A recent Forbes interview with the VP of marketing and corporate affairs at Nintendo, Perrin Kaplan, has introduced new terms into the lexicon for Nintendo PR: Blue Ocean and Red Ocean.
Inside Nintendo, we call our strategy “Blue Ocean.” This is in contrast to a “Red Ocean.” Seeing a Blue Ocean is the notion of creating a market where there initially was none--going out where nobody has yet gone. Red Ocean is what our competitors do--heated competition where sales are finite and the product is fairly predictable. We’re making games that are expanding our base of consumers in Japan and America. Yes, those who’ve always played games are still playing, but we’ve got people who’ve never played to start loving it with titles like Nintendogs, Animal Crossing and Brain Games. These games are Blue Ocean in action.
Since then, the term "blue ocean" has gotten a lot of play as the newest way for Nintendo to explain their vision. Speaking at the DICE Summit today, Reggie Fils-Aime made reference to a "blue ocean of opportunity through new types of gameplay."
Additionally, he reiterated Nintendo's stance on expanding into new markets and reaching out to people who have never played games before, going as far as to say Nintendo would start advertising on daytime television shows like Oprah and Ellen.
"We have been able to drive the appeal of games to a whole new segment who typically would not pick up a game," Fils-Aime said during his speech. "Imagine a games company targeting 50- and 60-year-olds. Imagine games as a treadmill for the mind instead of a playground for violence."
Fils-Aime once again referenced proven business book strategies which focus on expanding markets. He said, "It's not about what is, but what can be." He pointed out to the audience that hardcore gamers make up only 20 percent of the entire gaming market, saying, "You and your teams can capitalize on that 80 percent."
On the subject of the DS, he announced that DS kiosks would be appearing in thousands of retail stores nationwide, offering temporary (they stay until the unit is shut off) game demos and movie trailers you can download to your DS. The first DS stations will be offering demos of Tetris DS, Brain Age, Mario Kart DS, Meteos, True Swing Golf and Pokemon Trozei, and a Metroid Prime: Hunters video clip.
On that subject, Reggie confirmed that Metroid Prime: Hunters will include voice chat for before and after games, but not during. This makes it the first Nintendo game on any console to have voice chat.
Finally, very little was said about the Revolution -- no surprise there -- but this last line of the Next Generation article is interesting:
"He also indicated that publishers and developers could create 'simple games' so that they could sell them at 'more affordable prices if you want.'"
Might Nintendo be looking to fight the price war on not only the hardware, but the software level?
Source: Next Generation, Gamasutra
The newly unveiled Nintendo DS Lite went through Federal Communications Commission testing recently, and as a result all the information regarding the test is available on the FCC's website. This includes photos, like this one, of the DS Lite from all angles, with and without its casing, and shots of a preliminary version of the system's manual, all in PDF format. Just in case you wanted to prove the thing really exists.
Find yourself a hefty grain of salt for this one, but keep it in mind nonetheless. Supposedly an employee of Microsoft, after a round of drinks while talking to a friend at a wedding, let slip some details regarding future Xbox 360 plans. Yeah, that's what we're going with.
The Red Cross is becoming concerned about the "unauthorized and indeed illegal use" of the Red Cross emblem in video games, usually to represent health packs or other kinds of medical care, claiming that its use is "detrimental to the special protective value of the emblem."