Where have you been, DK?! We last saw you in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! for DSiWare. Really? A DSiWare title? It’s a neat little game, but why didn’t they tell you that you’re “over qualified” for that position? We know times are tough and you’ll do anything to get a job, but you deserve better, DK. Really, you do.
Instead of punching license plates when serving hard time, convicts at the UK’s top-security Broadmoor Hospital are being “treated” with Wii Sports and Wii Fit. With 22 newly purchased Wii consoles hooked up to plasma TVs, Broadmoor has more smiles packed in it than a Chuck E. Cheese’s. A spokesperson for Broadmoor noted that while Wii Sports and their other “Xbox and PlayStation” consoles are for treatment, Wii Fit is part of a strategy to increase exercise and improve fitness.
“When you think of their crimes and the misery they have caused, you have to ask if it’s right for society to pay to entertain them,” said the Sun‘s source. It may be labeled a hospital, but there are some characters even Ganondorf couldn’t hold a candle to. Peter Sutcliffe, also known as “The Yorkshire Ripper,” murdered 13 women in the 1980′s and is serving a life imprisonment sentence at the facility. We hear he plays a mean game of Wii Bowling. No, really. He does.
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.
