Many of us, myself included, feel a bit narced at the amount of attention being bestowed upon the XBox - especially in comparison to the lack of GC hype.

This month EDGE focussed on Japan: how it snatched being the home of videogames from the states in the early 80s, and what sets Japan appart from the way the US do business.

For example, why is Japan so good at making electronics goods? Aside from the geograhical, historical and politcal reasons - of which there are a great number - the Japanese in general have a starkly different mentality to life then we in the west do. The Japanese are cautious, progessively improving their businesses for long term steady growth, rather than the "fast buck" approach of many US companies. Here paralells can be drawn between Microsoft and Nintendo.

Nintendo has been around since 1889(no typo! ), Microsoft since the 70s. Since Nintendo invaded US homes in the 1980s with the NES, it has remained at the forefront of the gaming industry, has sold millions of NES, SNES, N64, Gameboy and now GC and GBA consoles. However, Nintendo hardly came 'out of nowhere' with any of these systems. The NES sold brilliantly due to the lack of competition, rather than Nintendo 'siezing the day' - infact they wanted Atari to sell it for them, and it was only when they collapsed that Nintendo went it alone in the US.

The SNES sold well due to its quality of design and games, but Nintendo never over-stretched themselves to fight SEGA - a strategy that served them well when Sega dropped the ball with the Saturn then found it impossible to recover with the DC. However, SEGAs reponse to this disaster (which would have finished a shareholder-based US company years ago - as opposed to a bank-financed Japanese company) was to re-invent themselves, with a long-term five year plan to develop the best software across the board. This is not a "get rich quick" scheme - rather a slow but steady road to recovery. Very Japanese.

In Japan saving is virtuous - on average Japanese save 16% of their annual income compared to 9% in the UK and just 5% in the US. The japanese are loyal to their employers, promotions are on the basis of experience and loyalty ahead of raw talent, and Japanese companies are less suseptable to outside creative interference than those in the West, because they are not being hankered by shareholders to change the focus of their work, or finish ahead of shedule.

You may wonder what all this has to do with the GameCube and XBox. Well, look at the difference. Walk down your nearest high street and I defy you to walk 5 minutes without finding a "Future of Gaming" XBox advert slapped up somewhere. But where is the GameCube? We, as nintendo fans, want to see nintendo matching whatever Microsoft can do. However, patience is not one of our virtues (not mine anyway ), but, by and large, for the Japanese, it is.

Nintendo are quite happy to see Microsoft pour stupidly large amounts of money into advertising the XBox. Microsoft have decided that they can make money in the videogames sector but they are going to have to buy their way into the market. Microsoft will employ some of the most brilliant economists and market analysts on the planet to tell them that there is money to be made in videogames, and I am sure that there is. However, how many mobile phone companies have gone bust or been bought out over the past few years, because their people believed that there was still money to be made in the industry? Many of these companies were looking to "get rich quick" and paid the price. Microsoft is going down the same route, but is determined not to fail - so it is throwing everything it has at the XBox.

Nintendo however, in a typically Japanese style, are just biding their time. When the XBox furore is over, they will begin their advertising campaign, and when they do, it won't be anything approaching the level of spectacle that Microsoft are trying to achieve. They will put their point across, and are bound to hit their sales targets purely on the quality of the GameCube product. Whilst this might not maximise their sales, it will maximise their profitability and enable them to continue in the Videogame industry for a long time to come. I think that any talk of Nintendo dropping out of making console hardware if the GameCube is not a big success is ludicrous. The gameboy franchise alone is keeping them nicely afloat, and I have no doubt that the GameCube will rise to be sucessful once the 'Broadband dream' bubble bursts.

Now i personally think that Microsoft's entry into the industry is a very good one. They couldn't have been more ambitious with the XBox, and, if you can afford it, it is an amazingly good value machine, considering its power. The XBoxs entry into the market also marks a last chance for Sony with their Playstation line. The playstation 3 needs to be a massive improvement on the PS2 to maintain their lead. Once developers have become used to the power, ease-of-development and freedom that the XBox and GameCube offer, they will not want to do battle with a complex machine architecture and low-res textures again. The PS2 lead gloabally will gradually be eroded by the XBox and GameCube in the next couple of years, and Sony may well have a fight on their hands to convince people to buy the PS3 only a year or two after buying an XBox or GameCube, unless they can show it to be worthwhile for the consumer, especially if Microsoft and Nintendo start to leak reports of their next consoles.

However, whatever the future may hold, I see it as highly unlikely that Microsoft can break Even with the XBox for a long time. Whilst they have the financial power of a small country at their disposal, they also answer to shareholders, who will not be happy to see continued losses for the XBox project as Microsoft props up first its advertising campaign, then the broadband system (and its advertising). If the Xbox isn't the success that Microsoft seem completely convinced it will be, then they cannot sustain themselves in the videogaming market for long without pressure to dissist. "Xbox2", or whatever Microsofts next console is called, will proabably be make or break for Microsoft.

Nintendo on the otherhand look to be set for a good few years yet. The Gameboy Advance is going from strength to strength, and unless Sony make some kind of mobile playstation at a price point to challenge the GBA, it will continue to make Nintendo a lot of money. The GameCube as well is a fantastic piece of hardware. It is beautifully designed and is a joy for both developers and consumers to use. As a result, with a little advertising, it should sell plenty of units and software to make the GameCube a profitable venture, which will see that Nintendo are still around in the next round of the console wars.

So for all of you chomping at the bit to see wall-to-wall nintendo adverts, and entire superstores exclusively stocking GameCube products and merchandise - take some comfort: Nintendo's policy might not help to put down the XBox or PS2 fanboys, but it does ensure that your favourite videogames maker will be around in years to come. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather Nintendo stuck around a while longer.

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