Withered Technology

Gunpei Yokoi, a designer of the original Game Boy, described his philosophy as “lateral thinking with withered technology.”

Instead of focusing on the newest, shiniest, and often most-expensive components, Nintendo focused on maximizing the potential of more mature and cheaper technology.

Despite backlit color displays being available at the time, Nintendo opted for a four-shade monochrome display. They made the most of that choice, producing a vast library of games that people still enjoy today. At release, Game Boy required four batteries and had the potential for a whopping 30 hours of battery life.

Sega introduced Game Gear a year later with a backlit color display. To accommodate that choice, it required six AA batteries, which is one reason for its larger form factor. The battery life was a mere 3–5 hours. While Nintendo made efforts to reduce the size of their product while gradually incorporating newer technology, Sega doubled down on their strategy, introducing the extremely-novel Nomad handheld, which still required six AA batteries—or an AC adapter—to power it. To be clear, Nomad did not intend to replace Game Gear. Its even-shorter battery life may have assured that.

Sega never made a handheld again. Nintendo is famously still at it. As of now, of the top four best-selling consoles of all time, three are Nintendo handhelds (Nintendo DS, Switch, and Game Boy).

Though Nintendo employs more-modern technologies now, they are still criticized for not having the most-modern technologies that their rivals are all-too-happy to include, often at the cost of compatibility, affordability, and energy efficiency.

This is not a condemnation of using cutting-edge technology. But if given the choice, I prefer “lateral thinking with withered technology.” I think that’s a great philosophy to consider when making anything.

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