could Nintendo have dethroned Steam if it wanted to?

[orthicviper]

I think if Nintendo made a digital store on PC they could dethrone Steam. But to do it they'd need to think outside the box(es) they've gotten themselves into. They'd need to port some of their most important games to PC and even better if they enhanced the visuals. They could also add internet play to them and later sell DLC that makes it work with VR headsets. Once millions of people have installed the software (certainly wouldn't be less than millions!) they could then start buying non-Nintendo games. Nintendo  could be getting a cut of sales of games like Doom, Grand Theft Auto 5, Resident Evil 7 and all that other good stuff that Steam used to get 30% of. I think this strategy would work best if Nintendo came out with a PC console like a Steam Machine and probably would have worked better if that's that the Switch had actually been (a PC good enough for nintendo type of games). Maybe this is the Blue Ocean strategy nintendo missed out on, a bunch of PC gamers who only don't buy nintendo games because they dont want to buy nintendo hardware (I'm one of them and surely not alone). But don't misunderstand, I'm not proposing they go only after PC gamers, but just that they try to attract us while simultaneously turning current customers over towards a walled-garden PC steam-machine-like console that they'd have a digital store for. 

 

Am I right or am I right?

[Data]

Nintendo can 't even get their web browsers to login to read email, how are they going to take care of 100 million subscribers playing at any given time? 

This would require Nintendo to make the app work on all of Apple's stuff, android stuff, and Windows.

This makes sense if you understand that games need computing power and plan your upgrade cycles around gaming milestones but most people are too dumb to maintain a computer and therefore there is a demand for portable gaming, new cellphones and consoles.

If Nintendo made a steam box, then antitrust could step in and allow others to make these same boxes.

[kitsunebi]

I hate to keep repeating myself, especially when it's common knowledge, but:

 

Nintendo = Japanese company mired in tradition

PC gaming = not a thing in Japan

 

So this entire argument hinges upon Nintendo restructuring their company to sell exclusively to foreign markets, which will never happen short of a complete paradigm shift in their corporate behavior.

[orthicviper]

Jake there would be no antitrust issue because I'm not suggesting they copy the valve steam box. I only suggest that they make a console that is a locked down PC with standardized components so games can be programmed bug free simply and performance improvements can be had by developers knowing exactly what GPU and other hardware they were programming for as well as simplicity for the buyer as they can have a small PC they can connect in their living room to their TV. 

 

Kitsunebi, PC's as they are are not a thing in Japan. But if you standardized the hardware, customized the OS, made a walled garden then there's no reason why it wouldn't be a viable product in Japan unless Japanese have some cultural hatred for any PC derivative. The idea I'm trying to express is a PC that is a lot like a console.

 

Aside from that both of you only dismiss my idea due to the inabilities of the managers or designers. But I'd like you both to reconsider my question as this: If given Nintendo's current position, patent holdings, brand value, all other resources, but their managers and executives were replaced by more adaptable and dynamic people, could they take on Steam? Imagine they were bought by Google or Amazon and these companies were ready to use their grandest ideas on Nintendo even if that meant replacing the entire executive team and dozens of managers and designers.

[kitsunebi]

Aside from that both of you only dismiss my idea due to the inabilities of the managers or designers. But I'd like you both to reconsider my question as this: If given Nintendo's current position, patent holdings, brand value, all other resources, but their managers and executives were replaced by more adaptable and dynamic people, could they take on Steam? Imagine they were bought by Google or Amazon and these companies were ready to use their grandest ideas on Nintendo even if that meant replacing the entire executive team and dozens of managers and designers.

 

What you're saying here is essentially: "Could Nintendo take on Steam if Nintendo was no longer Nintendo but rather a completely different company staffed by completely different people but that still had the rights to Nintendo's IP?"

 

In which case, who cares?  At that point, a better question would be "can this new Nintendo hope to be able to create games that are nearly as good and successful as the old Nintendo or will they run their various series into the ground?"  Amazon and Google are successful companies, but that doesn't mean they know how to design gaming masterpieces.  Putting them in charge could cause the entire brand to collapse.

 

So while your idea is interesting in completely hypothetical "what if" terms, but it simply won't ever happen.  Nintendo's top executives and designers aren't going to fire themselves and replace themselves with Americans (which is probably the only way you could get a Japanese company to pour all their resources into a PC box.)  Theorizing on what might happen in an impossible alternate future just seems a bit pointless to me, is all.

[orthicviper]

Why are you not a more agreeable person kitsunebi 

[kitsunebi]

Why are you not a more agreeable person kitsunebi 

 

I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of my disagreeable nature.

[Data]

Jake there would be no antitrust issue because I'm not suggesting they copy the valve steam box. I only suggest that they make a console that is a locked down PC with standardized components so games can be programmed bug free simply and performance improvements can be had by developers knowing exactly what GPU and other hardware they were programming for as well as simplicity for the buyer as they can have a small PC they can connect in their living room to their TV. 

 

Kitsunebi, PC's as they are are not a thing in Japan. But if you standardized the hardware, customized the OS, made a walled garden then there's no reason why it wouldn't be a viable product in Japan unless Japanese have some cultural hatred for any PC derivative. The idea I'm trying to express is a PC that is a lot like a console.

 

Aside from that both of you only dismiss my idea due to the inabilities of the managers or designers. But I'd like you both to reconsider my question as this: If given Nintendo's current position, patent holdings, brand value, all other resources, but their managers and executives were replaced by more adaptable and dynamic people, could they take on Steam? Imagine they were bought by Google or Amazon and these companies were ready to use their grandest ideas on Nintendo even if that meant replacing the entire executive team and dozens of managers and designers.

 

Let me rephrase anti-trust to the competition law in the United States.  The Competition Law seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti competitive conduct by companies.  This law is enforced when one company has such an enormous advantage that they can control whether a competitor lives or dies, not by driving innovation but rather by manipulating the environment as to achieve domination.

 

Nintendo makes toys.  Even if Donald Trump cleaned house at Nintendo, they still wouldn't be able to make a gaming store like steam and maintain the servers.  It is possible but too risky and expensive in a market which is oversaturated with stores.