| nine0nine said: its very easy to improve a companys tactics after its already proven a be less than brilliant (avoiding the word failure here) what if Nintendo used CDs in the N64? What if Nintnedo never pissed Sony off in the snes days? What if MS designed the 360 properly in the first place? Although they could all be interesting topics, discussion in them is ultimatly pointless. If sony had marketting the PSP differently and it was suddenly a blazing success your analysis goes on as if Nintendo carried on regardless, they wouldnt just ignore their problem, they would have stepped up their selling strategy accordingly. I dont think anything sony could have done would have been a match for the casual/non gamer attack that Nintendo masterminded with the DS and Wii, I dont think theres that many gamers that want to relive old games over and over, on handheld or other wise. Targetting an untapped market was more benificial than anyone expected and your PS1 strategy would be as useless as Sonys actual PSP strategy was against it. Nintendo's ability to make games that appeal to all ages, plus the fact that they are untouchable in handhelds plus their decades of experience was just something sony couldnt just come along and defeat like they did with the PS1 vs N64. A more interesting discussion would be what could sony do now to save the PSP, or do they infact even need to save it, is it OK to have a smaller, but respectable % of the market? |
Sometimes you can tell ahead of times if things are going to fail. For example, if I had been 10 years older, I would have realized that the N64 would fail. If I had been a few years older, it would of occured to me that Sony's PSP would not trounce the DS even though I thought it would. (at the time my Dad said the DS was better becuase the PSP was too pricey and wasn't focused enough on any one thing... was he right?) With the PS3, it was kinda obvoius even in 2006 that it woulnd't do well. With the xbox 360, I think it was rushed becuase Xbox was a money pit, and the only way nintendo could have forseen Sony console domination was in hindsight.
You say Nintendo would have changed thier strategy. I mentioned that in my original post. Ninendo was somewhat concerned that the DS would fail. They had a new Gameboy in development. If the DS failed, they were going to fall back on the GBA, then realse the new Game Boy. As I siad in my post, I don't think this would have hlepd, becuase Sony would have more games for the PSP, and would be cheaper. Despite brand loyalty to Nintendo, I think Sony would come out victorius. It would be overkill, but theorietically Sony could also drop the price of the PSP to $59.99, taking large losses on hardware. Eventaully they would break even due to software sales, and eventaully they would not lose money on the hardware. This plan would not make Sony very much money in the PSP (possibly less than now) but it would be a deathblow to nintendo's handheld domination, effectivly knocking nintendo's new Gameboy out of the race for that generation.
