Once upon a time ago, gaming use to be associated with the word Nintendo. That was common back then really to associated the word Nintendo with video games. Parents would whine at you saying “Get off that Nintendo and do your homework you lazy son of mine” although you were really playing a Sega Genesis or some other competitors system. Despite this misconception, no-one really cared. Everyone knew you were playing some kind of game system and that’s all that mattered.

In fact, it’s actually very common to take a basic product like aspirin and associate it with Tylenol or some other aspirin based product. Or any product really, it’s how the mainstream consumer associates a generic product and name and takes that generic product and associates it with a brand name instead. It’s common and it happens no matter where you go and what product you try to buy.

However, that association with a brand name doesn’t come out of nowhere though. Normally, that association comes from a market leader who has been taking a generic product and has made it very mainstream for a long period of time. Back then, Nintendo was the market leader in the home console industry. Hence why a lot mainstream consumers associate gaming with Nintendo in the past. Although this use to be the case, Nintendo is no longer the market leader and much less an influence on the mainstream market. Today, video games are associated with the Playstation. A Sony product that has dominated two consecutive generations in a row.

Now, your probably wondering why this editorial is based upon association with products. There’s two reasons really. One, it’s subliminal advertising. Two, it creates hype. Although you might not know it, you might’ve associated gaming with the word “Playstation” at some point in time. This is performing a action unconsciously, or otherwise, without you knowing it. Sony has basically set itself up free advertising because every time you associate that word with gaming, the other person will believe that the Playstation is a game console of the utmost quality out there. The thing is, this form of advertising works. Of course, you would have to be in a market leader like position to pull this kind of activity off but once it’s set, the company has it pretty easy in finding a alternative in advertising really. Including if you have a userbase that is larger then the competitors on the market.

Hype itself is also a powerful tool in aiding associations of generic products with brand names. Once you advertise a product, either it be directly or unconsciously, it has a chance of generating hype. Consumers might feel that “X” product might be better because people associate with that product with a brand name of sorts. Because of that association, consumers might feel that everyone around them is liking that particular product because it’s being associated with publicity. From there, more and more people will talk about that one particular aspect that, in return, generates hype and the potential for higher sales of that product because more people know about it.

That’s why Sony, and before them Nintendo, are very successful companies. They were able to apply the techniques above and associate their product name with the generic item. Nowadays though, Sony is the definition of gaming Playstation IS gaming, at least in the mainstream eyes. Now, it’s hurting Nintendo more then ever. No longer are video games associated with Nintendo, it’s Sony and the Playstation. Even the mainstream hold Nintendo as nothing more then a joke thanks to the lack of games that the mainstream would like to play and other multimedia tools that they would like to use.

Nintendo has turned more into a niche for hardcore Nintendo fans rather then a game system that accommodates for all types of gamers. Because of Nintendo slowly being crippled into permanent niche status, their association with video games have become nothing more then a old memory.