For many months now, I have been captivated by the mystery and lore of the soon to be released Nintendo Wii -- Nintendo's latest gaming system, which is to be launched this Sunday, November 19th. As should be obvious by my involvement with this site, I am also a long time Mac fanatic, having founded a Mac User Group when I was in colleage and otherwise having been a believer in the Jobsian fantasy since the early 1990s. Other than my recent fascination with the Nintendo Wii, I have not ever been an avid video game player, other than a rather common fascination with arcade systems and some of the earlier Nintendo iterations when I was of the "typical" gaming age (i.e., 12 to 17 or so). So I recently wondered why it is I am craving a Nintendo Wii like I have only before craved the latest hot product from Apple. In this article I attempt to analyze this question and explore whether there is a nexus between Mac users and Wii fanatics that might be larger than anyone might think. Nintendo Whaa?
If you're one of the three people on earth who's never heard of the Nintedo Wii, it's the latest video game system from gaming legend Nintendo. Nintendo has, for a number of years now, played second fiddle to Sony and Microsoft in the console gaming wars. Rather than compete with those two on sheer computing power, Nintendo has wisely chosen to play a different game. Their approach with the Wii was to use fairly sub-cutting edge graphics and concentrate on the game play experience. A huge part of this concept is their new controller, the Wii-mote, which is a motion sensitive device that works with a sensor mounted on or near your television set. The long and short of it is that if you wave the Wii-mote like a sword in front of you, your character in the game you're playing does the same. Now imagine baseball, tennis, bowling, and driving with this concept involved. It shouldn't take long to see why: (a) this is totally different from anything else out there, and (b) people are really excited about it.
Apple's Attraction
Longtime users of Apple products probably don't need much background on the sexiness factor in Apple's products. But the uninitiated might think Apple's attraction to the masses is based only on superior exterior design. Not so. Apple's ability to capture the hearts and minds of its users has very little to do with the fact that their products look so good from the outside. Apple's genius lies in their ability to take concepts you thought were simple and obvious and show you that you didn't know one damn thing. Take the iPod. When the iPod rolled into the world around 1998, MP3 players had been around for some time. Many people wondered why Steve Jobs was so excited about merely improving something that had existed for several years prior. Then the world began to get it. The simple interface, the progressive-speed scrolling circle control, the duh-factor adding of a hard drive to an MP3 player so you could store thousands of songs instead of dozens. Sure, MP3 players had been around for a while and Apple was not by any means the first to market -- but they revolutionized things by making the changes that they did, and the rest is history.
Bringing it All Together
And so it is that Nintendo's code name for the Wii, Revolution, has been cited by several who have reviewed the system as a more appropriate name for the product. It is capturing the attention of people who have not considered buying a gaming system for over a decade (like me). It is capturing the excitement of gamers who have played everything and probably will continue to play everything. It is a totally new experience in a totally played out market and otherwise predictable market. The Nintendo Wii is the iPod of the gaming world.
But Wait, There's More
The motion controlled sensor is only one of the similarities that the Nintendo Wii seems to share in common with top Apple products. Another is a focus on simplicity -- the controllers for the Wii reduce, for the first time in years, the number of buttons available to the user compared to the prior generation controller. If you've ever grabbed a controller on one of the game machine demos at Best Buy or elsewhere, you've probably felt the steep learning curve of modern console gaming controllers hitting you in the head. Alas, no more. Just as the most tech-challenged neophyte could operate an iPod, he could probably also operate a Wii controller. Early reviews of the system seem to validate this -- everyone and anyone from the office where these reviews take place is joining in on the fun and can easily jump in to a game regardless of whether they're a "gamer" or not.
Another big step for the Nintedo Wii is that it is very Network-centric. Many console systems have had network capabilities for multiplayer gaming, but the Nintendo Wii aims to take use of the network further. Nintendo will be operating a very iTunes Store-like service where users can purchase and download entire games over the Internet, directly from their Wii. Even more intrestingly (to some), Nintendo is making available many older gaming titles from past systems (and even some from non-Nintendo systems), just as Apple has made older music and TV shows available through its iTunes Store.
And, of course, who could deny the physical resemblance of the Wii to the iPod, or the MacBook, or any of the other white, shiny, plastic goodies Apple has made in the last five years? No doubt about it, the Nintendo Wii looks like it may well have been designed with an influence from someone from Cupertino. Interestingly, Apple's forthcoming TV set-top box is likely to match nicely, as would a Mac Mini.
Thus it seems that there is a good amount of logic in comparing the Nintendo Wii to many of Apple's own products. This fact leaves this writer wondering whether other Mac fans have started counting the days until November 19th.
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