Industry leader Nintendo has made a lot of changes recently, many for the better from a financial standpoint. Their current handheld, the Nintendo DS, introduced the radical concept of two screens (DS does stand for Dual-Screen, after all), one of which was touch-sensative. Their current home console, the Wii, did away with excessive cords and buttons in favor of a wireless motion-enabled controller. Both are decidedly less-powerful than their competitors' machines. Both introduced methods of play entirely unseen before in mainstream gaming. Both were initially scoffed at as risky gambles and almost certain failures. Both have ushered in a whole new demographic of casual gamers of all ages. Both have been outselling all competition for a long, long time.
And so with all of this innovation and family-friendliness coming from Nintendo and not its rivals, it seems a minor facelift was in order for Nintendo as a corporation. The following press release was sent out recently by Nintendo PR:
Dear Media Partner,
For several years, a new generation of Wii and Nintendo DS games have adorned themselves with a new logo, in discrete grey.
In various publications the former logo, with red lettering, can still be seen. In the event that you have not already done so, we would like to sincerely ask you to now only use the current, gray Nintendo logo.
Yours sincerely,
Your friendly Nintendo PR team.
While I had noticed the gray Nintendo logo on the packaging for my Wii and DS, I had not realized this was an official change. The Nintendo logo sometimes appeared white on black backgrounds, and having a red logo on those pristine white boxes would surely distract from the fashionable product photos. The change to gray certainly made aesthetic sense in those instances, but as a corporate rebranding? I'm not yet sure how I feel about that. The gray logo is decidedly colder and more modern than the classic red, but is that what Nintendo realy wants these days? While the big N has always strived to be all-ages appropriate, they've never succeeded in that goal moreso than in the present. Housewives are playing Wii Fit and Brain Age, grandparents are playing Wii Sports, little kids are playing Mario Kart and Nintendogs. Housewives love little accent colors, grandparents might have a hard time seeing such a subtle gray and kids love bright colors. Okay, those were just stereotypes, but you see what I mean, right? Maybe now is not the best time for corporate subtlety. More people love the Nintendo brand than ever these days. Maybe we shouldn't be trying to have the logo just blend in. What do you guys think?
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