3 reasons why Nintendo won’t abandon the hardware market

And why the ‘Dreamcast analogy’ is misplaced

Earlier this week several market analysis outlets released their sales estimates of the US console market for April. Webbush, EEDAR and NPD all expect Nintendo’s six year old console, the Wii, to outsell the firm’s ‘next gen’ console. WiiU’s lacklustre April sales (60k units according to EEDAR) are projected to decline 19% month-over-month, and will only be a fraction of what competitors Sony (190k) and Microsoft (230k) are selling with their current gen consoles, PS3 and Xbox360 respectively. Furthermore, EA announced this week that it has withdrew support for Nintendo’s WiiU console as it currently has no projects under development for the WiiU. Contrary to the immensely popular Wii shortly after its launch, the WiiU is struggling to gain traction. In this light it may come as no surprise that several sources have speculated Nintendo’s retreat from the hardware market to the point that analogies have been made with Sega who withdrew from the console market shortly after launching the Dreamcast in 2001. While I agree with the notion that Nintendo needs to act in order to turn its fortunes around, I don’t buy into the argument that the toy manufacturer will abandon the hardware market altogether. Here are three reasons why: Continue reading…

Business model survey and GDC

After having successfully conducted the business model survey research project in the UK with Ukie, Strategy Guide is currently looking to expand the scope of the research into the US and Dutch markets for video games. While the report for the UK market is currently being written up, we have optimized the survey instrument for data collection in other territories. The business model survey aims to understand and analyze which business models are currently being operated by games companies, how they work, and which work best.

Wednesday March 27 I will arrive in San Francisco, CA to attend the biggest conference for video game developers, GDC 2013. Amongst others, here I will be looking for people to fill out the survey and discuss business models for video game firms. The business model survey marks Strategy Guide first step towards expanding operations into the United States and for this we are rather excited! At this point, we’d greatly appreciate it if you want to help us learn more about business models in the games industry.

Please, contact me here if you can spare 10 minutes (survey responses will be anonymized). Respondents will receive an executive summary of the report.

For the Birds? Setting a New World Record

About two weeks ago students from NYU’s ITP program organized an event in which they would attempt to set a new Guiness World Record; for the video game with the highest number of simultaneous players on a single screen. YouTube competitor Vimeo’s office (the AIC building) was conveniently chosen for the occasion as its lobby features one of the world’s largest high resolution screens. The video wall is 120 feet (37 m) wide and 11 feet (3.4 m) high composite of 18 projectors and 36 mirrors. The video game which was a graduate project had been specifically designed for the attempt and could feature up to 117 birds on an electric wire whose aim it was to time their droppings on bypassing traffic for points. Players could log on to the game using their smartphones which simultaneously served as controllers. I had been asked as one of two ‘expert witnesses’ to oversee the attempt and write up a report about the entire experience. In the end, 113 players simultaneously logged on to play the game. Since the lower threshold had been set at100 players, a new World Record was born! (Click for more pictures)

Continue reading…

New publication: New horizons or a strategic mirage?

Together with my doctoral advisor Joseph Lampel and my co-worker and friend Dr Thijs Broekhuizen I have been working on an academic paper about digital distribution strategies in video games. The article ‘New horizons or a strategic mirage? Artist-led-distribution versus alliance strategy in the video game industry’ was officially accepted and is now scheduled for publication in the peer-reviewed strategy journal Research Policy. Continue reading…

Strategy Guide goes USA!

When first I started Strategy Guide as a blog in 2010, I was still living in Groningen (The Netherlands) anticipating my move to London with the purpose of getting my Doctorate in strategic management. At that time I still represented video games developer Two Tribes as Strategic Advisor. However, not long after settling in in London, I landed my first UK based consultancy client, digital production agency Media Monks. A handful of awesome projects followed including the on-going business model research project with video game trade body Ukie. Projects I could not have done without the help of the Strategy Guide team. Now, two years later it is time for my next move. Continue reading…