All markets are driven by fighting over existing customers (red ocean) and courting new potential customers (blue ocean). Nintendo might've brought the blue ocean strategy to light in the gaming world, but it's not a controversial concept in the wider business world. When a product begins to be commThe idea is there's a wide ocean of new customers out there waiting to be tapped, but they often defy the conventions that apply to the existing customers. This requires the company to try unusual things, often "betraying" some or all of the conventional wisdom that is applied toward the red ocean. And this often earns the company laughter and confusion from competitors. In case people forgot or didn't know, Nintendo execs spoke openly about this strategy when they showed off the Wii.
I
think we're seeing the same phenomenon with Switch, which is why Switch is selling so well despite it following another Nintendo decline (Wii U and 3DS). It serves a market of customers that aren't served by the other options. Maybe some customers will be retained. Maybe some won't. The very nature of the blue ocean is that you have to cater to them to keep them. I really do think Nintendo had the right idea with the Wii but they didn't fully realize it. Wii U was the wrong direction (obviously), but it tells us something interesting about the market.
How do you go from your highest-selling console and highest-selling handheld ever to your worst-selling console and worst-selling handheld in company history within one generation? I'm sure there are a lot of answers, but it's definitely a sign that Nintendo didn't really understand the Wii's success. In fact, it's a sign that Nintendo
gravely misunderstood the Wii's success and confidently blundered into the opposite of whatever made the Wii + DS so successful.
The Switch is focusing on the gamers and how gamers like to play. They're focusing on building a huge library for gamers, because even though the hobbyists laugh at the port quality, lots of people are buying these games. I fully expect half of the launch features to be abandoned (like the IR sensor and nuanced use of 3D Rumble), but that's what happens on Nintendo hardware all the time. I wonder if Nintendo will go the wrong direction again just like they did a few years into the Wii's life.
Also, nicely put
Leonidas
The market is fighting over a lot of the same customers. Games are becoming commoditized by f2p and cheap smartphone games and monthly subscriptions and game passes. Consider that the global market has more access to customers and the economy is better in a lot of placed than it was back in 2008-2010, yet this gen couldn't manage to hang on to half of the ~500m platform purchases from last gen. Something is definitely up. Bigger market, better economy, but half of those purchases vanished?