Fortune Faded

First of all, for those who didn't know, "Fortune Faded" is the name of a song by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The gaming world has, or at least its blog comments and message boards have, been filled with talk about the cover of a recent issue of Fortune magazine. The cover shows a silhouette of a hand holding a Wii Remote with the words "How Wii Won". Needless to say, many gamers are outraged, as the console wars are not over yet (in fact, they've just begun). As you know if you've been reading this blog, I'm against "console wars" anyway, but I agree that it's way too early, as far as gamers are concerned, to declare a winner.

But as far as Fortune is concerned, the timing is perfect. Gamers shouldn't get mad or excited about what Fortune says, because Fortune is not a gaming magazine. Fortune doesn't cover games, features, or variety; they cover business. And from a business standpoint, Wii certainly is the winner. That doesn't mean it will sell the most consoles or have the best games; again, Fortune doesn't care about that. They care that Wii is cheap to produce, selling well, and netting Nintendo a profit for each system sold. The way Fortune is looking at it, what they're saying is totally true.

Don't look at the Fortune cover as the magazine's view on the console wars as gamers know them, because that's not what it's saying.