GameCola: 0wning the Competition (6-1)

-- by Kevin Leacock

So the ball is back in Nintendo's court. When the DS first came out, the PSP was kicking its ass. Big time. The DS had numerous issues—people weren't sure about the whole touch screen thing, or the flip thing, it was something new, and no one liked it. After the new stuff had a while to sink in, though, Nintendo turns around and releases the DS Lite. So much smaller, and the ideas are no longer "new" or "amazing," ‘cause Nintendo did it before. The touchscreen on DS Lite is slightly better, it's remarkably smaller and the wireless connectivity is somewhat better as well. Suddenly, it's a hit. Now, this is my question: Was it the change in size and features that did it? Or was it the fact that the features are no longer new and scary? Believe it or not, I actually am going somewhere with this.

The Nintendo Wii. Once again, a new and innovative idea, what with the newly designed controller, downloadable classic games and who-knows-what-else Wiiconnect24 is going to bring forth. And already, all of its new and "innovative" features are receiving criticism from the masses—just as the DS's touchscreen did when it was initially released. People think that it won't be as much fun if they actually have to move (although I have it on good authority that this is definitely not the case), that it's a security risk for them to be able to connect to your console even when it's "off" (yay paranoia), or that the backwards compatibility may ruin the "shine," for lack of a better word, of your collection of old game consoles. And because of these things, it's apparent that some people are just too damned afraid to buy the thing, even though the chances are they'll probably friggin’ enjoy it.

So what's Nintendo going to do? If my guess is correct, the same thing they did with the DS and the DS Lite. When the Wii's "negative" attention gets to its peak, I wouldn't be surprised if they release a revised edition of the Wii, that just generally improves on all of the Wii's features, and potentially adds some more, in hopes of turning it around last minute and shooting back to the top, much like they did with the DS. Personally, I'm going to be holding out on buying a Wii because (the fact that no one in my area really stocks a significant number of them aside) I'm going to be waiting for the revision. In all reality, the last month or so, I've just all of sudden started hearing about the DS Lite from everyone—not just one group of people, but most of the gamers (and non-gamers) all of the sudden went out and bought one or asked for one for Christmas. But when it was just the DS, no one was interested. These same people were flocking their interest to the PSP.

So, I think I'm going to hold out on the Wii for a bit to at least see if it's likely to be updated or not. I mean, I've been hearing various skepticisms about the Wii, but not as far and wide as I did for the DS, and I have heard various praises for the Wii as well. More than I did for the DS at its time. So it's entirely possible that I'm reading far too much into everything. But if I keep hearing about the negative points, then I'll be sitting on the sideline waiting for a revision. If it seems to stay the course it's going, then I'll consider getting the current generation of the Wii. Nintendo certainly knows what they're doing, but for that matter, they always have.

-- Kevin Leacock {1-01-2007}

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