jarrod said:
Nintendo has been making more Wii software, they had a giant initiative last year with three 10 million plus sellers and Wii's first price drop, and while that's helped, it hasn't really helped Wii regain it's previous foothold. The problem is chiefly 3rd party content, and at this point Nintendo doesn't seem able to attract much new support after the high profile mixed 3rd party results last year (Monster Hunter, Taiko no Tatsujin and Momotaru Denetsu did great, FFCC, Tales and Sengoku Musou did... not so great). It's not like there's this sudden decision to "give up" Wii, but they've been trying for awhile and they can't seem to really turn it around. More telling is that NCL's internal R&D has shifted almost wholesale to 3DS, leaving only two announced Wii projects on their table (Metroid this summer and Zelda next spring), you don't exactly have to adept at reading tea leaves to predict Nintendo's moving away from Wii, and really has been headed this direction for awhile. I think you're misusing the concept of disruption (no, Wii's price drop was not "disruption", it was competitive, which isn't quite the same thing), and you're sort of missing that Nintendo's widened their net since the initial disruption strategies of 2004-2006. 3DS isn't so much a response to PS3/3DTV, which is what you're essentially painting is as. The 3DS push combines several factors and competitive strategies really, and has multiple aims and looks to be a protective measure for Nintendo from a variety of competitors (from iPhone to PlayStation). The development timeline alone though sort of gives away that 3DS isn't nearly as centered around Sony as you seem to imply here, as active work on the platform as is dates back to 2007/2008. The reason they're rushing 3DS now though, so soon after DSi, is pretty obviously due to software sales waning in Japan, and bottoming out in Europe. Piracy's basically taken over the mainstream on DS, near everyone's spoken about it at length, and Nintendo's looking to get revenues back up to growth again. If not for the alarming uptake in DS piracy, I honestly doubt we'd be seeing 3DS this year. Also, DS and Wii were 2 years apart, not 4. GBA and GC however even launched in the same year, and SFC was just a year and a half after GB, so it's not like Nintendo's uncomfortable with closer aligned console and handheld launches. 5 years would give Wii the same primary lifecycle as the two Nintendo consoles before it (and the planned SFC cycle, it got an extra year due to N64 delays). And I think you misunderstood my use of "stall tactic" in regards to Microsoft. They're using Kinect to try and artificially lengthen the natural generational cycle make a better return off the platform, that's what I meant by "stall". Stall the cycle. Sony's doing the same with Move, and interestingly this was also the original plan Nintendo had for the Wii remote (which was going to be Gamecube peripheral). |
The problem is rather than saying why my point are wrong or why you're are a better fit, you assume you'res are the only ones and run with it. They sound silly as a result.
On Wii software: two of the three big hitters last year were sequals, which would not move systems. New Super Mario Bros Wii, however, did push systems, where it sold 4 million Wiis in a month's time. The last big seller that would move systems since NSMBWii was Wii Fit back in May of 2008 (and November 2008 in Japan). You can see the gap there. The problem has been a lack of software that would move the system. Sequals don't help. And Nintendo's 2008 holiday line up was a bust.
Also, the reason Nintendo might be moving away from the Wii is because they are about to launch the 3DS, which is obviously going to get most of the development support like any new system should. This, however, does not mean they are just going to make a new home console. They won't even be ready to focus on it for a while.
Disruption: No surprise, you mis-applied disruption. None of what you said makes sense if we consider Nintendo is using disruption on their systems. What does piracy and decline sales in Japan have to do with disruption? Why would Nintendo, a disruptor, defend themselves from competitors who are over shooting. And WHY do people keep saying they are respond, or doing anything, in reaction to Apple. Nintendo, themselves, have come out and said they are not focusing on Apple and if they did, it was false. Reggie stopped an interview at E3 for just that. They are not focused on Apple and nothing they have done implies that.
If you do not see the 3DS as a disruption, then you don't understand disruption. 3D is obviously overshooting the market. So what happens when overshooting takes place? A disruptor comes in, of course. To show Nintendo is disrupting
- Nintendo constantly said "No more glasses." This means they are doing it different, rather than doing it better. This is the cornerstone of disruptive innovations
- Nintendo mentioned a lot of problems with 3D. All of these were overshooting. Nintendo is saying "3D is not what you want. So have different 3D instead."
- Nintendo has movies on the 3DS. Why the heck does Nintendo have movies on the 3DS. They never cared about this before?
- Nintendo showed a video detailing the history of 3D in cinema. Nintendo is not a movie company, so why did it end with the 3DS?
- Sony, at their conference, mentions "true 3D experience." Sound like 2007?
DS and Wii were 2 years apart: The N64 and the Gamecube are not compairable here. Both systems did not excell on the market, so naturally, they would have a short lifespan. The last years of the systems were dead years. The lifespan of a system is dependent on it's strength on the market. The Playstation systems have had long life spans because they were successful. This is why the Wii having only 5 years is silly. I have yet to hear a strong reason why Nintendo will launch in 2011 and why it's a good idea they should.
360 stall:This is where you assume your answer is right and that there isn;t another one. You're assuming it's a stall tactic, but there is no evidence of it. Microsoft and Sony both only started caring about the new market in 2009, almost 3 years since the Wii was on the market. Also, they have pushed their systems as "Hardcore machines." So why is grandma all of a sudden a priority? There is no reason to think it's a stall tactic any more then to think a magical fairy flew into their offices and gave them 10 million hamburgers if they made motion controls.
Them responding to a disruptor makes sense because this is why incumbents do. They ignore the disruptor until it is too late and fire back a counter attack that usually fails. Since Nintendo is a disruptor, it makes the most sense that they are protecting their market space.