Back in the 80s, Nintendo emerged from the ashes of the Great Gaming Crash and became the biggest gaming company in the world. And it was this way for a great period of time. They had the superior technology, superior memory, and the more expensive hardware. The Super Nintendo was more expensive than the Genesis every step of the way because the hardware associated was the most advanced in the gaming market—1994’s Donkey Kong Country being the ultimate example. Competitors came and went, but Nintendo was the biggest and baddest in the business.
Today, Sony’s Playstation 3 was programmed and crafted to have a lifespan of 10 years because of its Blu-Ray technology. The Xbox 360, which has been around for 7 years this November can still crank out some of the best-looking games you’ll ever see. As for Nintendo? Well, their Nintendo Wii was loosely more advanced than hardware from the previous gaming generation while the upcoming system looks like (there is still room for pure surprise because of lack of details) it’s going to just loosely be more advanced than the PS3. In a span of 15 years, Nintendo went from being the company with the most powerful hardware into the company with by far the most dated material out there.
What’s the difference? The competition and its money pockets were far, far deeper. Want to look into the numbers? You have no choice; after all you are reading this.
Net Worth as of 2012:
Microsoft: $230 Billion
Sony: $83 Billion
Nintendo: $18.6 Billion
Nintendo is now the small market, the indie company going up against the big boys. And with this type of disadvantage, essentially Microsoft and Sony can use their expertise with computers and technology to create the advancements in the gaming medium. With heavier budgets, more help, more connections, and far more hardware experience, Sony and Microsoft don’t have to wait on anyone else when manufacturing the future. They can afford failures (Xbox, PS Move, PS Vita) and brush themselves off to try again.
Nintendo never had this luxury, and now more than ever can’t afford any type of failure. This is why the company drops products immediately when there is any sign of flailing or fledging lack of success—Virtual Boy, ECard Reader, Game Boy Color, N64 DD anyone? Nintendo relies on pure smoke and mirrors with clever marketing, different approaches to gaming, and a ridiculously successful AAA first-party lineup to remain relevant.
Gamers are a fickle bunch, on a general consensus overreacting and painfully moaning when things don’t head in our direction. Nintendo has been in the crosshairs in recent years because after generations of astounding technology being matched by outstanding quality the find themselves being matched in their own game under far superior technology. I shall admit I was one of them for a while, but the deeper you look, the more you realize:
Nintendo is small. Very small. Just imagine the films of the Florida Film Festival having to go up against the summer blockbusters. They financially don’t stand a chance, no matter how good the movies can be. So now the question is how can Nintendo possibly bring themselves back into the mix and try to create software that can match the likes of the competitors? Where and how can Nintendo financially be able to match the heavy budgets of Microsoft and Sony? Look at the last time a smaller company attempted to push the envelope and lead the way in the gaming culture:
Sega Dreamcast anyone? Look where that took Sega. Straight into Yesterday’s news.
The solution is simple (in concept, not execution), although it definitely won’t happen. But if it did, the entire world of gaming could change forever. But like I said before, don’t expect it to be done.
Somebody has to buy Nintendo.
Yes, buy.
Like what the infamous Chris Rock sketch mentioned, there’s rich and wealthy. Nintendo is rich (not as much recently), while companies like Microsoft is wealthy. What needs to happen for Nintendo to truly rise up and go back to SNES ranking, they need a major player to put forth the effort to swallow the company whole, and provide them with the money and resources needed to push forward. Let’s be honest: the 3DS was not progressive, and the WIiU while incredibly unique isn’t much of a progression either. Crippling funds does that to you—forces you to be creative with what you have.
So what if Nintendo was purchased by Apple? Don't laugh at the Apple comment, because it was rumored for a little, and the idea has sprouted many times before. What about Disney, still raking cash after buying Marvel? Or NBC/Universal? Or, to an even lesser extent, Microsoft, its second-place rival? What if the funding for a Nintendo project increased to the ridiculous proportions of Sony? Then now we have SNES-like potential which puts Nintendo technologically in the front and in charge of their destiny. The days of having to find alternate means to go up against ever-changing and ever-improving technology would diminish. We would see the franchises of Mario, Zelda, and others look just as good as the likes of Uncharted, Heavy Rain, etc.
We can see what Nintendo can pull off with minimal budget; with Mario Galaxy 2 despite being leagues underneath the norm in terms of graphical and memory capabilities emerging as one of the best games in the past 7 years. So what would happen if someone pulled a Pixar on them, and gave them an unlimited budget on their projects? I adore Pixar, but they are lucky to have a company like Disney support them-----their last three movies have a total budget of nearly $600 MILLION (Although the payoff has always been fantastic, with over 7 billion at the box office since 1995).
What would be the canvas of Nintendo when the amount of paint is limitless? And as I am saying many times, this would require one hell of a merger, and a hell of a lot of agreements from both parties for a purchase or a merger to be a pure success. Have mergers involving a $14 BILLION company occurred? Why of course it has, but they are definitely rare. And like the other mergers, this one would be a game-changer, and (unlike the other mergers) would potentially benefit every single party involved—from Nintendo to the purchaser. Wouldn’t you like to fess up the billions to purchase a company like Nintendo? Wouldn’t you like to own the rights to the creative staff in Japan and all their original IPs?
I am not saying the company is on sale, and I am definitely not saying that Nintendo would even consider selling themselves to a bigger market in hopes of expansion. What I am indeed saying is that in order for Nintendo nowadays to EVER have the ability to play catch up with the future installments of Xbox, Playstation, and whatever else might occur down the road, they need backing. But until a company has the guts, the cajones, to truly rip open their bank account and attempt this mammoth sale, Nintendo will remain the indie company that hides their limited resources behind good marketing, a great confident staff, and a reputation that they will fight to the death to maintain.
Nintendo is not for sale. But it would be an extremely incredible investment if it were. And not to mention, the gaming industry would definitely be smiling from ear to ear.
Would you buy this brand if you could pony up the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$? I sure as hell would.
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