Nintendo has developed several successful gaming systems. The Nintendo Virtual B

Nintendo has developed several successful gaming systems. The Nintendo Virtual Boy, launched in 1995, is not one of those success stories. Virtual reality was a dream for many in the 1990s, something that this company identified in the “Search” phase and tried to provide. However, the Virtual Boy was not technically a virtual gaming experience. Instead, it provided a 3D experience for its users, but the experience was not well received.
There are several reasons this product did not take off, including:
Discomfort: It was not a comfortable gaming experience. The Virtual Boy system consisted of a bulky headset held up on a stand and a controller. (Greenbaum, 2020). The user had to lean forward to look through the headset in order to play the game, which quickly caused neck/back pain (Greenbaum, 2020, para. 5). See this article, Here’s Why the Virtual Boy was a Complete Failure, for visuals; there is a photo after paragraph 3 of someone using the system (Greenbaum, 2020).
Eye Strain/Health Concerns: At the time, a black and red color palette were the only colors available for the games. That, along with the 3D visuals, caused eye strain which resulted in headaches, nausea, and other health concerns for its users (Greenbaum, 2020, para. 6).
Lackluster Games: Other systems were launched with popular games, such as Tretrus or Super Mario. The Virtual Boy only had 22 games in total, and none of these games had the “wow” factor of others as the Nintendo company was saving lots of its best work for the upcoming release of the Nintendo 64 (Greenbaum, 2020, para. 8-9).
Expensive: The system was expensive to develop, and therefore the product was expensive. This system cost $179.99 when first released (Flanagan, 2018, para. 16). This was much more expensive than Nintendo’s other systems.
I believe the failure occurred at the “Selection” stage. Nintendo had an idea of what the consumer wanted (virtual reality), but the technology to provide that experience did not exist yet. This resulted in an unsatisfactory experience for the user, which decreased its value. One source states that one of the reasons the Virtual Boy was developed was due to a delay in developing the Nintendo 64, the company was scheduled to not release a new system in 1995 which would put it behind the competition (Edwards, 2021, para. 12-13). By choosing to develop a new product at the same time as a highly anticipated product developed by the same company, there was competition inside the company and less resources for the Virtual Boy. The “Implementation” stage was also a challenge for this product, as the Virtual Boy had many less than desirable features (discomfort, health concerns, etc.) stemming from the poor decisions in the “Selection” stage (pursuing a system technology could not accommodate) that resulted in a poor user experience.
We learn through failure. However, steps should be taken to avoid colossal failure. In a previous discussion, our classmate, Tyler Liptack, wrote about Pixar’s Braintrust sessions where the team would discuss the films currently being developed in order to work out the bugs. I really enjoyed their explanation of why that is so vital: “Because early on, all of our movies suck…Pixar films are not good at first, and our job is to make them so–to go, as I say, ‘from suck to not-suck’” (Catmull, 2014). By having these sessions, a company is more likely to identify product failures before they happen. Carefully working through each stage in the innovation process, having someone designated as the “devil’s advocate” and pointing out flaws with the system or product, is also helpful to avoid product failures.
References:
Catmull, E. (2014, March 12). Inside the Pixar Braintrust. Fast Company. Retrieved November 27, 2021, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3027135/inside-the-pixar-braintrust
Edwards, B. (2021, August 24). Virtually Forgotten: Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, 25 Years Later. How-to Geek. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.howtogeek.com/682090/virtually-forgotten-nintendos-virtual-boy-25-years-later/
Flanagan, G. (2018, March 26). The Incredible Story of the “Virtual Boy” – Nintendo’s VR Headset from 1995 That Failed Spectacularly. Business Insider. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.businessinsider.com/nintendo-virtual-boy-reality-3d-video-games-super-mario-2018-3
Greenbaum, A. (2020, August 4). Here’s Why the Virtual Boy was a Complete Failure. Looper. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://www.looper.com/233207/heres-why-the-virtual-boy-was-a-complete-failure/