at best.
The worst surprise?
While I admire Gamecock media for doing something different, their funeral procession was anti-establishment but actually was “the establishment.” When you are trying to create hype for your publishing company (brand) and not individual games then what are you truly selling that’s different from EA or Ubisoft? Nothing. Gamecock has become a brand… their name overrides quality. It’s brilliant, but not worthy of revolutionary. I support their endeavor to create satirical games, but hope the games they published are good and not shoveled out.
Add comment July 24th, 2007
