CASE STUDY. Read the article below and answer ALL FOUR PARTS.

Eccentric, interesting, boasting widespread industry support and with a focus on portability that plays to Nintendo's considerable strengths (Game Boy, DS, 3DS ....), the Switch is the veteran company's attempt to reinvent gaming. Again.

While Wii U drew a handful of third-party triple A titles due to the machine's limited processing power compared to the Xbox One and the PS4, those games were delayed, scaled down or just forgotten about, as fans opted for the consoles that have been home to those games for years.

Now, however, we're seeing Skyrim on a Nintendo console. This would have been almost unimaginable five years ago. It's hard to decide what the most important part of this is: Nintendo branching out into huge third-party franchises? Bethesda reaching out to Nintendo, forming what could be a lucrative future partnership? The graphical capability on the Switch finally matching Sony and Microsoft's consoles? Being able to play Skyrim on the go? Seeing Nintendo finally realise how to market itself in a smart way? Or, perhaps, it's all of the above. Whatever, it's an incredibly exciting time to be a Nintendo fan.

The Switch trailer focused on the console's portability above all, showcasing the different combinations of controller. There are the Joy-Cons, then the Joy-Con Grip, which turns two controllers into a larger more conventional pad, (that also somewhat resembles a goofy dog), and most importantly, the screen-plus-Joy-Cons format that allows for ultimate portability.

Some are already worried that the constant swapping and changing of the console's detachable bits might lead to breakages, and though Nintendo consoles have never been as low-quality as, say, the DualShock 4's disintegrating analogue pads, it's a valid concern.

The trailer also showed the wide variety of locations you will be able to play in, suggesting that the Switch-screen-plus-Joy-Cons can be used without mains power or the internet.

There's no price point on the Switch yet, but given Nintendo's history with hardware launches (it has often cut back on costs by using cheaper components and materials than its competitors), it's likely to come in at around the 300 mark. The processor is a custom version of Nvidia's Tegra processor, usually found in smartphones and tablets. It's not as powerful as the Xbox One or PS4, but Nintendo's priorities have never been geared towards graphical capabilities, concentrating instead on form-factor, and innovative interfaces - the Wii Remote being the classic example.

The tricky thing, and the thing we don't know much about yet, is whether the Switch will have a strong enough launch lineup of games. This was one of the aspects that let the Wii U down - although games like Zombi U and Nintendoland were excellent, they weren't enough to drive consumers to the shops. However, after the Wii U's weak launch, it's looking likely that Nintendo will bolster the launch of the Switch with two of its largest franchises, Zelda and Mario, and those are two games we've already seen glimpses of in the trailer.

Nintendo's focus, though, seems to be on the market that spans handheld and home consoles, and games like Skyrim and Breath of the Wild that have the space (and the budget) to stretch out far and wide. From the trailer, it looks like the target demographic is 20-somethings with unreasonably large living rooms and a desire to take their games on the go. It's an interesting move for a company that so often tries to play on the nostalgia of its older fans - but Nintendo has been attempting to break into that younger market for a while, with their varying levels of success in mobile games and toys-to-life.

There's a lot we don't know about the Switch just yet - but it does look like Nintendo has learned from the mistakes of the rather disastrous Wii U. That machine's GamePad promised a degree of portable gaming, but the unit relied on its proximity to the host machine. Switch offers the freedom of a contained handheld unit with the performance and living room appeal of a console. It will be interesting to see if it will have the array of streaming video apps that we've become accustomed to from modern machines. We also don't know if it's a touchscreen or not.

REQUIRED:

Answer the following supporting your answers with relevant theories and/or examples;

a) How and where is Nintendo competing with the release of the new Switch console

b) What strategies could Nintendo use to maximise its returns on the release of the new Switch console?

What barriers to imitation will give Ninten do an early mover advantage over its competitors?

Which competitive pressures might or would Nintendo experience? To what extent could Nintendo overcome these pressures?