The Nintendo Death Watch

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Nintendo has been a proud and powerful company in popularizing video game systems after the fall of Atari. However, lukewarm success of their recent systems indicate that the company's future might be up in the air. The newest Nintendo console has been announced, and it will determine if the company falls victim to its own poor judgement and marketing.

As you read this, there is a "death watch" in the auto industry.  General Motors, once an example of an ideal American automotive company, is potentially entering into its final days.  GM was once known for innovation, brilliant marketing, and giving the customer exactly what they wanted and needed.  Over the years GM abandoned these principals for a variety of factors, resulting in cars that nobody wants, questionable reliability, and failing to change with the times and stay competitive.

You might be asking yourself why I am writing about General Motors in a technology article.  Well my friend, the same things you can say about GM you can say about Nintendo.  Both were industry giants.  Both were the leaders of a revolution in their respective industries.  Both have fallen from relevance.  GM is entering into its twilight… if Nintendo doesn't change their ways, they will be following GM into that very dark night.

But let's go back, and trace the decline of Nintendo, shall we?

The roots of the company actually stretch back to 1889 as a Japanese card game maker (yes, they were playing Pokémon-like games in 1889). They didn't get into the video game business until 1977, when they manufactured several simple video game systems and arcade style "light gun" shooting games. This culminated with the Nintendo Entertainment System, which premiered on U.S. shores in 1985.  Known as the Famicom in Japan, the NES system entered into a "Video Game Vacuum," as the game market had been decimated years earlier by poor management, marketing, and product.

At the time the NES premiered, there really wasn't a competing system in the US, which is one of the main reasons the Nintendo dominated.  Also, Nintendo entered into strict contracts with game makers, preventing them from making games for future competing systems.  Later on they would use these contracts to virtually "bully" 3rd party software makers into making games just for Nintendo, and creating artificial chip shortages to increase demand (a practice that was later deemed illegal).

Next: The Competition Approaches >>
 

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