Nintendo Wii, Boredom Buster

Two interesting and semi-competing bits of news caught my eye today. To start, we go straight to Perrin Kaplin, VP of Marketing for Nintendo America. Ol’ Perrin says prior to Nintendo’s handsome new Wii system, gamers were starting to get “bored” by video game offerings — presumably including those of his own company. Kaplin claims Nintendo was so astute, they recognized this boredom setting in even before the gamers themselves knew they were bored. To counter the looming boredom, Nintendo cooked up the now famous and beloved Nintendo Wii, in an attempt bring something innovative and unexpected to the industry. And apparently it worked; Nintendo is now swimming in cash a la Scrooge McDuck.

On the other hand we turn to Hirokazu Hamamura, President of Enterbrain. Hamamura says the Wii is, in effect, boring. Or at least, it is boring once you’ve played the heck out of Wii Sports. He claims Nintendo has failed to follow up with another interesting title, leading to around two-thirds of all Wii owners ignoring the pretty hardware. Lamenting the lack of a game library on a Nintendo system is certainly nothing new to Nintendo owners, but one would think that, oh, Twilight Princess or the new installation in the Metroid Prime series may qualify as an interesting title. Unfortunately, these games probably appeal more to the “hardcore” gamers, while the Wii prides itself on selling to a much broader market. While some of us throw down with Samus Aran and Link, the casual gamer waits impatiently for Wii Fit and its ilk.

Thoughts? Is your poor Wii sitting in the corner gathering dust while you fret over the lack of interesting games? Do you find the Wii to be the cure for the common gamer? Personally, I couldn’t be happier with what I’ve been given so far … but I’m also very impatiently waiting for more.