Business 2.0: How the Wii is creaming the competition
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 1:26pm by Staff
Business 2.0 (my favorite biz magazine) has published the “untold story of how the Wii beat the Xbox, PlayStation.” Behold my copy and paste skills! “Nintendo’s turnaround began five years ago, when the company’s top strategists, including CEO Satoru Iwata and legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, zeroed in on two troubling trends: As young consumers started careers and families, they gradually cut back on game time. And as consoles became more powerful, making games for them got more expensive.”
If you had to put money on it, when did Nintendo’s turnaround begin?
April 24th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I would say the turnaround came in 2003, with the release of the GameBoy SP… To me that was when Nintendo started expanding its appeal beyond its younger and more dedicated audience.
Adapting the GBA to be more portable, easier to use in all settings, and having a more fashionable look that hid its “toy-like” form was clearly a move to make it appealing to adult consumers.
April 24th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
“If you had to put money on it, when did Nintendo’s turnaround begin?”
I’m not sure. When did I start writing for Infendo?
More seriously: I agree with invis… for the DS to be a success, the foundation had to laid with the SP. Then the Wii was built partially on top of that.
The rest, as they say, is gravy.
April 24th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
When Nintendo released the original GameBoy, the company gained a complete strangle -hold on the portable gaming industry. It’s because of that continued success that they were able to test the waters of their innovation-over-graphics development method with the DS, and following that success were able to take it a step further and launch the Wii.
April 24th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Me again…
FTA: “Studios thus became more conservative, putting out more editions of Madden NFL and fewer new, inventive games that might actually grow the market.”
Again this brings me back to Gears of War. Great game, but it took zero risk. Sure it sold a bazillion copies, but were any of them to “new” gamers? One could argue that these types of games are really only successful for the publishers in the short term, and that we the gamers are doomed to play remakes and sequels of it for the long term. Sadly, GoW’s success means more of the same for at least the next 5 years. And that’s ironic, given the robustness of that title; a great game means fewer great games in the future — go figure.
Gears is a confirmed trilogy… is there really any surprise that this is so?
April 24th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
It was the day when Hiroshi Yamauchi retired and Satoru Iwata took over as Nintenod CEO.
It was Hiroshi Yamauchi who alienated al lthe third party and made some really bad decisions(Making Sony angry and sticking with carts).
When he was finally gone, everything for Nintendo turned around. Starting with Satoru Iwata announcing the Nintendo DS.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I agree with InvisibleMan (Transparents for the win).
The GBA SP enabled Nintendo to make the DS which enabled the creation of Wii.
What will Wii enable?
April 24th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I agree. The GameBoy laid the groundwork and the DS is a modified, innovative form of that same concept. Nintendo saw the huge success in that and translated that same thinking over to the Wii.
April 24th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I understand where the GameBoy idea came from, but the GameBoy has been succesful since the very first one. Theoretically, if we go by that idea, Nintendo never needed a turn-around. It’s always been successful
As for my opinion, it was when they announced the DS. That’s when it turned around for them. Everyone jumped on the DS bandwagon, primarily because it was a breath of fresh air in terms of gameplay ideas. The GBA was just more of the same. It kept Nintendo alive, but didn’t make it the powerhouse it is now.
Once the DS became a strong “third” pillar, Nintendo extended it to the Wii. And the rest is history.
April 24th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
My point of Nintendo’s turnaround being the GBA SP (not just the GameBoy or the GBA before it), was that, even though Nintendo was already dominating handheld gaming, the SP version of the GBA opened the option for a lot of non-gamers, like adults and even businessmen. I think without it, pitching the DS would have been far more difficult, and Sony’s PSP would have swallowed that market share.
April 24th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
@InvisibleMan
Did the SP actually grab the markets you said, the adult/business people? I never really saw or heard that. It might have been a few sitings, but I don’t think it was really prevalent at all with the SP. Not until Nintendogs did anything start to happen like that. The GBA was still rooted with the kiddies and Nintendo fans for the most part.
The GBA was of course successful, but I still don’t see how it started the whole turnaround process for Nintendo, making it more than just a successful handheld maker. I still say the DS started the long road ahead, and concluded with the Wii. I mean, the GBA was dumped like nothing when games started dropping from the lists. And it all migrated to the DS, something that I see on a completely different line of history when compared to the GBA SP.