Ch. 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage
Nintendo for the last 30-40 years has had a focus towards videogame home entertainment systems and software. In its tenure, Nintendo has focused on creating innovative as well as family friendly video games geared towards all ages. Nintendo is very adamant about the content that is available on its console and the type of software produced under the Nintendo name brand. This has been seen in it's quality control system that places strict guidelines to the amount of violence and other graphic content; The games that are approved by Nintendo gain the "Nintendo Seal of Quality", and are allowed to be sold and marketed on and for Nintendo consoles.
Nintendo Seal of Quality
With this family-oriented approach to the videogame industry, Nintendo has differentiated itself from it's competition. Where Nintendo's major competitors Microsoft and Sony market their respective systems and software to older gamers(within the late teens up to mid 30's) with a focus on games dealing with mature subject matter, Nintendo markets to young gamers and gamers who prefer more light-hearted entertainment. Nintendo has also ventured into fitness games with their "Wii" videogame console and has branched out to include health conscious people who would otherwise never even touch a videogame console.
This is where Nintendo hopes to excel. With it's vision of creating hardware and software for the whole family to enjoy, Nintendo plans on filling in the gaps left by their super serious competition. From it's youth friendly games to sports and fitness games the whole family can enjoy, Nintendo seeks to gain the upper hand from its competitors.
Reggie Fils-Aime, President and COO of Nintendo of America at the E3 gaming convention
In my personal opinion, I can understand why Nintendo would go the route they're on in a philosophical kind of way. Myself being a gamer almost all my life, some of the 1st games I've ever played were Nintendo games. Nice, cheerful as well as colorful games with memorable soundtracks. From Tetris to Super Mario, I was always having innocent fun. I feel that nowadays however, children don't have that kind of luxury. You turn on the television and theres commercials for Call of Duty, go outside and theres an advertisement for Grand Theft Auto V on the buses. The younger gamers now are hardly represented and I believe that Nintendo's plan to market directly to them even when the industry now is more mature gamer-centric is very admirable. In theory, a plan like this should offer an easy competitive advantage based on their choice of market. Children and teens have not only more free time to play videogames, but also have more disposable income(whether it be from allowance or part-time jobs in the case of teenagers) and by marketing the Wii as a healthy way of gaming as well as family entertainment, would bring in whole new types of consumers. From parents who want to bond with their children, to elderly people looking for a way to stay active in a fun way that is also not very intensive, Nintendo definitely has a solid plan of attack.
Nintendo Wii: Fun for the whole family
"[Nintendo] aims to create something better than what is already available in the world. We believe this can happen by creating something unprecedented. Since "Game & Watch" and the Nintendo Entertainment System(NES), all the Nintendo hardware has been developed consistently under this philosophy"
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