NY Times: Wii sounds like ‘We’ for a reason

The NY Times recently ran an article about the secret of the Wii’s success – and it’s a bit anticlimactic, yet very, very true when you take into consideration the massive failure the GameCube was. We get you the lowdown on what sort of hat-trick Nintendo pulled off into making the Wii such a smash hit.

So what’s the answer to the Wii being such a hit? Friends. One of the main causes that the GameCube tanked was Nintendo being aloof and cold to most third-party game developers who wanted to develop games for the legendary company, preferring to make the games in-house and keep it that way.
 
And while the GameCube can certainly hold its own against its last-gen rivals the PS2 and the Xbox, it suffered from a crippling lack of games – games that could have easily and readily been made had Nintendo been just a little nicer.

Now, they’re not just being nice, but they’re being all buddy-buddy with the developers. Long before the Nintendo Wii hit shelves, Ninty executives actually appealed to parties such as Namco Bandai to develop games for the console – the group going around to demonstrate a working prototype.

And while technically, it falls behind the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, it got a very neglected and very profitable audience – the non-gamer demographic – hooked into gaming, this owing to the Wii’s motion-sensing capabilities that got gamers off the couch and moving around. This innovative take on gaming, combined with Nintendo’s now proactive efforts in reaching out to developers, fueled a fire that made the Wii as successful as it is today.

Good game, Nintendo – you’ve living proof that nice guys don’t always finish last. You can check out the read link for the full article.

The NY Times recently ran an article about the secret of the Wii’s success – and it’s a bit anticlimactic, yet very, very true when you take into consideration the massive failure the GameCube was. We get you the lowdown on what sort of hat-trick Nintendo pulled off into making the Wii such a smash hit.

So what’s the answer to the Wii being such a hit? Friends. One of the main causes that the GameCube tanked was Nintendo being aloof and cold to most third-party game developers who wanted to develop games for the legendary company, preferring to make the games in-house and keep it that way.
 
And while the GameCube can certainly hold its own against its last-gen rivals the PS2 and the Xbox, it suffered from a crippling lack of games – games that could have easily and readily been made had Nintendo been just a little nicer.

Now, they’re not just being nice, but they’re being all buddy-buddy with the developers. Long before the Nintendo Wii hit shelves, Ninty executives actually appealed to parties such as Namco Bandai to develop games for the console – the group going around to demonstrate a working prototype.

And while technically, it falls behind the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, it got a very neglected and very profitable audience – the non-gamer demographic – hooked into gaming, this owing to the Wii’s motion-sensing capabilities that got gamers off the couch and moving around. This innovative take on gaming, combined with Nintendo’s now proactive efforts in reaching out to developers, fueled a fire that made the Wii as successful as it is today.

Good game, Nintendo – you’ve living proof that nice guys don’t always finish last. You can check out the read link for the full article.