Nintendo's New Look

Forbes has an article talking with Nintendo of America's VP of Marketing Perrin Kaplan. She talks a little bit about Nintendo's upcoming plans, and the concept of the Blue Ocean. From the article: "For us, it's all about the experience, not if the technology allows you to play your game on the high-definition formats, which are now in such a small percentage of homes. Many independent sources tell us that experiencing current high-def games on a regular TV makes it near impossible to see everything clearly. That means the majority of homes are experiencing something lesser than what they bargained for. "

Misinformation abounds

[TaxiZaphod]

From TFA: Microsoft made the first move with the Xbox 360 three months ago, but with fewer than 700,000 units sold so far, gamers appear to be reserving judgment and waiting for Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Revolution, both expected by the end of 2006. Raise your hand if you've seen unsold 360's lying around unsold at your local retailer. This kind of misinformation leads me to question the impartiality of the whole article.

Clever strategy?

[MMaestro]

Inside Nintendo, we call our strategy "Blue Ocean." This is in contrast to a "Red Ocean." Seeing a Blue Ocean is the notion of creating a market where there initially was none--going out where nobody has yet gone. Red Ocean is what our competitors do--heated competition where sales are finite and the product is fairly predictable.

I think its safe to say that this strategy is going to be hit-or-miss. If Nintendo fails with "Blue Ocean" the Revolution (or whatever they end up calling it) will flop, simply because the market isn't there. If it does work though, Sony and Microsoft's "Red Ocean" will find themselves overfishing for a depleting market.

Re:Misinformation abounds

[Cutriss]

Sensationalism aside, at least they're actually mentioning Nintendo. Usually these days, an article in Forbes about video games wouldn't even mention Nintendo, lest it take up valuable print space to be devoted to Microsoft and Sony.

I wouldn't complain too much.

Re:Misinformation abounds

[bigman2003]

Many independent sources tell us that experiencing current high-def games on a regular TV makes it near impossible to see everything clearly. That means the majority of homes are experiencing something lesser than what they bargained for.

Do these independent (crack addict) sources not understand that you CAN switch your resolution to 480i with the current consoles that support HD?

On the 360 the games look fine...good...even 'great' (excluding King Kong).

Having the option of going HD doesn't mean that 480i gets worse.

Unless you work in Nintendo marketing of course.

Prodding the market

[Dr. Eggman]

We think there is an untapped nostalgia market: Gamers who grew up and cut their teeth on these older games could come back.


While I am very excited about greater support for this market, what exactly has Nintendo been doing with ports going as far back as Super Mario All-Stars, if not tapping this market? Exploratory Surveying?

Re:Nintendo is in trouble with the Revolution

[Anonymous Coward]

The DS has shown it can be about the experience. The PSP has multimedia functions and better technology and has more traditionally successful console style games. Yet the DS is in the lead, I can only assume because it offers an experience that can't be found anywhere else.

Re:Nintendo is in trouble with the Revolution

[C0rinthian]

An amazing hardware and software platform get you nothing if you don't have the software to back it up. I've played most of the Xbox 360 titles that have been released so far, and nothing has really made me want to drop the $400 on the console. Honestly, the multimedia features are the biggest draw, but that's not saying much for a game console.

The PSP vs the DS is another excellent comparison. There is no question that the PSP is the superior piece of hardware. What does it have to offer? PS2 ports and clones, games that really aren't made to be portable. The offerings on the DS are MUCH more suited to the system and it's intended use. Hence, it is quite successful.

Re:Nintendo is in trouble with the Revolution

[Anonymous Coward]

Why should I buy a Revolution when the 360 or PS3 has a better selection of games and is HD compatible?

What do you mean by a better selection? More, yeah sure they will have more, but better? I think you're assuming a lot there.

I think you should consider buying a Revolution when, like me, you've gotten a little bored of endless fps, third person shooters, sports games, and driving sims. You should buy it because, if they make a fishing game, you will cast by casting not by pressing "A." You'll swing a sword by swinging, not by pressing A. To shoot you would point and shoot, not by moving a stick and pressing A.I

Your clearly attracted to HD gaming, you mention it a lot, and I bet you're excited by it because it can make games more (photo)realistic, but understand that they way you can play a game can make it far more realistic than more pixels.

If you can't see why that, at the very least, you should consider the Rev over the PS3 & XBox, then you should re-think why you started playing games in the first place. I don't think it was to press "A" in HD.

Blue Ocean

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems like you simply don't understand what the Blue-Ocean strategy is all about.

If you look at the history of the videogame market you will see one pattern emerging; that as time goes on, one of the platforms in each portion of the market eventually represents the majority of the users. Basically, you have one console everyone owns and one or two other consoles which did not even sell in the same league. Usually, the console which ends up being the market leader does not have better technical specifications and does not have more features; it usually is successful because it has the largest selection of interesting games.

Now what Blue-Ocean is all about is that when a market has too much competition you define a new market which you can thrive in; if the Revolution is successful it could define a completely seperate market (much like the Handheld market) where Nintendo can dominate.

Remember, except for DVD playback the Gamecube was a far superior piece of hardware to the PS2 (the XBox was in every way a better piece of hardware) and Nintendo produced several compelling titles for the platform (and Microsoft also had tons of good content on the XBox) and yet it never (for more than a week or so) even matched the sales of the PS2. At this point in time, Nintendo could produce a system that produced pre-rendered movie quality images, at 1080p, with every electronic device included in the system (including a toster) and sell it for $99 and they would still have problems selling more than the PS3.

Pure and Simple, if Nintendo wants to survive they need a new market ... Their plan in the only way they can go.

Re:Nintendo is in trouble with the Revolution

[Brunellus]

They're like a car company saying to their customers, "You don't want a big SUV - you want our compact car with good fuel economy"

Sounds an awful lot like what VW, and later Toyota and Honda said to their customers-- "You don't want that big lead-sled Buick! You our compact car with good fuel economy!"

Re:Clever strategy?

[Anonymous Coward]

What are the revolution's stats?

If you are going to say that it's only 2 to 3 times better, well then show me an xbox360 game that looks more than 2 to 3 times better than any new xbox game. Numbers don't exactly translate into performance.

Re:Nintendo is in trouble with the Revolution

[bartyboy]

Who are the crackheads that moderated this as Interesting? The post is full of mistakes that only somebody with an anti-Nintendo agenda would write:

On the subject of high definition:

Shigeru Miyamoto has said, "The majority of people won't be playing our system with an HDTV, though with the Revolution, 480p resolution will be standard."

While not 720p, it's still a lot better than SD.

On the subject of console prices:

Compare the PSP to the DS. The technical specs of the PSP leave the DS in the dust, but its pricetag leaves a lot to be desired. Parents don't want to buy a PSP for $280 when they can have a DS and three games for the same price. (Sorry, Canadian prices here) This helps explain in part the popularity of the DS.

On the subject of the ON/OFF button on the controller:

Look for yourself. [wordherders.net]

On the subject of "What will Revolution bring us?"

- Innovative controller and new game genres
- Downloadable games
- Online play

Read more here: http://www.revolutionreport.com/nintendo_revolutio n_faq [revolutionreport.com]

You're a troll, and not even a good one.

Re:Misinformation abounds

[NiceGuyVan]

A game optimized to look best at 480i will always look better at 480i than a game that was optimized for 720p and scaled down (assuming all other factors are equal).

No, in fact the opposite will occur. The 720p game will look better on 480 than the 480 native game will. Because the 720p game will be using higher res textures and models.

Re:Nintendo is in trouble with the Revolution

[Toby_Tyke]

Digital TV != high definition.

I'm so sick of pointing that out.

Re:Misinformation abounds

[KDR_11k]

Take, for example, the GUI (or HUD). That's a screen element with a 1:1 texel:pixel ratio. Suddently it has to be downscaled by a non-integral factor. What was previously sharp is now blurred because multiple texels are averaged to draw each pixel. Or it becomes larger and takes up more screen space than it should.