ashton

sometimes when you're the only fish in the pond you get heard. i personally can't name any other analysts that cover games.

i wonder if the "wisdom" of the joystiq crowd can outperform our video game "analyst" Mr. Pachter. Here's a challenge for 2007. Have 10 predictions that you know are made by Pachter-then have readers of joystiq vote on each one (whether it will be true or not and/or whether the numbers he provides are within a certain range). I know where I would put my money.

Here's what actually happened from a business perspective.

It's called "Good Will"- the value of the companies brand in equity terms. Take a look at their financial statements it adds almost 1Billion to their value and is essentially a vapor good (that cannot be supported by anything tangible.

Many public companies do this as there are currently no accounting standards to check for the actual value of "good will".

Curious point. However the argument is premised on the following:
a.) Consumers have the highest regard and utility for raw computing power and the newest technology (which are the highest costs for the manufacturers)
b.) Consumers are only making purchasing decisions based on a.)
c.) Consumers are rational beings

For starters none of the above is true. Consumers make decisions based on a number of points and it usually begins with emotions FOLLOWED up by rationale ONLY after making their decisions.

Nintendo knows this. They know they don't have to participate in the bloodbath between Sony and Microsoft. They created their own BLUE OCEAN strategy. Remember the book by. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. Don't participate in the bloodbath of a tight market (a red ocean), instead create additional or alternate values for consumers (blue oceans).

Hey Vlad, welcome back.

Sounds like you had a great time this past summer. The big M is a good place to learn about business as any place I'd imagine. It's also good to hear based on the Joystiq posts that more folks are taking the business approach to enter into the game industry.

I was in Shanghai a few weeks ago and fortunate enough to visit a few developers. While the talent market is a few years behind the US/Japan, the speed at which they are expanding their capacity and quality is suprising. There are definitly many opportunities for businesses in China and I was wondering if you had looked into the Chinese game developer market during your time at Wharton?

MAKES SENSE,

EA is a public company. They need to make their quarterly numbers. The US dollar is falling versus other currencies particularly Asian currencies and the U.S. game market is starting to saturate. They need to diversify their income to not only hedge the falling dollar but tap into the fastest growing markets in the world.

-Ashton

GOOD BUSINESS DECISION:

Sony is only pricing what the market will bear. Remember when the ps2 first launched? How much were they going for on ebay? Many well beyond $600 I remember. The "gotta get it first" consumer market will bear the $600 price point for the first year as inventory just meets demand. After which they the price will drop to levels acceptable to 2nd and 3rd wave consumers finally ending with the casual consumer.

If you were Sony why would you leave money on the table?

-Ashton

I think it's a great name that goes well with Nintendo's strategy. Nintendo fans will buy regardless of the name and the mass market will adopt it as a friendly easy to use device. And the mass market will be Nintedo's icing on their cake. "Gameboy" isn't the most macho name either but everyone got used to it and it's now iconic. Wii will be the same.

Besides there are alot of names out there that are cool but not "extreme macho cool". Think "Apple", it's a fruit. Not manly enough for you? Won't buy an Ipod because it's made by a company named after a peice of fruit? Nintendo is a quality company. They've made their brand based on quality and innnovation through games like "Super Mario Brothers" and "The Legend of Zelda". Quality shines through their best products carries these titles into iconic air- regardless of what they are called. It's a better approach for long term success versus a "cool" name on a crappy product- take a look around the used game bins there are tons of products with "cool" names. Most are in the unwanted bins for a reason.

Wii works. I'm sure everyone will get used to it after a little while.

PLEASE READ: Alan Rose***********

Hi Alan,

Keep these great posts coming! The9 Inc. has really been on a killer roll over the past year. I’ve been a fan of Joystiq.com since my brother introduced the site to me early last year. I’ve found the posts here to be intelligent and timely- and the commentary insightful.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ashton Lee. I currently work as a marketing manager in New York. This fall I will be starting my MBA at Oxford in the U.K focusing on marketing and strategy. Personally, I am interested in the future of the video game industry world wide and would like to incorporate some aspect of the industry into my studies.

A few weeks ago you did a great interview with Hoyt Ma, the senior marketing manager at China’s The9 Inc. I will be traveling in China this summer and in Shanghai in August. Would you be able to forward my request for a meeting with Hoyt or provide me with his email address so that I may ask him for some time to chat? Nothing formal and lunch would be on me of course! I wanted to chat with him particularly on:
1. The9 Inc. guiding principles that have lead them to become the game operating of choice in China- in a very competitive field that is increasingly regulated.
2. Successfully launching and growing western IP in the middle kingdom
3. Challenges of expansion through China/Asia

I could consider this to be an informational student (me) interview however I would love to share the transcript with you and the greater joystiq.com community.

Please let me know if this arrangement works for you. I can be reached at ashtonlee1@yahoo.com. Thanks!

-Ashton

I
believe that most reader created lists of the
"greatest" will be skewed
by the demographics of the readership and the
"recentness" of the choices. The videogame industry
is over 30 years old now and I would surmise that the
prime videogame experiences for the readers were not
in the mid 80s when many of the now classic 8 bit
games came out. If a similar poll were conducted from
Entertainment weekly readers today you would probably
see the movie "Shrek" ranked way ahead of "Citizen
Kane". I've never seen Citizen Kane either but I hear
it’s a good movie. I have seen Shrek and had a few
laughs so I would probably choose it over Citizen Kane
myself. I'm sure many have not played the original
Zelda before but they've heard it’s a good game. Same
logic.

So that’s my hypothesis over how these lists come to
be. What do you think?


-A