Console Hardware - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 155

view of the new opportunity, which formed the basis for them to respond
to resistance and doubts as a group.
Nintendo's innovation process appears to have been most infl uential for
those parts of the Wii development in which repeated, intuitive experiences
were necessary to interpret the experiential value of the new product attri-
butes. For Nintendo, an unparalleled degree of experimentation and inter-
pretative conversation were involved in the innovation process that ended
up with the Wii controller. However, it also seems that this lengthy process
was a necessary condition to question the existing heuristics in the industry
and interpret and fi nd support for the discontinuous innovation.
From a more general perspective, the Nintendo Wii case also relates to
the role of risk-taking in the business of game console manufacturing. In an
industry characterized by constant demand for new consumer experiences and
creative destruction by new technological innovation, risk-taking has been an
important source of growth and revival during the last decades. The Wii case
shows that such risk-taking could be highly rewarding under circumstances
when established product attributes reach decreasing returns. However, the
case also shows that the discontinuous innovation process was challenging to
pursue and subject to engrained cognitive views, the resource allocation process
and environmental resistance. There are also more long-term risks involved in
a higher reliance on new user groups that often are more fi ckle.
Starting with 2012, the transition to a new generation of consoles has
been initiated. It takes shape during a time when the game market has been
reshaped by social network games with their virtual economy based business
model, providing both as a source of competitive threat and opportunities for
consoles (Lehdonvirta and Ernkvist 2011). The new generation of consoles
emerge during a time of several technological changes in areas such as down-
loadable games, 3-D technology, cloud computing, motion-sensing technol-
ogy and micro-payments. Implementing new technologies in an innovative
way that makes the console experience dif erentiated and uniquely appealing
in relation to competing game platforms will be a key in how the market for
video games develops. If the Wii's development provides any clues for future
game console development, then the most appealing product attributes of
these coming consoles might not be the obvious ones. Rather, they might be
product attributes that have emerged through a lengthy process infl uenced by
an idiosyncratic intuitive understanding of the game experience.
NOTES
1. The numbers are calculated based on sales data from Media Create
(1998-2011).
2. C omparison of units sold with titles released for major publishers at the Japa-
nese market, 2006-2010, based on data from Media Create (1998-2011).
3. On one occasion in 1997, Yamauchi described how the company's games
were not targeting people that only had an interest in games, “In America, I