Gadgets Blog » Nintendo Wii

The decade is almost over, and wow, what a decade it has been. The technological advancements easily set this decade apart from many others, and a lot of that has to do with Apple and Nintendo.

The world of gaming saw the creation of the motion-controlled Nintendo Wii, X-box 360 and hardware powerhouse PlayStation 3. Everyone was “bowling” with the Wiimote and fighting with light sabers until Microsoft came out with the Kinect for X-box 360 and the game changed. As graphics and sound developed far beyond those of the ’90s, televisions have kept up with them. You can now watch movies and play video games on 3D high-definition televisions and even see them in realistic 3D on the big screen.

This could easily be considered the decade of the smartphone. Perhaps, no other medium has come so far so fast. Blackberry started it all by syncing e-mail and calendar with my computer, and then Apple revolutionized smartphones by adding real Internet browsing and hundreds of thousands of apps for everything from shopping and maps to games and sexy women in bikinis. Just when you thought Apple was going to corner the smartphone market, Android came in, and while it hasn’t overtaken the iPhone yet, it’s gaining a following.

This decade put the final nail on the paperback coffin, with millions of e-readers being sold. Kindle and the like can download books directly to the reader, as well as get the daily New York Times. Entire bookshelves can be downsized to a single tablet reader.

This holiday season many children will open up a new PlayStation 3, Wii and X-box 360 with Kinect and play the most graphically amazing games created, using everything from handheld devices to their own body as controllers.

I have been gaming for more than 25 years, so I remember the early days of Atari and Nintendo. For this reason, I thought I would take a look back at the technology of the past so that we can appreciate the technology of the present.

Atari: Who remembers using a screwdriver to connect the Atari to the television? This was before the days of the red, white and yellow A/V inputs. I still remember sitting on my parents’ bed playing Breakout for hours. The sound effects consisted of beep followed by a boop and then another beep. Whew, those were some crazy times. Space Invaders, Combat and a plethora of other classic games that anyone over 30 remembers. The graphics consisted of various block forms, and the controllers had one button.

8-bit machines: I like to call this the golden age of gaming. Nintendo debuted the Nintendo Entertainment System along with a little Italian Plumber named Mario bent on saving Princess Toadstool from the clutches of the evil Bowser. Some of you might also remember Robbie the Robot, who you could control to play a game called Gyroscope. Yeah, nobody else does either.

5. Donkey Kong: He came into the video game world as a menace to Mario and his girlfriend, and has since become a loving father and avid race car driver. It’s obvious when Donkey Kong was created that they were going after the whole King Kong vibe, but just like wrestling, he ended up changing sides. His most recent game, Donkey Kong Country Returns, came out this month. He’s an old monkey, and it’s time to slip him his last banana and leave the tough stuff to Donkey Kong, Jr.

4. Lara Croft: Arguably, the first video game sex symbol when she burst on the scene her tight shorts and athletic moves had gamers playing with their joysticks for hours. She spawned many games and even two movies starring Angelina Jolie, and there is talk of a reboot in the works. Her latest game, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, came out in September. Let’s face it, folks; she’s had the same outfit and hairstyle for 15 years. Just like Angelina needs to make way for Megan Fox (oh, snap), Lara needs to make way for someone else.

3. Pac Man: Just like Donkey Kong, Pac Man was one of the first true video game stars found in arcades around the globe. He even got his wife and kids in on the ghost-gobbling business. He spawned countless games, cartoons and breakfast cereals, and his most recent game came out this month. You want to talk about a workaholic? This guy was busy through his children’s entire childhoods and is still churning out the games. Put Pac Man to pasture so that he can actually enjoy his golden years with the Misses.

Back when current generation gaming consoles were being released, a perplexing turn of events set Nintendo apart from its competitors. Where Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3 opted for high-powered machines that supported other kinds of multimedia, Nintendo kept the graphic capabilities on their Wii console relatively limited, embracing instead a motion-sensing control scheme that provided an extra dimension to their video games. Nintendo’s gambit seems to have paid off, with the Wii standing as a high-selling console with positive market trends on the rise.

Enter Microsoft’s reaction to the Wii. While the Wii controllers had motion-sensing devices built into them, Microsoft’s Kinect controller is entirely hands free. The device is capable of spotting human movement while mounted just in front of the television screen — no controller required. That person’s movements translate into in-game activities, creating an experience that Microsoft hopes will be perceived as more involved and compelling. The players don’t use a peripheral anymore. Instead, they use their entire bodies.

Despite the positive vibes being sent out by the Federal Reserve for some time now, the level of consumer confidence in the economy still hasn’t quite returned to normal. This has impacted the economics of distribution in several ways, two of which have had a significant impact on how people shop for video games.

The first major difficulty confronting the distributor is a change in consumer preference in shopping. During this recession, consumers have favored shopping at larger big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. If you’re looking for more information, take a glance at this article from Business Week. A store with a greater number of products on the shelf is able to take serious losses in one field, in this case the Nintendo Wii, while still recovering that money from other products it sells. This type of behavior only adds to the preconceived notion that big-box stores will have less expensive products in the first place. Stores that are perceived as “specialty,” “boutique,” or “high-end” have suffered the most during the recession.

The second repercussion, and perhaps the more critical, involves the nature of video games to begin with. When money gets tight, the first thing consumers do is cut down on unnecessary expenses. This is, of course, devastating for a market that is entirely based around a luxury product. A person simply doesn’t need video games to get by (well, except for this guy, of course), and this has had repercussions in all aspects of the market, not just on the distribution side. Even in November, when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released, the industry still suffered losses as a whole.

The question becomes: what is the future of video game distribution?