That makes absolutely no sense. Nintendo does enough shit that you don’t need to invent some.
Console wars have never been about doing the exact same shit. Game boy Vs Game Gear? N64 Vs Playstation Vs Saturn? Even SNES and Megadrive/Genesis had very different designs, and that’s enough to be noticeable in the games if you are familiar enough with them.
They sell video game systems and games, they’re competitors. So is Valve. So was freaking Ouya.
The fact they’re doing thing differently enough that they’re not completely interchangeable is the competition.
They’re not competing for the same slice of the pie, though. Microsoft isn’t trying to take Nintendo’s customers because Nintendo’s customers want very specific things that Microsoft isn’t really offering. For example, Nintendo caters extensively to parents who want a safe space for their kids to play online. The Switch doesn’t even SUPPORT voice chat without the aid of a separate smartphone. Xbox Live is notoriously the opposite of that, because they focus on teens and young adults, who Sony are also targeting. Basically Nintendo sells to a very specific market, and the other platforms sell to “everybody else”.
By contrast, in the 90s Sega was SPECIFICALLY trying to steal customers from Nintendo.
They avoided direct competition by previously being cheap enough that people could afford a Nintendo console and a Playstation or Xbox, and their video games have been so good that buying a Nintendo device was always a no-brainer.
That makes absolutely no sense. Nintendo does enough shit that you don’t need to invent some.
Console wars have never been about doing the exact same shit. Game boy Vs Game Gear? N64 Vs Playstation Vs Saturn? Even SNES and Megadrive/Genesis had very different designs, and that’s enough to be noticeable in the games if you are familiar enough with them.
They sell video game systems and games, they’re competitors. So is Valve. So was freaking Ouya.
The fact they’re doing thing differently enough that they’re not completely interchangeable is the competition.
They’re not competing for the same slice of the pie, though. Microsoft isn’t trying to take Nintendo’s customers because Nintendo’s customers want very specific things that Microsoft isn’t really offering. For example, Nintendo caters extensively to parents who want a safe space for their kids to play online. The Switch doesn’t even SUPPORT voice chat without the aid of a separate smartphone. Xbox Live is notoriously the opposite of that, because they focus on teens and young adults, who Sony are also targeting. Basically Nintendo sells to a very specific market, and the other platforms sell to “everybody else”.
By contrast, in the 90s Sega was SPECIFICALLY trying to steal customers from Nintendo.
They aren’t really direct competitors, though.
They avoided direct competition by previously being cheap enough that people could afford a Nintendo console and a Playstation or Xbox, and their video games have been so good that buying a Nintendo device was always a no-brainer.
They focused on selling games, not consoles.