I should have known it would happen. I can still remember the afternoon I arrived home with the little blue box from Nintendo, wired it up to the television set and said “W, come and see this - you’ll like it”.
The blue box was a Nintendo Gamecube, and the game was “The Legend of Zelda - the Wind Waker”. That afternoon, Nintendo “got” W, and they have only tightened their grip on her since. With hindsight, I made the situation worse when I bought her a Nintendo DS for her birthday last year. She now travels everywhere accompanied by an imaginary world known as “Animal Crossing”, populated with what can only be described as “animal people”.
Where am I going with this?
Ah yes. Late last night, an excitable W ran in to find me, with the most childish grin on her face you could imagine. After reminding her to breath, and slowing her down to a speed where I could discern individual words, I ascertained that there had been a television advertisement for the Nintendo Wii. All the advert had done was play a sound effect from the new Zelda game. That was enough to make her drop everything she was doing.
Think about just how successful Nintendo’s marketing has become. Their television advert played one sound. Nothing appeared on the screen. That advert told the Nintendo faithful everything they needed to know. Microsoft and Sony may as well pack their bags and go home - they have already lost.