Four: The Glory of the Wii
Forget Superman, Nintendo "Returns"
It's pretty amusing, really, to think that for most of 2006 the Nintendo Wii was only an afterthought. Most gamers (since Sony has pretty much owned the market for a decade) were far more excited about the PlayStation 3, which promised graphics that could trump the Xbox 360, an internal Blu-ray player, and HDMI I/O. Since gaming on home consoles has generally been about graphics and traditional gameplay, no one really seemed to believe Nintendo's budget system, with only marginally-improved visuals from the last generation, could revolutionize gaming.
I'll admit it, I didn't really see this coming. As a mature gamer, in recent years I've basically ruled Nintendo out. After owning the often frustrating Nintendo 64 and watching from a distance as the Gamecube treaded water, I began to think Sega might soon have company in the "has been" league. Throughout most of 2006, I felt Nintendo was eventually going to settle into just making games for Microsoft and Sony.
Oh, how wrong I was. It seems that mainstream gamers avoided the funeral that was the PlayStation 3 launch and instead waited in line for the Wii. In the month before Christmas, despite Nintendo's greater number of units available, the Wii became harder to find - in some cases - than the PS3. In the wake of shortages, to which I fell victim on one occasion, Nintendo struck the absolute perfect balance with its Wii availability. Few enough were out there that the console became a treasure for those who found it, and yet its still-substantial numbers meant a tidy (or massive) profit for the Japanese company.
As I mentioned in my coverage of the "Wii Elbow", the media's obsession with such a ridiculous story actually brewed more interest in the console. Although there's certainly a higher risk you'll damage something while playing the Wii - and that's the fun of it - most people don't personally expect to do so. And thus, the firestorm over the injuries, promised wrist strap replacement and subsequent lawsuits all did one very important thing: drum up curiosity regarding the Wii.
As 2007 begins, Microsoft and Sony both have powerful machines on the market. However, their attempts to make the Xbox 360 and PS3 mainstream - via expensive high definition game and movie playback - has failed in comparison to Nintendo's pitched change-up to the way titles are played. It's this strategy that has brought in the casual gamer population, and leaves Nintendo in position to leapfrog the competition.
