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happydolphin on 03 March 2012
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HappySqurriel said:
happydolphin said:

Since the Playstation, a new entry in the market, managed to boot Nintendo off the throne within the Red Market, using Red Market strategy, why did it work? Why did Red Ocean strategy work for Sony, and what did Nintendo do wrong for its Red Ocean strategy to fail? (since they obviously went Red Ocean)

 

At the time it wasn't a Red-Ocean strategy ...

In the early/mid 1990s videogames were considered (mostly) a toy for children and younger teens. At the time aiming for older teens and young adults was very disruptive in the market. Beyond this, it could be argued that the games on the Playstation were far more "casual" because they sacrificed gameplay and made games far easier to appeal to a broader demographic of gamers.

I mostly agree with this. And their success is also thanks to the fact that Nintendo's old audience was aging. Sony capitalized (either intentionally or unintentionally).

However, as Rol said Sega had already started targetting that audience with the Genesis, but the market was still ready for more. Sega was also in Nintendo's child to young teen audience, so both markets were not so red, not super blue.

 

HappySqurriel said:
happydolphin said:

And ultimately, why was the N64 an abomination? Why is it not just a failed Red Ocean attempt? Why was the Cube not just a failed Blue Ocean attempt? (related post @abomination)

Rol, feel free to relegate me to your prior posts, but do post the argument related to what I need to look at.

The Gamecube couldn't possibly be a Blue Ocean attempt because it is Nintendo's best "Red-Ocean" console. In practically every way the Gamecube was a better PS2 (more processing power, easier to develop for, less expensive, etc) and Nintendo tried to compete directly against Sony on Sony's terms; and as a result it was Nintendo's worst performing system (in terms of sales)

For all the factors you mentioned, I agree the cube was a Red Ocean product (except the less expensive part, see the wikipedia link I gave to Ninpie).

Having said that, it begs the question. Why the purple color on the lunchbox? Why the jolly-colored buttons? Why no DVD playback? Why the controller made for smaller hands? And why the jumpy splash screen?

Then, other question, why Luigi's Mansion? Sunshine and its totally mature and cool theme (on Sony's terms right? You'd think after 7 years Nintendo would learn the ways). And most of all, why The Nintendo Difference?

So much for red ocean strategy there! But that's why it's important to understand there are nuances here, and not everything done on one approach was clear cut red or blue, but likely a mix of both.

And even then!

Mind you your points aren't Red Ocean strategies, they are no-brainers. 3rd parties were begging for those things, whether within a Red Ocean or a Blue Ocean paradigms these were needed improvements.