Improving Nintendo’s Online Strategy
So far, I’ve talked about games. After all, games are the lifeblood of any console. But, there’s one other thing I think Nintendo should seriously consider: revamp its online strategy.
Now, I’m not the biggest competitor, nor do I have a big social circle, so I stay away from online games. Also, I don’t own a Wii U at the moment, so I can’t talk about its online capabilities. But I can talk about its current eShop service—and at the moment, its underwhelming.
Now, I like digital games. I rarely trade in my games, so an online service that lets me download a game as many times as I want really appeals to me. No cases to keep track of, and no service lost, at least from my perspective. So I really like that Nintendo is trying to get every game as a digital download day-and-date with retail. But I’m also cynical enough to see why: somehow, Nintendo figured out that digital distribution offers a lot of the same benefits as cartridges did back on the NES. A third-party licensee has to go through Nintendo to get approval, and Nintendo has complete control when that game is released, if at all.
Nintendo was ALL about control back in the day. I don’t even think extra money really had anything to do with it, as we had to fight to get three already translated games here in North America. Nintendo saw that Atari was killed, not by a lack of consumer interest, but by a flood of bad games released on the system. Nintendo sought to mitigate a perceived threat to their console’s integrity by restricting third parties on how many games could be released in a year and getting the final say on whether a game could be released or not. Is it any wonder why third parties don’t like Nintendo?
So yeah, I think I know why Nintendo is so keen on the idea of digital downloads. But their current strategy for bringing about a digital revolution isn’t sufficient. Let’s talk about how the current strategy is failing, and how it can be fixed.
First, Nintendo needs to emulate Steam. Steam is the ultimate master class on how to run a digital distribution service. I was really hopeful when I heard rumors that the Wii U might use Steam. That turned out not to be the case, so Nintendo needs to take after Steam.
First, sales. Granted, this is easier on Steam, where there’s a huge back catalog to draw on, but Nintendo needs to do the same thing. If Nintendo can prove that games on eShop can sell well, more games are going to be put there. The easiest way to sell games is sales. Granted, developers and publishers can put their games on sale through the eShop, but it shouldn’t be random. Nintendo should have a schedule for the games it’s going to have on sale.
Second, Nintendo should also offer certain games to be playable for free over the weekend, especially if the game in question is on sale. We consumers like to try before we buy, Nintendo, so if you can offer that on a digital download service (where such a thing is often impossible), people will take notice.
Second, I think Nintendo should emulate PlayStation Plus. At first glance, PlayStation Plus seemed like a cash grab. After all, a service originally marketed as free forever is now a paid service. Actually, though, PlayStation Plus users know that it’s a great deal. There’s a selection of games every month that can be downloaded for free, and you can play them as long as you pay the $50 USD a year. Nintendo has an amazing advantage here in that it has a backlog of Virtual Console and WiiWare games, not to mention all the digital and retail games coming down the pipe.
Suppose Nintendo set up, say, 20 games that could be downloaded if you paid the $50 a year. These should be classics like the Mario games, the Legend of Zelda games, and the Metroid games. If you already had the games listed, you could get store credit to buy whatever you wanted. Then every month, they could put out a retail game and three download-only titles that you could get for free if you were paying for the service, just like PlayStation Plus. I mean, Instant Game Collection is a great marketing tool.
Will all of this ensure Nintendo’s dominance in the eighth generation? No, nothing is sure. But all of this can give them a competitive advantage that I think will be hard for consumers to ignore. I’d just hate for the Wii U to be another GameCube or Wii. Now, they were both great, but they seemed largely ignored by all but the most devoted gamers, though at least the Wii captured a new casual audience.
The Wii U has the potential to be another great console. I just hope it has enough games and competitive services to be given a fair shake.
