(This image is only a mock-up of a possible design. No official word has yet been made.)
"The next video game war will be fought between Nintendo, Apple, and Google. Mark my words."
I scribbled those words down on my Twitter page late last night. I hadn't expected to be proven right so soon. I didn't mean this was literally coming the next day! But such is the modern videogame and tech business. Everything moves at five times the speed.
This looks eerily similar to Sony's failed PSP Go. True, this is Sony Ericsson and not Sony Computer Entertainment. The key will be whether or not the Playstation name is attached to this device. If not, then this is big news for Google. If it is, then this is still big news for Google, but big news for Sony as well.
I was contemplating what Sony's next move against Nintendo could be, after the Wii and 3DS. The Cinematic Games Era is passing, so a PSP 2 with more powerful hardware and high-definition graphics won't work. Sony would either have to match Nintendo's move into 3D and fight a sustaining battle...or follow a disruptive path by pursuing the low end of the market. Right now, the very bottom level is the realm of the $2 iPhone game and the Smart Phones.
Anyone who continues to dismiss the Smart Phones in 2010 is a fool. Like the Wii, they begin in the low end, but they will move upstream. I certainly can't say if such a strategy would work in the same way disruption has worked for Nintendo, but I do believe Apple and Google will try. Would Sony join them? It's a zany idea at this point, and perhaps little more than the product of my imagination. But, still...I can't wait to see how this plays out.
In the Social Games Era and the Age of Disruption, how would you disrupt Nintendo's 3DS? How would you respond? I think I would do something like this.
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