Damn it I messed up adopt and adapt to and it came out adopt to... really retarded.

Just in referance when you talked about Atari needing to appease an unknown market. The Magnovox came first and after that don't forget Nintendo with the TV-Game series of consoles. By the time Atari launched its first console it had a very good idea of where to go.

Essentially Nintendo was deeply immersed in the video game industry long before the NES , and its first major hit would have likely been the Game&Watch series of handhelds (1980-1991) Nintendo exploited the fact that nobody had yet to make a successful handheld games console. Ever since the Game&Watch Nintendo has dominated the industry they created.

 As for the PS2 as a computer in the living room, while some would like to say it was. At the time of launch the PS2 was by far one of the lowest tech as far as leadership goes. DreamCast was online and leading the way while it took PS2 years before it even managed to get the basic online gameplay. The PS2 lacked any real innovation while the competition DreamCast had the VMU. Essentially if anything I would say the DreamCast had tapped into the Blue Ocean and failed. Not the PS2!

 As for Microsoft's entrance into the gaming industry. While I believe personally it was to damage Sony (Because Sony had been talking about investing heavily in the PC industry). Microsoft struck at Sony's core the most profitable branch PlayStation. Now Microsoft in my opinion is doing this very well, exploiting both the budget gamers who can't afford PS3 and the gamers who don't care for the Wiimote. This creates a Niche market for Microsoft and its an ingenious plan.

 I agree however that Nintendo has managed to target far more blue oceans over the years then its competition. But thats what you get when you have a 100+ year old company that has done everything from run love motels , Taxi services , card games , toys to video games. Nintendo is a company that knows how to evolve and as a company that can adapt rapidly to changing conditions it has always stayed one step ahead of the competition!

I don't see why the Xbox 360 and PS3 haven't tried to be more innovative.  They're just graphically enhanced versions of their previous systems. They've never gone with the vision of a complete home entertainment system.
 ly.

What about allowing you to download TV shows?  There are already web sites that allow you to download TV shows at a low cost.  They could also sell anime, which is pretty big among gamers.  Death Note is being sold online for only $2 an episode, while buying anime at a store like Target costs the outrageous price of $30 for 4 episodes.  Even if downloading had problems, why not allow people to stream them for FREE with commercials?  ABC, NBC, and CBS already do this online.  The problem is very few people want to watch shows from a computer chair.  I think the ability to stream free shows on your television with commercials would make the 360 hugely popular, even if they were low quality.  Sure you can record shows now, but most people don't want to hassle with that.  They could do streaming movies as well.  Movies eventually show up on television so they could let you do that with older movies.  Imagine if people could watch Lord of the Rings for free any time they wanted to with the only thing being that they had to watch commercials?  Non-gamers might buy a 360 for nothing other than to watch TV shows and movies.     

Microsoft and Sony chose not to innovate this generation, and that's why they're getting their ass kicked by the Wii.

If "Blue Ocean" means watered-down games to reach out to a wider base, count me out. I agree with the blogger who noted that. If you try to satisfy everybody all the time, chances are good that you won't satisfy anybody at all. I am glad there are choices for consoles and that they aren't all trying to do the same things.

I think the analysis fundamentally misunderstands the Blue Ocean concept. All those developments you were talking about were technological changes, but the games were always marketed towards the same audience - young males. The demos changed over the last 20 years because the first gamers (like me) got older and didn't stop gaming. The styles of the games changed to suit the tastes of the already established market, not to pursue those who have not been gamers.

The goal of the Blue Ocean strategy is not to make new games or technology (though that comes with it) but to attract new gamers, ones that Nintendo will not have to compete for with Sony and MS.

Misterd the whole point of the article is that Nintendo realizes that technology's purpose in gaming is to deliver new experiences.  Sony has delivered new experiences, but it was Nintendo and Sega who realized the need for more storage space for better story telling.  It was Nintendo who realized 3D gaming would draw in a huge set of gamers who uninterested in traditional 2D gaming.

Blue Ocean strategy seems to be Nintendo's entire corporate philosophy, it is just that during the N64 days, Sony was better at it.  I would go so far as to say that Nintendo lost it's focus during the Gamecube days, because it did not have technology doing any type of innovation.  At least with SNES Nintendo realized there would be a market for 3D games when it saw the success of semi-3D stuff in the end of the Genesis-SNES battle.

My point is that 3D games is what drew in older gamers who had not gamed before.  Of course gamers like you continued playing games.  If you read the Innovator's Dilemna it says something to the effect of corporations who seemingly abandon their old market to focus on the new one, end up keeping much of the old market in the end, as they still get their fix of traditional product, while they and the entirely new audience gets new products.

The NES was huge because the games were more sophisticated in every way - story telling, gameplay, length of game.

PS1 was huge because of 3D and the CD storage medium.

Wii seems likely to be big because of advances in interaction.

All other consoles are essentially battles in the red ocean looking for what new markets will want.  So again, Nintendo was the one who came to Sony about CDs in the late 80s/early 90s - they saw a blue ocean in how much genres would advance - especially the ones we take for granted now - sports, rpgs, platformers, shooters.  3D was huge and that is why the technology was pursued.  Nintendo doesn't just persue tech for the sake of tech.

" leaving Nintendo a chance to revisit it's past philosophies of increasing interface to drive sales.."

 think that you misunderstand nintendo's philosophy, Thesource.

The "blue ocean" naming of it's corporate strategy, is simply an appealing name and has no other significance.

The critical area of its current strategy has nothing to do with the wii remote thingy, the main focus is that Nintendo is using yesterday's technology, yesterday's old but still OK computer innards, so that it can deliver easy to make games that everybody can afford. While sony is clumsily getting its act together, nintendo's easy to make games have already been selling very well, and have a big audience not only b/c of the nintendo brand but b/c most people would be able to afford its products. Going for the easy, sure thing, is a lot less riskier than sony or microsoft's approach, so nintendo has an easy gauranteed profit.

I totally agree with the article.

Interesting is, it really seems you can´t bet on the same horse for more than two times, because consumers get bored.

Look at Sony: They followed the same strategy for 3 times and the third time they failed (?).

Look at Sega: They always followed the same strategy but after a succesful second console the other two failed.

Look at Nintendo: Third Handheld Generation and they are still market leader. Why? Well, they expanded the market the third time.


I guess, we, as consumers just can´t play the "same way" for more than a single decade...after that it gets boring.

Every second generation there seems to be a big market expansion in this industry. Probably because after 10 years of "the same" consumers are ready for something new and technology is also ready.

I´m really looking forward to 2015

sony's marketing for PS and PS2 moved it into blue water.

And there's still a lot of brand loyalty left over from that too. Still a lot of casual gamers who'd much rather get a PS3 then 360 when the prices came down.