[NOTE: The following post is merely an attempt to study Nintendo’s two biggest competitors. No potshots were intended as all three systems have an uphill battle to wage in the coming year.]
Business 2.0’s latest November issue has an excellent article on Nintendo’s two biggest competitors, Microsoft and Sony. The piece mainly focuses on 
Microsoft’s Peter Moore and his strategy to dominate the console market but it also sheds light on BillSoft’s and Sony’s attempt to turn game consoles into media/pc centers (I.E. can you start my oven Mr. console while I play Zelda?). Convergence aside, it’s a pretty arrogant and lofty goal that could alienate both consoles’ core user base of, you guessed it, gamers.
The only beef I have with the editorial is in the limited number of Nintendo references. No, this didn’t offend me as a Mario enthusiast, it was just poor reporting. Anyone would be foolish to discredit the father of the consumer video games industry. Sure the lack of publicity may hurt Nintendo’s next-gen efforts, but if Microsoft and Sony continue to put aside Nintendo as a competitor in the coming year, they could be up against the next DS in the form of the Revolution. Didn’t see that coming did you?
[Source: Business 2.0]
Rollin
Nice way of hiding those potshots, Blake ;D
Nicholas Roussos
I hate convergence. It reminds me of those horrible TV/VCR/DVD combos. I’d like the see the exact opposite, lots of very application specific gizmos with interoperability. I.e. a portable touch screen that you carry around and will work for any appliance from a computer to a cell phone to toaster or a game console. Same thing for a keyboard, etc.
The one thing about the Revolution is that the input device is so innovative that I would really like to see it on other devices. I’m pretty tired of the mouse by now. I think the Revolution controller could be an adequate substitute. Plus, it would take OS GUI into 3D which everyone always talks about. Imagine not wanting to look at a window right now and pushing it away from you. The window would become “smaller” as it got more distant. Then, you could grab it and pull it back to the screen.
In my opinion, the DS was the most hated release I’ve ever seen. TONS of people were calling it a gimmick; there was SO much negative feeling towards it(even among developers). The fact that it has been so successful is quite a coup for Nintendo.
Anonymous
Maybe so, but if I was doing a story on search engines, and google didn’t call me back, you can bet I’d put something in the article about them.
vakerorokero
nintendo probably wasn’t going to reveal any new info to him or a business plan, just for an article, so he skipped nitendo, but that’s sounds like a bias reporting. Just because CNN couldn’t reach Hussein before the war means the got tried to complete the complete info. We might as well call this just expeculation.
Rollin
My stance on convergence is that it’s ok, but the dedicated devices will always beat out the features of the all-in-one devices. I hate to go there, but *sigh* look at iPod/iPod Video/DS versus PSP’s functions. The 1st three are of course dedicated devices that excel all features of a PSP, audio, pictures, video, and games, respectively. I think a device having a few functions with the focus on one, like a Game Boy Micro with cell phone functionality and music playback (*dreams*), is the best way to go. Spread urself too thin and ur bound to rip apart.
Albo
Mm. The thing with converging the GameBoy is… This platform has held up for so long. I’ve been through many cell phones since I first got my GBA. I feel like in a couple of years time I would have a kickass game machine surrounded by obsolete components. That I spent much more than $99 for. What do you think (we always seem to find ourselves on different sides of these issues, rollin :-\)
Rollin
Hehe, it’s ok. That’s what the comments are for anyway, diff opinions.
I’m not sure what ur saying with the above, though.