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The Band Joins the Plumber: Nintendo’s Strategy Finally Bears Its Sweetest Fruit

It’s pretty amazing how effective Satoru Iwata’s business plan for Nintendo has been since he took over as company president earlier this decade. I’m not even talking about the company’s focus on videogames for broader, specifically family, audiences. No, it’s how Nintendo has, under Iwata’s direction, created a line of games that don’t need annual sequels or iterations to be successful. Just one, quality, iconic game, that continues to sell to alongside your hardware. There won’t be another Wii Smash Bros. because Brawl is never going to stop selling and chances are there won’t be a New Super Mario Bros. 2, because the first one continues to do gangbusters at retail. It may not always make me the happiest person in the world — like everyone else who plays way too many games, I’m always hungry for the next new thing and, yes, the next sequel — but I have to admire it, and celebrate its positive effect on the business of videogames broadly.

I see Nintendo’s influence in Alex Rigupulos’s comments at this year’s CES conference. The Harmonix CEO let slip that there wouldn’t be yet another iteration of Rock Band in 2009. This is great news, for Rock Band fans and videogames broadly.

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.