[arg_discuss] Wii/Designing towards the hardcore

[Michael Monello]

There is an interesting article in the upcoming TIME Magazine about  
Nintendo's new console, Wii. Nintendo's strategy jumped out at me as  
relevant to recent conversations here:

But the name Wii not wii-thstanding, Nintendo has grasped two  
important notions that have eluded its competitors. The first is,  
Don't listen to your customers. The hard-core gaming community is  
extremely vocal--they blog a lot--but if Nintendo kept listening to  
them, hard-core gamers would be the only audience it ever had. "[Wii]  
was unimaginable for them," Iwata says. "And because it was  
unimaginable, they could not say that they wanted it. If you are  
simply listening to requests from the customer, you can satisfy their  
needs, but you can never surprise them."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1191861-1,00.html

Best,

Mike
__________
haxan | films | http://www.haxan.com