Ahhh. What a glorious day this is. The air is crisp, the birds are chirping, and once again Sony has proven itself to be the arrogant electronics behemoth that it is. But before I go off on a Sony tangent again, this is a Nintendo blog, and in my opinion Sept. 14 just became the biggest day in Nintendo history next to the eventual launch day of the Wii console. Why? Because as it stands now, Nintendo is not only launching first in North America and Japan, but also when it launches in Europe it will be the only next generation console launching into the hands of those oft stepped on European gamers who usually must wait to get the things us Yanks get first. Sony has effectively ceded Europe to Microsoft and Nintendo, and has put all its eggs into the lucrative North American/Japanese markets. But with the DS doing as well as it has in Japan, and with the 360 and Wii beating Sony to the punch in the States… well, you get the idea.
With that said, and with the number of PS3 units available at launch now set at 400,000 in the U.S. and 100,000 in Japan, just how important do you think the Nintendo media events and Wii parties scheduled for Sept. 14 and throughout October have just become? Is the level of anticipation too high, as one commenter to Infendo said yesterday?
[Thanks, Dan]
As much as we're excited about them, the media events and parties won't mean much to Joe Consumer. He didn't care about E3 or TGS.What will matter is the promotional blitz afterwards. Within a span of approximately two months or less, we're going to see a voluminous amount of ads, TV specials, and viral marketing for both Wii and PS3.
If Nintendo ever had a time to put its best foot forward, to take the bull by the horn, to seize the moment… then this is it. They will have only themselves to kick or hang if they don't full advantage of this opportunity on Sept 14th and 15th. So much is not known… so much to show and talk about to make us believe. I hope they realize that they can bring a complete product that's very user friendly but functionally rich for Nintendo hardcore gamers.
Woah! Slow with the horses.I hope that Nintendo will launch as well in Europe in 2006… because I'm a little sceptical…Microsoft gained a lot of respect in Europe for launching worldwide – even when this meant shortages…