Wii
From Kunkelfruit Wiki
The Wii is the name of Nintendo's seventh generation video game consoles, and the successor to the GameCube. The Wii was previously known as Revolution.
Contents |
Design
Designers
Wii was designed by a team led by Takeda Genyo, the head of development, along with Takamoto Jouji, Ashida Kenichiro, and Shiota Kou - engineers who work in Nintendo’s various design departments. They reported directly to Nintendo's president and CEO – Iwata Satoru, due to the importance and scale of the product and its “playability”.
Takeda Genyo was previously a leader of “Nintendo Research & Development 3” group that was often described as “a band of otakus" and “computer hackers and nerds” who worked in isolation from other teams. Their motto was: “There are no limitations, no boundaries; since we're on our own there's nothing we can't do; when you start with nothing you can do everything." Wii team atmosphere is probably informal and very friendly.
It is hard to estimate how they spend their work hours, for every team has its own methods to achieve their goals. Based on rumors about the specifics of the designers’ practices in general, it is probably similar to a typical student's preparations for exams – designers spend most of their time thinking and brainstorming and then start working only when a deadline approaches.
Design Process
Work on Wii started in 2001, right after the GameCube went on sale. At that time Wii was codenamed “Revolution”. The engineers' goal was to build a console more accessible to a wider audience, with lower power consumption, but still competitive with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, in terms of CPU performance. Initially, engineers believed that they would be able to create a console that would cost around US$100. But the relatively high cost of flash memory, customized chips, and wireless technology forced them to increase the retail price. In fact, one of the greatest challenges they faced was adding wireless technology to the console. It took them two years to create a controller, and they spent an entire year on an infrared pointer that would work accurately in rooms of all sizes and in different lighting conditions.
Designing the Case
Another challenge was the size of the console. Nintendo Wii is only 44 mm wide, 157 mm tall, and 215.4 mm deep without the included stand and weighs only 3.84lbs. This makes it the smallest Nintendo's home unit ever. As Iwata Satoru recalled: “I stacked a few DVD cases and said: I want something about this big." Despite the small size, Wii had to be durable enough to resist all the possible abuses from children or overly enthusiastic adults during play, so engineers had to equip it with additional metal support plating. Designers were instructed to create casing which would not look like a toy, due to fact that Nintendo Wii is also aimed at older gamers.
Name of console
During the design process, the name of product was also changed. The codename, “Revolution”, was replaced by “Wii”. This change was explained as follows: “Wii sounds like "we," which emphasizes that this console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play” (quoted from the official Wii website).
Takeda Genyo's team created a ground-breaking console. Due to Nintendo’s strict confidentiality policies, there is no information available on the team members’ income or work conditions. The only official information about salaries is that the team wages depend on experience. Average salaries for IT engineers and designers in Japan vary from ¥6 million to ¥8 million, while a typical salary for a computer hardware engineer in the US is approximately $84.000.
Raw Materials and Parts
Nintendo Wii Core
Without a doubt, the heart of the Wii is the IBM-made PowerPC 'Broadway' CPU, manufactured in East Fishkill, New York. This IBM factory produces chips using 300mm silicon wafers, in a fully automated 14000m2 facility controlled by more than 1700 microprocessors with over 110TB of data storage. The entire facility employs about 1000 workers and has top production of about 600 wafers per day. IBM cooperates with many hardware makers, providing them with customized versions of their chips. 'Broadway', capable of running at 729Mhz, is only one of them, made with 90nm Silicon-on-Insulator technology.
Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust, making up 25.7% of its mass. It does not occur freely in nature. It mainly occurs in minerals consisting of silicon dioxide in different crystalline forms such as quartz, and as silicates.
Silicon is commercially prepared by the reaction of high-purity [silica] with wood, charcoal, and coal, in an electric arc furnace using carbon electrodes. At temperatures over 1900 °C, the carbon reduces the silica to silicon. Liquid silicon collects in the bottom of the furnace, and is then drained and cooled.
The silicon produced via this process is called metallurgical grade silicon and is at least 98% pure. In 2005, metallurgical grade silicon cost about $ 0.77 per pound ($1.70/kg).
To be used in the microelectronic industry, silicon must then be chemically purified and melted in large quartz buckets. When it is melted, the first seed crystal is inserted into the melt by a wire in order to create a single crystal.
Then an ingot of silicon is created, 200mm or 300mm in diameter, using a very slow rotation. After that, ingots are cut into very thin wafers, which are then polished checked for possible defects. Those wafers that pass the inspection are doped to create semiconductors.
The last part of preparation is covering the wafer with photo-sensitive, chemically dissolving substance. Using photolitographic masking techniques, the chip's structures are created on the surface of the wafer in layers. The cost of a single chip depends on the technology used in the process (usually it is either 90nm or 65nm), wafer size and the number of chips produced. Unfortunately, there is no available data about the cost of a single IBM “Broadway” chip nor the specific issues concerning its creation.
According to a new study by research firm In-Stat, Intel's CPU manufacturing cost per die is around US$40. This probably is roughly comparable to what the Broadway chip costs.
HowStuffWorks.com article ‘How Microprocessors Work’ by Marshall Brain
Graphic Chip
The GPU for Wii is provided by ATI and is codenamed 'Hollywood'. The GPU works at 243MHz, uses 3MB of embedded texture memory, 24MB main console 1T-SRAM and 64MB of external GDDR3 RAM. It seems that this GPU does not provide vertex and pixel shaders.
Data Storage
The main data storage of the Wii is 512MB of standard Flash-RAM, expandable with typical SD cards up to 2GB of storage memory, and a built-in slot-in DVD-ROM drive. Most disks are produced at Panasonic Disk Manufacturing Corporation of America. Located in California, the facility has 35577 m2 of area and operates in compliance with the state's environmental policy.
Wii Remote
The most unusual part of the Wii is the Wii Remote, the console's controller. It resembles a classic TV remote, rather than a typical game pad. The Wii Remote is equipped with a 3D motion sensor, a force feedback mechanism, and a built-in speaker, which create an immersion experience. It also contains an infrared emitter combined with a special infrared sensor array. The entire design is theoretically able to fully replace a mouse in strategy and FPS (first person shooter) games – which is impossible with a classic game pad.
The Wii Remote has one port for extensions; currently Nintendo only offers one extension, the 'nunchuk', which is equipped with an analog stick and motion sensors of its own. It allows the player to use both hands in a game.
The force feedback mechanism is based on a simple principle: when you hit something you should feel it. This effect is created using (1) tiny electric servos to provide different resistance levels from the analog stick, depending on the in-game situation, and (2) engines powering concentric wheels to provide so-called “vibration feedback”. Wii Remotes also include another, unique kind of feedback: sound feedback. It is created by a built-in speaker creating player-specific sound effects near the player's hand. Another important part of the Wii Remote is its motion sensor. It probably works using two devices: an inertial sensor to measure acceleration and deceleration in 3D, and an infrared bar sensor that measures the delays between detecting impulses from the Wii Remote.
Other important parts
Wii has a built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi chip provided by Broadcom, two standard USB 2.0 ports, and a Dolby Pro-Logic II analog audio output.
Manufacturing process
Nintendo has its main branch in Kyoto and five subdivisions, located in:
- Redmond, Washington, USA
- Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Grossostheim, Germany
- and Suzhou, China.
Although we can be sure that the Nintendo Wii is assembled in factories in USA and in Japan, there is no information available for the European and Australian divisions.
Factory Assembly
Aerial photo of the Nintendo Wii manufacturing plant in Redmond, Washington.
YouTube video of the Nintendo production line.
The company states that “since we are entrusted with the business secrets of our various licensee companies, we do not offer factory tours or company tours.” Before launching the Wii in the United States, Nintendo released a short film showing people working on the assembling line and packing the Nintendo Wii into its packages. Workers speak in English, so the pictures were doubtlessly taken in Redmond. There is no data concerning the wages for workers or detailed information about their working conditions. But based on the statements found on Wii's dedicated forums, they are similar to those in other US-based computer hardware factories. What's even more interesting, it is impossible to find information about the size of the plant or number of employees – such information is treated by Nintendo as an industrial secret.
Average wages in similar factories in the US are approximately:
- US$50,000 for first line supervisors
- US$32,000 for inspectors, testers and sorters
- US$20,000 - $25,000 for assemble line workers.
Production totals
Nintendo plans to ship 4 million Wii in the 43 days before the calendar year end (2006). This is, of course, is only the beginning of Nintendo Wii sales.
Distribution, Marketing, and Disposal
Packaging
The Wii made in Redmond is packaged in a 380,000 square-foot facility located in North Bend, Washington. The facility hires 120 employees and has a daily throughput of 20,000-plus packages.
For environmental reasons, Nintendo uses at least 80% recycled paper in shipping packaging. The console (together with accessories, manual and a game, “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess”) comes in predominately white paper packaging.
After leaving the packaging facility, the Nintendo Wii is distributed to retailers across the country into 25,000 retail locations. Due to fact that Nintendo Wii has been introduced only in United States so far, there is no information available on distribution in other countries.
Marketing
Nintendo has spent about US$200 million on advertising, which includes video clips, Internet ads and last-minute gamers' parties. TV advertisements were directed by Academy Award winner Stephen Gaghan and the music in the ads is from the song “Kodo” (Inside the Sun Remix) by the Yoshida Brothers. It is Nintendo's first large-scale advertising campaign. This was probably prompted by the competition's popularity, the PS3 and the Xbox 360.
The main campaign slogans are “Wii would like to play” and “Experience a new way to play”. The campaign is aimed mainly at older gamers, so the spots are aimed at whole families, not only a single age group.
So far there is no information concerning specific wages and contracts related to the campaign.
A Nintendo Trade Show Booth Tour:
Wii prices
The estimated retail price of Wii for the United States is about $250. However, the console will be cheaper in Japan (costing about $215) while customers in Brazil will have to spend approximately $1,124 for the same product. Such variations in price are mainly caused by shipping costs, tariffs, and taxes.
There is still no information about wholesale prices as well as the manufacture, overhead, marketing & advertising and executive compensation.
Environmental issues
Nintendo officially claims that the Wii is an environmentally friendly product. Their own efforts to keep it green concentrate mainly on recyclable paper packages and not using Styrofoam or plastic covers, but they also require their subcontractors to not use any banned substances during the production process.
External Links
Design
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/wii.ars
http://www.nintendoland.com/home2.htm?profiles/index.htm
http://www.veritas-executive.com/jobs-search.asp?search=true&paging=1&wage=0&type=9
http://www.payscale.com/research/JP/Country=Japan/Salary/by_Industrym
Raw materials and parts
http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/en/environment/pdf/2005__pdmc.pdf
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/attachment/20213.wss?fileId=ATTACH_FILE1
http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-computer-world/hardware/2166447/nintendo-wii
Wikipedia 'Nintendo Wii' Entry
Manufacture
http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/video-nintendo-wii-production-line
http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2006/02/10/a-visit-to-nintendo-headquarters/
http://www.bls.gov/cps/home.htm
Distribution, Marketing, and Disposal
http://www.hytrol.com/casestudy.cfm?id=35
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2016037,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532
http://ms.nintendo-europe.com/wii/?site=v1_01.html&l=enGB
Reviews of the Nintendo Wii
"Nintendon't: The case against the Wii", Erik Sofge, Slate.com, Nov 20, 2006
