I want to shed the label of biased Nintendo fanboy, I really do, but when the people offering up counterpoints to pro-Wii writers like Brier Dudley are as dense as ITWire’s Stan Beer, it just makes things difficult. To preface my forthcoming remarks, let me say that Nintendo’s quest to woo non-gamers with the Wii will be a tough fight. That said, let’s take a look-see at what the detractors are saying about Wii’s chances…
“The reason that most middle aged people don’t play games is that more often or not they’re too busy doing other things. Like bringing up children, feeding their families, furthering their careers and socialising with friends…”
Apparently, the b, r, a, i, n, a, g, and e keys on Mr. Beer’s laptop aren’t working today, else he could have Google’d “Brain Age” and saved himself the embarrasment of his opening point. Maybe he’s never heard of Second Life either. It was only featured in BusinessWeek this week, but whatever. And this next point, while lengthy, needs to be shown in its entirety.
“If Nintendo really was serious about reaching the non-gamer market, then perhaps it would have done well to take a leaf out Microsoft’s and Sony’s books. Both companies realised long ago that the way to get to non-gamers with consoles is to give them something other than games, such as DVD players, internet connections and video streaming. The Wii may feature a unique 3-dimensional controller, but the device itself is so one-dimensional. Fancy having a console that plays games off standard DVDs, yet it won’t even play DVD movies. By not including a simple DVD player on the Wii console, Nintendo missed a real opportunity. Most consumers still don’t give a damn about high definition video technology because it’s too expensive. However, everyone wants a DVD player in their living room.”
Mr. Beer, last I checked DVD players were so commonplace that they spontaneously appeared in the living rooms of new homes and recently rented apartments. Crappy economy cars have them preinstalled in the backs of their seats. The poorest of the poor can find DVD players for US$30. Mr. Beer, apparently, still listens to cassette tapes and starts his car with a crank. And we’ve all seen how multi-faceted game consoles, like the PSP, continually dominate the DS week after week, right?
Actually, I have to agree to some extent. Wii has an incredible opportunity to be the all-in-one everything fun machine beneath the TV people didn't know they've been dreaming of.It's easy to use, has a pointing device you can use from your sofa in 3D, media processing capabilities, Wifi connectivity, internal memory, USB and SD card ports and a low low price. If only it played all that disc media we'd accumulated, and let us finally THROW OUT that FUGLY DVD player we bought in 1999 it'd be perfect.
Everybody has a DVD player and they are so cheap then why didn't they include it? Not everybody owns a DVD player. I would love it if I had a game system and a DVD player in one. That way I wouldn't have to have insane ammounts of players around. But my surround sound is better than a WiiDVD.
it has a dvd drive… it just needs the player on the system… you will probably have to download it with Wii points or whatever… same with a music player… they didn't skip out… they're just clever…
While he kinda has a point, giving non-gamers things like dvd playback etc. does nothing to get them into gaming, Because they aren't f@#$cking games! People need games that they'll play, having a dvd player is just a reason for kids use to try and convince their parents into buying them a new toy.
Think about it…A DVD player?For what? To give the machine a shorter life span because of a exesive use of the LASER…Ask your friends how many PS2s they bought because of a "disk read error"!
I have two DVD players connected to my TV already. One in my Xbox360 and one in my stereo. The stereo one is the best one since its quiet. If these two aren't enough I have two laptops with DVD drives and a DVI socket on the TV. And then theres the cheapo DVD player on the attic…That said. Both my component sockets are busy right now and when I get my Wii I will have to unplug the stereo. That will make me lose out on progscan mode.So, as soon as the big N releases a downloadable DVD player I'll get it. The 360 is too noisy to use.
Some people still have TV's that don't have a large number of video inputs. It sort of counters the arguement of supporting the low tech guy.But as was said, it reads DVD media, there will be a S/W solution in the near future.But this is certainly not a failing on Nintendo's part, it is a game player.