Can Nintendo be disrupted?

[thekitchensink]

Gamerace said:
YES - and I've long predicted another company will jump into the fray and attempt to do just that. How successfully they'll be is at disrupting Nintendo is a total unknown but more disruption in the industry will be chaos for Sony/MS.

Keys to doing it:

- Think BIG! Nintendo has opened a huge new market but is too conservative to gobble it up.
- Aggressiveness - Lots of advertising making the product seem like the new IN thing and lots of plans to ramp up production very quickly to stay ahead of demand.
- Innovation - simply intuitive controls but don't copy Wii exactly (otherwise you'll be a wannaba Wii)
- Compatibility with both Wii & HD game consoles. Imagine the joys of being able to play the best of Wii games and the best of HD games with pinpoint accuracy. Instant huge game library as 3rd parties port existing games over for a quick buck.
- Sleek design - Take a page from Apple (Nintendo did) people love cool looking gadgets
- Price - Must be under $300 or be from Apple. Apple is the only tech company that can get away with overcharging for everything - but they have mastered the 'coolness' factor.

Really the only company with the imagination and know-how to do this I can see is Apple but no one expected Wii from Nintendo either so who knows.

That's a good idea, aside from being COMPLETELY ILLEGAL without licensing from the old consoles' owners. Why do you think you don't see an Xbox 360 that can play PS2 games? I agree that the only company with a chance of competing on the same level with Nintendo, for the exact same audience, is Apple. The iPod is quite popular in Japan, their products are never bulky, and they have the 'cool' factor. The only question is if they (a) could make the first-party games to attract people to the iPlay, or (b) could get enough third-party support.