As most of you have no doubt read, Nintendo President Satoru Iawta is concerned that the Wii is in an unhealthy state, and that it is urgent for Nintendo to recover sales momentum. This statement, coupled with recent numbers confirming this sales drop, has left many to point the finger at Nintendo’s Blue Ocean Strategy, which disrupted the video game market by bringing a wider audience into gaming with casual titles, as the cause of this drop. They suggest that Nintendo needs to move away from this strategy and focus more on games for the core gamer to regain sales momentum.

I think that a shift away from the Blue Ocean Strategy of developing games for new audiences would be a mistake on Nintendo’s part. The decline in Wii’s sales does not prove that Nintendo’s Blue Ocean Strategy has failed. Rather, it illustrates how Blue Ocean requires constant innovation following the initial market disruption.

If Nintendo wants to see the return of explosive sales for the Wii, it needs to refocus the platform so that it is once again the home of innovative fresh titles that draw in the broader audience.

(more…)

These little fellows have had a harsh life at the Squeeballs testing island. Many of you must be like ‘What is a Squeeball?”

Well a Squeeball is an animal that is apparently sold in stores as toys. Yet before they can be a toy they must go through a rigorous test to assure that they are top a top quality product. That means being grinded up in a meat grinder, being hit by a tennis racket into a mines, being propelled into a wall to paint pictures, and all sorts of nasty things. However, it seems that some of them managed to escape torture and escaped to my house in a crate sent by the nice people over at PDP. Hit the jump to see what else came in the crate.

(more…)

Out of the top 20 selling games of 2008, less than half of them fit the profile of what type of game this MSNBC article considers appealing to the hard-core or serious gamer.  So I think the question shouldn’t be “can the Wii win back the hard-core gamer,” but rather “does the hard-core gamer still matter?”

The article goes on to say that Nintendo’s original ‘core gamers’ who grew up on Super Mario Bros are disappointed in games like Wii Sports Resort, but I think high sales of games like Mario Kart and Guitar Hero prove that the core audience is shifting to less mature titles.

Do you think violent/mature game fans should still be considered core gamers?

Perusing the feeds this afternoon, I was surprised to discover an article that basically amounts to a ringing endorsement of the New Generation of gaming. Not the “Next” Generation, which is a farce created by video game marketers, but “new.” As in, all-inclusive, approachable games that place fun before competition, and game play over graph–well, I won’t go there again because I fear I’ve beaten that dead horse enough.

The article was a hands-on impression of Guitar Hero World Tour (Xbox 360/PS3 and Wii versions), and the site, I’m pleasantly surprised to say, was Kotaku. It remains to be seen if AJ Glasser’s write up will be torn to shreds by the Koyaku faithful (so far, so good), but what I do know is the Wii version–and the people who played that version at the demo (you’ll see what I mean)–were what impressed her the most. (more…)

After showcasing spectacular games like Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5, Fable 2 and Gears of War 2, things took an abrupt turn toward the casual during the Microsoft E3 press conference.

Much to our surprise, the company spent the majority of its time introducing new Wii-inspired 360 features. We expected to see Microsoft rip-off Nintendo, to be frank, but not to this extent.

(more…)