Selling Wii is "like trying to sell cosmetics to men" says Nintendo's Iwata

by Blake Snow on Sep 19th 2006 11:30AM

In a report with Bloomberg discussing the importance of non-gamers to Wii's success, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said: "We want to appeal to mothers who don't want consoles in their living rooms, and to the elderly and to young women ... It's a challenge, like trying to sell cosmetics to men." In a testosterone driven gaming world, that analogy might not be far off, and it's good to see Iwata-san recognizing the challenge.

The article also features a very favorable quote on Wii from Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Tokyo-based video game researcher Enterbrain Inc. (which publishes Famitsu magazine): "Wii definitely could become the most popular console of all time. Non-gamers can see how fun it is just by looking at people playing it, and that's very different from the PS3 or Xbox 360." Those who take greater risks can expect greater change; for better or for worse.

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Tags: Wii

Reader Comments (64)

Wii FTW!

http://spin720.com/images/iwata-cosmetics.jpg

Kinda difficult to sell it to those people when u have it at 250 bucks with 60 dollar controllers!!! Not very appealing price wise nintendo.

What frightens me about the Wii is that if it takes marketshare, the market is going to be flooded with crap trying to capture the casual gamer, making lots of games I could care less about. Just look at the DS wall at your local game store and count how many kiddy, nintendog ripoff, nickelodeon liscensed games are there. Despite what anyone tries to sell me on it, I have enjoyed very few DS games.

I can see what he is saying but i really can't see how this is not going to succeed. The fact is that both the ps3 and the 360 are going for the same market. The wii ia aiming to capture the hardcore market and those who have never played or have not played for a long time.

I showed my dad the fishing trailer of Zelda and even he was impresses and my sister can't wait to beat me up on wii sports boxing. We are talking two people who would never ever play on games normally!!

All this for £179 plus all the old game downloads, wireless internet, that cute mii thing. Its like for once ninty have really covered all the bases. I have owned pretty much every console since the nes onwards and this exites me the most since the n64. I love my ps2 and my 360 but there are games on the wii that i will have never played before. Thats what i'm so looking fwd too!!!

When I showed the DS and Nintendogs to my girlfriend, she had a blast, and she always claimed she never liked any video games since she was a kid playing the NES.

After showing Brain Age to my grandfather, he asked for a DS of his own for Father's Day. And he loves it.

This is the kind of "new" gaming Nintendo is trying to advance.

I showed the video demo of all the Wii games to my girlfriend and she got excited, and she won't touch an Xbox or PS2 controller.

Im not knocking traditional gaming, but I think Nintendo has a LOT of potential in this system.

You know, this is begging for an Alex Rodriguez joke, it really is. Maybe about a Wii-branded man-bag.

I'd personally look towards the auto industry if I was Iwata. Think, the sport utility vehicle was meant to be an off-road vehicle for outdoorsmen and campers. Instead, it became everyone's favorite urban menace (but my anti-SUV rant is for another time). It's clearly quite possible for the Wii to extend well past its base of established video gamers, and learning from Toyota, GM, et al. might be what Nintendo needs.

Erik Novak, it could be a good thing. I know I'm not the only one who's tired of seeing the endless supply of FPS, Action, and Racing games that are currently being stocked on the shelves for console games. All that matters is that the companies that make good games keep making good games. Some companies are going to make bad games, no matter the genre.

this gonna be a good christmas, 2 new systems, few good games (3-4) combined between the 3 new systems... cant wait 2 months to go....

looking at people playing the wii you can't tell they are having a blast over regular consoles.

now the people overacting in the nintendo videos like they are playing, sure then it looks fun... but im talking about watching real people really playing it

Sure it'll be a hard sale to those that don't play videogames. But so was the DS, and that did exceedingly well in Japan. The Wii will dominate that market.

There's a ton of obstacles to overcome to reach the "casual, non video-game-playing" market. Nintendo will make some small advances there; I doubt everyone will have a Wii. But those that get around one may suddenly find an interest.

It won't be a hard sale to most of the rest of us, though.

I think a better title for this post would be "Selling Wii [to Women] 'is like trying to sell cosmetics to men'"

Erik Novak, I'm fairly certain you can Nickelodeon-brand games on most systems, not just the DS. If you're not enjoying the DS, well, not sure what to say. Lots of people would disagree with you. I'm loving my Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow right now.

I dont get the whole casual game on a console; there are tons of free flash based casual games available online.

I wonder if the Opera Browser is going to enable Flash so that you can play these games (and sidestep VC) .. im guessing not for this very reason.

32-footsteps.

Wow someone must LIVE on this site. 13 Stars!?

"I wonder if the Opera Browser is going to enable Flash so that you can play these games (and sidestep VC) .. im guessing not for this very reason."

Nintendo is making a profit on the Wii system itself. As long as you're playing it on their system instead of a PC, they still win.

Erik Novak, I don't know what DS games you've seen, but when I was looking, I found a lot of dating sims, things I thought I could only find on Newgrounds. B-)

If the Wii controller is a success then Sony and Microsoft will come up with their own versions and the market will settle down. Expect tons of patent fights to ensue. Sony won't let their vibration patent gyros to happen again. It's only a controller that has everyone jazzed about Nintendo. Right now it's only on Nintendo's machine but give it a year and see how Sony and Microsoft respond. You know they will.

OOOOps,

Opera for Wii has been confirmed to have Flash.

"Nintendo is making a profit on the Wii system itself. As long as you're playing it on their system instead of a PC, they still win."

True to a certain point.

But, if people can use the browser to play a flash-based Brain Age for free; then it undercuts Nintendos profits. Basically, anyone can set up a website with wii-specific controls and offer flash based equivilents of Wii casual games. The website could use advertising as a means of revenue generation.

To reiterate my point; its highly likely that the Opera browser will NOT support flash..you heard it here first.

"What frightens me about the Wii is that if it takes marketshare, the market is going to be flooded with crap trying to capture the casual gamer, making lots of games I could care less about. Just look at the DS wall at your local game store and count how many kiddy, nintendog ripoff, nickelodeon liscensed games are there. Despite what anyone tries to sell me on it, I have enjoyed very few DS games.
"

WOW! It's ALMOST like you're not their target audience or something.

What? You didn't like "Cross Roads" with Brittany Spears either? Well this just doesn't make sense. That movie had such universal appeal.

Hmmm? You like Oranges but you DON'T like apples? Oh get off it! EVERYONE knows that if you like oranges you MUST like apples. I mean....they are EXACTLY the same.

You don't like casual games? Well then you better not buy the Wii. I mean...if even ONE game isn't to your liking I'm sure NONE of them will be.

I hear EVERY game is going to be casual and cutsy, anyway.

I hear Samus is being replaced with Hello Kitty in Metroid and Link will be played by a tellatubby in Zelda.

/rolls eyes and ends sarcasm.

@El Hajjish ... they also said that Wii was region free, that it would play DVDs, and allow external HDD as storage (SD only, i bet Panasonic had a say in that).

To misquote Gloria Steinham, "A woman needs a Wii like a fish needs a bicycle."

@ 32_Footsteps

It's not a manbag, it's European!

Oh wait, no it isn't. :D

Anyways, now that we've seen a PC FPS of ALL games no less, Half-Life (2?) make it into the arcade there's no reason that something like HL2 could do well on Wii. Even if the Wii is only comparable to Xbox (yeah right :P) Xbox could run HL2, so it's possible games that are as complex or derivative to HL2 could be on Wii just as easy as Arcade light-gun games could be.

Given the right amount of consideration I think any game that doesn't need to be processing-hungry(like Dead Rising) could be great on Wii.

Man, dozens of people at my college are talking about Wii. Many of them can't wait to play Wii Tennis in the dorm's mini-theater. Can't wait!

Erik Novak, everyone doesn't share your taste in games. You can't dismiss casual DS games when Nintendogs has sold as many copies as Halo (7 million each, on systems with similiar install bases).

Actually its not very hard at all... if they're gay.

"Non-gamers can see how fun it is just by looking at people playing it, and that's very different from the PS3"

LMAO!! Yeah non gamers are going to see some nerd playing pokemon on Wii and think "wow, waving your arms around liek a fairy looks like so much fun, I want to do it too". Give me a break, this is the most fanboy post I've read on here in a while...

I think a better analogy would be to the 'it' (Segway) and all the stupid breathless early hype it had, just like the Wii. "Its going to reinvent the way we build cities", haha it turned out to be just a gimmicky scooter, just like Wii will.

wtf is tiger tim doing playing wii

27 and 28: "Give me a break, this is the most fanboy post I've read on here in a while..."

Two stupid hater posts are worse than one 'fanboy' post. Honestly.

Sitting on the couch like a lump with a controller in the lap is a thing of the past, or should be. Nintendo is hoping to change this by getting people more involved and more energetic when it comes to interacting with the games. Props for trying, if anything. I don't mind the price, since in the long run the Wii still is cheaper than the other systems available.

For those of you still kicking the dead horse about the controller being $60 or the system being $250, put in perspective how much the same device will cost applied to Sony or Microsoft. Controllers: $50. Systems: $400 / $600. Now pile on the price for games.

Goodwin, that was Steinham's deliberate misquoting of Vique's Law - A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle.

As for playing Flash games on the Wii... look, how many people are going to be able to do this that can't already do this on their PC? If it means that people are playing Flash games on the Wii instead of the PC, then it means Nintendo is at least making money on the hardware that used to go to other sources. Not the ideal profit-maker, but still not a bad turn.

I think it's great that Nintendo are aiming at these different markets. What will annoy me though is if Nintendo convert all these women/old people to gamers and then they take the route that alot of gamers have and insist on better graphics, and head over to the 360 or PS3. Microsoft and Sony should be doing their bit too for this big change in gaming culture.

The Wii will also help encourage the current gamers into other genres that they may previously have hated. I've never been a fan of driving games but even I would love to give Excite Truck a go just to experience a driving game with a unique contol method.

Just a shame us Europeans are the last to experience it :(

I agree with #10...the title was misleading.

@crono141

I don't know about the FTW just yet, but i am sure it will be FTB...

If there is anything we owe Nintendo, its that for the first time in years (maybe even a decade) video games aren't being seen as evil. Especially now more than ever with the american gov't passing all sorts of video game regulation, Nintendo is coming out with a system that is *encouraging* players, parents and politicians to think differently about gaming. We owe them that at least.

"Non-gamers can see how fun it is just by looking at people playing it, and that's very different from the PS3 or Xbox 360."

Does he mean those dorky people jumping behind couches and stuff? I really really hated that video. It looked like one of those old local commercials for a laser tag arcade. Look at how over-exaggerated fun our paid actors are having!!!

There's one game franchise that has that "this is so incredibly fun to watch people play" thing for real, that no Wii game will ever achieve. Need a hint? It rhymes with Guitar Bleero. Need another hint? It isn't Excitetruck.

How can Nintendo claim to be marketing the Wii towards soccer moms and the elderly at that HD price point?!?! Nintendo is rapidly becoming worse than Sony, IMHO.

@ Socrates

Oh really?

Is it Dance Dance Revolutioneero?

I agree about the tacky commercials, but that's about it.

Im sorry but i dont want to see my grandparents playing games nor my mother....Nor could i care less lets be honest i dont want to fight with who gets to play next with my parents are grandparents. and lets be honest They already have games like this the golf baseball tennis standalone games and their much cheaper. Sure Nintendo will have more games but that whole grandma angle...im dont buy it cause grandma aint playing zelda or metroid. Nintendo isnt trying to help bring families together they're out to make more money. But thinking parents will buy their own and kids willing to share with their parents is not a goos idea

I disagree. I mean, I understand why people are interested in the Wii and I have the utmost respect for Nintendo but trying to sell me a Wii would be exactly like trying to sell me cosmetics. It won't ever happen. I'm not the target audience at all.

I'll wait till next year for a wii. It's not a gotta have system yet.

Metahuman -

You don't agree that...Guitar Hero is fun??? Insanity!

And here I was going to make a joke about how Sony and Harmonix have already been selling us guys cosmetics - KISS makeup!

The bigger point remains that nothing about the Wii gives Nintendo a monopoly or even inherent advantage when it comes to the "way cool social games that draw people in" category...and whether it be DDR or Guitar Hero, I'd argue they don't even have the best games in that field at the moment...and this is even before Microsoft and Sony mount their counterattack on Nintendo's self-crowning of themselves as the kinds of infectuous fun.

socrates,

I don't see any reason why Guitar hero couldn't be on Wii. Hell, the guitar could just be a shell, plug the Wiimote in the back somewhere, and use it's accelerometer with the Guitar's frets and strum thingy and whammy bar. If they want to get creative I'm sure the speaker could be used for something too.

Those Guitar hero guys are fools if they DON'T put Guitar Hero out on all systems. It's one game where processing power isn't going to matter. Download additional content throuh WiiConnect24, X-box Live, or Playstation Blu-Wave(a phrase I just made up).

"...and this is even before Microsoft and Sony mount their counterattack on Nintendo's self-crowning of themselves as the kinds of infectuous fun."

socrates, you have a big error there. Nintendo has never said they're the new kings of fun. They're publically admitting to shooting for that kind of thing, but it's mostly the fans who are doing that, and it seems that it's becoming the dominant theme of the next generation as of now.

Don't hate Nintendo for a corporate strategy - hate the fanboys who proseltyze it to an absurd level.

Also, and maybe it's the graphic on the emo tour thread, but I've been thinking for a while that maybe Guitar Hero (or a competitor to the series) could do well on the Wii. And I'm half-expecting the Wii to bring a comeback of Para Para Paradise. The possibility is there; it's just a question of whether anyone actually makes it work.

Now that's quite the doublestandard. Everyone sure as hell holds Sony and Microsoft accountable for their marketing campaigns. The claim I quoted above from Nintendo is entirely consistent with what they say all the time, which is designed to give the impression that their console is inherently going to be easier to market to grandmas and the like. My response is that some games of theirs will be, but some games from other consoles are just as much so. Maybe "self crowning" is somewhat hyperbole given that they didn't actually wear a crown during the orchestral conducting thing, but I think my point is solid. But yes, I have no anger against Nintendo for pursuing a (relatively successful) marketing strategy, but those who repeat it like dogma are fairly irritating.

Why does everyone think that the Wii is overpriced? For the experience that your getting from it (think Video Games 2: Super Fun Time!) it a real bargain. If consoles were priced by fun-factor, there would be a lot of systems that would be in the neighborhood, of say, $64.87, maybe $70 w/ a copy of Halo 3 bundled in.

What, no Fabio (sp?) jokes?

socrates, before you accuse me of holding you to a double standard, you better offer some evidence that I would read too much into a company's statements as opposed to their fanboys' statements. Otherwise, you're falsely accusing me.

You also realize that by being hyperbolic, your comment is not consistent with what Nintendo is saying. Hyperbole is exaggeration, and exaggeration is an overextension of, not a parallel to, reality.

As for the comments about how you don't want to see your parents play a video game... what, is it going to shatter your worldview if your parents are caught playing video games? Should I really shock you and reveal that your parents and grandparents aren't virgins? Saying you don't want a group of people to share your hobby is downright petulant, and more than a little snobby.

"47. Why does everyone think that the Wii is overpriced? For the experience that your getting from it (think Video Games 2: Super Fun Time!) it a real bargain. If consoles were priced by fun-factor, there would be a lot of systems that would be in the neighborhood, of say, $64.87, maybe $70 w/ a copy of Halo 3 bundled in.

Posted at 2:36PM on Sep 19th 2006 by Adam Johnson 0 stars"

Don't be angry and bitter that you're paying an HD price point for a non-HD system. You only have yourself to blame.

Well, at least you have to say one thing for Nintendo: They're trying. I don't think Moms and Dads are going to be too keen to spend $400 to $600 on a video game this Christmas when there's a perfectly acceptable $250 next-gen system out there. I don't see MS or Sony competing with that for the holidays.

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Selling Wii is "like trying to sell cosmetics to men" says Nintendo's Iwata

Reader Comments (64)

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