this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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They didn't "luck out", they were reproducing the strategy that had already worked in the DS. Remember "Brain Training"? To this day I know people who claim to loathe videogames who owned a DS and were cool with it. Same core design: accessible, unorthodox input system as a trojan horse for adults, here are all the games it turns out you also enjoy playing.
It's the same with the Switch and the detachable controller, dockable console gimmick. If anything, the Wii U is the outlier in them not designing it well enough to pay off that ongoing strategy. One could argue that the 3DS did as well, but that glassless 3D screen is amazing, particularly once they figured out eye tracking, you're all wrong about that one.
No actually, I'm not sure what that is. The only novel feature I was aware of with the DS was the dual screens. The clamshell form factor had already been proven out with the SP, and stylus based touch screens were relatively common at the time having been proven out with the PalmPilot and its various clones. Unfortunately for Nintendo the original DS was just a bit too big and bulky for a portable, something they fixed with the DS Lite and subsequently the DSi and 3DS.
That said, the bigger factor I think at the time was the price point. The Wii at launch retailed for $250 and very quickly fell to $200 and late in its life could even be found for as low as $100. In contrast the PlayStation 3 launched at a minimum of $500 to as much as $600 for the highest capacity model. The XBox 360 which had been on the market for about a year at that point was a little better off with its minimal configuration being available at a modest $300, with its most expensive offering coming in at $480.
Making things worse for Sony but better for Nintendo the PS3 had rampant supply shortages and scalping leading to it commanding even higher prices at launch. Around the holidays the XBox 360 had similar issues although far less extreme. In contrast Nintendo managed to maintain a steady supply of the Wii and while there would occasionally be shortages leading to bare shelves they never lasted long which helped cut down on instances of scalping.
The pricing in conjunction with the novelty of the Wii controls is what led it to such a huge success. The funky motion controls were an interesting gimmick and were enough in many people's minds to justify spending $200 even if ultimately the Wii was just a glorified Wii Sports machine that ended up gathering dust after a few months.
There's a reason both Sony and Microsoft rushed out their own motion control systems and then just as quickly abandoned them and why Nintendo never really went back to them after the Wii. It was very much a fad. The very limited motion controls of the joycons in the switch are the last remnants of that design, but even Nintendo seems to have realized it's a fairly niche control system that the Wii went a little too hard on.
Nintendo has always been willing to gamble a little and try unorthodox things with their game systems, be it the frankly bizarre controller of the N64, or the unusual lenticular lens of the 3DS, and the less said about the VirtualBoy the better. Sometimes those gambles paid off, sometimes not so much. Ultimately though I don't think Nintendo's decision to include motion controls in the Wii was some kind of grand strategy to appeal to a wider audience, rather I think it was just part of Nintendo's policy of experimenting and willingness to try unusual things. So yes, in that regard Nintendo very much lucked out with the release of the Wii.
Touchscreens were absolutely not commonplace in mass market devices. There were absolutely a thing that existed, but they were associated to productivity devices and corporate things trying to look modern and fancy. I'd argue with no Nintendo DS you get no iPhone.
Nintendo's pitch for the DS was that it wasn't a Gameboy. The Advance was the Gameboy. This was the adult system for adults that used a touchscreen and you could hold it sideways and read it like a book. And they had Brain Age/Brain Training, based on some quack's later disproved theories but that sounded and felt healthy and meant for older people who liked to do sudoku. Also, you want to do sudoku? You can do it here! There's a pen and everything.
That "blue ocean" strategy on the DS and the absolutely insane success of it was the template for the Wii two years later. And it worked both times. They weren't even shy about it, they are on the record a bunch explaining how they wanted to sell boring, grey DSs to people and then get them to buy games and become gamers instead. That ended up being what made Apple the biggest company in the universe, and it's blow by blow the strategy Nintendo came up with. They are just too budget minded, so they attached that to a cheap console instead of an expensive mobile phone.