Good Idea! Now find a better one.

James Surowiecki’s column in the New Yorker on Nintendo’s new Wii gaming console:

It’s really well suited for just one thing: playing games. But this turns out to be an asset. The Wii’s simplicity means that Nintendo can make money selling consoles, while Sony is reportedly losing more than two hundred and forty dollars on each PlayStation 3 it sells—even though they are selling for almost six hundred dollars.

There is one beautiful quality of Nintendo’s offering that its competitors, Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation 3, simply cannot claim: Simplicity.

One Thing to All People

The Wii is for playing games. It’s not an entertainment center. It’s not a foothold for dominating the living rooms of the future. It’s not a standard bearer for computer graphics. It’s not for bragging rights.

Although it is a computer and as such it can do many different things, it was designed for playing games.

And so while Sony and Microsoft go back and forth creating the ultimate uber-device to complement everyone’s HD television set, Nintendo just wants your friends and family to get together and have fun.

And having fun does not require more processing power. Having fun doesn’t require snazzy BluRay technology or super computer like symmetric multi-processing. Get a couple of friends, a stick, and a ball and you can have all sorts of fun. Only have a ball? You can still play the beautiful game.

[Nintendo] has five billion dollars in the bank from years of solid profits, and this past year, though it spent heavily on the launch of the Wii, it made close to a billion dollars in profit and saw its stock price rise by sixty-five per cent. Sony’s game division, by contrast, barely eked out a profit and Microsoft’s reportedly lost money. Who knew bringing up the rear could be so lucrative?

Selling simple electronic tools for fun seems to have been good to Nintendo.

But I have to wonder: Could Nintendo make a quiet play for Living Room Domination anyway?

Presumably Nintendo doesn’t care about having the number 1 console anymore, there’s too much money in 3rd place.

But consider another company known for simplicity: TiVo. Their popularity and success is rooted in the simplicity of their Digital Video Recorders.

And while Microsoft and Sony spend billions to do movies and games and music and TV on the same device, seeking to become a living room gatekeeper who charges all for entry, Nintendo could partner with TiVo for a fraction of the cost. TiVo handles TV and Movies, Nintendo’s Wii handles games and other interactive content.

And for music, how about Apple? Their consumer electronics do quite well on the simplicity scale - and there are even rumors that Apple and TiVo may partner.

Nintendo+TiVo+Apple in your living room. Each doing one thing really, really well. The potential to quietly upset Microsoft and Sony seems irresistible…

Second Looks

Stowe Boyd predicts that Apple will beat Microsoft in the living room wars for the same reasons that the Zune will fail to unseat the iPod. Via BMID

Davis Freeberg has great observations on the speculation/rumor dance about Apple and TiVo.

Hmm has also considered the potential of a Nintendo+Apple partnership/acquisition.

And Apple+Nintendo isn’t new: Todd Ogasawara proposed it back when the Wii was codenamed Revolution.