Nintendo’s Recent Advances in the Video Game Market

Ben Tarkany Suguru MinajimaBenny Yiu Colton Schulte Stephanie Thomas

History of Nintendo

Founded in 1889, Began Selling Playing Cards

Started selling NES in the United States in 1985

Controlled most of VG market in 80s then lost grip.

Launched the Nintendo DS in 2004 and the Wii in 2006

Console Market

Microsoft Xbox 360: High End Graphics

Starting Price: $299

Console Market

Sony PlayStation 3: High End Graphics

Starting Price: $599

Console Market

Nintendo Wii: Interaction Game play

Starting Price: $249

Wii Over Others

Wii game play focuses on more casual gamers and incorporating the player with the game

PS3 and Xbox rely on high powered graphics and more immersive games aimed at intense gamers

These casual gamers go for the less expensive console (Wii) which is also more fun to play in most cases.

Wii Over Others (Cont.)

Game production for Xbox and PS3 can cost as much as $30 million and take a long time to create.

Wii games cost around $2-$5 million to create and can be completed much faster to be introduced to the market.

With this stream of games for Nintendo entering the market at such a high rate, the competition is struggling to keep up.

Nintendo Wii

Higher than expected sales in February, passing all other consoles by.

Nintendo Wii

The Xbox 260 has shipped more than 10 million consoles worldwide since its introduction to the market more than a year ago, but the Wii is slated to pass tat mark with ease.

Nintendo Wii

Many game producing companies overlooked the Wii such as Electronic Arts (world’s largest publisher of games) but are now cashing in on its popularity with such games as its Tiger Woods golf game.

Competitor’s Reactions

Xbox will be releasing the highly anticipated sequel Halo 3, which is more than likely going to bolster Xbox sales.

Competitor’s Reactions

Take Two Interactive plans to introduce Grand Theft Auto IV to its arsenal of PS3 games, which with luck, will also bolster PS3 sales.

Handheld Market

Nintendo has also taken the portable gaming system market over with its Nintendo DS.

Microsoft has no handheld, but Sony has a powerful PlayStation Portable.

Handheld Market

The PSP is, like its console counterpart, very powerful and can serve as a media center as well as a game platform, with movies and mp3s.

The Wii offers simple “Gameboy” style game play with the twist of a touch screen added along with the regular screen to interact with the game

Non-Traditional Games

Majesco has centered all of its game producing efforts on the Wii and have released Cooking Mama, a game where you can practice your virtual culinary skills.

Non-Traditional Games

Square Enix, the producer of the popular Final Fantasy series has entered the DS market with twice as many games for the DS as it does for the PSP.

They have introduced traditional games along with some travel guidebooks and gardening tutorials, showing the versatility of the DS.

Competitor’s Reaction

Sony has lowered the price of its handheld to $169 from $199 to try to catch the DS in sales

The Nintendo DS’s price of only $130 has spurred it to the top of the market with 35 million sold compared to the 25 million of the PSP.

Questions?