For legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo Co., making games more appealing to a broader audience has been a core strategy in recent years.
And it appears to be working. Eight months since the Japanese company launched the Wii, the $250 console has been the top-selling system over far more expensive and technologically sophisticated machines from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp.
This week at the E3 summit in Santa Monica, the company celebrated its success. Though their focus still seems more centered on the traditional hard-core gaming market, Microsoft and Sony both seem intent on trying to use Nintendo’s success to their advantage.
Microsoft this week introduced a variety of new games aimed at a more casual, family friendly crowd on its Xbox Live online system. And one upcoming title, a movie-trivia board game called “Scene it?” is being designed to work with a new Xbox 360 controller that has four large-buttons instead of the usual 14 small ones.
Sony, while still keeping the focus on hard-core gaming with action titles like “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots,” showcased some titles with more casual appeal such as “Echochrome.”
In the game, players guide a stick figure through a 3-D moveable maze that resembles something from artist M.C. Escher.
Nintendo, not to be outdone, rolled out additional games and new controllers — including a wireless plastic mat that can be used as a virtual fitness machine.
But Miyamoto doesn’t believe it’s a race between the Wii and the other two big players on the block.
“I don’t really view it as a competition,” Miyamoto says. “My focus is on what I can do to make video games more interesting and more relevant.”
Industry executives and analysts agree that what’s good for Nintendo will end up benefiting Microsoft, Sony and everyone else in the business.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 18, 2007. Read the original PDF.