You’ve got to love the Nintendo Wii.
For years, Microsoft and Sony competed on established dimensions in the video game market – graphics, the number of games available, and so on.
Nintendo was losing on these dimensions.
When it created the Wii, it changed the competitive landscape. It literally changed the way people play video games, by getting people up off the couch and having them get involved in the game with a unique new control scheme.
And all of a sudden, graphics didn’t matter nearly as much.
Nintendo decided not to compete on the established dimensions in the game market, recognizing that being third in any market is a tough place to be.
Thanks to some clever innovation, It’s not third anymore.
The best part – you just know that there were many people at Nintendo working their butts off to figure out how to make a new Nintendo system with better graphics so they could compete using the established rules of the video game business.
I’ll bet they are glad now that there were a few who decided not to compete on someone else’s rules.