Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Switching Things Up at Nintendo

Lenox, Michael, Re...

Case

Switching Things Up at Nintendo

Lenox, Michael; Reiss, Mathew

S-0302 | Published September 18, 2018 | 16 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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In early 2017, Tatsumi Kimishima, the latest CEO of Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Nintendo), felt confident in the company's newest offering: a home/portable console hybrid appropriately named the Switch. But despite conservative yet positive forecasts within the company, there was still uncertainty, as with any innovative product. Nintendo had come a long way since its origins as a playing-card company, but each new hardware generation had introduced unique challenges. This case reflects on Nintendo's history, and that of the entire video game industry. Since its inception in the early 1970s, video game console gaming had grown to an $8.3 billion industry globally. With so much at stake, could Kimishima really "leave luck to heaven," or was there a more deliberate strategy he and the company could focus on moving forward?