A Blog of Very Little Brain

I never did like Microsoft Internet Explorer. Probably the only time I used it solely was when IE5 came out to an almost empty market, following the collapse of Netscape. Some time later, I discovered Opera, and that, as they say, is that. With Ubuntu being my main desktop OS, I have removed even the existance of IE from my computer.
The problem is, that most companies I’ve need of their web services have not heard about other browsers, and under false claims such as “applying to industry standards” (translation: our web-developer based the site on ActiveX and we don’t want to pay it to re-develop the site) and “supply of the user-base demand” (trans: our IE-only site has 99.9% of IE visitors), not only don’t support other browsers, but also prevent those browsers from accessing the site. And these sites include my bank, college and several others that force me to visit them while at work or (shudder) reboot to windows (which is probably the only reason for me to keep that OS on my machine), moreso, my company product depends on IE and ActiveX, which makes it impossible to run on any GNU/Linux configuration.

As an answer to my woes, comes IE4Linux, a script that installs IE on Wine, making it available for web-developers who need to be able to view their sites on IE and for IE-only sites. I’ve yet to test it, true, but if this works, it might mean that I can (FINALLY) remove my Windows partition and finally be able to use those 15 GB of hard-drive that are rotting away on the Windows partition. But more on that in the future.

Another chain in what seems to be Nintendos “All the Right Moves” Wii launch is the announcement that the new console will come bundled with a first-party sports game. This means, that for the first time in decades, a company releases a console in a state that actually allows you to use it without having to resort to more purchases. This, naturally, got all the game publishers up in arms.
There are some very good reasons for Nintendo to pull that one off. First, they are the only company out of the three (along with Sony and Microsoft) that isn’t selling their hardware for a loss and compensating for that by putting a high price tag on the actual games. This “razor blade” business model (also known as the “Loss-Leader” model) has dictated the stripping of the console out of anything but the actual hardware and one controller. Any “peripherals”, such as memory cards and added controllers are to be bought separately. The console manufacturers also charge a “licensing fee” from game publishers for the priviledge of allowing them to run the game on their console, kicking the games’ price tag to new levels with each release.

Now, along comes Nintendo. They have “lost” the console race 2 times now, and need to put a firm foot at the door with their launch. They also have a truly innovative product (probably the first major innovation since the Atari 2600 days) which, as with any innovation may become the new de-facto standard or it may vanish in a puff of smoke. They also have a product which they sell without a loss, so for them, any console sold is not just another unit with profit potential (when games will be sold for), but a real profit for the company, making any game sold for an immediate profit as well. So they want to encourage people to buy their console, even if they won’t ever buy another game for. For Sony or Microsoft, a customer buying only the basic hardware with no extras is suicide. In this sense, they try to do everything but make their console usable out of the box.

There is another reason for this behaviour by Nintendo. If this works, more people will buy a Wii, making Nintendo’s market share bigger than it might’ve been had they used the Loss-Leader model. Bigger market share will mean that more companies will develop games exclusively for the Wii. Launch numbers are always fine, but the true test comes with the second year releases, when companies look at the launch numbers and decide who is the leading horse they want to bet on. Companies will still create games for all three, but the losing horse usually get less third-party exclusives, and the release catalog tends to be cluttered with ports of dubious quality.

Another angle that most articles forget to mention is that Nintendo isn’t contending with the Wii alone. Under the company’s mantle lie the market dominating handhelds, such as the GameBoy Advanced in its many flavours and the Nintendo DS. This allows Nintendo to not develop a “lose all/win all” attitude and keep their products in the sane zone when it comes to pricing, and quality, and to introduce innovative features that other companies run away from, such as the motion-sensor controller for the Wii or the touch screen for the DS. Game publishers may not like it (although they’ll forget all about it if the bet pulls through), but it does seem to be another Good Thing that comes courtesy of Nintendo.