http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/04/wii_and_the_tip.html

According to a blogger from Wired, Nintendo used a marketing strategy discussed in Malcom Gladwell’s novel, The Tipping Point. Shortly before the launch of the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo invited gamers to “Ambassador Parties” where gamers brought about twenty of their friends to try out the Wii. As the word “ambassador” may suggest, gamers were not invited by random; these invitations were extended to influential bloggers and active participants in gaming discussions.

Since gamers interact and communicate so often on the web, Nintendo probably figured it would behoove them to have the most influential of these start propagating their product, hopefully starting a cascade of Wii enthusiasts. I think by employing this strategy, Nintendo made use of a few of the phenomena covered in class. Obviously, it wanted to create an information cascade and get a head start on the PS3, which was to be released later than the Wii. By getting as many people to promote the Wii, it becomes easier to further promote because newcomers to the market will see how many people have already bought the Wii and buy one for themselves as well. This also applies to the late adaptors, who will purchase only after seeing that many others have already purchased the system. Furthermore, Nintendo probably also wanted to take advantage of network effects. Nobody wants a gaming system no one else has nor is familiar with. Because a system like the Wii is heavily dependent on people playing together in a social setting, it is important for Nintendo to exploit both the tightly knitted social networks gamers have among friends and the social networks gamers have on the net and blogosphere.