The
cruel irony of the business is you work so hard to
develop the household penetration levels. Just when
you get to the maximum on a given system, you say
'OK, everybody, forget that -- we're moving on to
the next system and starting at base zero.'
ddddddddddddddddddPeter
MacDougall, General Manager, Nintendo Canada
Competition is the driving force to this industry.
This section focuses on three critical aspects of
being competitive: the major players in the market
and their strategies, the technology that powers game
consoles, and the supply chain involved in production.
Today the major players are Sony, Nintendo, and
Sega. The supply chain is primarily controlled by
Japanese companies: on marketing, research, and
production of parts. The technology of the industry
is what has driven it to be a $15 billion global
industry. Even mighty Microsoft is designing its
own console to enter the race--more like a gaming
PC for the living room that would run Windows. "The
influence they could have over all of electronic
entertainment is almost scary", says Christian Svensson,
editor of the gaming-industry magazine MCV.
Video game consoles, once the domain of cartoonish
characters, have grown up into powerful computers
capable of awe inspiring realism. In the process they
have become an increasingly adult consumer phenomenon.
With the coming release of a new generation of superconsoles,
they are poised to break into the wider entertainment
and online world, expanding beyond games to Internet
surfing, films, and even home finance and shopping.
They could thus challenge not only PCs, but every
other claimant to the TV-top throne.
