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If Apple has learned anything with the iPhone, they've learned it from Nintendo's Game Boy strategy. When the Lynx and Game Gear came out, it had to have a big

If Apple has learned anything with the iPhone, they've learned it from Nintendo's Game Boy strategy. When the Lynx and Game Gear came out, it had to have a bigger, color screen. It had to have more buttons. It had to have a bigger storage unit. And yet, Nintendo made calls - we could do these things, but battery life would suffer. And no one can play something that's dead. And then, when Sony decided to go after the Game Boy Advance with the PSP, Nintendo said "let's make a new device, not a better Game Boy." Even now, I submit only two games get everything out of the hardware: Phantom Hourglass and Chinatown Wars. But things like Nintendogs and Brain Age make such good use of the touch screen - the zigging when the obvious zag was to support more colors, more storage, and more functionality (MP3 playing, Skype support, etc) to compete with the PSP - that they've outsold the PSP 2-to-1. (And let it be said, the PSP is a massive, massive success that no one talks about - you try selling 40 million of anything.) I'm really excited about the Pre, but if its battery life isn't better than the iPhone's, it'll die and it'll die quickly. Users can live with well-designed compromises.

unalone 18y ago
Nintendo is a terrific company to compare Apple to. They have a similar grasp of the gaming industry that Apple does of the tech world, and it's why they've had such an edge designing. Similar to Apple, they go unexpected directions, and other companies don't seem to get why it is that they surge ahead. They assume it's because of "gimmicks," and add similar gimmicks to their products. Look at how SIXAXIS went compared to the Wiimote and you see something similar to the touch phones that non-Apple companies released to beat the iPhone. It's worth noting that Nintendo is an outright slaughterhouse in terms of sales. In the top 50 weekly VG sales, they have 18 in-house games. 6 of the top 10 (10 of the top 15) are for Nintendo consoles. Only one other company has a game on the list that's sold 5,000,000 copies. Nintendo has 13. Things like that are why I laugh at people who say the 360 isn't that far behind the Wii, because the Wii is in a universe unto itself.
- madh 18y ago
  I read your post and had to go look up some the numbers. - 28 million 360s sold since 2005 - 50 million Wiis sold since 2006 - Nintendo has sold 2.7 billion games to date
  - unalone 18y ago
    It's insane. Game magazines were writing about how "no company survives past the second generation" and how gaming was hardcore and nobody wanted to play video games and gamers were super elite. Then the Wii was announced and the reaction among gamers was universally "nobody wants to play games that are basically toys." I was a Nintendo fan, Gamecube and all, and I had lots of yelling arguments with my friends* over how the PS3 was awesome, but the Wii would blow people's minds. I love that it succeeded, because Nintendo and its corporate culture deserve that kind of success. (PG wants to write about the 5 best people in start-ups? Shigeru Miyamoto takes my #2 slot. He designed not just the systems but the games, and he's an incredible human being.) *That was in high school, of course, where people have those ridiculous gaming arguments. Now I'm in college and my superathlete roommate just bought Pokemon Diamond on eBay.

unalone 18y ago

Nintendo is a terrific company to compare Apple to. They have a similar grasp of the gaming industry that Apple does of the tech world, and it's why they've had such an edge designing. Similar to Apple, they go unexpected directions, and other companies don't seem to get why it is that they surge ahead. They assume it's because of "gimmicks," and add similar gimmicks to their products. Look at how SIXAXIS went compared to the Wiimote and you see something similar to the touch phones that non-Apple companies released to beat the iPhone. It's worth noting that Nintendo is an outright slaughterhouse in terms of sales. In the top 50 weekly VG sales, they have 18 in-house games. 6 of the top 10 (10 of the top 15) are for Nintendo consoles. Only one other company has a game on the list that's sold 5,000,000 copies. Nintendo has 13. Things like that are why I laugh at people who say the 360 isn't that far behind the Wii, because the Wii is in a universe unto itself.

madh 18y ago
I read your post and had to go look up some the numbers. - 28 million 360s sold since 2005 - 50 million Wiis sold since 2006 - Nintendo has sold 2.7 billion games to date
- unalone 18y ago
  It's insane. Game magazines were writing about how "no company survives past the second generation" and how gaming was hardcore and nobody wanted to play video games and gamers were super elite. Then the Wii was announced and the reaction among gamers was universally "nobody wants to play games that are basically toys." I was a Nintendo fan, Gamecube and all, and I had lots of yelling arguments with my friends* over how the PS3 was awesome, but the Wii would blow people's minds. I love that it succeeded, because Nintendo and its corporate culture deserve that kind of success. (PG wants to write about the 5 best people in start-ups? Shigeru Miyamoto takes my #2 slot. He designed not just the systems but the games, and he's an incredible human being.) *That was in high school, of course, where people have those ridiculous gaming arguments. Now I'm in college and my superathlete roommate just bought Pokemon Diamond on eBay.