NINTENDO MAGIC: WINNING THE VIDEO GAME WARS

Osamu Inoue, Paul Tuttle Starr (Translator)

Back in the 80s, Nintendo ruled the home-entertainment market with the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). But then rival Sony introduced PlayStation, which featured advancements and cutting-edge technology that put Nintendo's Super-NES to shame. Nintendo quickly lost its dominant market share to Sony and found itself floundering. In 2006, Nintendo released Wii at the same time Sony introduced its highly-anticipated and much-vaunted PlayStation III and Microsoft's XBox 360. Wii's David defeated PlayStation's Goliath, inversely echoing the SNES/PlayStation outcome of a decade previous. Nintendo Magic: Winning the Videogame Wars is the story of what went right, discussing the business strategies and marketing savvy that took on the mighty Sony and won.

Topics include:

How where you put your company is just as important as how you run it: being in Kyoto

From work force to policies, why Nintendo's "just enough" attitude succeeds

Why the ability to read a balance sheet is overrated

Respect seniority but approve huge R&D budgets for talented junior employees

Allowing maximum communication between disparate divisions (hardware and software)

Enlarging the pie: going after casual gamers (The art of mainstreaming)

How the Wii will be the next major household appliance and the DSi will be the cell phone of the future.

Nintendo Magic: Winning the Videogame Wars should serve as a warning to similar powerhouse industries never to underestimate the modest competitor. It should occupy the bookshelf of any business person smart enough to know they don't need to be a giant to win.

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