Nintendo and Sony vs The World

For over two decades, Nintendo has completely dominated a market that they single-handedly created: the hand held market. They've left many foes in their unstoppable wake. The biggest casualty being that of Sega. And although Sony has managed to survive an entire hand held life cycle, it's been an extremely rough ride. But as the two juggernauts prepare to release the Nintendo 3DS and the Sony Next Generation Portable, they may soon find that they are on the same team as a common and much bigger foe emerges: the mobile industry.

Many people have pointed out that the only companies that have been successful competing with Nintendo all have one thing in common: they didn't compete with Nintendo. Atari competed with Nintendo and failed. Bandai, with a little help from one of the subjects of this post, competed with Nintendo and failed. Sega competed with Nintendo and failed. It took a very long time for Sega to fail and Nintendo had some help, but, in March of 2001 it did happen.

When Sony entered the market, they had very little true competition with Nintendo. Sony was successful with audiences that Nintendo was largely ignoring: sports, fighting, role playing, and dancing games were popular on the Sony PlayStation and it's successor. Every game that tried to compete with a Nintendo property failed. Link beat Lara Croft. Kirby beat whatever side scroller Sony had (see I can't even think of one). And Mario absolutely obliterated Crash Bandicoot.

But if you'll look at areas where Sony wasn't competing you'll see how Sony rose to first place during the last generation. Sports games like Madden, racing simulators like Gran Turismo, and RPGs like Final Fantasy VII are what propelled Sony to the top. Nintendo wasn't focused on these types of games. This is also how Sony has been as successful as they are in the hand held market. The very thing that I spent an entire blog post complaining about is the very reason they've made it this far.

Then Steve Jobs happened. Everyone, both those who love him and those who hate him, knows that when Steve Jobs happens, it is usually very intentional and very devastating. But when Steve Jobs happened to the hand held market, it was completely by accident. When Apple released the first iPhone in 2007 it was never meant to run software other than what was included. But the people spoke, and in a very rare move, Apple listened. The Apple App Store launched just one year after the first iPhone, and all by accident, the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable had a new competitor, and nobody, not even Apple, knew it.

Since the App Store's debut, games for media players have surpassed games for handhelds in every way imaginable. I like to compare oranges with oranges and Apples with Googles (and Microsofts), so this is a comparison that I hate making. Smart phones are smart phones first. They make phone calls, check email, and do other communication functions. Anything else they do such as play music, video, and games is all extra. An NDS is a game first. No matter how hard Sony tries to change this, the PSP (NGP) is a game first. Anything else that they do, play music, surf the web, is all extra. Unfortunately, iOS and Android eating into Nintendo's and Sony's bottom line is very real. And it's happening because these games do not compete directly with Nintendo or Sony.

Fortunately for Nintendo and Sony, there's a lot of this going on in the mobile market.

 

A big change is in order if these two companies are going to stay competitive in this market. Most of these points are made very well by Kelly in his post "Why portable gaming needs to make a serious move to downloadable games", so I wont go into those points here.

What Nintendo has been doing for 20+ years is still working, so I don't expect them to change much. I could see their focus on downloadable games increasing with the 3DS, but I do not believe that Nintendo will or should change their overall strategy. Gamers know that quality games are found on these dedicated handhelds and will continue to support Nintendo and Sony in the market.

Sony has to decided to take these threats head on with the Android powered Xperia PLAY, a PlayStation phone of sorts, and the software that makes playing the games possible, PlayStation Suite, will be made available to all compatible Android powered phones shortly after the Xperia PLAY's launch. PlayStation Suite will have numerous PS1 titles available at launch and will host more PlayStation games and games designed specifically for the platform in the future. However, I believe that the only thing this will ultimately do is hurt their dedicated games platform and will have little effect on either the smart phone market or Nintendo's handheld.

 Once mortal foes, these two may need to lay off each other for a

bit and come together to remind us why we're gamers.

Although Nintendo and Sony are competitors, in this ever changing landscape, they're also very valuable to each other. It's Nintendo and Sony who will, together as frenemies, remind us what good gaming is. Angry Birds is fun, but it's no Pokemon, and it's not trying to be. If Nintendo and Sony are willing to adapt, we can look forward to another 20+ years of exceptional, quality, handheld gaming.

Andy vs Apple picture designed by Chris Bishop.

Visit andyversus for more information.