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Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System™, Nintendo has sold more than 4.1 billion video games and more than 655 million hardware units globally, including the current-generation Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, as well as the Game Boy™, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi™ and Nintendo DSi XL™, Super NES™, Nintendo 64™, Nintendo GameCube™ and Wii systems.
Families and children around the world love Nintendo. They are fans of the state-of-the-art game consoles such as the new Wii U™ and they enjoy the variety of exciting game classics from Mario Bros. to Princess Zelda. And, thanks to the educational value of the content, Nintendo captures the hearts of audiences both young and old.
So what is Nintendo’s secret sauce? They understand what it means to create meaningful connections with fans by managing their digital content across devices and by leveraging the power of video. Nintendo provides authentic and homogenous high-performance gaming and entertainment experiences to fans on their game consoles and on their branded websites.
Enis Sari’s Story: Manager Online Service Team Nintendo Europe
Enis Sari has an extensive background in software development with a strong focus on cloud-based technologies. Simply stated, he knows how to build complex websites securely and how to create intuitive viewing experiences for website visitors. When Enis joined Nintendo Europe he was tasked with developing and improving the IT structure of Nintendo’s European websites to ensure optimal viewing experiences. However, even with his own expertise and the team of eleven international experts backing him, this was not going to be an easy task. Nintendo Europe operates websites for gamers in 22 countries across the globe from the UK to South Africa, to Portugal and to Russia. And, depending on the country – let’s say for example Switzerland – there may be as many as three different language versions of each of these sites.
”Our primary objective was a stable integrated system for providing our website visitors with the same smooth and intuitive experience that our games deliver on the Nintendo game consoles.”
“I am very pleased with our results. The video experiences that we provide across our websites have substantially improved which has increased the number of videos being requested. The programming interface is excellent and offers plenty of options for the future. We can finally focus on our core business: creating content and great user experiences.”
Enis Sari, Manager Online Service Team – Nintendo Europe
Nintendo’s Challenge
As ambassadors of many Nintendo videogames, Mario™ and Luigi™ welcome visitors to the Nintendo Europe websites. These two superheroes are not only charged with battling opponents or overcoming challenging obstacle courses in many of the games that fans play on the Nintendo 3DS, Wii console, and next-generation Wii U platform, but they also have to have super-charged optimal performance on Nintendo’s websites across all connected devices.
However, the aging production environment that the European team was using to make these fan favorites come alive on Nintendo’s web pages imposed a major challenge of its own. Dirk Hendriks, Nintendo Content Editor, was dissatisfied with the legacy content management system. “It was not up to date anymore”, said Hendriks, “the web pages were loading slowly and video integration was awkward. We did not really have control over our own content.”
“I mean, if today’s gaming consoles deliver HD video, the videos on the web should offer HD quality too, right?”
“On our pages, Nintendo users get information and become members of the Nintendo Club. Our first priority was to ensure stability of our websites and boost user experiences.”
Enis Sari, Manager Online Service Team – Nintendo Europe
Nintendo’s Solution
Leveraging an intuitive, easy-to-use online video platform.
Enis wanted more videos, better website performance and better SEO all with less administrative effort. His team was migrating from their legacy system where content had been maintained by external agencies and taking control of their own destiny, managing the content themselves.
Enis’ essential requirements for a video solution were:
Easier video content management
How will Nintendo get the best possible internal video management to create engaging video experiences for page visitors?
Storage
What happens on upload, how are videos transcoded, stored, and archived?
Search engine optimization
How can Nintendo improve its SEO values and increase the number of website visitors?
Stabile high-performance delivery
How can Nintendo ensure reliable website performance and optimal viewing experiences free of latency and interruptions?
Edgio Solution: Video Delivery Services and Content Delivery Services
Seamless video integration
Enis Sari chose Edgio solutions because he wanted access to world-class video content management and transmission tools. Through Nintendo’s partnership with Edgio, his team has a seamless end-to-end video content management tool that integrates into their existing content management system.
With Edgio, Nintendo Europe gets:
The right video for the visitor
Edgio always provides Nintendo with the correct video format for the requesting device and browser, whether PC or mobile.
Stable video streams using the Edgio global Content Delivery Network
Thanks to direct connections with over 700 access networks worldwide, even large audiences are not a problem for Nintendo.
Easy input of metadata
Metadata can be easily and quickly entered, and the different language versions are easily manageable.
SEO tools
Easy tracking of SEO rankings using Edgio SEO tools.
Unified branding for Nintendo
The Edgio Visual Player Designer ensures that the brand is consistently displayed on the company’s player, even if the video comes via third-party pages.
Infrastructure savings
The Edgio cloud-based solutions mean that Nintendo does not require additional infrastructure spending to store its videos or deliver them.
“I am very pleased with our results. The video experiences that we provide across our websites have substantially improved which has increased the number of videos being requested. The programming interface is excellent and offers plenty of options for the future. We can finally focus on our core business: creating content and great user experiences.”
Enis Sari, Manager Online Service Team – Nintendo Europe
