Nintendo Magic: Winning the Videogame Wars

by Osamu Inoue, Paul Tuttle Starr (Translator)

Back in the 80s, Nintendo ruled the home-entertainment market with the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). But then rival Sony introduced PlayStation, which featured advancements and cutting-edge technology that put Nintendo's Super-NES to shame. Nintendo quickly lost its dominant market share to Sony and found itself floundering. In 2006, Nintendo released Wii at the same time Sony introduced its highly-anticipated and much-vaunted PlayStation III and Microsoft's XBox 360. Wii's David defeated PlayStation's Goliath, inversely echoing the SNES/PlayStation outcome of a decade previous. Nintendo Winning the Videogame Wars is the story of what went right, discussing the business strategies and marketing savvy that took on the mighty Sony and won.Topics where you put your company is just as important as how you run being in KyotoFrom work force to policies, why Nintendo's "just enough" attitude succeedsWhy the ability to read a balance sheet is o

Genres: Nonfiction, Video Games, Gaming

224 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2009

Reviews

[Zach Koenig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not long before reading "Nintendo Magic", I read "Console Wars", a book in the same vein (video games) that was one of the best books I had ever read in my entire life. I was hoping that this one could follow suit, but instead it reads more like a business description (cloaked in the guise of one key interview) than anything really interesting.

Simply put, this book will only appeal to you if you fit in these categories:

1. You are really, REALLY interested in the inner workings of Nintendo; and

2. You want to know a bit of history behind the development of the Wii and DS console systems.

I think what happened with this book is that author Inoue was granted an interview(s) with some high-ranking members of Nintendo Co. Apparently, this is quite a rarity. The trouble is, there is not enough information here to fill an entire book, so Inoue expands into areas and loses focus easily and often. It is tough to tell what this book is really about as a result. It is most definitely not the nostalgic, almost narrative nonfiction-like tome that I so easily enjoyed in "Console Wars".

"Nintendo Magic" also sometimes reads like a "rah rah" statement for Nintendo, what with the Wii and DS being proclaimed as "saviors" for the company. While that may have been a viable position in 2009-2010 when this book was written, it is almost laughable now. As such, the book doesn't age well at all.

To top things off, it seems as if "Nintendo Magic" was hastily transferred from a Japanese edition, as all prices are still listed in yen and it just has a feel for a book written for the Japanese and then hurriedly "ported" over to the U.S. to capitalize on a market trend.

Overall, I liked a few portions of the book (the parts about how the company got the ideas for the Wii/DS), but otherwise it was too dry and narrow in scope for me. I ended up skimming portions because they were so boring. I know that this is a different kind of project than "Console Wars", so maybe it isn't fair to directly compare the two, but for those who really enjoyed the format/writing style of that book, I would suggest looking elsewhere than here for a similar fix.

[Rajiv Puvvada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply informative, very historical and a tad philosophical. Nintendo Magic is an excellent examination of the company's rise. It carries greater weight after Iwata-san's passing.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little has been published about the company Nintendo which has created an insatiable demand to learn more of the inner workings of this top Video Game Company. Osamu Inoue was allowed to write a series of articles for a Japanese magazine which detailed the history and business strategy of Nintendo giving one of the first looks into this secretive company. From its early history as a playing card manufacturer to its first foray into the Game and Watch series you can see the psyche of the company developing towards innovation and the personalities at the time. With Myiamoto taking the stage and launching Mario and Donkey Kong to the characters in the Legend of Zelda series you see a time where story and plot become prominent in addition to just graphics.
It is this idea of function over form that allows Nintendo to take a chance and scale back top line graphics in an effort to expand their market into those who don't play video games with the DS and Wi. The idea of the brain drain series, Wi fitness and Wi sports were all seen as ways to expand the target market and create new pockets of gamers that the competition of Sony and Microsoft were not going after. The sleek design of the Wi and friendliness of the Wi remote were all aimed in this effort to expand. The only complaint I have about the book is since it was a series of articles the book feels disjointed and there is some repetitiveness in the chapters that could have been avoided. Overall though it is still the first real look we have into the company and for Nintendo fans this is not one to miss.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, the story in this book combines the demanding business side of the company with the fun, creative video-game side really nicely and in an accessible way. It gives statistic-backed, history-filled arguments that describe the steady success of the company up until 2010 (from 1898). These arguments reference history as far as 5 centuries back, which makes this book an adventure into many different arenas.

If you are looking for the famously "Japanese" traits of dedication, perfection and adherence to structure in a business, the practices described in this book about Nintendo will feed your craving. Yet the success of the company has no bearing on the continued humility of its executives (and maybe the employees too?). One can infer that this might be due to the meaning of the name: Let the Heavens Decide

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very insightful into the mindset of important Nintendo figures such as Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata, Hiroshi Yamauchi, and even Gunpei Yokoi. It provided informative information on how Nintendo is structured. Osamu Inoue goes into great detail regarding the history of Nintendo as a Hanafuda (Japanese playing cards) manufacturer toy maker, and a video game hardware and software designer about their knowledge of creating fun experiences still drives this company to this day. Some of the key lessons I learned from this book were "Don't create a product that someone else has already produced," "Use seasoned technology with unilateral thinking (broad thinking)" and that "People should not have to figure out how to play with toys and that idea of "play" should be intuitive".

[Tony Yang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended for those in the Gaming industry or have interest in learning more about how various products such as the Game Boy, NES, DS, Wii were conceived. I don't think any other book or article has gotten to peer this deep into their internal org structure and methodologies.