Posted by dkidwell on December 10th, 2005 — Posted in daughters, reading, technology, interface design, Nintendogs, Nintendo DS
I just read an older post on Engadet theorizing about a Nintendo Communication Revolution: Nintendo DS wireless hub trick up its sleeve? - Engadget - www.engadget.com
The notion in a nutshell - the Nintendo DS has 802.11b wireless, but what if it acted as both a device and a hub? Allowing you to lilypad DS systems - creating organic gaming network? All wifi geek obstacles aside, I loved this idea for one reason…
What if you wanted to do something really visionary…
What if you…
- created a system that appealled to little girls and young women in a way that no other system had, just through it’s form factor.
[Nintendo DS doesn’t simply have 2 screens - it has a whole new interaction dynamic.]
- launched a killer app that was ‘best of breed’ (forgive the pun’ of all the artificial companion, virtual pet apps. [Nintendogs is selling out in the UK and you can’t buy the Best Friends Bundles in retail stores in the US.]
- bundled the app and device into hot Christmas sellers right before parents are most likely to shell out the ~$150 price point.
Suddenly you have a high density of some of the most agile communicators on the planet. A substrate for something particularly fantastic. A entrance point to a highly lucrative and as yet, virutally untapped market.
Maybe the DS isn’t Nintendo’s trojan horse into a brave new world of girl gamers. But man…what if it was?
BTW, if this post was at all interesting and you haven’t read , “Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson, maybe you should.
Posted by dkidwell on December 9th, 2005 — Posted in ages 9-11, daughters, Christmas, Nintendogs
Every evening we open up an advent calendar are one day closer to the big event. We’ve emailed Santa, and a Nintendo DS with Nintendogs made the final cut. (Gorgo, the youngest, wants a Gameboy Advanced. Considering his age, this is probably a safe bet. Never thoughts I’d be buying previous generations of hardware, but there you go.)
Anticipation for the Christmas pup rises, and I’ve been watching Amazon and Froogle for prices on Nintendogs Bundles. There was a limited release of bundles - one in Pink sold through Target and ToysRUs, and another in teal pearl blue that could be found in most stores. Not that I’m going to buy one, mind you, Santa had the elves take care of that. But if you need to buy a bundle now, it wouldn’t be cheap. Last I saw them, you could get them for about $129. Now, Amazon has sellers that will give you the blue one for a cool $250, and the Pink for $365.
Hachi machi! It’s sold out in the UK, and very nearly sold out here. It’ll be curious to see after Christmas sales numbers.
Woof!
A nice primer on Nintendogs:
Nintendogs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted by dkidwell on November 26th, 2005 — Posted in technology, reviews, Christmas, Nintendogs
Found this today on my hunt for info on Nintendogs. Had a surly experience with a very aggressive shopper at Gamestop while trying to get a Nintendogs bundle - which led to a better deal at Fry’s so all is well…
But, I wanted to find out more about the game itself and found this review. I’m sure you’ll hear more post-Christmas regarding our Nintendog journeys. This article does a great job of showing how Nintendogs tapped into a underserved need in the Japanese marketplace - dog ownership. Dan talks about this as a key element in good game design. I might extend that to a key element in good Product design - a marketing lesson for every product manager.
Lost Garden: Nintendogs: The case of the non-game that barked like a game
