Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

Interesting.

Also interesting how most people seem to deal with Nintendo as a whole different category. They don't mention the million sellers that Ninty has each year. Maybe the next part has that?

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

I've thought this is the correct way to deal with Nintendo for a few years. They have effectively segmented the market, and are no longer a direct competitor with Sony or Microsoft. Some people don't like that observation, though, and I'm not really sure why... it's simply a business observation.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

Not that it has much to do with the video, but we've had this discussion before, and its simply not true.

If the Wii did not exist, sales of the PS3/360 would have increased. Same if Ps3/360 don't exist in the Wii's world.

Say segmented audience all you want, it is still drawing from the same pool of humans.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

None of those facts discredit the argument that Nintendo has segmented the video game industry.

Frankly, I don't understand why you are so passionately against this view... segmenting industries can be very profitable for businesses (it can also be very risky, of course). Nintendo has done so quite effectively.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

I'm not sure that I agree with you there BB. Sure, they are drawing from the same pool of humans, but that's like saying HDTVs are competing with the same pool of humans as regular TVs.

There are a LOT of people out there who don't own HDTVs, don't care to ever own HDTVs and never will. Likewise, there are people who don't own 360/PS3, don't care to ever own them and never will. But they do own a Wii.

And likewise, I don't know many gamers who say they bought the Wii instead of the 360/PS3. I know a ton who bought a 360 instead ofa PS3 or visa versa. I'm sure there are people out there who chose a Wii over the 360/PS3, but I don't think they are a strong majority of public opinion.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

That's a dumb way to look at it.
That's like saying if no cars or trucks existed, Jeep/Hummer sales would go up tenfold. Well of course they would, it's the only option.


But Bond has a completely valid point. Nintendo markets to children and their parents. Sony and Microsoft market between those two age ranges.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

I have no idea what the video is. Unfortunately when I'm at work, all these videos come up as big white boxes. I was just commenting on the comments, really.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

I removed my prior statement, really don't care to get into this.

To answer Angrist's question, for the most part the first section seemed to focus on 3rd parties especially EA and Activision.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

Well all I have to say is Michael Pachter is a handsome man and he's in the video game industry? Well now...

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

I think what REALLY this whole thing comes down to is that the video game industry thought it was invincible to a WORLD WIDE ECONOMIC RECESSION/DEPRESSION.

All they are saying is that they didn't sell to meet their "expectations". How they come about those "expectations" is beyond me but I'm sure whatever they are, they assume they are going to do BETTER then the previous year regardless of analysis.

But especially since Nintendo wasn't mentioned, these are premium games at a luxury price. When 2 out of every 10 Americans is out of work, you can't expect to have as much selling. Everyone is saving up for MW2.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

I wasn't talking about Nintendo vs. PS360. I was talking about cloning succesful PS360 games vs. cloning succesful Wii games.

Modern Warfare sells millions --> we get hands full of MW clones.
Mario sells millions --> where are the Mario clones?
They seem to ignore this topic. Perhaps it's because Nintendo franchises are hard to clone because of character fame?

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

I think Pachter did a pretty decent job at answering that.

Its not so much that expectations changed as much as it is, the goal post for success got pushed back further. Just looking at the top 10 games of all time.

Roughly back at the end of 07/08 this is what the top 10 games of all time looked like

Top selling game was just under 10 million, lowest selling game was just under 10 million.

And now you have the current list,
Hmm trying to find Wii Play LTD, but don't have off hand, but the number 4 game is MW 2 and that is at 8.82 million and Madden is at 7.7 at least from the prior list.

Which means that there have been a ton of HUGE selling games this generation. I believe the first generation with multiple 20 million selling games.

But you'll also notice that the list is pretty much just EA, Activision and Nintendo. So the spread isn't really even for all, and they are all looking for that one mega hit.

You'll get one camp that says people have tried to mimic what made the Wii a success because there are a ton of mini-game comps and fitness games, but I agree.

People always point to Wii Play/Sports/Fit as the reason the Wii does so well. When stuff like Smash, NSMBW, Mario Kart and galaxy do EXTREMELY well.

But sure they will get into 3rd party lack of success on the Wii sooner or later.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

With the lack of Nintendo covers, I put it to this.

Nintendo makes GOOD GAMES with characters that, for one reason or another, seem to chime with us well. Probably because when we were kids, we loved playing Mario so the nostaglia continues into our older age and is helped by the game still being frakking good! And then it helps that while we're getting our nostaglia nuts off, the kids younger then us are getting their minds indoctrinated by Mario so they can grow up to be us. And so the cycle continues.

Who doesn't like Mario? The people who started playing games when the PS2 came out.

But even still, I think the industry is fine. Smaller companies will die out if they don't find that mega hit. Bigger companies will fire people when they are trying to increase profits. But that's kind of like any industry, really.

Re: Bonus Round: State of the Industry
 

Earl should ask Nintendo for compensation. :ohreilly: