For decades, Nintendo was known for its Mario games and Zelda games. Then something happened: Nintendo, which had long catered to traditional gamers, found a new audience that was not interested in Mario and didn't care much for Link. Nintendo began making games for old people and non-gamers. Its longtime fans felt shunned.
Back in 2005, I remember talking to a former Nintendo executive at the Tokyo Game Show. She went on and on about something called the "blue ocean strategy," the notion that new opportunities lie in unchallenged markets — as deep as the ocean and as yet unexplored. For Nintendo, this strategy became its raison d'etre, and it charted a course for unknown territory with what are now its flagship products — the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii.
Both consoles featured a slew of non-gamer-friendly titles designed to expand Nintendo's audience. Think back to before the success of the Nintendo DS, to the dark days of the GameCube, which launched in late 2001. That era, which spawned countless exclusive games such as "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" and "Super Smash Bros: Melee," was brutal for Nintendo. It wasn't able to capitalize on its Nintendo 64 success of the late-'90s falling to third place behind the Xbox and the PlayStation 2 in the '00s. Rumors swirled that Microsoft was even going to take over Nintendo.
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