Nintedo: happy in 3rd place

[yoMAMA]

Even the venerable new yorker magazine is covering Nintendo.

must read for TB400 and other nintendophiles....

:biggrin:

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/061204ta_talk_surowiecki

[inthesky]

that's a great article talking about Nintendo's strategy...

PS3 and Wii are both selling underpriced.. but that's to push the system. for PS3, it's even more important since they're trying to push their blu-ray (?) tech over Microsoft's whatever-they-have..just like VHS vs. Beta. But definitely, nintendo's made a wise decision here- things probalby would hae look much more grim for them if they had tried to compete directly with PS3 in terms of technology..

definitely, market share isn't the end-all when it comes to the videogame industry.. which is getting substantially larger every year. by focusing more on innovative games/family orientation than on state-of-the-art entertainment systems.. they're almost focusing on an entire market of their own (with perhaps lower budgets).. i think the biggest determinant of their survival - how large is that gap in technology? gamecube-like graphics may not cut it against 1080i resolution but there's gotta be more factors than that right?

minutes after this post, i ran into this article
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20061128/tc_usatoday/gamerssaywiihasps3beaten
i didn't even think of the consumers going for PS3, couldnt get one, got Wii instead..

[Azn Retribution]

You're wrong there...

Wii is making a profit (it's not being sold at a loss)
Sony and Microsoft do sell their systems at a loss.

with regards to all three companies in a financial/profit aspect.

Nintendo is #1. They haven't been in the red in decades.
Sony is in the red. Microsoft is barely in the black(I think they still may be red)

also your forgetting more important market factors

* Average person doesn't have/ know/want a 1080i expensive home theater style TV.
* Wii games look pretty decent. It's a step above the gamecube but below the others.
It's spin is gameplay. It's target are attracting non-gamers to the market. and they now pretty much have the casual gamer on lock and the hardcore gamers will come on board
as pretty much all major third party devs have signed with nintendo.
* Sony/Microsoft uses "units shipped" to count their sales which is deceptive. Nintendo is a bit more truthful using the numbers of units that have been sold at the retailers in question.
* Sony's launch line-up is quite possibly the worst line-up in history. More people are buying it as a cheap blue-ray player than anything else.


So basically Sony's bleeding alot of money (and no their pockets aren't that deep. not anymore)

M$ is bleeding tons of money (but they can handle it.)

Nintendo is making out like a bandit like it always does. If being in third place means you make more profit. than they are fine with that. plus they have the best launch line-up in history if you count the virtual console with its Sega/Turografx/NES/SNES/N64 games.


Just look at the Sony PSP vs The Nintendo DS. The PSP is completely irrelevant with respect to installed bases, third party support and upcoming games.

also emphasis on higher graphics means more budgets spent on games looking pretty as opposed to games being fun.