Nintendo Wii Product Launch-Related Challenges Essay

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Introduction

Laying the basis or a foundation of a business organization is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of doing business. Being anew entrant in the market, there is always the likelihood of facing opposing forces that are already dominant in the market. This could and always pose a threat for the new entrant. These challenges however are overcome with time and some of those firms later emerge to be the market leaders a couple of years later.

The following case study focuses on a company that has created a niche for itself in the entertainment world. Nintendo has managed to overcome fierce forces such as Microsoft and Sony to top up the world in terms of sales of video games. This discussion will focus on its beginning, some of the challenges that the company has had to overcome as well as the launching of its most popular product Nintendo Wii. Also discussed are some of the strategies that the company has employed in order to emerge top.

Establishment

Nintendo was established in the year 1889 and was only known for making playing cards. It is not until the year 1979 that the first game system was developed. A year later, the first LCD video game of its kind was developed. It was unique as it had a microprocessor. Five years after The Nintendo Entertainment System that had 8 bits was developed. The video console performed well in terms of sales as it was one of its kind and none of those in the market by then could measure up to its features.

This video console would then be used as a benchmark setting the standards on which all other video consoles at the time were based upon. Competitors were on the look out and were not willing to let Nintendo enjoy monopoly. They therefore came up with similar gadgets some of which had improved the features of The Nintendo Entertainment System. Realizing that the competition was getting stiffer, Nintendo came up with an improved version of NES which was known as Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This new product equally did well in keeping the competitors at bay ad boosting the sales of the company. However, the company was not to enjoy monopoly for long as yet again the competitors struck with an improved version of SNES

The Concept and Launch of the Wii

Having been in the market for quite a long period and having studied the market properly, Nintendo realized that there was need to come up with a product that will not only keep the competitors away but also ensure that what is churned out into the market is highly enticing to the consumer. It is at this time that the ideas of the Nintendo Wii struck. The Gamecube which had been in the market prior to the conceptualization of Will had performed well although competitors such as Microsoft and Sony came close into producing similar products (Sutherland, 2012). Wii whose pronunciation is ‘We’ was mainly chose to emphasize that this came for everyone (all of us).

The intention of establishing a completely new and different game in the market was to bring a revolution in the world of entertainment. Nintendo Wii also came with a remote that could also for the user to control the game. This is one of the aspects that made Nintendo Wii a unique game console.

Features

This home console has been cited as one of the most unique mainly because of the features it possesses. Besides giving the user the ability to control using the remote, The Wii also has a menu that easily blends and can easily synchronize to fit the needs of the user. The menu has features tat make the user own the game so that he or she can customize some of the icons to his or her liking. The Wii also has channels such as the news channel that allows the user to know what is happening in the rest of the world in terms of developing and breaking stories.

Weather channel updates the user on the expected weather forecast for the future while the international channel gives the user opportunity to go online and surf (Orland, 2008). Another feature that made Nintendo Wii stand out from the rest of home consoles is that it has online capabilities that allow the user to connect to the internet in various ways.

Challenges faced

When Nintendo Wii was first launched, one would have been excused for thinking that Nintendo had finally taken over the market. It was a great revolution and it was felt as though it would take long for competitors to catch up. However, shortly after the first production, serious problems emerged. Although the sales were quite high since the game was in high demand, by the year 2007, the company could longer keep up with the high demand (Jones, 2012).

The production was therefore not meeting the demand and despite constant assurance from the management that this was a temporal problem, the company continued to struggle in production throughout the year 2008.

Comparison with Competitors

To begin with Nintendo Wii stood out from other competing products due to its unique features as discussed above. Further, just as the name suggests, the games contained in Nitendo Wii were inclusive and catered for all age groups unlike those of competitors all of which were limiting to certain age groups only. In coming up with Nintendo Wii, the company also intended to ensure that people who had never been interested in playing games of this nature would develop interests (Firestone, 2011).

Women and people considered somewhat conservative in society were main targets of Nintendo Wii. Nintendo did this purposely to fight off the tag that they only catered for the needs of children as most of their previous games were made for kids.

Eyeing the Wii Technology

With the advancement in technology and the need to provide a new product in the market, the makers of games have realized that it is expensive to invest in creating a whole new product which may last in the market for only a short period. Therefore, they have seen the need of remaking or improving on what as been made thereby incurring less and making an equally good return on their investment.

Since the Wii had unique features, many game developers have appeared keen on studying the technology behind Wii in order to make some improvements (Farkas, 2009). Some of the aspects that game developers are particularly interested in include the online capabilities as well as the ability for the user to control the game. Features of customizing the menu to fit a particular user are also of great interest to the game makers.

Conclusion

Despite the fierce competition that Nintendo Wii continues to face, it may be said to be successful product. The production problems that the company encountered during the initial stages after the launch may have hampered exemplary performance of the product. However, this did not necessarily lead to low sales. Having been able to set standards for other game makers and even giant companies such as Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo can be said to have come a long way.

With the coming in of the play station and other equally advanced games, The Nintendo Wii may be seen as almost phased out in the market, but maybe not completely. Comparing the competitors of Nintendo Wii which are play station 3 from Sony and X Box 360 from Microsoft, Nintendo still remain on top in terms on the number of games it provides. Nintendo Wii has 532 games as opposed to 354 and 470 for the competitors respectively.

Perhaps what the management of Nintendo needs and must address is the production problems since it still struggles to produce enough merchandise that can match up to the needs and demand of the consumer in the market. The danger of this is that when consumers constantly demand for the product and it is not available due to low production, they tend to run to alternative products and if for one reason or another they like the alternative product, they are not likely y over come back to check the previous product and this means that Nintendo could be loosing out big time to its competitors.

References

Farkas, W. (2009). The Nintendo Wii pocket guide. New York: Pearson Publishers.

Firestone, M. (2011). Nintendo: The Company and its founders. London: Sage.

Jones, S. (2012). Codename revolution: The Nintendo Wii platform. London: Sage.

Orland, K. (2008). Wii for Dummies. London: Sage.

Sutherland, A. (2012). The story of Nintendo. New Jersey: Oxford Publishers.

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