Gimmicky vs. Inovating, an Interesting Debate

If you could think of words to describe Nintendo, what would they be? Two of the most common are 'gimmicky' and 'innovating', and even I will admit that they are a little bit of both. Now, overall, it's time to determine whether three Nintendo consoles are gimmicky or innovative; Nintendo 3ds, Wii, and Wii U.

When the Wii was first announced, jaws dropped. It didn't matter if you were a Sony or Microsoft fan, you shamefully went to Wal-Mart and got one. Now, what is innovation and what is a gimmick? It's hard to understand, but it gets easier once you get the basic concept.

Innovation- Innovation is a feature added to move forth the entire business, and make it better. The thought of books comes into mind. Innovation occurred when Amazon released the Kindle and Barnes and Noble the Nook. Both made reading more entertaining and profitable, and therefore, e-readers won't be leaving anytime soon. The same goes for standard PCs. When the iPad was introduced, an entirely new market was creating, generating even more profit for Apple, Google, Samsung, Asus, Amazon, and more. Examples are endless. The QWERTY keyboard was heavily innovating, as it replaced those horrendous typewriters. Now, typewriters are just about gone, but keyboards are literally everywhere. See, innovating is not competing, it's not creating 'new' experiences for people, it's making older experiences better. Now, when you take innovating and use it to compete, you make it a...

Gimmick- Gimmicks are ideas placed to make something stand out from its competitors and garner sales. Get that? An example is the electric car. "Look at us, we don't use gas, we use electricity, which helps save the planet!" Gimmick. Dealerships clearly want you to buy this car only because it is electric. That key factor makes the entire product success or fail.

So, with that being said where do the Wii, Wii U, and 3ds fall? Let's start with the one released the earliest, the Wii.

Wii






When the Wii was announced, everybody got hyped by the motion controls. See, that was the plan, because nobody cared back then that the console itself was crap. The fact that you could move to play bowling for a low price was enough. You see, the Wii is wrapped around the gimmick. Did wives care about the system quality, or did they want the motion controls to lose weight? Answer-they wanted the motion. When you yourself were purchasing this console, did you care about the amazing games it could potentially offer, or were you excited that when your arm, moved, Mario jumped? That was the entire plan. When you got people focusing on the motion gaming and the extremely low price, nothing else mattered. You wanted that Wii, and you were going to get it. You hunted the stores up and down for the product, only to find that it was shut down. See, here are simple equations. Wii - motion control = crap, Wii + motion control = success. The independent variable is the motion control, it's a gimmick. But what about the Ps Move, or the Kinect? They're leeching off Nintendo's success to try to get a piece of the pie, gimmick all the same, the most guilty being Nintendo for starting the trend itself. However, what happens when someone calls the Wii innovating? Remember when I said that innovating was moving the business along? Well, it's not, obviously, there's even some talk about the next gen being the last. If motion controls have done anything, it's slowed down the business, and remember, innovating does not mean competing.

Gimmick or Innovating: Gimmick

3ds

 


As for the DS in general, people always say that it was innovating. However, as said before, innovating moves the business forward, and in a positive direction. However, you don't see consoles having two screens, do you now? The answer is, the DS only moved Nintendo forth. Some say that Sony copied Nintendo with the Sony Tablet P, and did that succeed? No. So you could say that the DS was both gimmicky and innovative, as it was one of the first to use touchscreens, and touchscreens now are no longer a gimmick, they are a necessity.

Now, as for the 3ds, there's no sympathy, as the only thing that makes this thing stand out from other consoles is the 3d. Oh wait, did I just say that the 3d made it stand out? Sounds like the definition of a gimmick. However, what if someone says it's innovative because it offers new experiences? See, here's the thing; new and better experiences are two totally different things. 3d is a gimmick in entirety. 3d televisions, 3d movies, and now, even consoles.

Gimmick or Innovating: Gimmick

Wii U







Some say that this is a Wii and iPad hybrid: that's true. This is integrating tablets into gaming, and meh, probably a better approach than Razer's. That being said, with this being a mixture of Wii, which is for the most part gimmicky, and iPad, which is for the most part innovating, you kind of get a 'both' feeling out of this. Now, is the screen on the controller a gimmick? Yes, but what it does is innovative.


Gimmick or Innovating: Gimmicky, not complete gimmick.