Planned Obsolescence in Video Games

In 1983, the first Nintendo gaming system, the Nintendo NES, was released.  At the time, it was the most popular and successful video game console to be created, and holds the record for the longest lasting gaming system, spanning 20 years with over 60 million units sold.  This was quite an accomplishment because it was the first system of its kind and a solid consumer market had yet to be established.  The above ad pictures the Nintendo NES itself, claiming to be “the most challenging video game system ever developed,” as if to say that their video game system offered a mental challenge to consumers.  Additionally, Nintendo gives its own product the “Nintendo Seal of Quality” in order to create a hierarchy in the gaming world and give their customers the impression that they are buying the most advanced and qualified system available.  The console itself is pictured with just two controllers, which shows that this particular system was made for personal enjoyment rather than as a social activity.  The sleek-for-the-time, yet boxy design of the console shows how Nintendo was attempting to make their product look futuristic and show how they were creating cutting edge technology.  Strasser states, “The taste for novelty, the conviction that new things represented progress, and the belief that products were desirable because the represented modernity contributed to the celebration of the modern way.”  Nintendo knew that was what consumers were looking for and capitalized on that with the way they marketed their product as well as the design.

Over 25 years later, the Nintendo Wii was released and the same type of marketing has persisted.  The pictured ad targets what was most desirable in homes: social interaction and activity rather than sitting alone staring at a TV for hours on end.  The Wii itself is not even pictured in the ad, but shows a family playing happily, up and moving around all together.  Up until this point, gaming had been a fairly solitary activity and a phase of “anti-video games” had begun, solely because it was becoming clear how antisocial and detrimental to your health gaming was.  The ad itself, instead of picturing the gaming console, is looking from the perspective of it to show how interactive the Wii is. 

The technology industry is a leading example of both planned and perceived obsolescence.  As updated gaming systems are developed and new games are released, the games are created specifically for the newest model, and in order to play the latest game you must have the most recent system to go with it.  The older versions are often disposed of because the newest versions are the most valuable and most compatible with the most recent games.  This is an example of planned obsolescence.  In addition, just the fact that a newer product is released can be enough to drive consumers to buy the product.  Society perceives newer technology to automatically be better quality and more advanced than the older models.  This is an example of perceived obsolescence, and while this may not always be the case, it is the standard that the industry has set.