bis - casestudy nintendo

8/2/2019 BIS - CaseStudy Nintendo

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processor that delivered about 300 million polygons per second, more than three times the graphics

performance of the Playstation 2, the previous generation console that Microsoft hoped to displaced.3

The Xbox 360, which Microsoft introduced four years after the Xbox, used a 3.2-gigahertz processor, an

order of magnitude faster than the Xbox while delivering 500 million polygons. The PS3 also used a 3.2-

gigahertz processor and the firms new much-touted Blu-Ray DVD technology.

These advances in technological innovation also created more options for software (game) developers

to design games for each generation of consoles that were even more lifelike and appealing to core

gamers than those designed for previous generations. However, in tracking the technology frontier,

console makers incurred very high console costs. Console makers had to develop custom chips

dedicated to their consoles or use the fastest and best chips available in the market. The result was that

each console cost so much that its maker sold it at a loss, and hoped to make money from the royalties

collected on software sales and from selling accessories.

Effectively, each new generation of consoles delivered outstanding technological performance, images

that were more lifelike than those from previous generations, and appealed to core gamers. Each new

generation was also more complex than previous generations and many games took hours, if not days,

to play. Virtual violence also became more common with each generation. Moreover, playing many ofthese games required players to master complicated combinations of buttons on each consoles

complex controls, and lots of gaming know-how and expertise.4 Each new generation of consoles

rendered the previous generation technologically obsolete and out of style as far as core gamers were

concerned. Additionally, most games developed for new consoles often rendered previous games

obsolete. The product cycle timethe time from when the first product in a new generation was

introduced to the time when the first product in the next generation was introducedwas also

decreasing.

The Wii

Nintendo introduced its Wii video console in the Americas on November 19, 2006, only about a week

after Sony had introduced its PS3 console on November 11, but one year after Microsoft had introducedits Xbox 360. The Wii had a simpler design than the Xbox 360 and PS3 to appeal to the casual or lapsed

gamer, or noncore gamers who had neither the time (hours or days) to dedicate to a game, nor the

expertise to handle the complexity of existing console controls and games.5 It had easy-to-use controls

and its games sought to offer reallife, rather than escapist scenarios. According to Jeffrey M. OBrien of

Fortune, the Wii differed from the Xbox 360 and PS3 in other ways:


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