I was delighted to read in the New York Times this morning that “Nintendo’s Wii, Radiating Fun, is Eclipsing Sony.” I’ve talked about Wii before and how much fun it is to play. In fact, I played again with my son last weekend and it was a blast. It was about 20 degrees outside and there we were comfy cozy inside working up a sweat batting the tennis ball around like Roddick and Federer. (Much to my son’s frustration, because Wii doesn’t require a lot of button pushing, I am far more competitive in Wii games than the other gaming systems we own).
From a Marketing for Good standpoint, Wii represents a significant and welcome product enhancement. Instead of focusing on incremental graphic improvement and complicated game mechanics, Wii changed the way video games are played, turning them into a real athletic endeavor versus their more sedentary predecessors. If you buy a Wii, you might be surprised like I was at the fact that it doesn’t even have HD output (unlike every other game system sold including Nintendo’s own GameCube.) Essentially, Wii strips out all the unessential gaming elements and focuses on providing active entertainment as simply as possible. (On a side note, I honestly believe that Wii could become an effective weapon in the battle against childhood obesity. Nothing like getting kids off the couch for a few hours…)
Simplicity is not news for new product development but it sure is a smart tactic to remember especially in the technology arena. Google continues to rein supreme in the search world for many reasons but I’m convinced the primary one is that their search tool is so easy to use and their search words are so easy to buy. All the technology, the sophisticated algorithms are invisible to the end user, as they should be. Panasonic Toughbook computers continue to sell well based on a simple promise and product attribute–they are tough. Blackberry’s gained popularity because they did one thing well, mobile email (admittedly they’ve become more complicated and multi-functional since then but mobile email is still the reason for being). In technology, more can be less and less more. Plug and play shouldn’t be a pipe dream. Keep it Simple Sherlock need not be a cliche.