Nintendo console has officially gone geriatric
Nintendo is off to an incredible start with the Wii. With continued demand and leading sales even after the holiday season, Nintendo couldn't be happier with the system's early success. The Wii's innovative controller design has opened up video gaming to a previously untapped market—non-gamers.
The marketing minds behind Nintendo looked beyond the traditional gamer mediums and advertised its innovations at targets as far from gaming as you can imagine, such as retirees. Nintendo even went against the current and took the Wii to an AARP convention. "The AARP thing was a little bit tough at first. They were like, 'We don't really want to talk to you because we're all grandparents and we already buy stuff for our kids,' and so we said, 'No we want to talk to you about you,'" said Perrin Kaplan, VP Marketing & Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America. "It took several attempts for them to finally say, 'So why do you want to talk to us?' And it's because we have products for them as well now."
Nintendo's efforts seemed to have paid off. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the Wii is now the latest rage at the Sedgebrook retirement community in Lincolnshire, where the average age is 77. In particular, the Wii Bowling component of Wii Sports has members of the retirement community hooked on playing the Wii installed inside the Sedgebrooks's clubhouse lounge.
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