Nintendo UK: We are inclusive, not exclusive

By Emma Boyes, GameSpot UKPosted Oct 30, 2007 4:32 pm GMT

David Yarnton and Dawn Paine of Nintendo UK talk strategy, how it's paid off, and what's in store for Nintendo's future at their London event.

At an event in east London this morning titled "Mind, Body, and Console," Nintendo revealed its latest sales figures and explained the strategy that has made it such a success.

Nintendo UK's general manager, David Yarnton, told the audience that before the release of the Nintendo DS and the Wii, he believed that the industry was in "crisis." He said that the number of video game players had been declining, especially in Nintendo's home country, Japan. He said, "The video game penetration in households has never risen above 30 percent. We were basically just selling more consoles to the same teenage boys."

He said that this realization caused the company to sit down and think about what its strategy would be moving forward. He said, "We are not fighting our competitors, we are fighting apathy...Instead of trying to improve technology for its own sake, we decided to focus on those who weren't even playing games, who weren't on the radar."

Nintendo's strategy, which is demonstrated in its new advertising slogans, includes phrases like "For Everyone," and is the way the company intends to keep moving forward. Yarnton commented, "We are proud to be inclusive, not exclusive."

He also added that the company was also proud of its hardcore gamers, who would not be left out this holiday season, with the release of such titles as Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy, and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

Nintendo UK marketing director Dawn Paine said that part of this decision had come after Nintendo had done a survey of some 1,600 adults and asked them why they didn't game. She said, "The results of the survey showed that, at best, games are seen as a waste of time; at worst, an isolated, sad addiction that removes the player from reality." Paine said that Nintendo wanted to make games that didn't replace real life, but instead became part of people's daily lives and routines.

She added, "We decided that bringing tennis to homes wasn't enough; we now want to turn the living room into a fitness centre."

The company then showed a series of upcoming adverts, which will form part of its multimillion-pound marketing campaign for this holiday season. The adverts feature celebrities Nicole Kidman, Patrick Stewart, Julie Walters, Phillip Schofield, Fern Britton, Zoe Ball, and Johnny Ball playing Brain Training and other Nintendo titles.

It also announced Sight Training: Enjoy Exercising and Relaxing Your Eyes, which has been renamed from its US name of Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day, for release in the UK market in November. The game features a series of "sight exercises" that aim to improve such things as hand-eye coordination and peripheral vision. It works in a similar way to Brain Training, with players taking an "Eye Age" test, being given an Eye Age Score, and then doing a series of exercises every day.

Gail Stephenson, head of orthoptics at Liverpool University, was brought in to comment on the title. "You can't increase the amount of numbers you see on a chart through exercise, but you can make your brain and eyes work at a higher rate...We use our eyes to 50 to 60 percent of their potential, although athletes use their eyes to a higher level."

Sight Training will be released in the UK on November 23. Other games coming to the British Nintendo range in 2008 include Wii Fit, My Word Coach, and Face Training.

60 Comments

  • nate1222

    Posted Jan 7, 2008 6:38 pm GMT

    I agree with YukoAsho. Sonys PSOne made gaming socially acceptable. Kudos to Sony for that. And while I'm at it, the PS3 still has a chance. This console generation is still young.

    And yes, Nintendo is appealing to old folks by playing into their preconceptions about gaming. It's kinda' like White Racists going to a Menstrel Show: "We know you look at us in a biggotted way. But while you do, we're going to cash in on your prejudices."

    Gaming (like movies, music, literature, etc...) is here to stay. And old folks have always had major hang-ups about youth culture. Look at Hip Hop (before its creative decline in the late '90s), Alt. Rock, Jazz.....notice a pattern.

  • gozyaj

    Posted Jan 7, 2008 4:55 pm GMT

    Back on the track Nintendo is...

    We say people has different taste and different thoughts... needs and what sort of fun they like. Games is "FUN". For many years of searching and experimenting in which Nintendo find ways to understand people what gaming is really are... either for casual or hardcore wannabe. The term "fun" need to be implemented to the games what should used to be... In favor to Wii system and the Nintendo DS , they really back on track.

  • Lumenadducere

    Posted Nov 1, 2007 5:20 pm GMT

    Used to be in crisis? I'd argue that it still is - it's just that no one's really going to start seeing the effects for a while yet.

    Things are beginning to stagnate. I'll admit that the Wii is a little lackluster in games when compared to the 360 (even though it's still miles ahead of the PS3, which as of now only has three decent games), but at least Nintendo had the stones to try something different.

    The industry and its consumers really need to start changing the way that games are perceived by the rest of the world. It's not enough to simply sit back, wait, and say "hey, when gamers start getting older and taking charge, things will be different." The faster we act, the more room there is for growth and profitability within the industry. I think the Wii and Nintendo's marketing strategy towards it has helped to lessen that gap and change the way gaming is viewed by people. It hasn't done a miracle or anything, but it's a slow start that will hopefully pick up as time goes on.

  • GrimBee

    Posted Nov 1, 2007 6:36 am GMT

    Kavadias1981 - Sorry, but YES! I agree, if Nintendo had just released a next-gen console.
    (ok, lets get it straight, next-gen is the term people use for "better graphics". But was the n64 more next-gen than the ps1? I think not).

    The Wii is every bit as much a next-gen console as the 360 and the Ps3. Never forget that Next-Gen means Next Generation. The more users, the more consoles - that in turn becomes the new generation.
    When a console overtakes the rest, and creates its own market. It becomes the next-generation.

    If the ps3 was 50x that of the wii, if it sells less - it doesn't make it any more next-gen than the wii.

    ANYWAYS - What Nintendo have done here is given you a choice. Like how Apple gave you a choice of different sort of ipods. Do you think the ipod market would be so large now if it only had 30gb space, and just got larger and larger?

    How do you think the mobile phone market would be if they only made new phones bigger and more expensive and have more features?

    Apple is the classic tale of making it bigger by making it smaller.
    Nintendo have basically took the fundementals of a console, and took out the things that they thought would make it slow on its feet.

    Now gamers have a nice choice of hardware. If everyone was the same, then you would only follow with the rest of the Sheep.

    If all movies were action movies, my wife would have no need to go to the cinema, if all music was techno then... well, you get the picture.
    All Nintendo have done, for this generation, is create a simple console.

    People are so used to believing that the next console out has to be bigger and better.
    Why can't consoles just get more refined and perfect what they already have?

    It seems to me that people rat on the Wii because it is not going the "normal" way of a console.
    Change is good, and it seems to be selling well!

  • YukoAsho

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 8:43 pm GMT

    kavadias1981 - Sorry, but no. I don't know how old you are, but I'm 28 and I remember when video gamers were picked on by the cool kids at school, derided as geeks and nerds. It was the original PlayStation that made gaming what it is today: a soclally accepted past time for people in their 20s and 30s. Nowadays, only people over the age of 50 hate videogames, which is normal in historical context (rock, rap, jazz, movies, etc). Nintendo's simply giving these old folks a novelty that also fits into their preconcieved notions of videogaming. There's no expansion of the market going on here: the top sellers for Wii are still gamer faves like Mario and Zelda, and the best 3rd party success since launch was Resident Evil 4, which is as far from the "blue ocean" theory that Nintendo espouses as you can get. The grannies you see playing Wii Sports are never going to buy anything else, and they're certainly not going to open their minds to things like Zack & Wiki, Monster Hunter or Umbrella Chronicles. You, geto and the rest of the blind Nintendo fanboys can continue to talk about the hardware sales and continue to ignore a software situation that makes the PS3 look like the PS2 by comparison. Me, I'll keep right on seeing the market for what it is.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 1:25 pm GMT

    @ralphikari The types of games that you describe are designed for those who wish improve their senses, maths and english skills. How can you sit there and criticise that?

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 1:15 pm GMT

    @Merl57 Good for you, and yes, 360 achievements are a good feature, but this report is about Nintendo and how they have helped remove the stigma that games have carried since they first began. Nintendo has made video games accepted and cool now.

  • Sparticus247

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 1:06 pm GMT

    I love how people say that the Wii is boring and just collects dust. I'm pretty sure that all the other consoles collect dust too, unless they clean themselves automatically. HECK, I must be really boring because I don't collect dust, I MAKE it

  • Brother_Boney

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 6:11 am GMT

    I find it so funny when people go: "Nintendo is right saying Wii brings people back to gaming. I'm brought back."
    .

    or when they go:

    "It is total bogus that people play Wii more now than at launch! I never touch my Wii!"
    .
    or better yet:
    .
    "Games don't make people more violent. I've been playing GTA and never hurt a fly."

    You people are funnyyyyyy... lamprey263:
    "I just think it's crap everyone was acting like it was reaching out to new audiences."

    You can check the E3 Nintendo Press Conference video and see the official numbers based on surveys. They were very open about it then. The statistics show that most people who play Wii regularly are hard core gamers. The number of new people it has attracted is a small precentage. But you can count how many people that percentage is from all the people who bought Wii... it is still a big number of heads.

  • MSG-Deathscythe

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 2:42 am GMT

    @okassar: don't buy a wii. happy now?

  • Merl57

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 2:17 am GMT

    I really like they're ideas but Achievements on 360 are so much more addicting.

  • arc_salvo

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 1:10 am GMT

    Well, I'm glad to hear that Nintendo's targeting all potential consumers now instead of just hardcore gamers. Granted, I am a Hardcore gamer and the only "next-gen" console I own right now is the 360, but I do have a DS and even bought one for my non-gaming sister because she liked mine so much, and I am planning to get a Wii as soon as I get just a little more money.

    I love the fact that the Wii is backwards compatible with the Gamecube, and also that it and its games are so affordable. Like I've said, it saddens me when I buy a $30 Ds game like Phoenix Wright and find myself having more fun and for a longer period of time than I do with a $60 X-box 360 game that you can finish in two afternoons. At any rate, if I haven't bought a Wii by the time NiGHTS is out, I'm getting one then.

  • ralphikari

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 12:53 am GMT

    Yeah those who buy these "Everyone" corporate propaganda things sure need more brain, eye-sight, and physical training.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 12:22 am GMT

    They're absolutly right. The industry's growth had become stunted. Nintendo has really helped to revitalise it. I was one of those adults that left gaming after the PS1's life ended, but the DS and Wii brought me back. Plus since Nintendo released these two, I have seen members of my family enjoy games for the first time since the 16-bit era. Keep up the good work Nintendo.

  • rgjj

    Posted Oct 30, 2007 11:48 pm GMT

    they've done very well phantom hour glass has took me off halo 3 lol think u could say its because phantoms DIFFERENT control scheme appeals to me pluss its a bloody good game aswell and to be honest its nice to play somethin which aint jus another first persons shooter. Wish them all luck at ninty they've always move tech forward jus hope they continue doing it(anologue sticks, rumble packs,motion sencors)

  • jwallace

    Posted Oct 30, 2007 7:10 pm GMT

    To Yuko: "the word of mouth" marketing is now backfiring? It seems that Nintendo needs to work faster in procuring more compelling software to satiate would-be and current Wii owners. Hopefully Guitar Hero III and Manhunt 2 this weekend will help put a positive spin. If not, it could be the case of "too little third-party software, too late" leaving the first-party lineup to outstrip almost every third-party offering this holiday.

  • getoconnection

    Posted Oct 30, 2007 7:03 pm GMT

    jwallace

    Nintendo already assumes that the PS3 and X360 will cover the hardcore end already as both are superior machines, so to gripe about the Wii's lack of power is a waste of time.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Best post I've seen today. Been saying this since day 1; but then again, this type of logic is fleeting for most fanboys who post here.

  • getoconnection

    Posted Oct 30, 2007 6:59 pm GMT

    YukoAsho

    okassar - Indeed. I hear as many stories now about people trading their Wiis as I do about people trying to find them nowadays. And people at the local Gamestop can't unload the used Wiis because they don't come with Wii Sports. So who wants to tell me how the Wii is selling on its own merit again?
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I'm guessing you won't be singing that tune after the Christmas sale numbers are in Yuko....

  • Tricky posted Oct 30, 2007 2:55 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Tricky

    Posted Oct 30, 2007 2:55 pm GMT (hide)

    Wii = Fad.

  • JAREDJR

    Posted Oct 30, 2007 2:15 pm GMT

    Good news for the UK. The DS has more great features on the way so I'm sure that numbers will continue to grow for DS sales.

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