Nintendo (NTDOY)

[TradeSmart.ai]

My, how the mighty have fallen...

Back in the late 1990s-early 00s, Nintendo was a video game POWERHOUSE. It unquestionably beat every other competitor on the market - Sony's Playstation was a mediocre 2nd place, and Microsoft's XBox couldn't hold a candle in terms of popularity or sales. I remember it was every kid's dream to get an N64/Game Boy/Game Boy Color to keep up with the seemingly inexhaustible choices of games out there. (don't forget about a Nintendo Power magazine subscription too!!). Trips to EBX, eb Games, Gamestop, Software Etc. (etc.) were almost mandatory on any outing.

But, that was then, this is now. Nintendo decided to 'sit on its laurels,' and look what's happened. The video game market diversified, and the physical consoles had to compete with the myriad online games. Suddenly, one did not have to spend hundreds of dollars on a console (and hundreds more on games); one could instead download and spend limitless hours in an online 'world.' Honestly, Nintendo could never really keep up, and now Playstation & XBox are the favored consoles. Both have successfully incorporated online play into their product/service offerings, and the ratings/revenues show it.

Unless Nintendo can debut an attractive alternative, it can expect to lose further market share, and its prestige/dominance will become nothing but a memory to those gamers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.