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Louie said:
What kind of context do you want exactly? I guess it's about my "the market didn't respond well to Labo" statement, in which case let me change it to this: The Japanese market didn't respond well to Labo factoring in the huge marketing push Nintendo gave it and, using the theoretical framework of Blue Ocean Products and disruptive Technology, I doubt Labo will fare much better in the long run worldwide. Does that sound better to you? Labo is not Blue Ocean just because it mixes cardboard and games! Blue Ocean products create new markets (Labo isn't a new market, it just added something to an already existing toy concept - it's more a sustaining innovation), they are developed to avoid the competition (Nintendo isn't avoiding Sony and Microsoft with this one - it's just a single game that caters to an already existing market of products for kids), they create a new kind of demand (like the DS, which dramatically increased the pool of people interested in buying games with Nintendogs, Brain Training, etc. Labo doesn't do that, it just wants to have some of the kids toys cake), they dramatically change the expenses:profits formula for a company (the DS did that: bad and cheap graphics compared to the PSP, but created a new market and because of the weak CPU the hardware business made insane amounts of money for Nintendo, a novum in the market) and lastly the blue ocean strategy changes the direction of the whole company toward low costs and differentiation. Labo doesn't do that in the slightest, it's just a product that mixes cardboard and mini games and won't do anything for the Switch's direction in the long run. Lastly, hey you could be right about Labo selling well over the long run, that's absolutely true. But my statements are certainly not based on nothing. If Labo sells well for the next year (without the big marketing push it's getting right now) then that's cool and I'll admit to being wrong. But the first week sales certainly haven't been as big as Nintendo expected - you don't flood Japan's stores with advertisements (and hire Bill Nye in the west) for 120k sales in Japan of two different Labo products combined. Edit: And we have news that Labo only sold through 30% of its initial shipment in Japan (which would put the shipment at about 400k units). Clearly Nintendo, a company that is often conservative with its shipments (Switch, SNES Mini, Wii...), expected more of this. |
How often do Blue Ocean Products start out with massive sales right off the bat? Or how about new IPs aimed at kids/family/casual gamers in general?
GB Pokémon Red / Green / Blue FW 140.074 / LTD 7.936.360
NDS Tomodachi Collection FW 100.371 / LTD 3.692.859
3DS Yo-kai Watch FW 52.901 / LTD 1.332.971
NDS Style Savvy FW 86.446 / LTD 891.076
PS1 Monster Farm FW 60.876 / LTD 729.063
NDS Inazuma Eleven FW 41.458 / LTD 401.820
NDS Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! 44.166 / 3.847.136 Nintendo 19/05/2005
WII Wii Sports 176.880 / 3.724.565 Nintendo 02/12/2006
WII Wii Fit 254.009 / 3.561.787 Nintendo 01/12/2007
NDS Nintendogs: Labrador / Dachshund / Chihuahua & Friends 135.674 / 2.080.644 Nintendo 21/04/2005
WII Wii Play 171.888 / 2.804.201 Nintendo 02/12/2006
WII Wii Party 223.595 / 2.389.549 Nintendo 08/07/2010
Its not uncommon for games aimed at kids/families/casuals to sell 10-20x their FW sales.
As for the 30% sell-through, Golden Week started like 8 days after Labo launched, clearly retailers wanted to have plenty of stock for the holidays.
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.
