Thanks for taking the time to write such a considered response.

Firstly, as to “ruthless”, mae culpa. You’re quite right that in commercial terms a less emotional phrase like “focussed” would be more appropriate. I think I’m a little sour at the moment as I have three dead out-of-warranty Nintendo consoles (two DSs and a Wii) and that spilled into my writing there!

I do genuinely believe that the family friendly thing with Guitar Hero was more accident than design, as opposed to the case of Nintendo where it was abosolutely by design. Take for example the latest TV ads here in the UK (at least; it may be different in the States) for Guitar Hero III. They show a very darkened room with two early-20s men playing Guitar Hero, then one of them opens his mouth and Slash from Guns and Roses climbs out, then resumes playing the game. Cut to slogan, “do you have a guitar hero in you?”. Tonally, the ad is pitched at… well, me, actually; twentysomething male gamers who like to play games with their friends.

Although I’m technically a few months past qualifying as a twentysomething any more, but enough about my troubles.

I do agree that Nintendo would make an excellent subject for a similar essay — I think their entire product was more explicitly engineered to address this need which you have correctly identified as largely unfulfilled by games products. Even going back to previous generations of Nintedo hardware, there were games such as Mario Party directly addressing that market. Another games series you might like to look into is Buzz, a quiz games series for the Playstation 2 which (as with the Wii) uses simplified controllers to make the game more accessible to a wider audience of non-gamers.

By the way Roger Ehrenberg writes a great financial blog, http://www.informationarbitrage.com/, which has covered the computer games market from an investor standpoint. You might find this interesting.

I believe the reason why Guitar Hero and the Wii are such best sellers is they are both product resonators.

They connect to their buyers and users in such a strong way consumers just have to have them, and they “seem to sell themselves.” As business people, isn’t that what we all secretly want?

You may be right about the family friendly connection. All I know is what I lived in my home and how I watched my wife spend twice as much for a video game, so I asked her questions.

I have to disagree with your use of the word “ruthless “however. Why is it ruthless to study your customers, create intimate buyer personas so well that customer’s camp out in sleeping bags the night before the release to have the “opportunity” to spend their hard earned money?

I feel like you are saying I gave the leaders too much credit for being strategic, that they may have fallen into this billion dollar hit? Maybe. But having sold both companies at one time in my career I have to say Activision , and as you point out Nintendo have very smart teams culturally aligned to serve their markets….in my opinion.

The research we have done shows less than 10% of the hit products that become resonators were the result of luck. I believe both Nintendo and Activision have very smart teams focused on markets and not leaving their financial success to chance and luck. They both do too many things so right.

I believe Nintendo would be a fantastic blog about a product that is tuned in, and particularly the “experience” of it, and how now they are overcoming one of the last objections me as a parent has which is children and a lack of exercise. Brilliant connection to a market unresolved problem!

I have a great deal of respect for companies that understand their markets and are on missions to solve unresolved problems in exciting new ways. If you have other examples please send them my way.

Mark Allen Roberts
http://www.tunedinblog.com/

That’s not meant to be a knock on Nintendo as they are responsible for creating some of the best game franchises such as Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong Everything to name a few. It’s just that they’re not my cup of tea.