Nintendo Comes In Last; Wins
The New Yorker has in interesting examination of how Nintendo is winning the console wars by ignoring the fight for living room supremacy, and concentrating on making money. How? By simply delivering clever, fun games on an inexpensive, easy to use platform, and not worrying about beating their competitors at any cost:
Sony and Microsoft's quest to "control the living room" has locked them in a classic arms race; they have invested billions of dollars in an attempt to surpass each other technologically, building ever-bigger, ever-better, and ever-more-expensive machines.
Nintendo has dropped out of this race. The Wii has few bells and whistles and much less processing power than its "competitors," and it features less impressive graphics. It's really well suited for just one thing: playing games. But this turns out to be an asset. The Wii's simplicity means that Nintendo can make money selling consoles, while Sony is reportedly losing more than two hundred and forty dollars on each PlayStation 3 it sells - even though they are selling for almost six hundred dollars. Similarly, because Nintendo is not trying to rule the entire industry, it's been able to focus on its core competence, which is making entertaining, innovative games.
Any article about anything that has a Glengarry Glen Ross quote is worth your time. Read it here.
