Spending your retirement money: On a gaming console?!

I came across this article this morning and had to share. It's both interesting and bit strange all at the same time. The article is basically claiming that Nintendo has been successful in luring non-gamers (including retirees) into buying their new gaming console called the Wii (pronounced "WEE"). Of course, the key to growth in the gaming world is growing the number of gamers, so this is a great strategy. They did throw a bit of a Hail-Mary pass with their console strategy this time around by not focusing on better graphics or near-real experiences, but it's great to see it paying off for them.

Anyway, back to how this is related to retirement: The article calls out two things that have retirees loving this new game console:

1. The games are fun and interactive. Since you're required to move your body to play the games, older folks looking to stay active can do just that: stay active while having some fun. That's pretty cool, actually.
2. It's not only social, but it's also helping to bridge the generation gap between retirees and their grandchildren. Again, that's pretty cool.

It'll be interesting to see if/when they bring out the "brain games" to the Wii. That should be the one-two, knockout punch for keeping retirees coming back to play. Good work Nintendo.

(Photo courtesy of msnbc.com)