| insomniac17 said: This whole subject will never be resolved, you know that right? I still think that it is more focused on casual games and on Nintendo's traditional fannbase. Sony and Microsoft are focusing almost exclusively on hardcore gamers. So, they are competing to a degree; their target crowds overlap, but are not entirely the same. |
Well said. However, try taking it one more step.
What is the problem here really? The problem is that counting marketshare between these two target crowds is impossible. It's also pretty much irrelevant.
Thinking about how big your marketshare is only takes you so far. Or actually not that far at all.
A fact is that Nintendo's definition of the market is wider than Sony's or Microsoft, and that that simple fact has made Nintendo a ton of money. Sony and Microsoft are from now on working in a niche in the console market. This is about the same situation as when PS first made games 'cool' and socially acceptable back in the day when WIpeout was the hippest game in the world. Widening the market makes you a ton of money.
Also. An illustration of how ridicoulus (Can't spell that word, sorry) the whole idea of marketshare is, consider a couple of possible ways to define this market:
1. Hardcore gamers that has bought a console this generation
2. People that have bought a console this generation
3. Casual gamers that have bought a console this generation (would probably give ninty a really nice share of the market)
4. Hardcore gamers owning a console (this would include the PS2... things would get turned upside down)
5. Gamers. All of them. PC, console, handheld... all of these actually make a group that might have some interest in buying a new console.
...
I'm not going to bore you with additional variants. It just goes to show that there IS no way to actually count marketshare or who's competing with who easily. It's all relative and subjective.
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