Project Butterfly???:… Project Cafe?

Hey guys, it has been a while, just finishing up *hopefully* with my degree with exams to come in May.  What does that mean, well it means that I’ll have some time after May to properly kick back off in this blog with what ever comes into my head.  I just wanted to give a wee update on my thoughts of a Wii 2.  Also for those wanting to keep track, any other random thoughts on this I may tweet about but I will hashtag it with #projectbutterfly because I by far prefer that to the ‘Wii2’ moniker. EDIT I could be using the hashtag #Projectcafe instead if LINK is to be believed.

Nintendo – Shock and Awe

Well this blog post may be something that a lot of people will wish happen but in true fashion may never.

What does Nintendo need to do to win back the bread and butter of the industry, shock and awe. The bread and butter I refer to is the consumer that purchases more than one game a month, who vocally express themselves insatiably, who go nuts over every title that satisfies their cravings in games.
Now I fully understand that Nintendo do have a large fan base, but the industry knows that the base on the Wii do not pick-up titles to the same extent as on other systems. The core fans of the Wii tend to stick stringently to Nintendo software, they find it hard to stray from this due to years of disrespectful treatment from 3rd parties on Nintendo hardware with poor ports, features missing and down right negligence for quality. Some of this is still true on the Wii even though it is the highest selling console.

So how do Nintendo solve the riddle, well they can’t necessarily solve it like a maths equation all they can do is take steps in the right direction to rectify and attract those who in the early years of the Wii’s lifespan were ignored for the attraction that was the casual expanded audience. I will try to outline the steps that Nintendo should investigate and take measures to attain these goals.

Post E3 – Who’s Motion had the best moves?

Well E3 certainly showed that Nintendo’s direction of developing a new way to play was the way to go. Playstation demonstrated their motion/pointer controller that implements the Playstation Eye, along with Microsoft demonstrating their development of Project Natal. Within this blog update I want to look at all 3 of these motion schemes and determine who has won so far in the development and implementation of these.
I intend to look at 3 aspects to determine the overall winner, this is technology, usability and how far along they are in development.

Technology

Well first off I will say that each of the console manufacturers have whole heartedly invested in technology that can achieve a vision and do it well.

Nintendo – From here on out.

As we approach E3, none of us for sure know what the next step for Nintendo can be.  For us who have been following the company for any length of time will know that Nintendo are a company that takes their own direction, they either miss the boat or create new legacies.  No one can fault the company with this though as it shows a company who isn’t risk adverse, they create ideas and follow them to the nth degree.  To be a fan of this industry is such a rollercoaster experience that everyone enjoys whether that is through the unfulfilled anticipations or the glorious highs of seeing the next big thing.

Well these days Nintendo certainly are in an interesting position, they are number 1 in console sales with or without the core user audience, also having high software sale rates doesn’t hurt either.  But how do they convert this into future success, to be honest only Nintendo can answer that themselves and time will tell if their strategies come though.  We can only be sure of one thing is that we won’t know what this is until the time comes that Nintendo will reveal it to us all, of course at some high profile press conference.