Chapter Twelve: Idea Grid (or: Oh Man, We're Thinking Inside The Grid Now)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

An idea grid is a simple table that allows one to very broadly profile where the major players in a certain industry fall in regard to price and the method in which they appeal to consumers.

For my idea grid, I took a look at where the offerings from six major console manufacturers past and present fall. I discovered that their gaming products mostly fall into the category of high-cost devices that appeal to the hardcore gamer; Nintendo has the position of low-cost devices that appeal to casual gamers locked up.

However, the only company that produced a low-cost gaming machine that appealed to the hardcore gamer was Sega-- and that product, the Dreamcast, has long since fallen out of the public eye, after an unsuccessful run that bankrupted Sega's console division.

Based on the current market state, the only product that has a chance of catching any attention is a console that falls into that category. If I were to attempt to break into the console market, I would follow many of the same strategies as Sega used for the Dreamcast, including the use of off-the-shelf components to cut down on costs and increase the ease with which developers could create for the platform.

The major issue with this approach is that a device similar to a personal computer in its architecture would suffer the same piracy rates as the Dreamcast and the modern PC. Thus, my main focus would be to craft a similar level of protection to Sony's current PlayStation 3 without obfuscating the hardware.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

This is a much more technical exercise than most of the Thinkertoys, but I think it's a pretty well-designed one. It's left open enough to still allow for some level of creativity in interpreting the results, while the use of a grid focuses and streamlines comparisons to existing companies' products.

A short note about my creative environment:

I wrote this in my dorm's common room, sitting in a pretty comfortable chair across from a large television showing SpongeBob. There was some light in the room, but even though the common room has gigantic windows lining one side of it there wasn't much sunlight due to the overcast day. It is the common room, so occasionally people wandered out, but for the most part I was alone.