Monday, October 22, 2007

Nintendo Wii and the 80/20 Rule

It’s hard not to notice that Nintendo is targeting the mainstream. The company had made that message the focus of its annual game showcase last year, and this year’s event, on Oct. 10, was no different. Alongside its grey-on-white logo, Nintendo displayed towering ads showing trim, smiling kids and adults in different action poses while playing with the Wii video game console’s latest accessory, the Wii Fit board…

But this year [CEO] Iwata also took aim at a sector that Nintendo hasn’t had much success with lately: hard-core gamers.

- Kenji Hall: Nintendo: Calling All Players (BusinessWeek)

Since its launch, Nintendo has targeted the hugely popular Wii game console on casual gamers. This seems like a good idea: Nintendo can avoid direct competition with Sony and Microsoft, which sell PlayStation and Xbox, respectively, to hard-core gamers.

But I also remember the 80/20 Rule, which says that 80% of the sales come from 20% of the customers. In the game console market, these 20% customers are the hard-core gamers. Wii may be more popular among the rest of us than PlayStation than Xbox, but will it generate more revenue?

Perhaps this explains why Nintendo is changing its strategy. It is wooing hard-core gamers now, while at the same time trying to maintain the existing customer base, which consists of mainstream consumers.

P/S I personally am too lazy to play the “strategy games” enjoyed by hard-core games. I want to save my brain power for other purposes. Perhaps Wii’s motion-based games suit me better.

6 comments:

  1. I know about the 80/20 rule, but since this is not my best field.. I think hor, that ICT (should be this field) is a fast market, it wouldnt be a 80/20 market or fragmented market. It really depends hugely on the consumers. So they should hire me to do market research for them first. Hahaha...

    I am idiot when it comes to gaming, so I will reserve my comments in this :)

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  2. Guru eileen,
    You are greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat! I salute you...

    Yeah, the 80/20 rule is just a simplified model for explanation. Real world situation is more complicated.

    I am a gaming idiot too. I played such simple games like Pac-Man while my ex-colleagues were Warcraft fans. *paiseh*

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  3. Hahaha... r u insulting or not? Frankly speaking, I am PURE science student, until I joined this company for 1.5 years. Maybe I should take MBA to learn more. What do you think?

    Hahaha.... I play the jewelquest, but ever since I took up the blogging game, I dun play other games liao :D

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  4. princess,
    I am praising you sincerely. Don't be so suspicious.

    If you are sticking to your line, I think MBA is not necessary. You experience makes up for the lack of paper qualification. But of course you may want a change a few years from now.

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  5. Pareto's principle ah?
    Skali you work 80% but sales only 20% how? LOL

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cocka,
    Yeah, you are right. So this world is not fair, huh...

    ReplyDelete