Skip to main content

This is the secret formula of how Nintendo has gone from being sunk to be crowned champion

That Nintendo has made history in the video game industry is not something new. We owe them such popular icons as Link, Samus Aran, Kirby or Mario himself, the imperishable Italian plumber.


But something is changing.When you see hundreds of people queuing on a rainy day to get a Nintendo Switch-yes, that console that is on its way to fulfill its expectation of 10 million consoles before closing the year-You sense something is changing. In the indie ecosystem and in the general play market .Let's analyze what it is.


ROUND OF NUMBERS



Famitsu announced that SNES Mini had managed to sell 368,913 units in the space of four days .At present it is estimated that the console has reached, internationally, a million copies sold.


It is not something strange: between November 2016 and April 2017, NES Mini, the previous incursion in the "mini" scale, managed to place 2.3 million units, playing stock breakage , while thousands of speculators came to sell the small domestic for 500 dollars.That has been the demand that the Japanese has already confirmed the reposition of this first console by the beginning of 2018.Nintendo understands the market, understands its wishes: the rumors even point towards a new Game Boy MINI.


This is the secret formula of how Nintendo has gone from being sunk to be crowned champion


A section of the industry lives in its eagerness to multiply profitability: once fixed costs are covered, the culture of the remake and the revision is done with everything.For a minimum investment by the distributor we find editions'Gold ',' Definitive ',' Anniversary ',' Kiwami 'or any synonym.


Nintendo, on the edge of this scenario, has a schedule scheduled with large-scale releases every month , without the need to appeal to third parties, simply by keeping its internal production machinery powered .And pampering those who enter to market their own developments, as we will see later.


OVERCOMING ALL EXPECTATIONS


'The Flame in the Flood' gets the best debut of its history on Switch, selling triple what was expected.The sales of 'Neurovoider' on Switch in a month equal the total sales of the game on Steam.Switch from 'Boy Boy: The Dragon's Trap' sells more than the rest of the combined platforms, the same can be said of 'Dead Squared' or 'Ocean Ocean'. Nintendo continues with its weekly dump and users buy and play nonstop .And physical sales on Switch are going very well, it's a reality.



What does this do if, for example, PlayStation already tried an equal movement in Vita and did not work even remotely similar? Well, first we have to take into account three conditions.First, Nintendo is not devaluing products with risky offers , with much lower cut prices, something that Steam does or its own Sony's platform .The Nintendo public knows that sales are somewhat timely, not a sales strategy marked from the first day of marketing.


Second, Switch enjoys a positive press in the indie ecosystem .It is a console on which it is easy to program-even having a game ready in a single day-: developers fight to get the devkits , while Nintendo delays the wait after a strict validation system.Finding 24 launches in a single month, even on "high season" dates, can generate a feeling of oversupply.reality tells us otherwise.


Switch has achieved what Vita promised but could not (for battery, for space, for functionalities): to be the perfect device for the home of the indies, both for mechanical rudiments and for low competition in the current offer, a market Sweet for a user who wants a good selection.


Third, there is a feedback that leads to a lucido momentum: it is a relatively new console supported by the developer with her own works. Your audience is comfortable in an ecosystem that offers ideas .No one needs to emigrate to satisfy their concerns. branding labels this maxim: there is color, there is life.Invite to dance, meet and play.This is his maxim.No, seriously, contemplate this damn La La Land with Mario and company:



NAVIGATING TO CONTRACORRIENTE


Nintendo comes from the biggest failure of its history , from a poorly focused launch and a poorly presented product called Wii UY turned out to be a remarkable gaming platform.Its way of working against the tide, strength that makes it more imperishable, less generational, has caused more than a headache for developers.


The third parties began to cancel launches, while others were forced to freeze developments such as ZombiU 2 due to low sales of the first delivery or lack of "power", as in the case of Watch_Dogs and their respective DLC. The specialized press was discouraged, put its hands to the head .So, what has led to this radical change of roles?


This is the secret formula of how Nintendo has gone from being sunk to be crowned champion


Sometimes we wonder what motivates us to play .What sensations are spurred to go to these same digital worlds over and over again.What does it mean to sit in front of a screen of any size and take the control, with absolute literalness, of what happens in front of us.Playing is the best manifestation of freedom.We could simply say that "we like it." We could say that it helps us to disconnect, or that it teaches us things.


Nintendo always returns to these questions, reflects on the liminal wicks of the videogame user .That's why he knows his desires and knows how to sell nostalgia packaged in gray boxes.And his relationship with studios and creatives is It has become more direct.


When it was discovered that within each SNES Mini there was a functional version of the classic 'Golf', and that it was a talisman in memory of the late Satoru Iwata, some users simply thought they were facing an unlockable secret or a game that I had tried porting and finally the hardware did not allow it.The reality, more poetic, it turned out that Nintendo is always putting an extra love and devotion on every object that launches for sale .And that makes them special.



Some time ago, the Pop Culture Detective Agency team wondered about the wasted potential of video games: each day more violent, repetitive, aggressive and focused on a young male niche.This does not seem the way to go.But when we observe phenomena like PlayerUnknown's Battleground we verify that yes, that the public keeps asking for blood at all times.The reality this time seems more profane: although sales send more than ideas, good ideas also sell.And Nintendo, half a century later, is still truffled by people with talent and good ideas.That is the battle that Ninty seems to be winning .


Images | Nintendo

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Internet of plants: a tomato knows as much about networks as you

The possibility of plant species communicating through complex networks, what some scientists have called the internet of plants , is an issue that has been discussed for a long time, at least 20 years.It was in 1997 when the scientist Suzanne Simard , from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada), published a study in the journal Nature on how Forest plants use complex systems where species exchange nutrients, send warning signals and relate to the environment. Although there is no scientific consensus, several investigations seem to support this hypothesis.If confirmed, as we read in a fascinating report by the Sinc Agency, the forests would act as huge structures that are articulated under the soil through a network in which factors invisible to the human eye interact and can determine the future of the climate.Understanding how it works is the challenge that even science faces. internet of plants and the wisdom of forests The premise of Suzanne Simard ...

New setbacks for conspiranoicos: radiofrequencies do not affect health

New evidence published by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency and Health (CCARS) in its 2016 Radio Frequency and Health Report indicates that there are no adverse health effects derived of exposure to radio frequencies emitted by mobile phone antennas or radio and television broadcasting.No evidence has been found on the danger in wireless systems (Wi-Fi) or airport scanners. The new 2016 Radio Frequency and Health Report collects, updates and analyzes the scientific evidence on the subject for the period between January 2013 and June 2016. radio frequencies are not dangerous According to the conclusions of the report " the critical analysis of the evidence supports that there are no technical or sanitary reasons that justify the arbitrary and discretionary imposition of more demanding exposure limits than those recommended by WHO-ICNIRP and the Union European ", while the application of more restrictive limits" would imply increasing the n...

GIF history: where they come from and where they are going

Funny, witty, curious... GIFs have already become a regular resource in social networks and messaging applications and have become part of our daily lives and jokes.It is an image format that has evolved significantly throughout its history and is experiencing a new awakening. In fact, to find its origins, we must go back more than twenty years ago .A moment in which they had little to do with what we know today and an evolution that we could not stop review.So let's find out where they come from and try to catch a glimpse of where they are going. What is a GIF The word GIF responds to the acronym of Graphics Interchange Format , or what is the same, graphic exchange format.A term for the graphic format used in the network for both static images and animations.In more concrete terms, it supports 8 bits per pixel and allows you to display images with up to 256 colors simultaneously-limited by a palette of 16 million-. This particularity makes it a perfect ally of infogr...

Amazon Prime Video arrives in Spain: this is all you need to know

That during the last years there has been a change in the way we enjoy audiovisual content is an obvious reality, as reflected by the huge popularity of streaming services like Netflix and the like.A context in which new competitors are constantly added and that, after the landing of this company in our country just over a year ago, is in full transformation. In fact, today we have learned of the incursion of a new protagonist in this area.Yes, because Amazon Prime Video has just arrived in Spain .A landing that takes place only two weeks away that of HBO, which culminates in a 2016 sown of changes.But, what exactly does it consist of? What advantages and disadvantages does it have compared to the "of its kind"? WHAT AMAZON PRIME VIDEO OFFERS The type, quality and quantity of movies and series offered by the service will be key when determining your success.A catalog a priori smaller than that of HBO and Netflix, but in which we find titles like Seinfield , Into...

What we know and what we suspect in the new Facebook algorithm change

"In my time, we read the newspaper in Facebook ".By 2020, nostalgia has taken over billions of people.In its memory, 2018, when Facebook stopped being Facebook to become Facebook again.Paraiso of engagement for brands and media, land paid for clickbaits and fake news, the social network of Mark Zuckerberg has given a rudder to his algorithm. He wants to return to his origins .And this is what will happen. Related If something goes well, to change it.40.653 million dollars entered in 2017.More than 2.100 million active users per month, a quarter of the world's population.But Zuckerberg is not one of those, of which they are.Want a Facebook with more social connections between people and less presence of brands and media .And what do your users want? Nearly two-thirds of American adults consume news on social networks.More than half do so on their Facebook walls.Pew Research Center data points to a clear trend: Facebook is becoming a media platform.54% of Facebook u...

No kidding: selfitis exists and can be a problem

Sometimes one thinks that social networks were created to share photos of faces putting on little bones and images of dishes overflowing with appetizing foods or, better, of faces putting little bones in front of plates overflowing with appetizing foods in the same shot.is to see faces, faces, faces...all of them smiling, as if looking at the smartphone mirror was the height of happiness.And it does not seem that there are so many beautiful and happy people, or maybe yes, that you go Namely.What envy. Well, what we're going to do: Janarthanan Balakrishnan psychologists from the Thiagarajar School of Management in India; and Mark D.Griffiths, of the Nottingham Trent University, in the United Kingdom, have published an article in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction entitled 'A study on' Selfitis', which names this mania of going around the world taking pictures of oneself, as if beyond our curls the world had been destroyed by that meteorite th...

Twitter shows the best of ourselves (it wasn't always going to be the worst)

In the era of social networks, accustomed to interact daily with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google or WhatsApp, we forget that these tools are phenomenal in the History of Humanity capable of mobilize hundreds of thousands of people in very different geographical locations in a matter of hours or even minutes. Already in the past, Twitter has asserted its more social dimension to mobilize people, companies or organizations and also, from a broader perspective, feelings of solidarity and support or also of rejection and repulses towards causes with an important mediatic impact.Recently, Twitter was once again the engine of solidarity after Dortmund's explosions as the Borussia Dortmund team bus passed on its way to the local stadium on the occasion of the Champions League match between the Borussia and the Monaco. These explosions did not have the devastating effect that they could have caused , so that everything remained in a major social commotion at international lev...

Most apps for children violate your privacy

Do you know if apps with which children enjoy their safety? A team of researchers from the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) of the University of Berkeley has studied compliance with the Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in these mobile applications for the little ones, through a scalable dynamic analysis that allows the automatic evaluation of privacy behaviors of Android apps. After studying 5,855 applications aimed at children, the research concludes that most of these apps, 57%, violate the privacy of their users mainly due to the use of data by third parties. apps for children and privacy Although many apps offer options in their configuration to respect the federal law that protects minors in the United States, by disabling tracking, their results suggest that a majority of applications either do not use these options or propagate them in wrong way. In addition, researchers believe that 19% of apps for children send user IDs to third parties to show ...

Are social networks damaging democracy?

The revelations according to which Russian agents inserted ads on Facebook that tried to influence the 2016 US elections raise a disturbing question: is Facebook bad for democracy? As an expert in the social and political repercussions of technology, I think that the problem is not exclusively from Facebook, but that it is much broader: Social networks are weakening some of the conditions that have historically enabled the existence of national states democratic. I understand that it is a dramatic statement, and I do not expect anyone to believe it immediately, but considering that almost half of all potential voters received false news promoted by the Russians in Facebook is an argument that must be debated. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of Center for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of North Carolina-Charlotte How we create a shared reality Let's start with two concepts: the "imagined community" and the "bubble filter". ...

This is how visual challenges star in some of the most viral content

Constantly, we all receive in our mail, our WhatsApp or our Facebook account, games that try to test our ingenuity, imagination or visual skill.There are a thousand types, more fun or darker.But they have one thing in common: we cannot avoid trying them and see if we are able to solve them .This is how the visual challenges star in some of the most viral content of the network. Visual challenges, why are we crazy? The visual challenges are games.So, they attend to this playful and fun part that people have no choice but to feed from time to time.They are pure and hard entertainment, with no more pretensions, and that desire to Having fun represents one of the main features that are sought when surfing the Internet . Another of the qualities for which they succeed is because they challenge the mind directly.Human beings love that feeling of feeling a little troubled, somewhat lost, but convinced that there is a solution to that enigma to which, sooner or later, it will come.Rathe...