Nintendo Finds The Sexy
Monday, June 19th, 2006The pictures of the DS Lite do not do it justice. Nintendo has found what Apple and Sony found before them. The Sexy. With this next generation of products (DS Lite and Wii), Nintendo is making a hard turn from the Nintendo branding to something broader. The cover of the DS Lite doesn’t even have a Nintendo logo on it. Instead, it is braded with the dual screen logo that is iconic of the DS line. Only on the back, buried in the fine print, do you see the Nintendo moniker along with the other patents that the product uses. Nintendo wants to turn their products into the iPod. Where brand name isn’t as important as product design. The iPod isn’t a winner because it’s made by Apple. It’s a winner because it’s sleek, sexy, and matches the functionality of competing products. The same can be said for the PSP, RAZR, PEBL, and other hot “must have” gadgets. Nintendo is catching on. But they have one advantage over Sony. Their games are better. And by better, I don’t mean they look better. I mean they give the user a more entertaining experience than the PSP. And isn’t that what games are really about?