Nintendo: The Console Wars

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Venturecapital, Ma, Investing, Acquisitions, Startups, Vc, Investment, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2023

⏱️ 197 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 1980’s Nintendo was on top of the world, with the NES achieving over 90% market share of home video games globally. So how did they fall ALL the way down to ~10% in just a few short console generations? And how did they then build themselves back up (and down and up again) to the top of the world again? Spoiler: it all hinged on one very small, yet very large and durable platform… the Game Boy. Fire up your favorite portable entertainment device and tune in for the epic story of Nintendo’s fall from grace and journey back to the top — capped off by our robust discussion of where they go from here, and whether this 130+ year old company may still (!) be misunderstood and mis-valued.

ACQ2 Show + LP Program:

Subscribe to the shiny new ACQ2!
Become an LP and support the show. Help us pick episodes, Zoom calls and more.

Sponsors:

Thanks to our fantastic partners, any member of the Acquired community can now get:

Pilot: 20% off your company’s first six months of service
Vanta: $1,000 off any compliance audit product
…in touch with Tiny! (just tell them Ben & David sent you)

Links:

Carve Outs:

Kara Swisher in Vanity Fair (and our old episode with her!)
Hardcore History (finally!)
The Tetris movie
Daryl Morey on Invest Like the Best

‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I feel like I gotta warm up physically before a quiet episode these days, it's like a marathon.
0:06.4	My back does start to hurt by the end from just standing still the whole time.
0:09.9	Oh, me too, me too.
0:11.4	I've actually stopped working out mornings before we record because I don't want to be too
0:15.6	tired.
0:16.6	Like I need my stamina.
0:17.8	Yeah.
0:18.8	We should figure out like recording on the peloton or something.
0:21.6	That'd be a breathy.
0:23.6	Yeah.
0:40.6	Welcome to season 12 episode 4 of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies
0:45.8	and the stories and playbooks behind them.
0:48.1	I'm Ben Gilbert.
0:49.1	I'm David Rosenthal.
0:50.7	And we are your hosts.
0:52.4	We last left our Nintendo heroes in 1990 when they single-handedly revived the video game
0:58.1	industry and captured 95% of the market share globally.
1:03.0	We did our seven powers analysis and determined the company had a better competitive position
1:08.0	than basically any company in history and the game was theirs to lose.
1:13.3	But somehow they did just that indeed, they did and that they won and then they lost
1:19.5	and then they won and then they lost and then they won again.
1:23.0	Exactly.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.