Out of Red Ocean and Soaring into Blue Ocean: The Wii U Nintendo Selling Strategy in Gaming Industry

Abstract

Since the release of its home console, the "Wii," Nintendo had fought mostly successfully off the competition in the gaming market by using a blue ocean strategy. The blue ocean strategy is the idea to create new market space with no or minimal competition through differentiation, low cost, and innovation. It is the idea to not compete against the competition but to create new demand and make the competition irrelevant instead. Nintendo's first step in pursuing the blue ocean strategy was to get out of the Red Ocean, to create demand where there was none before, and making to competition primarily irrelevant. To do this, Nintendo needed to disrupt the market. This study intends to analyze Nintendo's journey from the Nintendo Wii's success to the less successful Nintendo Wii U, to its hybrid console Nintendo Switch's current triumph from the point of view of the blue ocean strategy. How it made innovative ideas, social gaming, health, and the simple but most important factor of gaming fun, its primary goal, often going against mainstream ideas, reinventing itself but still staying loyal to its core customers. These factors, a significant software catalog with a broad spectrum of available games, and targeting casual gamers contributed to Nintendo's success that brought it back to the gaming industry's top.