Money Today Reporter Kim Sang-hee | 2023.05.28 08:00
[선데이 모닝 키플랫폼] Brand Innovation Scanner #19 – “Nintendo Switch”
Editorial comment | A Sunday morning knowledge charging station prepared by KEY PLATFORM, a Money Today knowledge and learning content brand, for those seeking in-depth knowledge and information while preparing for a new week.
A hybrid craze is blowing in the game market. The main character is the Nintendo Switch. In the meantime, consoles (devices dedicated to games) were largely divided into home video game consoles and handheld game consoles.
Home video game consoles are connected to a TV and used, such as Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox, and Nintendo’s Wii. The CPU (central processing unit) and graphics performance are optimized for enjoying high-end games as well as high-end computers.
Although portable game machines have lower specifications than home video game machines, they have a small size that can be held in the hand and have everything necessary for games, such as a screen and control device, so that you can enjoy games anytime, anywhere. There are products such as PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo DS.
The Nintendo Switch, released by Nintendo in 2017, is a hybrid game console that combines a home video game console and a handheld game console. Although there have been some experimental hybrid game machines before, the Nintendo Switch is the first hybrid game machine introduced as a flagship product by major global game machine companies.
The Nintendo Switch is small and has a screen and control device like a handheld game console, but can be used as a home video game console when connected to a TV.
Nintendo Switch sold more than competing products such as PlayStation 5 and Xbox in the US market, one of the world’s largest game markets, last year, and thanks to this, the cumulative sales volume exceeded 125 million units, ranking third in sales of console game consoles of all time. The only game consoles that outsell the Nintendo Switch in terms of sales are the mega-hit PlayStation 2 (released in 2000) and Nintendo DS (released in 2004). The industry predicts that the current sales trend will make it possible for the Nintendo Switch to become the number one selling console product of all time.
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Games, cars, golf clubs… Popularity of hybrid products with only advantages
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The Nintendo Switch’s success was due to a combination of several factors. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic is also cited as a major factor in the success of the Nintendo Switch. As outside activities decreased due to the Corona 19 pandemic, the demand for home entertainment has increased significantly, and more people are looking for game consoles. In particular, in the case of Nintendo, its representative games such as Super Mario, Pokemon, and Animal Crossing have benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic due to the fact that even beginners who are new to games can enjoy them without any burden.
However, the biggest reason for the Nintendo Switch’s success, both inside and outside the game industry, is that it is a hybrid. It is analyzed that the company’s popular games, which are easily accessible to beginners, have synergy with the characteristics of hybrid game consoles that can be enjoyed at home or on the subway during commuting time.
Hybrids appear in a variety of industries and products besides games. A prime example is a hybrid car. Currently, electric vehicles are rapidly replacing internal combustion engine vehicles, but hybrid vehicles first emerged as an alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles. Hybrid cars have great strengths in fuel economy because they can operate on fuel or electricity through charging. Since Toyota introduced the Prius, the world’s first mass-produced hybrid car in 1997, several global car companies have been producing hybrid cars, and even now, hybrid cars are still popular models in a situation where electric vehicle infrastructure is not sufficiently expanded.
Utility clubs that combine the advantages of woods and irons in golf are also representative hybrid sales. The hybrid club is considered a popular club because it is relatively easy to hit the ball and shows a long distance. Hybrid clubs have been conceived in the golf industry since the 1970s, and the ‘Baffler’ club, which was actually introduced by Cobra Golf in 1998, is considered the first product. In 2009, when Yang Yong won the PGA Championship, a major tournament, the hybrid club played a big role in winning the championship by defeating Tiger Woods, who was in his prime at the time. Some say that the use of hybrid clubs has become the standard of golf since the tournament that shocked the golf world.
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“Hybrid, experience when you are in the middle of disruptive change”
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Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, who coined the term ‘disruptive innovation’, said in a white paper on ‘K-12 hybrid learning’, an online/offline blended learning method, that an industry experiences a hybrid phase when it is in the midst of disruptive change. Disruptive innovation refers to an innovation in which a simple and inexpensive product or service targets the bottom of the market and then quickly dominates the entire market.
Professor Christensen defines a hybrid as a combination of a new, disruptive technology and an older technology, and represents a sustained innovation over the older technology. Predictability is one of the key reasons for the creation of hybrid products, according to Professor Christensen. Fully disruptive innovations are less predictable and less attractive to industry leaders, whereas hybrids are more predictable because they can target existing customers while leveraging existing technologies.
“Hybrid solutions are the only viable option for new technologies that do not have as much impact as incumbent technologies,” said Professor Christensen. “In markets with full consumption, hybrid innovations tend to dominate over pure disruptive innovations. It means there is,” he said.
[저작권자 @머니투데이, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
