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Nintendo: The Console Wars

11 Apr 2023 74 published claims 2 attributable people
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Speakers in the public record

Ben GilbertDavid Rosenthal

Claim mix

belief 45evaluation 9uncertainty 6commitment 5recommendation 3observation 3preference 2prediction 1

Evidence policy

Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.

Claim ledger

The useful parts, with receipts.

74 published records

04 / belief

I think we need two separate out to different parts of the market. On the one hand, when you're talking about Call of Duty, when you're talking about fittingly, Madden—Madden Football is not on the Switch still to this day—stuff like that, the very, very high-end core gaming market, what you're saying is absolutely correct.

“I think we need two separate out to different parts of the market. On the one hand, when you're talking about Call of Duty, when you're talking about fittingly, Madden—Madden Football is not on the Switch still to this day—stuff like that, the very, very high-end core gaming market, what you're saying is absolutely correct.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

05 / belief

To your point, I bet if you talk to a Nintendo executive, they look over at mobile and they're like, okay, sure, Apple is making $27 billion a year (Apple and Google) on people playing what you're calling mobile games. But if I look at that, I think only 2 billion of those are games, and the rest of that is something that's not games.

“To your point, I bet if you talk to a Nintendo executive, they look over at mobile and they're like, okay, sure, Apple is making $27 billion a year (Apple and Google) on people playing what you're calling mobile games. But if I look at that, I think only 2 billion of those are games, and the rest of that is something that's not games.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

06 / belief

I suspect there are a lot of people listening right now at the end of our two-part, call it 7–8 hours series on Nintendo, that have learned a lot and are surprised about a lot of things.

“I suspect there are a lot of people listening right now at the end of our two-part, call it 7–8 hours series on Nintendo, that have learned a lot and are surprised about a lot of things.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

07 / belief

I think once you start moving into across generations like that, you really do need a broad multimedia IP strategy to make sure that you're engaging and bringing the new generations into the fold.

“I think once you start moving into across generations like that, you really do need a broad multimedia IP strategy to make sure that you're engaging and bringing the new generations into the fold.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

08 / belief

Matthew's point is, well, a delayed game could be eventually good, but I think there's this artist polishing thing, which is if I just take enough time, and I make it the way that I want, it will eventually be good.

“Matthew's point is, well, a delayed game could be eventually good, but I think there's this artist polishing thing, which is if I just take enough time, and I make it the way that I want, it will eventually be good.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

12 / belief

I think if they get a bee in their bonnet about a new hardware idea that they think is groundbreaking and will enable a whole bunch of new game experiences, they're going to do that, and then they will figure out the business model implications later.

“I think if they get a bee in their bonnet about a new hardware idea that they think is groundbreaking and will enable a whole bunch of new game experiences, they're going to do that, and then they will figure out the business model implications later.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

14 / belief

I think the thing that is a little scary, and we'll see how much this is imprinted on Nintendo, the Wii U debacle and when smartphones came out, really existentially challenged Nintendo for the first time ever.

“I think the thing that is a little scary, and we'll see how much this is imprinted on Nintendo, the Wii U debacle and when smartphones came out, really existentially challenged Nintendo for the first time ever.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

23 / belief

If you could go back a priori and say, Apple, you can have a much more closed down App Store that looks a lot more like Nintendo Switch online or you can have what it is today, I think maybe they wish they could have gone the Nintendo route.

“If you could go back a priori and say, Apple, you can have a much more closed down App Store that looks a lot more like Nintendo Switch online or you can have what it is today, I think maybe they wish they could have gone the Nintendo route.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

24 / belief

Finally, I think there is another element that we really got to give Nintendo credit for with the Switch that I and very few other people saw the potential in when they announced it, which is that the use case that they marketed, the primary use case of seamless playing between on-the-go and at home is actually pretty compelling.

“Finally, I think there is another element that we really got to give Nintendo credit for with the Switch that I and very few other people saw the potential in when they announced it, which is that the use case that they marketed, the primary use case of seamless playing between on-the-go and at home is actually pretty compelling.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

34 / observation

All of a sudden, they're bleeding cash. It gets doubly bad because the only way out of this for them if they're going to keep their hardware strategy is to rush out a new console, which means they have to invest capital in R&D and in marketing for launching a new console.

“All of a sudden, they're bleeding cash. It gets doubly bad because the only way out of this for them if they're going to keep their hardware strategy is to rush out a new console, which means they have to invest capital in R&D and in marketing for launching a new console.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

37 / belief

Also, we would be remiss, I think, if we didn't point out too that all this was happening during the incredibly ugly and sad era of Japan bashing in the US that we talked about a little bit on the Sony episode.

“Also, we would be remiss, I think, if we didn't point out too that all this was happening during the incredibly ugly and sad era of Japan bashing in the US that we talked about a little bit on the Sony episode.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

38 / commitment

I think that is where the betting line is, but we will discuss. On the back of all this, Nintendo revenue just explodes from less than $5 billion at the end of the Wii U era, immediately in the next year to $10 billion after the switch launches, then $12 billion up to $16 billion during 2021 in the pandemic.

“I think that is where the betting line is, but we will discuss. On the back of all this, Nintendo revenue just explodes from less than $5 billion at the end of the Wii U era, immediately in the next year to $10 billion after the switch launches, then $12 billion up to $16 billion during 2021 in the pandemic.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

40 / commitment

Exactly. We will get to that. It doesn't have Sonic in the US, either. Even if you think you know the history of the console wars and the Genesis in America, or you lived it as I did, I didn't remember this exactly as it happened.

“Exactly. We will get to that. It doesn't have Sonic in the US, either. Even if you think you know the history of the console wars and the Genesis in America, or you lived it as I did, I didn't remember this exactly as it happened.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

44 / uncertainty

I don't know for sure the breakouts, but I believe a large portion, if not maybe even the majority of that merch segment is the trading card game all the way back to Hanafuda cards and Nintendo.

“I don't know for sure the breakouts, but I believe a large portion, if not maybe even the majority of that merch segment is the trading card game all the way back to Hanafuda cards and Nintendo.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

56 / belief

I totally believe that because, obviously, as we see here now in the mid-2020s, video game IP is fantastic for movies and TV shows. But it was because of that movie (I think) in large part that people shied away from it.

“I totally believe that because, obviously, as we see here now in the mid-2020s, video game IP is fantastic for movies and TV shows. But it was because of that movie (I think) in large part that people shied away from it.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

58 / uncertainty

Nintendo of America, in their tradition as we talked about in part one, just have the most amazing advertising campaigns around the launch of the Gameboy at Father's Day. I don't know if it was 1990 or 1989.

“Nintendo of America, in their tradition as we talked about in part one, just have the most amazing advertising campaigns around the launch of the Gameboy at Father's Day. I don't know if it was 1990 or 1989.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

59 / belief

While this is all happening, Gunpei, who was not involved with the development of the NES, goes over to Yamauchi and says, hey, I think we can basically combine the NES and this old Game & Watch technology and make a similarly awesome, portable cartridge-based console.

“While this is all happening, Gunpei, who was not involved with the development of the NES, goes over to Yamauchi and says, hey, I think we can basically combine the NES and this old Game & Watch technology and make a similarly awesome, portable cartridge-based console.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

68 / evaluation

They have a very particular way they love doing things, which I think was partially an anti piracy thing. They cared so much about stopping piracy that they were willing to hamstring developers into needing to use a much more constrained format in the cartridge than CDs because they thought, well, CDs are just going to get pirated, and we don't have as many mechanisms to prevent that.

“They have a very particular way they love doing things, which I think was partially an anti piracy thing. They cared so much about stopping piracy that they were willing to hamstring developers into needing to use a much more constrained format in the cartridge than CDs because they thought, well, CDs are just going to get pirated, and we don't have as many mechanisms to prevent that.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

70 / preference

You're going to buy it once upfront because that's how we believe games should be bought, which, of course, is him saying, we're just not going to make any money on this, because you're not going to sell a $60, $70, $80 skew on the iPhone, you're going to sell a $5 skew on the iPhone.

“You're going to buy it once upfront because that's how we believe games should be bought, which, of course, is him saying, we're just not going to make any money on this, because you're not going to sell a $60, $70, $80 skew on the iPhone, you're going to sell a $5 skew on the iPhone.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

73 / evaluation

We talked about Pokemon on the NFL episode, where Pokemon is, I think in my opinion, wrongly listed as the highest grossing media franchise of all time because the NFL really should be a single media franchise and is bigger, but it doesn't matter.

“We talked about Pokemon on the NFL episode, where Pokemon is, I think in my opinion, wrongly listed as the highest grossing media franchise of all time because the NFL really should be a single media franchise and is bigger, but it doesn't matter.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired
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