Wii versus the world, analogy style
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 4:49pm by Jack
Joystiq is having some fun with George Harrison’s recent interview about the console wars, in which he invokes cars to make the whole war thing easier to understand. It’s not the first time this has happened. Sony was also caught making similar references with food and restaurants in a GamePro interview. We all know how that turned out.
In an interview with The Motley Fool, Harrison compared the Wii to a hybrid competing against two SUVs with chrome rims. While all three are technically cars, Harrison said the markets for each aren’t likely to overlap. “Two companies are going in one direction, and we’re headed in another,” Harrison said.
My oh my, I wonder what that rascally Joystiq will do next?!
Joystiq says:
While he’s definitely right on that last point, we’re not sure the hybrid/SUV comparison is the most apt analogy to describe the current console wars. Here’s a few other contenders we’ve managed to come up with:
* A nutritious Apple (the Wii) vs. two heart-clogging double bacon cheeseburgers.
* A pea-shooter vs. two rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
* A $99 suit vs. two custom-tailored Giorgio Armanis
* A Casio digital watch vs. two diamond-encrusted Rolexes.
Sounds like a fun exercise. Let’s dissect what’s already been said above. The first is pretty spot on. Firstly, the Wii is literally more nutritious, as many rettirement homes and cancer survivors can attest. Second, you can do more with an apple than you can with two cheeseburgers. There’s more potential, and someone can always come along and make something completely new with the Apple that no one else has thought of before. Those cheeseburgers, well, they’re already cooked and processed. Not much you can do other than eat them. Some may argue that these cheeseburgers are a little bloated with ingredients, and that they may give you a stomach ache. But that’s just what some people say.
The second analogy is also accurate. The Wii is not as powerful, but I’d rather have an incredibly accurate, reliable pea shooter than a grenade launcher with so many features in it that you never actually get around to firing the thing(PS3). Or, a grenade launcher that’s potent but breaks on you 30% of the time (Xbox 360).
The third analogy I chewed on for a while before agreeing that it, too, was accurate. I’ll never be able to afford an Armani, but I know I’ll have more fun in my suit from Macy’s because I’ll have plenty of money left over for the party I’m going to. I’ll also look pretty sharp and no one but the most discerning of suit aficionados will know the difference. My only gripe with this one is the custom-tailored part. If either of the two power systems were like that, I would be able to strip out all those unnecessary features, like TV show downloading and Blu-Ray. I can’t. In fact, with firmware updates the systems actually get more bloated with TiVo-like features, etc, which firther threaten the life of the system as it must now compete not only with Nintendo, but also with movie companies, Apple, and DVR manufacturers. To modify the analogy even further, the PS3 and Xbox are like Armani suits off the rack. And the racks are pretty full right now.
The watch analogy is similar to the grenade launcher one. My Casio does as advertised: it tells time. It tells time well. It is a reliable watch that doesn’t break and doesn’t have any unnecessary bells or whistles. Those diamonds look great on those Rolexes, but they do little to help me tell time, which is the primary reason I bought a watch in the first place. Diamonds on watches are also something that appeal to a very small niche of the population. That doesn’t bode well for diamond watches getting picked up by a large number of people. Plus, many many more people have a Casio than a Rolex, because in the end when a majority of people buy a watch, it is to tell time. I can relate to that way of thinking.
Any more bright ideas out there?
September 5th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
i love the breakdowns. brilliant
September 5th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I think a car analogy is the best. But I also think that Harrison’s is spun a bit (which he is perfectly entitled to do).
Instead of a Hybrid (which are more expensive than most standard cars), I would say the Wii is most like an economy car, i.e. Honda Civic. Still economical (low power consumption, lower software costs), but not too much new technology to drive the cost up.
Instead of an SUV, I see the other consoles more like sports cars. They are fast with lots of features that most people don’t need. But car afficianodos appreciate them.
Of course all the other analogies are much more fun.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Tank (PS3)
SUV (360)
Minichopper/Glider (Wii)
September 5th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
hehe- i liked that thread on joystiq. The audience came up with some funny ones. My favorite:
**
Anyone watch HBO’s Entourage? It breaks down like this:
Wii = Vince, cause, well, everybody likes Vince
360 = Ari Gold. Arrogant and obnoxious (red ring of death), yet has enough power and smarts to become popular with a sizable group
PS3 = Johnny Drama. Nobody likes him, nobody wants him, yet he pretends like everything he does is the shit. Lots of untapped potential; he’s finding himself.
**
lol.
also funny is that you guys liked the joystiq analogies, but some nintendo fans all out FLAMED them for bias. guess it’s all relative.
oh, and kazi stuck a nice hardcore gamer definition post in there somewhere too, if you’re interested.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
I don’t know that I would say Jack “liked” the joystiq analogies. I think his “like” was more tongue in cheek, being that he went on to demonstrate that the analogies were correct, but for all the wrong reasons.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Here it goes. My analogy using animals
Wii: Bunny
PS3: Rabid Dog
360: Wolverine
September 6th, 2007 at 3:38 am
Wii: electron
360: planet
PS3: universe
September 6th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Wii: apple
360: orange
PS3: bigger orange
All I’m saying is, comparing the Wii with the 360 or PS3 is like comparing apples and oranges! Being a Wii360 owner, I can’t say that I see both gadgets as being in the same category at all! Entertainment devices, maybe? But including all three consoles simply in the “gaming” category stretches the definition of “gaming” waaay too much!
September 7th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Um, the primary purpose of all three is to play games, despite Sony’s pretense and Microsoft’s desires. They’re all very solidly in the gaming category.
If we’re gonna do the car analogy, the hybrid vs. SUV thing doesn’t actually work because most SUVs are still less expensive than most hybrids. Maybe the Wii is the New Beetle, the 360 is a Town Car, and the PS3 is…. well… what’s the last mass-market sports car that totally tanked, the Ford Probe?
I guess my fundamental criticism of all the Joystiq analogies except the food one is that they depict the Wii as common, easy to obtain, unsophisticated, and the other two as absurdly high-end luxury items with tiny market shares of their respective markets and prices that are orders of magnitude higher than mass-market products: RPGs, Armanis, Rolexes.
If those analogies were accurate, the Wii would have about 90% of the gaming market, and the other two consoles would be fighting over that last 10%.
Hmmmm, maybe they’re actually kinda prescient. But then again, if the analogies were accurate, the other two consoles would be more like $40,000 than $400-500 each, and there would be a ton of little Chinese video game console makers sharing the market with the Wii.
What I take away from all of this is Joystiq moving to position itself as a hardcore-only news outlet, while most of the magazines and web sites are falling all over themselves to put distance between them and their earlier ridicule of Nintendo. Maybe it’ll work for them, but I think it’ll mean they become marginalized after a while.
September 7th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Ugh, I really should check the dates on my news feed before I start replying to yesterday’s news. My bad.