| RolStoppable said: There is a difference between confidence and predicting how things will play out. Iwata talked a lot about the DS and how the Wii would follow a similar pattern, because both systems share similar philosphies. What Iwata said about the goal was that the Wii would obviously be seen as flop if it wouldn't beat the GC. He also said that the minimum goal for the Wii is to sell more than the PS3 (i.e. beat the console of the previous marketleader, Sony). Sure, Sony and Microsoft were confident about their consoles, but what they said was merely what they hoped that would happen and was not based on past precedents. If they knew what they were doing, they would have realized that the launch prices for their systems are (way) too high and that most gamers don't want their consoles to be multimedia hubs (which all flopped in the mid '90s). Then there was also the mistake to focus on too many sophisticated games which once again is a losing strategy as past precedents show (Saturn and Nintendo 64). The Pepsi/Coke analogy is about a company rethinking their strategy to gain overall leadership again. That means becoming #1. |
I agree with the philosophies idea. They are very similar. But then again they are also very dissimilar.
Overall I agree with your point, but I think it is a mistake to say that people who underestimated the wii were wrong and that people who supported the wii were right simply because that is how it played out. Maybe you're not doing that, but I think a lot of people do.
I know you are going to say that people did research and all that, but the same goes for the other systems. It wasn't until the systems came out and we knew the prices and launch games and all that, that anyone coulda make a really informed argument.
