Company Research

1. Company Research Nintendo – Consumer Electronics Company

2. Nintendo is one of the world's largest consumer electronics companies. It began as the Nintendo Playing Card Company in Kyoto in 1889. In the 1980's Nintendo rose to prominence as a home entertainment company specializing in video gaming. Nintendo released its first personal home video game console – the Nintendo Entertainment System – in 1983. Since then they have been a forefront for revolutions in gaming – namely bridging the gap from clunky home gaming systems to portable gaming experiences. 

3. Nintendo Net Figures Nintendo has been a strong company throughout its personal entertainment lifetime. It reached a lifetime high in 2008, with the release of the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DSi. These two consoles paved the way for a set of revolutions in personal home gaming by Nintendo. The stock prices recently spiked after the release of the new Nintendo Switch. The Switch allows gamers to play with a console wired up to the television then lift the console out of a holder and carry it handheld without a degradation of performance or gaming experience.

4. Competition Nintendo has two primary competitors. These are Microsoft with Xbox and Sony with PlayStation.  Both as a company as a whole and as a personal gaming manufacturer, Nintendo was first. Unfortunately for Nintendo, experience was not enough to combat the stronger companies financial backing. Nintendo was quickly pushed aside by the competition, a position it has since fought to escape – to little avail. Nintendo actually played an integral role in the original design and creation of the PlayStation. Sony and Nintendo teamed up to work on a single console that was intended to be released as a Nintendo game console. Disputes and mistrust grew between the two companies, leading to Sony walking away and taking with them the designs for the console. These designs were continued and adapted by Sony alone, eventually being developed into the PlayStation 1.

5. Audience Research Nintendo can be spotty when it comes to audience research. For some games they will send out their own surveys in order to get an idea for the wants of their gamers. In other cases they ignore even the most sensical of cries from consumers and refuse to make alterations. Nintendo only accepts feedback when they want to – a risky move in their line of business. The Nintendo console online shop "E Shop" has a form of feedback system – a basic and ultimately useless one. To provide feedback to Nintendo is an arduous journey, intent to discourage gamers unless their feedback is particularly pertinent.

6. A large weakness for Nintendo regarding its stationary consoles; Wii, Wii U, Switch, NES/SNES Classic, is price. Each of these consoles in in excess of £200 when first released – the Switch averaging at £360. Nintendo has tried to combat this through a far cheaper pricing in its handheld consoles, with the most up-to-date New Nintendo 3DS Xl costing under £150. The downside to the purely handheld consoles is their performance and graphic limitations – these consoles are far cheaper at the cost of the gaming experience.

7. Music As a game studio, Nintendo puts a massive amount of detail into their music. Nintendo employs several skilled composers – sparing no expense in the immersion of a player through sound design. Recently Nintendo has held live stage shows around the world (notably the Legend of Zelda 20th Anniversary at the Albert Hall) to exhibit their music. The composers who work for Nintendo are often kept to compose for an entire game series, such as Go Ichinose – a Game Freak (games development studio who often partners with Nintendo) composer who has composed every Pokémon game since 1999. Another primary Nintendo composer is Koji Kondo, most recognizable for the composition of The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario game series. Kondo has played a role in every game composition since 1984 – he was the first sound engineer to be employed by Nintendo. Music is one of Nintendo's most revered aspects as a game design company, both singularly or in partnership with other developers. Neither Microsoft or Sony prioritize music as highly.

8. Demographic Nintendo has a small demographic in comparison to Sony and Microsoft. The main base of Nintendo is children. Most games are targeted as family-friendly and safe for children. Some of the darker or more adult games are targeted for teenagers but this is less common. All of Nintendo's adult demographic relies on nostalgia. As Nintendo utilizes several core game series, it relies on gamers who grew up playing those series to continue it into adulthood. While many players will outgrow games like Pokémon, some series such as Star Fox or Legend of Zelda retain their appeal regardless of a players age.

9. Mario Mario is one of the strongest sub-franchises created by Nintendo. Having started as a side character in Donkey Kong games, Mario grew to be an emblem of all gamers. The same voice actor has played Mario for 26 years – since Mario was created. He got the job unexpectedly after an audition that he had considered a failure.

10. Content Creators Nintendo has a long standing poor relationship with content creators on platforms such as YouTube. Any creator who has their work monetized – regardless of how much they earn – is claimed by Nintendo. They consider all media like this their intellectual property and therefore to be treated as such. Nintendo will claim all ownership and any money earnt from the video when it is positive and have been known to have negative videos removed. This has led to many content creators refusing to make content on Nintendo products without sponsorship, for which they earn money but must show a positive and likely bias attitude to the product.

11. Credit / Reference All Graphs - http://harris-interactive.co.uk/consumer-attitudes-the-nintendo-switch/ - Harris Interactive Music – YouTube, Go Ichinose (Pokémon) and Koji Kondo (Legend of Zelda) Interview with Charles Martinet – Great Big Story – YouTube Images – Bing Images