Nintendo Wii wins! 2007 the year of casual video games
Nintendo WiiNintendo Wii week-to-week sales numbers spent 2007 stomping the snot out of Xbox 360 and PlayStation3. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before Wii outsold even the Xbox 360 which had been available for a year prior to the release of Wii.
Now that 2007 is in the books, it’s hard to deny that this has been a year of inclusion in video game entertainment. Games developers have found building games with more interactivity and appeal to casual game fans is very profitable.
When the Financial Times declared that Nintendo Wii was the sales leader of this generation’s current crop of game consoles in September 2007, we weren’t surprised.
The lesson of Wii
If there is one valuable lesson learned from Wii designer Shigeru Miyamoto it is the value of inclusion. The lesson would be repeated by games throughout the year by the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero III. These new music games engage players to interact with each other. Having seen my share of Guitar Hero at parties I can only imagine Rock Band takes a similar game-play to the next level with even more players and more instruments.
It’s like a return to the early 90s when multi-player video gaming was social. In the days before high speed Internet you had to play multi-player games with people in the room with you. But make no mistake - using a Sega Genesis controller to perform complex fatalities at Mortal Kombat parties was by definition a geek-fest. Most of these early games only appealed to hardcore gamers or slacker stoners.
Happy New Year!
Tags: Cell Phones, music, Scams
