The blue ocean strategy was really just Nintendo’s return to its roots and proper form. After the downfall and departure of Yokoi, Yamauchi took Nintendo toward what could be seen as a “red ocean strategy” which didn’t work out for them.

The blue ocean returns to low cost and innovative ways to use less expensive technology to capture an underserved or unserved demand. This is in line with the withered technology to capture new market share strategy of the past. So, in another way, it was an update to the strategy from the golden age of Nintendo. It helped them enter their second golden age.

The Switch 2, in a way, is still following the strategy because Nintendo still delivers a product its competitors do not. Had Microsoft or Sony marched into hybrid territory, it would be a different story. Then it would be mean Nintendo’s next move would be to research and pursue new innovations. But, when they pursue different directions without cause and just to be different from before, it leads to disaster: as was shown with Wii U, and the 3DS to a lesser extent. But equally, trying to pursue someone else’s direction will lead to disaster → as demonstrated by the Gamecube. Some criticize the Switch 2 as following the safe path, but that doesn’t take away the fact that it is the correct path. The ocean is still blue.

Mobile phones are the reason though, PC gaming revenue is also shrinking. Engagement still goes up, yet Mobile rakes in the money while PC and console software revenue are stagnating / declining. (still forecast to grow thanks to FTP MTX etc, yay?)

The race to the bottom sale prices on PC and abundance of ftp are starting to hurt now, who doesn't have a huge backlog from Steam, Humble Bundle, GoG sales.

Steam had 147 million monthly active users (MAU) in Q1 2025, with a peak of 36.7 million concurrent users in January 2025

Sounds about right.

Mostly agree. The younger crowd will spend more on a phone because of how much more useful it is overall.

The answer for consoles is either blockbuster (exclusive) bangers often enough, or cheap hardware. Both if they'd rather focus on growing market share vs just profits.

$600 PS6 isn't the answer for market share growth. $400 is more like it. That or have a cheaper $300-$400 SKU and a more expensive $500-$600 SKU.

SNY and the leaks of a cheaper handheld (hybrid) and a more expensive home console makes a ton of sense for the console space next gen.

Mobile gaming remains its own thing for the most part. It has some similarities with consoles/PC in f2p and indies, but besides this they're almost two distinct hobbies appealing to different crowds.

I think traditional "Console + PC" gaming is quite a bit bigger now than it was in the 7th gen if we are to look beyond the misleading hardware figures (which are inflated by the same users buying multiple systems). The industry is now big enough that stagnation wouldn't be a problem, and I don't think it's stagnating yet anyway. PC (which is more than Steam) continues to grow thanks primarily to Asia. Playstation is a bigger business than ever, and the Switch 2 is so far the fastest selling console of all time. It's just Xbox that is rapidly declining.

Newer stantionary consoles are losing ground to PC and Switch, thanks in part to Xbox's decline. But it's hard to quantify because the Switch can count as a home console as well. The incentive to buy multiple consoles is much lower than before for a good number of reasons (high prices, weak/limited exclusives, Nintendo and Sony making one console per generation, Xbox declining, etc) which means that software sales and user spensing will be concentrated across a fewer relevant platform. It doesn't really mean the industry declined since gen 7. I primarily gauge decline/growth on a gen on gen basis as opposed to year over year which is often temporary.

Even with PC, Xbox, f2p, and mtx excluded, PS4 and Switch combined are much bigger than PS3 + X360 + Wii. And honestly... as much as I dislike f2p and microtransactions, I can't just pretend that they don't count as a popularity measure. People put countless money/hours into these because they think they're worth it. The same goes for subscription services.

Agreed, but looking at gaming software revenue, that's what's stagnating and declining when correcting for inflation. (Apart from mobile where gaming software revenue is still growing)

Total volume of active gamers might still be increasing, but they're not spending their time on different new games, which is not good for a new 'competitor' to come in. The shift to ftp and gaas is good for the few that have a hit there, it makes it much more difficult for new comers to make a living.

Ftp and gaas are better platform agnostic. Instead of console wars its a battle for your available time instead of attracting you to a particular console. 

Fewer blockbuster games seem to be in the pipeline, maybe a result from reading the room. More focus on GAAS rather than attracting people with new single player / story games. And a new competitor is not going to bust in with the best place to play ARC Raiders. They would have to 'pull an original XBox' and buy it for exclusivity like how Halo launched XBox. (And the backlash against that would be quite a lot bigger today)


Anyway seems the big three have decided on how to divvy up the 'pie'. Nintendo focusing on handheld experience, Sony on the couch experience, MS on subscriptions and branding. PC jack of all trades. There's overlap of course, but no two/three similar 'boxes' competing for you 'loyalty' anymore.

And the result is also higher new game prices. Console wars kept game prices way below inflation for a long time. Inflation took a big jump as well, but game prices an even bigger one, no longer 'shackled' to console wars and no longer supported by growing total spending on new games. And that's a self reinforcing cycle, rising prices signalling a shrinking market (for new games / consoles).

The gaming landscape has been changing over the past decade. 

I doubt software revenue declined (vs gen 7) even when adjusted for inflation, unless PC is deleted from the equation then maybe it has (Japan's decline as a console market is partly to blame. Switch/Switch 2 aren't big enough to compensate for the slow death of Playstation there. It has to accomplish the impossible task of matching PSP, PS3, DS, Wii, and X360 combined, with insufficient assistance from PS4/5).

I wish we had access to a super comprehensive data in one place showing how everything compares. But I think gaming remains reasonably diverse as far as where the money is going. All eras have a number of games that stand out from the rest in terms of success and popularity. Not unlike mobile gaming, f2p seems to add more than it canniblizes. Ignoring gaming fatigue and age which impact our opinions, console/PC gaming quality for the last 3 years has arguably been higher than ever. Countless great and diverse games are being made, with most finding success.

AAA single player games are starting to struggle due to development times/costs, shit priorities, and diminishing returns. I kind of welcome this. I want to see a higher emphasis on smaller budget and shorter development cycles. Yknow... the A and AA stuff. Less bloat, less "skin pores", less Hollywood, less bullshit!

Who knows how much bigger this gen would have been if prices weren't demonic.

Nintendo is the only company with the ability to have a console war. No other company has the IP muscle to make console gaming work. The only way games other than Nintendo games are selling is by being on every platform known to man at an 80% discount.

Which is why Nintendo games will never go multi-platform. Please stop saying they will because they made some Mobile games. Putting your games on Mobile and using your IP to make mobile games ARE NOT THE SAME THING. You will not legally be able to play Age of Imprisonment unless you have a Switch 2 and they're going to war with the darkweb to make sure the only place you can legally play their retro library is on NSO..

Nintendo expanded into cinema and animation way back in the late 80s with the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and the Super Mario Movie. The only difference between Nintendo today and Nintendo in the late 1980s is their expansion into those realms worked today when it didn't work back then. Nintendo has always wanted to be the new Disney, and they're well on their way to that now.

The console market is shrinking because Nintendo is the only player in town with their competitors going a different direction. everyone but Nintendo has a strategy which deprioritizes console sales to focus on software sales, which is where the real money has always been anyway.

Imagine actually thinking like this as if it's real... just wow.

WW2 didn't end when Italy capitulated, (or Germany for that matter) the console wars aren't over just cos Xbox is throwing in the towel.