Adam Rourke charts the rise, the challenges, and the seeming fall of Nintendo as a console-making giant.
There probably isn’t a gamer on Earth that doesn't know who Nintendo is. And if these people exist they've clearly taken the term 'living under a rock' literally. Nintendo is one of the giants of the gaming industry; established in Kyoto Japan 1889, its original business venture was producing playing cards. It wasn't until about 90 years later (and various other business ventures) that Nintendo moved into the industry that would make it known throughout the world.
Video Games.
Just about any gamer will probably have many happy childhood memories of playing NES/SNES games, with their friends or on their own. During this time Nintendo built a strong foundation of memorable gaming icons that has proven to be the company’s most valuable asset, and a key component to its success.
Fast forward to today, though, and for the first time in what seems like forever, Nintendo are claiming huge losses. Its current system has lost momentum since its initial release, and there’s a general lack of approval from gamers around the world in regards to the upcoming Wii U console. So, it’s time for crystal ball gazing; we take a general look at Nintendo's past, present, and possible future to see where Nintendo are, where its heading and where it seem to be going wrong.
The Past For all us 'westerners' the first iconic Nintendo device would probably be the NES, which was released in 1985. In Japan, the Famicon (Family Computer) was released in 1983. Many of the games we look forward to today on current Nintendo systems debuted on this one. Mentions of Metroid / Super Mario / Donkey Kong will bring instant nostalgia to gamers around the world.
Needless to say the NES was fantastic, and was quite ahead of its time. In terms of technology, the NES was considered to be the superior console on the market surpassing the Master System, Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 to name just a few other big name consoles around at the time. With an extremely vast library of games, many of which are even re-playable today, the NES easily solidified itself in history as an iconic gaming system.
During this time Nintendo also updated its game and watch line of handhelds into a single unit with multiple carts, called the Game Boy. A console that was popular enough to spawn its own TV Series (no we're not kidding). The Game Boy line evolved slightly throughout the years with a slimmer version (Game Boy Pocket) and then Game Boy Color[sic]. Some came close to out doing Nintendo, such as the Neo Geo Pocket, Sega Game Gear (this journalist’s personal favourite) and Atari Lynx. But none seemed to loosen Nintendo's stranglehold on this market.
With technology increasing and other companies trying to work their way into the market, Nintendo released its next juggernaut, the Super Nintendo (SNES), or Super Famicon for those in Japan. Moving from the 8-bit era into the 16-bit, Nintendo's ace in the technology hole was its use of Mode 7, which allowed for moving backgrounds. It was around this time that the infamous Sega vs Nintendo war really got going, with Sega's Mega Drive console offering near identical specs and its own line of good, exclusive titles.
Many argue who came out on top here; in our eyes both were winners, with Nintendo probably taking first place by a nose. Sega tried to go further by increasing its Mega Drive line with the Mega Drive 2 and add-on devices, the 32X and Mega-CD. Both were considered failures due to a lack of games, and garnered little interest.
Nintendo on the other hand just stuck with its base console and thanks to A-grade titles like Donkey Kong Country, it extended the life of the SNES.
Other companies tried to jump in the ring with their own consoles, but these efforts fell short very early on due to shoddy hardware, poor marketing, and in most cases a lack of quality game titles. Victims of this include the CD-i, Jaguar and 3DO to name a few. All of these actually surpassed the SNES in terms of specifications but in the end people didn’t pay for a console without good games to play on. Oddly enough, many of these are highly sought after by collectors, and can fetch a high price due to their limited numbers.
What came next showed that this was no longer a two sided war. With Nintendo and Sega both releasing their new addition to the console market (The Saturn and Nintendo 64, respectively), a new player was entered the scene: Sony and its PSX (Playstation). And boy did Sony hit it out of the park! Nintendo and Sega were left gobsmacked. While Nintendo had a lot of success with the N64 it didn’t compare to Sony’s winner. Some may call it luck but thanks to an extremely high catalogue of games and its appeal to adult gamers, Sony out sold both Nintendo and Sega by a large margin, and left Nintendo with the perception that their console and games were aimed at the ‘kiddie’ market.
If there was a key moment where Nintendo started to fall, it was clearly this right here.
Sony went from strength to strength with its next addition, the Playstation 2 (PS2). Offering DVD playback – which at the time was new technology – and despite its initial high cost (AU$700+), the PS2 did extremely well. Many buyers justified the purchase of a unit with the line "well we wanted to get a DVD player anyway".
Nintendo fell even lower, with its GameCube doing quite poorly in sales. The unit itself was fine, with some great titles like Super Smash Bros Melee and Super Mario Sunshine. But with what felt like even less titles to choose from than the N64, Nintendo seemed to be fighting a losing battle.
It was at this point that Sega burnt out, with the terrible marketing of its Dreamcast System. The unit itself got the drop on Sony and Nintendo by about a year; it had wonderful games and was a sturdy unit, but Sega’s inability to market it correctly meant it was doomed from the beginning. Sega then made the most obvious choice, and decided to be purely a game development company and produce /distribute their IP to other consoles on the market.
A late comer to the party of this generation of consoles spelt even more doom for Nintendo, Microsoft and the Xbox. Microsoft, with its vast billions of dollars in petty cash, produced the Xbox and spammed every news crew, channel, and celebrity within reach. Despite its huge controllers, and the unit itself weighing nine metric tons, the XBOX proved to be a contender in the console wars despite its shaky start.
With the folks at Nintendo scratching their heads about what to do next, one thing was abundantly clear. They were the underdogs in the console industry and had a big fight on their hands.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012