| mai said: I was merely pointing out simple fact that home console busines as a whole is relatively hign-end compared to other segments. If we build consumer pyramid based on consumer involvement into games (we may define it based on ammount of money or time spent by person on games through given period of time), home consoles will occupy it's peak, while numerous business models on other gaming platforms including PC and mobile will be at the foot of a pyramid. On top of that as a extra barrier for potential consumers to become actual consumers of games for home consoles they need to pay for machine itself. By many gaming console viewed as luxury, while PC and mobile hardware is commodity since they're non-dedicated gaming machines. All researches suggest that Wii gamers are quite a gamers, they buy a lot of software and spent a lot of time playing on Wii, while ammount and price points of downloadbale games on Nintendo consoles (both Wii and DS) aren't competitive enough for not so involved gamers when compared to ammount and low prices of downloadable games found on PC and AppStore. Nintendo filling WiiWare and DSiWare services with own content in pretty straightforward way, they just take the best suitable IPs they own, and cut them into pieces selling at lower prices (BrainAge, ArtStyle, Electroplankton etc. line of games). In the case of DSiWare it looks like direct respond to similar services on other platforms, seems like they're laying roadblocks to prevent mobile platforms from moving upmarket to their territory in handheld space, rather than moving downmarket themselves. All in all I dont think they will move downmarket (how? they're in home console business at the end of the day), it's too crowded down there, plus the best way to do that is to move onto non-dedicated gaming platforms (nonsense!). In fact, Nintendo rhetorics about game prices usually points out how Nintendo games (even the simpliest ones, except for those downloadable and 'cut into pieces' on WiiWare and DSiWare) have a lot of content and how 'the price is right' (and honestly, they're right, I'm playing Picross 3D for the third month and still not finished ^_^). So Nintendo may be the most consistent opponent of 'Free' by Chris Anderson. |
I disagree with your pyramid definition somewhat. In my mind the higher end specialised tasks are higher end and the more niche (hardcore) the game is the higher on the pyramid it belongs. The further down the pyramid the wider the potential adoption base and the product is becoming more like an appliance. Nintendo positioned and created a gaming system which was more like an appliance than any other game console ever created so they started lower and worked their way up with games and down with applications like Wii Fit. They have to sell the machine to sell the games so the lower they position the console on the pyramid then the wider the base and the greater potential sales of higher tier services. So if they make a game system more powerful they can capture a higher proportion of the pyramid and if they make that game system even more of an appliance they can capture a much wider base. Wii Fit is an appliance more so than a game. Thats why I believe an application store is the most important point to moving downstream because they can unlock its general potential however as a result they can sell a system which is bought for something other than gaming at least initially.
I have always believed that Wave and Move are coming at Nintendo from completely different angles. You can see it with many people here stating that the Wave (Natal) may not even need games to be successful. Specialist products can be disrupted by generalist products when the specialist products are rolled into a wider base. GPS units are a key example of specialist products disrupted by their inclusion in cars and mobile phones which are generalist products. Another area where specialist products can be disrupted is mobile gaming. The iRange of products holds 20% by revenue for 2009 of the entire mobile gaming market. Nintendo are being disrupted in the handheld market which is why they named Apple as their biggest competitor and which is why the 3DS exists. The 3DS is a defensive move against this disruption. Its a completely different market strategy and distribution method which is far cheaper enables far cheaper games to be sold and at a much lower price than they can sell the same games.
Tease.
