Nintendo Market Analysis
4C stakeholder’s analysis of Nintendo Wii Market in 2006
Customers: Nintendo Co Ltd (Nintendo) and its new president Satoru Iwata believed potential existence of a consumer market that distanced itself from gaming. They opined that existing games were not only difficult to understand and play, but also found the consoles complex to operate. The games were built more on fantasy and targeted towards traditional over 18 year old male[1] population.
Nintendo made a conscious attempt to bring the non gamers into the spot light and create a new consumer segment. They decided to concentrate on simplicity and real life game scenarios. Nintendo designed and marketed “Wii” as family entertainments devise involving all age and gender groups including those who enjoy watching others play. This encouraged not only young members[2] of the family asking parents to buy gaming devises, but the elders started showing interest and started buying Wii. Wii was able to remove the traditional negative barrier between “the child” and “the parent”.
Wii also found a competitive edge by getting female (A NDP[3] press release suggests 5% point increase in female gamers during 2009 compared to previous year, mainly attributed to successes of Wii) and other adult population who has not been very keen in playing earlier.
Company: Nintendo after entrance of new players like Microsoft and Sony into the industry did not see many successes and was fighting for its survival. Nintendo’s net sales remained static for three consecutive years from 2004[4]. The vision of the new leadership was being tested with launch of Nintendo DS and its other variants. However the biggest change came in form of Nintendo Wii in November 2006.
The company financial results showed tremendous growth with net sales and net income tripling by end of 2008. Share holders received dividends of 1,260 Japanese yen, almost 3 times higher than year 2006. Company’s stock prices rose to 64,500 Japanese Yen by
Customers: Nintendo Co Ltd (Nintendo) and its new president Satoru Iwata believed potential existence of a consumer market that distanced itself from gaming. They opined that existing games were not only difficult to understand and play, but also found the consoles complex to operate. The games were built more on fantasy and targeted towards traditional over 18 year old male[1] population.
Nintendo made a conscious attempt to bring the non gamers into the spot light and create a new consumer segment. They decided to concentrate on simplicity and real life game scenarios. Nintendo designed and marketed “Wii” as family entertainments devise involving all age and gender groups including those who enjoy watching others play. This encouraged not only young members[2] of the family asking parents to buy gaming devises, but the elders started showing interest and started buying Wii. Wii was able to remove the traditional negative barrier between “the child” and “the parent”.
Wii also found a competitive edge by getting female (A NDP[3] press release suggests 5% point increase in female gamers during 2009 compared to previous year, mainly attributed to successes of Wii) and other adult population who has not been very keen in playing earlier.
Company: Nintendo after entrance of new players like Microsoft and Sony into the industry did not see many successes and was fighting for its survival. Nintendo’s net sales remained static for three consecutive years from 2004[4]. The vision of the new leadership was being tested with launch of Nintendo DS and its other variants. However the biggest change came in form of Nintendo Wii in November 2006.
The company financial results showed tremendous growth with net sales and net income tripling by end of 2008. Share holders received dividends of 1,260 Japanese yen, almost 3 times higher than year 2006. Company’s stock prices rose to 64,500 Japanese Yen by
Bibliography: 3. Nintendo (2009) ‘Annual Reports 2008’, http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2008/annual0803e.pdf [accessed October 14, 2009] 4 5. The NPD group, Inc (09/06/2009) ‘Press releases’ Video gaming attracts larger female audience in 2009. http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090629b.html [accessed October14, 2009] 6 7. PVC forum accessed on October 14, 2009 from http://www.pcvsconsole.com/features/consoles/ shows Wii hard drive capacity as only 512 MB compared to Xbox 360 (20-80 GB) and PS3 (20-120 GB). 8. Consumerreports.org (2008) ‘Blogs Electronic’ Get in the game. http://campus.college.ch/resources/Harvard_Referencing.pdf [accessed October 14, 2009] 9 [8] Nintendo (2009) ‘Games Guide, http://www.nintendo.com/games/guide#qhardware=Wii [accessed October 14, 2009] [9] Entertainment Software Rating Board (2009) ‘Home page’ http://www.esrb.org/index-js.jsp [accessed October 17, 2009] [10] PVC forum accessed on October 14, 2009 from http://www.pcvsconsole.com/features/consoles/ shows Wii flash drive capacity of only 512 MB compared to hard drives of Xbox 360 (20-80 GB) and PS3 (20-120 GB).