Gaming is About the Experience Design
by DanIn light of Sony’s profit loss announcement today (thanks to the underperforming sales of PlayStation 3 and the war of words going on between fans of the various gaming consols), let’s not forget that gaming is all about the experience. PS3, despite its superior technology, has yet to give players a killer experience that makes people own a system and want it to be part of their lives. We saw this before in the 1990s when Nintendo (and then Sony) ate Sega’s lunch. Until that happens, all the blu-ray in the world won’t make people buy it. Except for a small group of early adopters, technology alone is seldom a selling point; the experience the technology can provide is.
Now, I will grant you that features are marketable and do sell products. But so does a good experience. Starbucks doesn’t have a list of ingredients on their front door, nor does the packaging of Apple products show more than just the basics (”15-inch Macbook Pro”).
Usually with gaming platforms, it’s the games that really provide the experience design, in the same way that it’s the operating system and software that provide the experience of using your computer. But the innovation of the Wii was to steal a page from Apple’s iPod playbook and focus their experience design efforts not particularly on the games (software), but rather on the hardware. The fun of the Wii isn’t particularly playing bowling or tennis or Zelda — the fun comes from standing in your living room with friends and/or family using the Wii controller as though it was a tennis racket or sword or whathaveyou. Nintendo used their design and engineering efforts strategically, focusing on something the technology-driven cultures of Sony and Microsoft forgot.
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January 30th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
This is very true in many ways. I think the fact that it’s more difficult to find the cheaper, less powerful Wii is a testament to this. The Wii has a bunch of great games already and they’re all something you can’t get on another console.
Everything released for the PS3 is just the same old stuff with better graphics. Even the XBOX 360 has had a year to get establishes and there are still less standout titles than the Wii.
The question is how long can Sony and Microsoft absorb the losses long enough for developers to come out with good titles?
January 30th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Sorry about the horrible English in teh previous comment, I’ve had a lot of NyQuil in the past 2 days.
January 30th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
It’s worth dipping into this discussion with the president of Nintendo and the key members of Wii team.
January 31st, 2007 at 4:36 am
We brought the Wii into the office today to give people a chance to try it who may not consider buying it.
Have never seen a reaction to gaming like it.
The Wii’s ability to draw people in with its interplay between the remote and the game.
It can actually draw a crowd.
Amazing stuff!
January 31st, 2007 at 10:06 pm
http://cn.engadget.com/2006/05/11/wii-advertising-film/
Good stuff! (thanks RC)
May 28th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
[...] because its features are better (they aren’t). It sidestepped the feature war and provided a better gaming experience. Yes, the graphics suck and it’s pretty primitive, but that doesn’t matter because the [...]
June 6th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
[...] lunch because its features are better (they aren’t). It sidestepped the feature war and provided a better gaming experience. Yes, the graphics suck and it’s pretty primitive, but that doesn’t matter because the features [...]