Nintendo Wii

The last week has been a little strange, especially after Panorama waded into the nation for being addicted to gaming, trying to highlight the “detrimental effects” that games bring to your well-being and society in general. However, it’s not to hard to see why parents are a little confused out there. Our TV’s are being bombarded with what can only be described as an eclectic mix of celebrities, who have been hired to convince each one of you, no matter what age you might be, that Nintendo’s consoles are the machines of choice and will actually enhance your life.

The first rule of advertising is make sure the audience trust you and respect what you are saying, so it grates me somewhat that the David Jason’s, Michael Parkinson’s and June Whitfield’s of this world spent years building an honest and respectable reputation in the world of show-business, only to sell life insurance to ageing fans.

Step forward the legend that is Sir Terry Wogan. Yes, that’s right; it appears that he is a huge fan of Art Academy and Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training on the Nintendo DS. Despite not playing a game before, he bids to win the OAP market by informing how fantastic the DS can be for the mature gamers out there by keeping your mind active with ‘Brain Training’ and other similar titles.

There’s only one thing Terry likes more than moleskin trousers…

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Gamers, as a rule, have a reputation of not being the most active of people but make no mistake Kinect is not aimed at your hardcore gamers, but at the all important family market over the Christmas period.

Whilst the PS3 and Xbox 360 sales hover around the 45 million mark, The Nintendo Wii has so far sold a whopping 75 million units because they managed to tap into the “Christmas Family Market”. Of course there are now many Nintendo Wii’s that are left unloved and untouched and sales are dropping like a stone because the fickle occasional gamers are looking for something more sophisticated to impress at their Christmas Party.

In my head there will be many snob like scenarios, where people find themselves gathered in a living room of people whom they see once a year and when the Wii is turned on, someone will say “Darling, the Wii is so last year haven’t you seen Microsoft Kinect? We have it and it’s so much better”. At this point the hostess runs upstairs in tears saying “Why do they always have to be better than us and ruin our Christmas”. Christmas ruined! For me, this is the market Microsoft is aiming for.

As news breaks that worldwide sales of Microsoft Kinect smashes the one million mark in ten days, I thought it was about time I should test the latest must have from Microsoft in a home environment. The biggest drawback seems to be that you need to be at least six feet away from your TV with no obstructions in the way. This may be fine for your typical American living room, but I think it’s fair to say that the average UK living room is a little more intimate, or should I say cosy.