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Cisco Eyeing Tivo/Nintendo for Buyout?
We've already covered Cisco's push into the home electronics market, but CNet is reporting that they may be planning even bigger purchases to come. The article speculates that Cisco may be planning on purchasing Tivo or Nintendo to add to their growing portfolio of companies. From the article: " Another possible acquisition candidate for Cisco is Nintendo, the No. 3 game console maker in the U.S. A stretch? Not really. Microsoft, which is emerging as a key competitor to Cisco in the home entertainment market, is already in this market with the Xbox 360. Gaming has already proved to be a strong application for broadband, so it makes sense that Cisco would want to own a game device to help drive more traffic on its network. With its popular GameBoy product, Nintendo would also provide Cisco an entree into the mobile-handheld market." Some commentary at GameDailyBiz, which finds it unlikely that Nintendo would sell to Cisco.
Didn't Microsoft try to buyout Nintendo a while ago and get spit on?
Easy BitCoins
If Nintendo does sell to another company, they probably sell Nintendo of America rather the whole company itself. As NOA is more of a distribution arm of Nintendo rather than content creation.
First off, Nintendo will never be bought, they'd leave the marketplace before that. Second, Cisco?
Am going to have to get another CCNA (Certified Cicso Nintendo Administrator) certification.
Is it just me, or do you hate it when people say "Is it just me..."?
I know that Cisco is a big company and all, huge even, but so is Nintendo. Wouldn't it be just as likely to see Nintendo buying out Cisco?
TiVo is sueing Dish over "time warp" patent. Smith Barney thinks TiVo has a 70-90% chance of winning the case. Why would TiVo enter any equity agreement when it is likely to be worth much more soon after the trial ( March 2006 )?
Cisco doesn't own the network in question ...
Oh, right. Slashdot. Pointless rumours for nerds.
The only reason for Cisco to buy Nintendo is so they can in turn be bought out by someone with more money than brains.
Is it just me, or does Cisco + Nintendo warp your mind a bit. Nintendo... by Cisco. I just can't wrap my head around it :)
http://cubemonkey.net/quotes -- fortune-mod quote generator
They sell shortening now, too; to grease the way for their other mergers and acquisitions.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
you know... wrote the thong song.
So if Cisco were to buy TiVo what would be the result? Here are some possibilities:
1. Mandatory Jazz music soundtrack while in Menus and while fast forwarding.
2. Higher cost (everything is worth more with a Cisco label on it).
3. Different TiVo features will now be ala-carte, pay extra for HMF (again), pay extra for IR Blaster funcionality.
4. The only networking configurations that will be supported is if EVERY piece networking & voice component in your house is a Cisco product, your'e on your own if you have a D-Link or SMC broadband router or a Motorla set top box.
Amusing, but the real question is: Who's writing this CRAP?
Many a-company has tried to purchase Nintendo. The answer has always been "No". While Nintendo may be third in the American console market, this soundly ignores the presence of the Nintendo DS as well as Nintendo's strength in Japan. Not to mention that Nintendo is the only company that is profitable as just a game company. The other players are running on ultra-tight margins (Microsoft loses money) while Nintendo sits back and enjoys a stogie.
This has got to be some of the worst rumor-mill crud that Slashdot has ever reported. I'd complain about CNet reporting it, but we lost them a LONG time ago.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Though I doubt it'd ever happen, if Cisco were to buy out Ninento, maybe the combined company could bring back the days of Nintendo cereal.
"Nintendo, it's a wireless access point now.
Nintendo, it's a IPv6 capable, DFC3 layer switch wow!"
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
Cistendo? Nintenco? Nincisco? Nisco? Nintencis?
"There's some denial about the interview after the fact now"
It's a known outright fabrication. The only source for it was a supposed issue of Wired that doesn't contain it.
Look how crappy Linksys has gotten since Cisco bought them. It's common knowledge among all of my techie friends that Linksys routers aren't what they used to be.
Unless Cisco offered a very high price for Nintendo, I doubt Nintendo will sell (and, even then, it's questionable.) While Nintendo may be slightly behind the XBox in America, putting them at No. 3, they're No. 2 in Japan, and No. 1 in worldwide handhelds. Even with the low price, they still eek out a small profit from their hardware, so they aren't hurting financially. Of course, I'm not a big exec, so there may very well be a transaction of some sort. If there is, it's more likely that Cisco will get the NOA arm of Nintendo, as stated by another poster.
The horror, the horror!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
#11 on Cringely's 2006 predictions:
11) TiVO will be bought by another company.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Cisco would want to own a game device to help drive more traffic on its network.
What network is that? I thought they made hardware. Wouldn't the traffic be carried by the DSL or cable providers?
Kinda gives the phrase 'point-to-point tunneling protocol' a whole new meaning, doesn't it? ^_^
Why don't they buy out Novell and then we could have Massively Multiplayer nsnipes in 3D with 5.1 Dolby Surround!
nsnipes.... hrhrhrhrhggggghhh. *drool*
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The captain on Deep Space Nine?
Seriously, I could not imagine a worse scenario. Nintendo is the only game company left who places fun, gameplay, and design over advertising, hype, and corporate greed. The gaming industry is dying slowly and turning into a mini-hollywood and the pervasiveness of ad's in games and lack of innovation in favor of sequels and making the biggest grab for money and power does nothing to further gaming.
Nintendo stays true to its roots, and wavers for no one or no money. They have a quirky business set-up but it works, to turn that into a carbon copy American corporation would ruin everything that makes Nintendo Nintendo. I would be deeply saddened to hear news of Cisco purchasing Nintendo, and I can only hope that the Revolution is a great success and sale of the company would be out of the question. That would be the darkest day in gaming of all time.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Uhm, yeah. That makes just about as much sense as an asphalt producer buying Ford so that its cars would drive up the demand for pavement.
A more accurate way of putting this would be:
As someone who has been working in Japan for several years, in the game industry, I cant begin to explain how ridiculous this sounds.
Nintendo is a 107 year old company. It has been lead by the same family for generations, and their mployees are extremely proud. They were there before video games existed, and they most likely will be there long after video games are gone.
I am not sure if its a cultural thing, but the assumption that everything is for sale is quite irritating.
when Nintendo puts its next console online, it won't be hacked? Can someone explain to me what Cisco would be doing in the game console market?
"Microsoft, which is emerging as a key competitor to Cisco in the home entertainment market"
.even their gaming wireless adapters are more support devices for things in the home entertainment market. I wouldn't consider them part of the market themselves since they themselves don't bring entertainment?
Maybe I'm out of touch, but what does Cisco have already in the home entertainment market? I don't see linksys type devices really counting .
Someone educate me?
It would be just like Palm and 3COM, elagant and beatuful designs crushed under a layers and layers of clueless management and indecision strangling innovation until the design is irrelavant.
Why don't they buy SEGA instead. We can finally get ehternet adaptors for our dreamcasts!
Cisco is all about the network.
Theory 1:
I bet small changes could be made to Tivo to make it much more of a video on demand box. These changes could be done in such a way that the Tivo is much more dependant on the network for it's content. High network utilization is good for Cisco.
Thoery 2:
They own Scientific Atlanta which (last I knew) is one of the major vendors of cable set-top boxes. Including Tivo in a set-top box would be good for sales I would think, even if it's just because Tivo has a good "brand."
Theory 3: (Theory 1 + Theory 2) = Theory 3.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Man.... BugTraq and vulnerabilities for GBA... What's next Zelda TAC Cases? :)
I vote that someone buy both TiVo and Nintendo. I don't care that Microsoft is pushing for the X-Box an all-in-one media center. The holy grail of media centers will be my new NinTeVo Revolution Series 3.
I'm looking forward to the Japanese imports such as "Doodle Doodle Doodle" where you have to draw mustaches as fast as you can on the incoming TV feed.
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
And I don't mean that in a bad way in any way whatsoever. I've taken almost 30 weeks of Japanese language/culture classes, and I've learned a lot. One big thing I've learned is how strong a sense of cummunity the Japanese have. While most US corporate bosses might think individually and be willing to sell a company at the right price and loose a few thousand jobs in the process, outsource, and do a lot of other things that, I don't think a Japanese company would do that because it wouldn't benefit the group as a whole. It just isn't very good for the country to sell a company when it's benefiting your economy, and been a large symbol of your country to the rest of the world.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
OK Cisco provides networking hardware and IOS's to support certain features.
Why would Cisco buy Nintendo?
Well think about it this way. Time Warner is a HUGE customer of Cisco. Cisco acquired Scientific Atlantic which makes cable set top boxes. Humm then Time Warners network would be optimized with Cisco's hardware and TV/Cable controlled by Cisco's boxes.
Now combine this with Cisco's IPTV, and Network Virtual Private Storage Solutions and you pretty much have Video on demand over IP any time of the day. Throw a game console in the mix and you have diversified in to a game service niche, much like xbox live.
Thats just one reason.
First of all, how is Cisco competing with anyone in the home entertainment market? Because of Sci-Atlanta and Linksys? Yes, you can play games on the internet via a Linksys router, and watch cable TV via a cable box. These do not make you a player in the home entertainment industry. In fact, Sci-At has been making cable boxes for DECADES, and I never search out their brand over someone elses. Does anyone even CARE who makes a cable box?
As for the purchase of Nintendo... I say fat chance. Aside from the fact that Nintendo is no small company (in Japan, they are still QUITE large) with a LOT of IP to purchase in the deal, I believe the cultural background of Nintendo would prevent them from selling to such a company... or really selling at all unless they were in dire straights.
Honestly, the whole article doesn't really seem to have much base in reality. Can anyone enlighten me if I missed out on something really big?
If Cisco were to buy both you could then have a set top box that was your router/firewall/WAP/Tivo(PVR)/games console/VOIP server all in one. Since Cisco (via the Linksys brand) has been open to hacking^h^h^h^h^h^h^h end user modification of their systems it could be a very interesting development.
"Computer Scientists can count to 1024 on their fingers" (non-mutant, non-mutilatated, human computer scientists)
Disney/Pixar to buy out Nintendo so Apple can aquire a games console platform to move into the living room. Taco Bell to buy out Depends diapers for adults because the two seem to go hand in hand after a stuffed burrito. See, I can do it too, it's a lot of fun.
Cisco want a 100+ year old playing card company anyway?
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
The cartridges were *big*. :-o
In fact, *I* predicted that Cringely would predict it.
Yes it might be a good deal for Cisco, I mean they'd be making a ton when TiVo wins this case, but what would TiVo get out of it? I mean it really isn't like the two are incrediblly compatible as far as a related products market goes (i.e. SBC DSL and Cingular (AT&T) Wireless), so there really wouldn't be any profit in that perspective.
Let us examine other possibilities:
Trying to raise capital?
I don't really think so, at the rate that they have been gaining a hold on their market. Plus factor in this lawsuit, does it really seem plausible that they are having enough financial woes to sell out?
New technology?What are they gonna get out of it? Their system works. It doesn't exactly need Cisco.
Ahhh well, I don't see it happening. Just my view.
If memory serves me correctly Cisco is playing by the Microsoft rulebook. If you can't create great new technologies, BUY THEM!!! Now all we have to do is wait for Microsoft to buy Cisco and Bill Gates will finally have ULTIMATE POWAR!!!!
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
My instructor said nothing about flying turtles. Great. Do you know what section of the curriculum that was?
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
how is Cisco currently in the home entertainment market?
How can they be considered a competitor of Microsoft's in that market?
Well, certainly Nintendo would owe it to shareholders to consider any offers. Whether the Japanese investing market is given these considerations is another matter. I suspect the management of Japanese companies has considerably more power than in US chartered corporations. The fact that the DS is doing well and that Nintendo is turning a profit is only a sign that the company is valuable, not that it is priceless.
Even if Nintendo was in the number one spot, they'd still be the primary purchasing target, for obvious reasons. Sony and MS are simply to big to purchase. Infinium is simply 90 percent hype, 10 percent delivery. However, the company isn't a good matchup for Nintendo. Cisco would have to substantially be involved with the design of whatever next hardware comes out to make anything positive happen for either side. I don't know the Cisco culture, but I'd imagine there'd be some communication problems if they tried it.
I wouldn't be surprised however if Cisco purchased Alienware.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
I agree, I remember even since the times of Nintendo & Sony parternship that people talked about Nintendo being bought but part of the Nintendo fanatism strives in how they have been standing since the old days and how they swallowed their most "adverse" competitor, Sega. I even remember a talk show where Sega trolls said that the SuperNintendo was not a 16bit unit but a 12 bit "turbocharged" unit. I thought "hell, if Nintendo can make look Mortal Kombat II that good with 12 bits compard to Sega's 16bit... I prefer the big N".
Nintendo is a Japanese company, and if you ask me, it is more of a HANDHELD company now. Cisco just can not aim to buy them, I think it would be a better bet to buy Infineon labs, at least they did had a console with a "innovative" distribution system based on internet.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
That just means the offer was too small.
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
Cisco should buy Nabisco too! Then they could call the company: Ninabicisco!
After that, it's only a matter of buying the rights to John Travolta's movies, and they could then be a true media company:
Ninabicidisco. Home entertainment, home networking, home food, and home music. A true media conglomerate.
It's not that ridiculous, although I admit a buy out seems crazed. MS has crap for networking, their best hope is to partner with another evil empire like AT&T, and judging by their presence at SuperCom and other telecom circuits, that's not something they're oblivious to.
In the telecom world there's a big push to capitalize (i.e. lock down, control and charge) on further use of the internet and home networking. It's a big but subtle threat to the free world, but it's on many telecom equipment makers agenda's, and Cisco is no different. A console would be a powerful tool, although I suspect it is too niche to really hit home. TiVO is far more likely.
Unless we get a more big business unfriendly government in place soon, these sorts of crazy sounding partnerships aren't as insane as they should be.
Yeah, we could tell.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Think of the massive cable infrastructure today using Cisco equipment for all the backend stuff and you then have a motorolla settop box. Imagine Cisco being able to say, we'll sell you an end to end solution and provide discounts based upon volume. I'm not thinking end user at all, I'm thinking all the cable companies who have absolutely horrible PVR's. With Tivo's new cablecard supported system, it wouldn't really even take any modifications to drop it in; if they want to provide additional serivices i.e. docsis modem, voip, etc. Cisco can take it's IP in those areas (SCI-Atlanta does regular cableboxes giving them the bi-directional interactive capabilities) and put it into one nice box and put a ribbon on top of it.
Very much so a stretch. In fact I'd go so far as to say "get a clue man!" Whoever wrote that needs to be beat upside the head.
It started back in Team Fortress Classic
No no no, they're talking about SYSCO. The world's largest food service vendor. Delivering food AND video games, now there's a winning combination.
this is getting old and so are you
blog
Uh, no.
Nintendo has reported a whopping 1 quarter in the last, like, 75 years where they didn't show a profit.
They are the market leader in handheld consoles...and have been for about 20 years. They have beaten Sega, Atari, and Sony at this game. Not to mention numerous others like the n-gage and wonderswan.
Unlike the competition, they only sell thier consoles at a profit. Sony and MS take a hit - either initially or during the entire lifepan of the system.
They aren't going anywhere.
If I said I was going to purchase Nintendo, would you write a slashdot story about me? I didn't think so, because I couldn't buy Nintendo. Neither could Cisco.
This will never happen. They are too proud, and that's a good thing.
www.blueapples.org
If not the company then the old library.
There is a market for the old style fun to play video games.
Add an emulator on a Tivo Box and offer a game subscription. Could be a nice little piece of change.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
And frankly, I think the average person will say, "Who the heck is Cisco?"
BTW I love my TiVo as is, I don't want Cisco changing it.
Oh, I thought it was the people that made plastic spoons and crap...
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
No way Nintendo would EVER sell a few months before releasing one of the most "Revolution"ary game systems of all time! They've got way too much at stake in Revolution to throw it all away.
This just in! 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the population.
Huh? This isn't Delaware corporate law -- Revlon doesn't apply. Do you not remember the Livedoor bruhaha from just a year ago?
This mindset which has gained traction in America over the past decade or so that the only stakeholders in a corporation that matter are shareholders is nauseous.
With great power comes great fan noise.
Yeah, totally. Nintendo is teh suxor!!!1one11!!!
C'mon... If anybody is hurting in the game console market, it's not Nintendo. They don't do gimmik prices and loose money on they're game console. They are not even the number 3 game console manufacture like the article says. They are one of the #2 game hardware manufacturers in the world (1 behind Sony) and the #2 game publisher in the world (1 behind EA).
Perhaps you're joking, but just in case you're not...
. aspxs /2216/
That account of events was taken from a parody interview of Hiroshi Yamauchi. It did not actually happen. It was a hoax.
Links:
http://middaysoftware.com/MinhsBlogs/articles/223
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comment
and other fine game products, it's fine by me if they buy me out of my shares of NTDOY (Nintendo ADR shares).
...
I'm still waiting for the first Star Wars Lego version for the Nintendo Revolution console - looking forward to using the Revolution wand controller as a virtual light saber
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The frequency of reposts that this article keeps getting around the net annoys me.
Go read the CNet article. It's a very large amount of speculation - so much that it makes me think the author just wrote it to help pad her quota of "stories." This isn't news, this is pure conjecture. Cisco - the networking company or the rapper - will not buy Nintendo.
I'm glad I don't subscribe to Slashdot. Posts like this would make me feel like I wasted my money.
-----------
POiT!
Fuck that. Nintendo owes it to it's fans NOT to sell. How is screwing over your HUGE fan base by selling out to Cisco good for share holders? Sure they might make a quick buck at first but it'll quickly go down hill from there.
I'm a die hard Nintendo fan and I will lose all respect for them if they sell out to Cisco.
Shareholders aren't going to make shit if Nintendo alienates it's fan base.
No, I wan't joking, but I did find out about the hoax thing about 15 minutes after making the post. I was too lazy to come back and post a correction at the time, however. Thanks for pointing it out so I didn't have to. :)
-Yoweigh
Strange, then why do I own 10,000 ADR shares of the Japanese stock market holdings as well as direct ADR shares of Nintendo, Sony, and Konami?
Since I'm American, with an American stock market account (Morgan Stanley for these trades), that means they do sell their companies to Americans, since I own them and vote on them.
heck, I even watch the annual shareholder's meetings - I have great CEOs there who make less than I do as a university researcher - not overpaid greedheads like my US CEO/exec employees who rip me off.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This isn't a premature April Fool's story, is it?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
so Apple can aquire a games console platform to move into the living room.
Pippin flopped.
Only the first time around, it was called "AOL/TimeWarner."
There was a lot of leveraging of synergies going on back then, and lots of money being spent, but the end result was less than stellar.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Until that time - no. Maybe when the Sun is ready to go supernova but still no if Earth 2.0 is already established. TiVo - you & I could buy them this afternoon.
The big thing would be that all of Nintendo would have to switch to Clearcase.
On the other hand, IOS already runs on PPC, so Cisco could port IOS to run on GameCube, and make their next megarouter a RAIN. (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Nintendo). Since Linksys uses a lot of ARM chips, they would be in charge of the GameBoy line-up.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I think 1 of 2 things are going to happen.
Either nintendo's revolution will flop, much like the Dreamcast did (only difference will be, Dreamcast was a good system), and Nintendo will stop producing consoles and only work on games/handhelds.
OR
Nintendo will sell to a company that isn't as anal retentive about releasing games with more mature themes. After all not everyone wants to play pokemon and dragonball.
Nintendo is a publically traded company in Japan (symbol: NTDOY). They can't be private company. You can even purchase ADRs of Nintendo shares if you find brokers who will do the transaction for you.
If Tivo is actually that likely to win the trial, the stock market will already have factored this into the price.
You can't beat the market that easily...
>> Shareholders aren't going to make shit if Nintendo alienates it's fan base.
If I was a shareholder, I would want the buyout, then I would quickly sell.
It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.
>> that the only stakeholders in a corporation that matter are shareholders
God forbid the owners of the company run it.
It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.
To those guys at Tivo and Nintendo, I say go for it.
At least it will prevent Microsoft from trying to take over them. Besides, it willl alow Cisco to get some of there wireless products (Linksys), to work with their products.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
Last I checked, it is actually illegal (under Japanese law) for a foreign company to own a Japanese company.
All speculation about pride, attitudes, finances and tradition aside, the closest Cisco could do, is sign an exclusive distribution and production deal with Nintendo, much like Disney did with Studio Ghibli. Any attempt to outright buy Nintendo would be blocked by the Japanese government.
Whoever wrote this article obviously has the rather charming and provincial attitude that American companies can do whatever they want. The problem is, there are these things called governments that sometimes get in their way.
It had information that the driver needed but its reason d'etre (pretentious moi!) was the longer scenic routes that were offered as an alternative. While we are at it the early US car companies financed roads as well.
Help fight continental drift.
True. But most of the control I'd imagine still is maintained in Japan. Ownership != control all the time, especially since most of their stock is still owned in Japan. Owning some of Nintendo is one thing, but if Cisco bought them, Nintendo would no longer be able to do what they want as an individual company. Although it appears you do agree with their CEO's probably less likely to screw over their subordinates (Assuming you meant They when you said I).
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
In many cases, it wouldn't be Nintendo's decision. Gaming is a buisness these days, spoken in dollars and cents. If Cisco really wants Nintendo, Cisco (w/$100 billion market share) will try to take Nintendo (w/$10-20 Billion market share). It would likely be a hostile takeover, or a series of events where Cisco quickly aquires a signifcant stake (20-30% of voting body) and continues to work from there, buying off remaining major stoke holdings.
The gamer inside you might make you believe that 'loyalty to gamers' or 'independence' might convince Nintendo to remain it's own entity, but this is simply naieve. Nintendo wants to beat Sony. It wants to beat Microsoft. It wants to get back to where it was 10 years ago. To do that, it needs to match their investment capabilities. To do that, it just might need companies like Cisco.
Yeah and wait till you find your SysAdmin playing Metroid Prime 2 in the server room and suddenly you have to have a SOHO router in every IT office for some reason.
Cisco: Nintendo... You are my bitch. Nintendo: No... No... That's not true! That's impossible! Cisco: Search your stock holdings. You know it to be true. Nintendo: Nooooo! Nooooo!
Well, as I understand it, Sony's game division floats entire other divisions of its company. And I'm guessing that by "game company" you mean a company that makes game hardware. Nintendo isn't the only one that is profitable here. Companies like Sega and Konami make hardware (arcade), and there's a huge market for cheaper electronic games (handheld LCD games, system on-a-chip games you plug into the TV).
The gamer inside you might make you believe that 'loyalty to gamers' or 'independence' might convince Nintendo to remain it's own entity, but this is simply naieve. Nintendo wants to beat Sony. It wants to beat Microsoft. It wants to get back to where it was 10 years ago. To do that, it needs to match their investment capabilities. To do that, it just might need companies like Cisco.
If Nintendo cared that much about beating MS and Sony, they wouldn't be aiming their next console at picking up people who have traditionally been non-gamers. They're straddling a market gap that I very much doubt MS or Sony cares two bits about, simply because it's just not profitable for companies their size and with so much investment already sunk into the "hardcore" market.
MS and Sony are pushing their machines as "home entertainment systems", implying an inclusion of not just gaming, but video, audio, etc. Whereas Nintendo is perfectly satisfied to remain a "game machine".
"Where it was 10 years ago" is someplace Nintendo can never be again. They've accepted that, and are going a new direction.
They aren't competing in the same class. While their (Nintendo vs. the other two) markets overlap, I really doubt MS or Sony are all that concerned about Nintendo pushing one or both of them out, and they don't have much reason to be. With the Revolution aimed at a different price-point, and only a portion of their customers, Nintendo is not a threat to the other two, nor are the other two a threat to Nintendo.
MS's primary concern is Sony, and vice versa as well. And that is because they are competing in pretty much the same marketspace. Nintendo is a different product at a different price, aimed at a partially overlapping but substantially different customer base. I really doubt they are that worried about each other.
This is my opinion because I haven't yet heard anyone ask "are you going to get the XBox 360, or the Revolution", or "are you going to get the PS3, or the Revolution". There are two different questions I keep hearing: "Are you going to get the XBox 360, or the PS3", and "Are you going to get the Revolution". This shows better than anything, IMHO, that the marketspaces are fundamentally different, despite coincidental overlap. With the Nintendo, it's yes or no, not either-or. Their success doesn't seem to rely on the failure of the others at all.
It would be a total waste of money for either MS or Sony to start after Nintendo's intended market right now, when they are still fighting each other over "1st place". Maybe in a few years, if a clear victor has emerged between MS and Sony, Nintendo will have some reason to worry about the market for the Revolution. But I'd bet big money that Nintendo, as a target, will have already moved by then.
Where's Mario? :)
Not Free SF Reader