Introduction - Globalization, a new trend of the world
What do these mean to you?
Brands are well-known among people from various countries?
Corporations operate in different places of the world?
Nations enjoy free trade with each other?
These phenomena are resulted from globalization - a process by which regions integrate and function together, acting like a single village with no boundaries in between. You can recognize this phenomenon in several dimensions: economic, political, social cultural, etc. We will illustrate this only focusing on the social cultural dimension and of course accompany with our blog’s key point – creativity and innovation.
Do you think globalization has relations with creativity and innovation? This link may help you to understand more:
http://cuberules.com/2007/01/05/creativity-and-innovation-five-impacts-from-globalization/ *1
This post mentions about the effects brought to creativity and innovation because of globalization, written by
To further elaborate the connectivity of globalization with creativity and innovation, we will use a global brand,
, as an example. We believe that, as you finished reading this post, you will recognize that globalization processes have enabled Nintendo’s creativity and innovation.Our case:
"讓周遭的人展現笑容的機器" *3
"to put smiles on the faces of anyone who experiences our brands" *4
Background
Nintendo is a multinational corporation origin in Japan, which was founded in 1889. After seven decades, it has developed as a video game company, becoming one of the most powerful and the third most valuable listed company in Japan. With the slogan of "to expand the gaming universe by making video games accessible to more and more consumers.", Nintendo put every efforts in creating games and consoles to customers just to make you smile.
Engagement in the globalization processes
Nintendo has engaged in the globalization processes in terms of locations of its offices and countries where its products are on sale. Its headquarter is in Kyoto, Japan while its international offices spread over the world including the U.S., Canada, Germany, Australia, PRC, South Korea, Panama, Brazil, Taiwan and South Africa. What’s more, websites in 19 different languages are set up for various regions from Asia, Americas to Europe. Its products are on sale in the abovementioned countries by the international distributors. If you are interested, you can click the link below which has provided a list of international and national distributors:
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/distributors_international.jsp#mani *5
Why Nintendo globalizes successfully? In the article "Managing Brands in Global Markets: One Size Doesn't Fit All", it provides a simple answer to this question. Intel stands for computer chips in all cultures, and Disney stands for family entertainment in all cultures. Without the significant local adaptation, it is easier to attract the target customers with clear purpose. Nintendo, stands for video game entertainment for all cultures. It is more focused and can put more resources in R&D, this makes the company succeed and globalize more easily.
Impacts on creativity and innovation
Creativity and innovation are something subjective. It is hard to define whether a brand or a product is creative or not. Being awarded with the Emmy for its "excellence in engineering creativity", Nintendo has proven itself to be a success in promoting creativity and innovation.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/gaming/wii/news/article_1385474.php/Nintendo_creativity_honoured_with_yet_another_Emmy *6
In the following, we will further explain the effects led to creativity and innovation with the games and game consoles created by Nintendo itself.
1. Video Games
There is no doubt that Nintendo has a very high degree of creativity. You can recognize the efforts in terms of the games created by Nintendo itself. Have you heard of the world-famous and long-lasting games: Super Mario and Pokemon? They are the benchmarks of other adventure games and role-play games (RPG). Because of its great success, many other game companies follow their game patterns.
Super Mario and PokemonApart from creating games on its own, Nintendo has also thought of creative ways to market the old games. The recent success of Mario Kart is a good example. Although the characters used are old, this is a brand new game and is one of the better seller games of NDS. Besides, cooperating with Sega, another world famous video game company, Nintendo has developed a new game "Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games", which has become another miracle in the video game industry.
http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/mario--sonic-tag-team-for-five-million-sold/?biz=1 *7
Among the game consoles Nintendo has invented, the ones that we must mention are: the latest invented – Wii; and the portable game console – Nintendo Dual Screen (NDS).
Wii change the real world, We change the virtual world.
"Wiimote" the controller of WiiNintendo was the first company to develop the motion sensory game console in this world. Due to the unexpected victory of Wii by gaining more and more market share in the world, its competitors, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 has then benchmarked and started developing the motion sensing systems in their console. You may read the article below to get more information about the motion sensing game console development of the three companies.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Hardware/Sony-latest-to-demo-videogame-motion-sensing-controller-/articleshow/4611376.cms *8
Successful reasons for NDS? It is EASY!
For NDS, its success is another amazing story. When the main competitor (of NDS), the PlayStation Portable (PSP) of Sony, is full of confidence in its excellent game view by which it surely can occupy a large proportion of the market share, NDS makes the pie larger and larger, to an extent that shocks the whole world. Could anyone predict how enthusiastic in playing video games that office ladies, parents, and the elderly are? Not at all. Nintendo succeeds in attracting these groups of people because it makes playing games become more simple and convenience."There is so much information when playing the games, it is hard to handle!
"Never mind, we provide dual screens that you can see more information at the same time."
The instructions are hard to memorize, I can't remember which buttons I should press!
"It is alright, you can use the pen to control all the things on the touch screen.
Excellent! When playing games becomes so easy, more people are willing to try. As a result, the groups which have never played video games before will also find it very interesting in the video game world. Besides the Dual Screen system and the Touch Screen, NDS also has a Wi-Fi system that allows people to share games with each other and to play altogether. What’s more, the microphone of NDS increases the flexibility and vividness of playing the games. We can send out the commands by talking and blowing to it.
There is not just one way to Creativity
"All roads lead to Rome", Nintendo knows it well. That's why Nintendo finds different ways leading to creativity. While Sony and Microsoft try to make the sight and sound stimuli as real as possible, Nintendo is making the playing experiences real. As most of the people just build on the existing ideas, Nintendo promotes creativity in a way that bring a brand new idea to the industry. Wii and NDS demonstrate a brand new video game world, and are proven to be very successful.
A global fight of creativity and innovation
Nintendo, as a global brand, faces a problem: Does the globalization process promote or restrict the creativity process of Nintendo? It is definitely positive.
1. Globalization increases the market size of Nintendo and its competitors
If Nintendo and Sony fight solely for the Japan market, their profits will be limited. They will just find ways to reduce costs in order to gain more. However, the global markets provide more profits to the companies. The profitable market attracts more competitors, the Microsoft. Due to the keen competitions, these three kingdoms want to conquer more territories, by providing more extra features to attract customers. This will create rooms for creativity and innovation.
2. Higher expectation
In the past, people played video games for fun only. Now, they expect more. "I want to have better sight stimuli in the games.", "I don't want to play the similar games every time." In order to satisfy the expectations of the customers, the only way is to be CREATIVE. Once an idea is being used, next time you must do even better. Aiming at creating game features that beyond customers' expectations will push the companies to be much more creative.
3. Advancement of technology
Technological development is so rapid, and the technological industries must response quickly to the advance technology in order to survive. With the help of advance technology, the companies can invent things that never been thought before, just see the example of Wii and NDS. Technology actually provides an environment for creativity and innovation.
4. Increase in research capital
With the huge global markets, the profits of the companies become more. The money can then be used in the research and development. Research and development is the most important part of the three video game console companies. If the budget of R&D increases, the possibility in forming new ideas will also be increased. This can be resulted by simply employing more creative employees. Besides, globalization benefits the industry in another way that reduces the manufacturing cost of the products. The company can manufacture the products in places that require lower cost of the materials, such as China, which, hence, increases the budget of the company also.
5. Cultural differences
Cultural differences among countries serve as the catalyst for innovation. How? If one culture can provide several ideas for the background of the games, more cultures means much more ideas. If the games only focus on Japanese culture, undoubted the games with have many restrictions. A cooking game that only contains Japanese cuisine will limit the diversity. The way out of this problem will be including more cuisines in the game, such as Thai, Western, and Chinese etc. That is how the cultural differences among countries help the innovation process.
Influence on the local culture and international landscape
Don’t look down upon this video game company, Nintendo has indeed affected our local culture and lives abroad. In Hong Kong, we have found out five impacts that it has made.
1. All age groups enjoy playing video games!
Nintendo not only attracts the teenagers but also draws attention from other age groups like adults at work, elderly at retirement, etc.
If you still think NDS is a toy for teens and kids, you may be a bit outdated. Have a look around you, a number of them play NDS. Similarly, you can find this phenomenon on another Nintendo’s product, Wii. Each of the family members enjoys Nintendo’s products. It becomes another good alternative for family activities. Say goodbye to the picnic, you can play tennis or boxing with Wii or Mario racing with NDS, with your family in Weekends.
2. Enjoy the games indoor and outdoor!
People are no longer restricted to play games inside the house, you can enjoy it outdoors. Even though portable “Gameboy” has been invented for years, we can hardly find that people play them around the street. However as NDS has been created, you can see them everywhere! Nowadays, people become more willing to play games everywhere and at any time. Have you seen people play NDS in train cartage, bus, even in McDonald?
It's easy to find people playing NDS on MTR
3. Playing games becomes a kind of social activities
Playing games is not social-alienation anymore! It now becomes a social event since NDS allows you to play with your friends through Wi-Fi while Wii can connect to the internet letting you play with others. In fact, NDS has also led a social influence. Some people may think that peer pressure is one of the major reasons that make them buy NDS. If you do not have NDS on hands, you feel like being isolated from friends.
Try to count how many NDS are there in the picture!4. Playing games can be a healthy activity!
People think that playing games is an unhealthy activity. Probably this is true, but not applies to Wii. It breaks the perception that playing game is unhealthy. Playing sports at Wii is a healthy activity. For instance, in a tennis game, Wiimote becomes a racket, you have to swing with your arm- this can be even funnier than playing real tennis. Some Fitness centres have set Wii for clients to do exercise while some social caring centres have set one to encourage people do more exercises.
5. Japanese becomes more popular
Have you even been troubled by the Japanese when you play games? Some type of games do not have multi-national version so you have to play in Japanese version. Therefore, the Japanaese games may contribute to be one of the reasons that Hong Kong people like learning Japanese rather than other languages.
Nintendo leads to a global revolution
1. Shaping the future trend of video games
Nintendo changes the international landscape. Within the game console industry, the two other console companies (Microsoft and Sony) begin to develop motion-sensing systems in their consoles. Motion sensory games will be the future trend of video games. In this case, Nintendo is actually shaping the future of video games.
2. More opportunities for game developers
In the game development industry, Nintendo's revolution creates more possibilities for the game developers. In the past, game developers have many limitations because the game consoles cannot support even though they may have ideas. This may because of the technological constraints, the game consoles could only provide a platform that solely uses the buttons and joysticks to control all the things in the games. However, now, those companies have more room to create in games. For example, they can study how can they make use of the pen of NDS to create new games? The pen can now use as a pen to write, a drumstick, or a scalpel. What other kinds of game can be developed? The game developers now have more room to create.
3. Exchange across nations
Furthermore, as Wii can be used to access Internet, people can make use of Wii to play online games. People from all over the world can exchange their ideas and game-playing experiences with others. Therefore, it fastens the cultural exchange across the boundaries.
Our Suggestions to Nintendo
Nintendo ranked No. 4 in the world most innovative companies *9, but how can it spread its creative and innovative process to others countries all around the world?
1. Be more multinational
Nintendo now do R&D (Research & Development) in Japan and release its products worldwide. We suggest Nintendo to develop a mutliculture in each of its offices which can help gathering ideas, accelerate innovation, unitize global resource and help to make innovation to be more globalized.
2. Make use of Mod (computer gaming) http://www.ndsmods.com/ (A unauthorized hack of NDS) *10
It refers to the third-party modification to a computer game. It may be the same dream of every player. “One day, I would like to create a game by myself.” Mod will make our dreams come true, if the developers allow us to do so. If Nintendo allows public to do mod on its products, it will help innovation among the public. On the other hand, it can add value to its products and help find potential staff in those Mods because they allow all players to create new ideas.
3. Produce with different versions
Language obstacle hinders good ideas. It is not difficult to recognize that many Japanese products do not release worldwide. As a result, many good innovations cannot be shared to other parts of the world. However, it is usual that ideas from one country will have some modifications before it is launched to other regions. This ensures the innovation to be more universal and value-added. For example, Nintendo can produce games with different versions, like in terms of different languages, sceneries, etc.
4. Provide more applications of the consoles
Since Nintendo penetrates in differnet markets in the world in terms of age group, cultural group etc, it can provide more applications of its products in order to add values with the products and at the same time, broaden the development of the products. Take NDS as an example, more people own a NDS nowadays. Can NDS provide some softwares besides games?
For example, Dictionary, Map, and Internet service etc. NDS is so small and light. It is portable. Therefore, people can easily take to school, office, and even travelling. If Nintendo encourages the development of different software, this surely can add values to NDS and broaden the software development industry.
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Thank you for the all comments, we are so happy to receive so many feedbacks from you. And we are also glad to know that our post has recalled so many memories of you all. Yes! We have had a great childhood with Nintendo, this is also why we love to do this blog by using Nintendo as the illustrator. We enjoy doing this so much.
Thanks 2411rkgryo, 3430_hogan and other commentators!
Nintendo does have great impact on females - it changes their perceptions of playing video games. NDS provides various types of games to attract different types of people. For females, the most well-known game would be "Cooking Mama". Besides, Nintendo provides many colors of NDS for us to choose. This is properly another strategy to attract different groups of people.
According to 2411chris520, he thinks that NDS and Wii are more suitable for children and youngsters. Yes, this may be true, but we want to point out that the older generations also like to play NDS and Wii. One of our teammates’ father likes playing NDS so much. Also, our friends always play Wii together with their families. These can prove that Nintendo's products suit various age groups.
As 3430_hogan mentioned, it seems that the part of "Why Nintendo globalizes successfully" caused some misunderstandings. Nintendo is a well-known video game company throughout the world. It helps the company to build up strong image more easily. Unlike Sony, it can stand for different electric appliances, such as video game consoles, mobile phones, TV, etc. As it is highly diversified, it is hard to locate the position of Sony. And it is harder for this kind of company to be famous and globalize easily. This is the main idea of "Nintendo stands for video games in all cultures".
Concerning the arguments of whether Wii is healthy or not, I see different points of view from MatthewC1H & lemontea524 and so on….
The reasons why we think that playing Wii is a healthy activity because it encourages you to work out your body.
Playing games is unhealthy because it may deteriorate our eye sight and cause obesity. How about Wii? First of all, probably it would not do so as Wii requires you to do some body movement to accomplish the game mission.
Then, how healthy that Wii is? Just like working in office all-day long, you will do some relax exercise like swiping your hand, standing up and sitting down. We see that Wii is just similar to those exercises. Wii requires players to move their body, not only your fingers. It may not be the same as other sports to cause you sweating, but it does encourage players to work out, which is physically healthy.
References
*1. Scot H. (2007). Creativity and Innovation – Five Impacts from Globalization.
Retrieved 28 September 2009 from http://cuberules.com/2007/01/05/creativity-and-innovation-five-impacts-from-globalization/
*2. Nintendo Company Ltd. (2008). 富士フイルムと任天堂が共同で
Retrieved 28 September 2009 from http://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/2008/080723.html
*3. Nintendo Phuten Co., Ltd. Games. (2008). Launch of Wii Fit.
Retrieved 28 September 2009 from http://www.nintendo.tw/pressrelease_fit.htm
*4. Nintendo. (2009). Partnership Requests
Retrieved from http://www.nintendo.com/corp/partnerships.jsp
*5. Scot H. (2007). Creativity and Innovation – Five Impacts from Globalization.
Retrieved 28 September 2009 from http://cuberules.com/2007/01/05/creativity-and-innovation-five-impacts-from-globalization/
*6. Unknown. (2009). International Distributors - Company List.
Retrieved 28 September 2009 from http://cuberules.com/2007/01/05/creativity-and-innovation-five-impacts-from-globalization/
*7. James Brightman. (2008). Mario & Sonic Tag Team for Five Million Sold.
Retrieved 28 September 2009 from http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/mario--sonic-tag-team-for-five-million-sold/?biz=1
*8. Unknown. (2009). Sony latest to demo videogame motion-sensing controller.
Retrieved 28 September 2009 from http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Hardware/Sony-latest-to-demo-videogame-motion-sensing-controller-/articleshow/4611376.cms
*9. PSFK & The Purple List. (2009). Good Brands Report 2009.
Retrieved 28 September 2009 from http://www.psfk.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/good-brands-report-2009-
*10. Unknown. (2005). NDS mods.
Retrieved 28 September 2009 from http://www.ndsmods.com/
