Miyamoto Discusses Wii-U Competition
Nintendo has tried to distance itself from the competition since the DS days after it realized that Sony and even Microsoft was winning in the sales department for the traditional gamer. During the N64 and Gamecube era, Nintendo lost a lot of its base as competition increased and were more powerful-which encouraged software developer support. As a result, they were forced to innovate to increase the market and while doing so – owning that newly created market.
This Blue Ocean Strategy paid off handsomely for the company as they out sold Sony with their “inferior” DS over the PSP. After clearly winning the handheld front they took on their competitors again in the home console arena. The innovative Nintendo Wii was by far the winner in terms of consoles sold in the current generation that is wrapping up. As Sony and Microsoft focused on graphics and offered no real comparative advantage between one another, Nintendo differentiated themselves through gameplay vs expensive technology. The other 2 competitors sought to replicate the success with variations of motion play of their own.
Once again with the Nintendo Wii-U, the company is seeking to create new markets for gaming. Building upon its popular Wii market and increasing it to a better graphic and hardcore market while also bringing in new gamers with its unique tablet controller, they seek to maintain their success. Since showing off the tablet controller in 2011′s E3, Nintendo has seen competitors already announce similar concepts as they also seek to increase connectivity. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto does not take that as a threat though, but rather sees it as things to come.
Speaking to IGN, Miyamoto suggested that other companies trying to use similar concepts that Nintendo has already shown off simply means that their is a lot of possibility in their concepts. Instead of worrying about the knock off attempts or alterations of their ideas, he believes Nintendo – with their history of offering unique gameplay experiences – is in a better situation to take full advantage of the concepts and give consumers what they want.
The other devices require additional hardware or set ups to be fully functional upon opening the box, while the Wii-U is ready to go straight out of the box. He continued to elaborate on the focus of Nintendo- which is to bring fun to the world.
