Nintendo: A Greek Tragedy in the Making

The Nintendo business model of the past has resurfaced, and this time the very cause of their previous popularity may be what sinks the company. At E3 this year, Microsoft and Nintendo both boasted major advances for their respective gaming consoles. Microsoft unveiled the next step in home media integration by allowing a video rental/purchasing service utilizing streaming video as well as the Xbox 360’s attachable hard drive. When it was Nintendo’s turn, they countered by discussing advances made to their controller to make it more responsive to hand and wrist movement that should have been there since the Wii’s release. Bravo.

Nintendo has always stayed out of the pack, not to remain behind, necessarily, but to stand on its own. When Sega and Sony where jumping to use compact-disks in their consoles, Nintendo decided to stick to the outdated cartridge system for the Nintendo 64. Though they said this was more practical because of the durable design, it was quickly realized that any other format would have been better. This is the primary reason that we had to use peripheral power supporters like the Expansion Pak, and had some games that weighed eleven pounds.

When the next generation of consoles hit the shelves, both the Xbox and the PS2 were sporting fancy DVD systems, while Nintendo’s GameCube came out late and empty-handed. Somehow none of these things, including their lack of third part gaming support, have put Nintendo out of the market. The main reason for their success was their popular first party games and the best-selling handheld dream, the Game Boy. When the DS came out as the next generation of hand held devices, it seemed like the clear winner against Sony’s PSP because of the realistic price and innovative touch design. Yet after Nintendo decided to market games that teach people yoga and let them raise virtual dogs (like the ones you had on your keychain in middle school), the PSP began to take the lead.

Fast forward to the newest series of consoles, and Nintendo shocked gamers world wide with the design of the Wii. But as fewer games began to be released, the novelty of waving your arms in the air while cartoon sprites bowled began to lose its charm. Nintendo is now playing to a small market of dedicated gamers that is shrinking every time someone watches a Blu-Ray disc on their PS3. The flat truth is that most consumers now want their devices to do more than simply let you play Mario Party (I’m suspecting that the PS4 will cut my fingernails and do my taxes).

If Nintendo still wants to conform to an archaic business model then it will end up following Sega’s footsteps by being left out of the console market and being limited to game design. This would be a sad future for most gamers who grew up playing Zelda with the original NES controller. Perhaps equally sad is the reason why Nintendo cannot win in today’s market: its not enough to just make great video games anymore.