Kotaku
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting look at how the surprising success of Nintendo's Wii shook-up the industry.
And they don't use that phrase lightly.
In the wake of the Wii's success, Electronic Arts purchased an entire studio just because they made Nintendo games, Majesco shifted nearly all of their development efforts to the Wii and DS and Square Enix is planning nearly twice as many titles for the DS than the PSP including travel guides and a gardening tutorial.
The lede for the story, which is definitely worth a read, does a good job of encapsulating the turn-around.
A year ago, Nintendo Co. looked like the videogame industry's biggest also- ran.The Japanese company's new game console, slated for release in time for the year-end holidays in the U.S., was a technological laggard compared with more- powerful systems from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp.
And the machine's goofy name — Wii (pronounced "we") — earned it ridicule from some game fans and critics. Nintendo's dominance of the portable-game market, meanwhile, was under assault by a new Sony product.
But against the odds, Nintendo has become the company to beat in the games business, as the Wii flies off store shelves nearly as quickly as the company can make them. The buzz about the Wii has overshadowed the even greater success Nintendo has had with the Nintendo DS, a portable game player that is still selling briskly more than two years after its introduction.
The Kyoto-based company's unexpected strength is prompting broader changes throughout the industry as game makers that were caught off guard by Nintendo's strength — including powerhouses such as Electronic Arts Inc., the world's largest publisher of games — hurry to beef up development of games that take better advantage of Nintendo hardware.
Let's just hope Nintendo keeps their attitude in check and continues to focus on the customer experience. And I still think that the Wii's success shouldn't be judged until this holiday.
Wii and DS Turn Also-Ran Nintendo Into Winner in Videogames Business [Wall Street Journal]
