2. Briefly, what are the network effects in the video game industry? The network effects in the video game industry are derived from the console system that is sold to consumers. If a company is able to increase penetration in this arena, though at-cost/ below-cost pricing or pull created through the development of desirable content, it can potentially lock in the added value of the video games sold for the system. Which is to say, the console locks-in the network effects in the industry and the games serve to reap the profits. The video games, however, may present something of a challenge in that they can be somewhat easily replicated by competitors. Nintendo used an encrypted chip system to reduce this possibility. 3. Describe and evaluate Nintendo’s strategy in each of the following areas. Why did Nintendo take the actions it did? How did these affect the value created by the industry? How did they affect the portion of that value Nintendo was able to capture? a. Pricing of consoles and games Nintendo’s strategy for pricing of consoles and games was to lock-in the network effects consoles offered by pricing them at- or below- cost and reaping profits by pricing video games at significant margin. Nintendo took these actions because it knew that if consumers used the NES/ Famicom console, they would be a captive audience for its higher-margin video games which were necessarily more perishable from a consumer taste perspective. This affected the value created by
With innovation on his mind,Yamauchi branched out into a number of other, less lucrative endeavors, including an instant-rice company and a pay-by-the-hour “love hotel.” These disappointments led Yamauchi to the conclusion that Nintendo’s greatest asset was the meticulous distribution system that it had built over decades of selling playing cards. With such an intricate and expansive pipeline already in place, he narrowed his entrepreneurial scope to products that could be sold in toy and department stores and settled upon a new category called
To attempt counteract this cyclical slowdown, EB games have introduced an ever-growing variety of accessories with games to increase the revenue raising capacity of their respective consoles, as well as maintaining the loyalty and attention of a fickle gaming public. Some types of games have been released, with specialty controllers to great success, mitigating the expected lull in sales in the lead-up to new consoles. Recently however, the competition has become slightly skewed. Nintendo’s newfound dominance of the market is causing some headaches for Sony and Microsoft.
The Nintendo brand has changed over the years, starting out as a simple card company that has expanded into the massive electronic giant we know today. They have had their ups and downs through their time as a gaming company but they always have the gamer’s interest in mind. As the late CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata said, "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer" (Yu, E., & Chan, W.
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.
You may be wondering where it all started, where it all came from. Well I have the answer you see it all started back in September 23 1889, a young man named Fusajiro Yamauchi opened a small store in the middle of Kyoto. He was very young (he only just turned 13) but he none the less was the first owner of Nintendo. He didn’t just go straight to games, and he didn’t want to be like any other shops selling normal everyday good such as silk and tea. He wanted to be unique and start selling a product that the government had just legalized. Can you guess what it is? That’s right nothing more than cards. But these weren’t just some ordinary card these where Nintendo cards as seen in picture #1. You can see how different they were sure there where
Both Sony and Microsoft focused their efforts on hard-core gamers and offering processing power and cutting-edge features to attract them. On the other hand, Nintendo has been trying to attract new customers that traditionally are non-gamers. The
Bargaining Power of Buyers: In 2008, the bargaining power of buyers did not play a huge role in the video game industry. Buyers were very intrigued by these products and were willing to pay fairly high products to get them. In the future that may not always be the case, since prices are often fueled by demand, if the draw to video game consoles drops significantly then the power of buyers will have a greater role. In 2008, there were an abundance of buyers, more than the supply could meet in many cases. Buyers like their brands and they trust the products that are being made so they are generally willing to pay a fairly high price for these products.
Several years had passed and a Japanese company by the name of Nintendo decided it wanted to enter the market. Nintendo’s Family Computer, or Famicom, was doing well in Japan and Nintendo wanted to try and find success in North America. This proved to be difficult because America was still wary on the idea of game consoles after the crash. To try and avoid the skepticism that came with items labeled as a game console, Nintendo rebranded the Famicom as the Nintendo Entertainment System and marketed it as a toy. Believe it or not, this actually worked and Nintendo became a household name. In order to keep their success going Nintendo took steps to avoid another market crash. Nintendo would put developers under a contract that kept them on their console and would keep them from developing games for developers. Developers also had a limited amount of games they could release in a year as
Nintendo’s emphasis on creative games and interesting story lines changed user perception of gaming. High quality of gaming introduced a new breed of consumers.” (wikipedia)
This document is authorized for use only in Principles of Strategic Management July 2016 by Dr Paul Spee, University of Queensland Business School from June 2016 to August 2016.
Former CNN Computer Connection producer, Steven Baxter, once said, “You can 't say that video games grew out of pinball, but you can assume that video games wouldn 't have happened without it. It 's like bicycles and automobiles. One industry leads to the other and then they exist side by side. But you had to have bicycles to one day have motor cars.” Video games are important to both the economy and people’s lives and “have been by far the most significant manifestation of interactive media to date” (Haddon 52). The first computers were large enough to fill entire rooms and their technology was originally intended to be used for complex calculations, and as a way of proving artificial intelligence the first computer games arrived. In the late 1940s games such as chess and tic-tac-toe played on these first computers proved artificial intelligence. NASA began increasing support and funding for basic computer research furthering the development of artificial intelligence, in turn this advanced computer technology greatly. Pong, made by Atari in the 1970s, was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity. This caused other companies such as Nintendo, a Japanese company that previously sold game cards, to get into the video game business. “In 1982 estimates place worldwide home games of video games at between 2and 3.8 billion dollars. The arcade game business at that same time was even larger, grossing 8 billion dollars” (Haddon 53). The rise in competition of
Through the decades, the video game industry has rapidly improved the technology to home gaming. Video games have become a real influence on the curriculum of the modern entertainment industry. Video game campaigns have a very strategized, but hidden way of luring people to buy their product. I believe that the way that they use social influence like Facebook or twitter to spread the word that their new video game is coming. Social influence is a huge way to advertise and seduce the video game obsessed population to purchase their product. They also seem to use perception and sensation during commercials as they show previews of the game and start the new upgrades to last year 's game. Furthermore, they show critics ' reviews in big bold letters to show the audience that these big name brands like Ubisoft, Konami, and Capcom who support the game. The advanced technology of vibration and action make it hard for young video game entrepreneurs not to buy the new game. People can also be influenced by stress and emotion.Video game campaigners use scientific studies on how video games affect psychological disorders and they make sure to state those studies in the commercials and reviews on the new games. As you can see psychology has a lot to do with our everyday lives, and with companies trying to attract their target audience.
Fallout 3 is an adventure game not like any other game that is out there. The music in the game has a very satisfying feel to it and the environment is very different from most games out there. The feeling of this game is like nothing any gamer may have come across before. A new breed of roll playing and adventure game has been born with the relese of Fallout 3.
The major publishing and development houses in video games seem to be running out of ideas – at least, in the eyes of the gaming community (Community.us.playstation.com 2014). Every year, the market gets more and more saturated with sequels for games. (IGN 2015) These can be relatively innocent games, like those in the Mario franchise (or, indeed, much of the Nintendo universe); they can be more problematic games, like the Call of Duty franchise, infamous for having players much younger than the ESRB rating of Mature would recommend; and they can be expansions on previous games, like World of Warcraft or Hearthstone.(Hewitt, 2015)(Kotzer, 2014) The reason behind this is largely economic – most video game companies want to ‘play it safe,’
It is said “ignorance is bliss”, “what you don’t know can’t hurt you”, and “don’t ask don’t tell”. However, in the case of early video game advertisements, ignorance is common. Remember all those classic systems and games from companies like Nintendo and Atari? They are often viewed as light fond childhood memories, but what most people do not remember or choose not to remember is the dark side of these 80’s and 90’s golden age games and their marketing strategies. From loving mothers to intimate lovers, these advertisements might be a bit different from what most people remember. If the record were to be set straight and light was shed on the subject, people’s views of women would change along with the sensitivity towards things that are not politically correct.