Wii U
http://www.ibtimes.com/nintendo-looks-exclusive-game-franchises-revive-wii-u-fall-1694453
Nintendo, one of the biggest multinational consumer electronics companies, is turning 125 years old this year. Known as the world’s largest video game corporation (in revenue), Nintendo has produced multiple games held near and dear to the hearts of many. Although Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were two of Nintendo’s biggest hits, the one that will undergo closer inspection is Super Smash Bros. This extremely popular game launched the GameCube to fame and was later modified for the Nintendo Wii.
The Wii U, Nintendo’s newest gaming console, is falling short of the standards set by its predecessors. Even though the graphics and game play have been improved, the revenue generated from the Wii U “fell short of quarter sales goals and ended the fiscal year with a 3.8 percent drop in revenue and a $456 million operating loss” (Elise). It’s been on the market for about 2 years, but only 6.68 million consoles have been sold “as of June 30 this year” (Elise). Other consoles, such as Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox1, have been more popular with the people. The PS4, for one, has already sold 10 million consoles in less than 12 months. To put it blatantly, there was no real incentive to get a Wii U. In an attempt to boost their sales, Nintendo will be releasing new software for the Wii U that will most definitely appeal to its fans. One of these new releases will be another rendition of Super Smash Bros. This time, the game contains several new characters and moves.
If we depict this situation using the things we learned in class, we’d get something like this:
As you can see, the nodes are the consumers, games, and the Wii U game console. At the moment, the drop in sales shows that the Wii U has a relatively negative relationship with consumers. However, the consumers have a positive relationship with Nintendo games (in this case, the past couple of Super Smash Bros.) and the Wii U has a positive relationship with the games since they are both components of Nintendo and because they have a symbiotic sort of relationship (without one you cannot have the other…unfortunately).
This network (or clique) is structurally unbalanced. According to Cartwright and Harary, having two pluses and one minus in a network cluster will cause some psychological stress. The one that has the two strong, positive relationships will attempt to influence the negative relationship in a way such that it becomes positive. In this case, Nintendo hopes that releasing the new Super Smash Bros. will persuade people to accept and buy the Wii U.