Nintendo, The Oldest Video Game Company

Nintendo has dominated the console market with their first handheld gaming device called Gameboy, having sold over 150 million units, and continuing to create more handheld ones. Games have also become easily accessible on smart phones, following the trend of portability. According to research conducted by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), 43% of gamers play games on their smartphones, and 25% play on a wireless device. Video game consoles have drastically improved since the 1970s, having become lighter, faster, and more interactive. All of these improvements were made possible by the advancements in hardware.

Video games are a fast growing form of technology. This issue has to be discussed because of the two confronting sides that embark it. Because of the issue video games have to either continue growing as they are or they have to be stopped completely or a settlement between the two parties has to be

Microsoft targets numerous segments of the population of many countries through advertisements of its Xbox. Microsoft, one of the most successful companies in the world, is using its innovations to take over the machine gaming market. Sony and Nintendo have been the gaming powerhouses for many years now, but are now starting to become overshadowed by the success of Microsoft’s Xbox. As long as gaming machines have been available, teenage boys have been the targets of the companies. One new strategy that Microsoft is using is the targeting of all ages and both sexes of consumers. While other companies continue to stay in the young kids and teenage market, Xbox is revolutionizing the target market of gaming systems.

After seeing how the Nintendo Gamecube was doing many 3rd party developers did not want to work with Nintendo. Developers wanted to make mature games for the Play Station 2 and the soon to be released Xbox. Another reason developers shied away from developing on the Gamecube was for the lack of power and storage space with the discs (Thomas, L). Sony was using standard sized discs which meant that bigger games would be able to be played and developed, because of all the storage. Nintendo decided to try using smaller discs that had minimal storage and games would not be as big. This turned developers away and as of 2017 this decision Nintendo made back in 2001 still affects Nintendo.

Though gaming has its drawbacks, it also has many benefits to cover them. If controlled, gaming is extremely useful and with the amount of gamers in the world today, it proves that it is not just for children or for teenagers. There are millions of adult gamers that understand the importance of gaming in the under the existing circumstances of the world. Individuals that have studied gamers believe that gaming in today’s

and the Nintendo DS, a dual screen portable system (Nintendo History. n.d.). In 2006 the Nintendo Wii was released. Cheap, small, and with a massive collection of high quality games, the Nintendo Wii became the best selling console of its generation, outselling both the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined (Gaudiosi, (2007).

As sales of Nintendo’s Wii and DS dominate the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and PlayStation Portable, respectively, the pressure continues to mount on Sony and Microsoft to move to the next level in the ongoing console wars. Sales of the Wii in 2008

However, the extent to which the hardcore gaming demographic dictates the structural aspects of the gaming industry as a whole is remarkable. Companies are still willing to cater to this audience because it is a profitable enterprise, as it is only the most devoted of fans who will line up days before a system release while generating free publicity on the internet and through word of mouth in the months prior. Thus, and perhaps unexpectedly, an important factor in the Wii's meteoric rise was Nintendo's ability, through the strength of its brand and residual nostalgia effects, to co-opt this hardcore gaming culture with a console that at best, only occasionally acceded to its wishes, while at worst, marginalized them completely. What Nintendo realized, and ultimately capitalized on, was that the hegemonic structure influencing the industry was inherently weak, in that it was essentially a small minority overwhelming the relatively silent masses. Although there are doubts to the sustainability of such an endeavor, the signs are present that the Wii has already altered the video game

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have been competing for a decade with Sony dominating the market throughout most of the years because of their superior technological products. The video games industry faces an entirely new rivalry situation. In 2008, Sony lost its strong position on the market, because of Nintendo’s success with their dynamic Wii over Sony’s high-tech PlayStation 3 and Windows’ Xbox 360. Although the Wii was technologically much less advanced than PS3 and Xbox 360, the Wii's cheaper price, ease of use, innovative motion-sensitive controller, and simple but fun games, made the console a hit all demographics from 9 to 65 years old, male and female. All these factors resulted in Nintendo’s Wii dominating sales and surpassing Sony’s by an impressive ratio of 2:1.

Overall, the market response to these three consoles has been surprising. Nintendo Wii, has outsold its rivals and more surprisingly, Sony’s PS2 has outsold PS3. This has let Microsoft and Sony with the enormous challenge of competing with a rival possessing two key advantages: a lower cost console and a product with a sound response in the market.

The fifth and final force is that of the intensity of rivalry. This is the strongest force in the video game industry. Nintendo was very strategic in targeting an audience that Microsoft and Sony neglected. While Microsoft and Sony focused on the typical gamers, males ages 18-34, Nintendo focused on a broader audience “everyone” when creating their Wii. In the video game industry rivalry Microsoft and Sony are battling for the same market, while Nintendo has much of its audience all to itself. This is why

By the end of 2006, two game console industry giants, Nintendo and Sony had launched their respective new products; the Wii and PS3. Various marketing strategies were implemented by both rivals and this writing attempt to analyse common and differing elements.

The role of technology is vital in this industry as it focuses on technological efforts for competitive advantage. Every new development uses new technology. Though there are restricted innovations in the gaming industry, the speed of technological transfer is very high. Nintendo’s role from playing cards to toys to video games and then with each console introduced, included many technological changes. Technological up gradation increased hardware costs and discouraged innovation. The online capability of Nintendo Wii was a major change in the technology of the video game industry though they were not able to do as well as their competitors (Sony, Microsoft).

The video game industry is a multibillion dollar a year industry, so it isn't hard to understand why they go through great strides to protect their image. They provide entertainment to all ages, genders, nationalities, and ethnicities. Contrary to the opinions of the industries opponents, video games are not destroying our youth, they challenge, educate, and provide an escape from an oppressive world.

The main obstacle facing a start-up video game console company from entering the industry is saturation of the market from the larger video game console makers or the “big three” Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony. The big three tend to release new game consoles around the same time frame and compete head to head for sales. During the time frame it is impossible for a new entry to jump into the fray. 2010 was a banner year for video console sales Sony’s PS3 sold 14 million units followed by Microsoft’s Xbox 360 13 million and surprisingly Nintendo’s Wii led the big three selling 17 million units. After the 2010 release of all three consoles sales started to decline for each company. Nintendo took the largest sales loss at 72% in 2013 only 747,000 were sold compared