Financial literacy class: Nintendo and Sony head into ‘grim’ holiday season with old consoles and no big releases

This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here.

Read below a selection of FT articles picked by financial literacy teachers with classroom questions/discussion points, mapped by theme. View the full selection here.

Also explore the classroom resources produced by the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign charity.

Specification:

Budgeting and Consumer Skills

Summary

This article explains how Nintendo and Sony, two big gaming companies, are facing a tough holiday season. They don’t have many new products, and their main gaming consoles are getting old. This is important to think about because it shows how businesses make decisions based on what they think customers will buy and how they can make money.

Click to read the article and then answer the questions:

Nintendo and Sony head into ‘grim’ holiday season with old consoles and no big releases

Questions

• Why do you think Nintendo and Sony are focusing on their current gaming consoles even though they’re older? Have you ever kept using a game or device for a long time, and why did you keep using it?

• Sony’s new PlayStation 5 Pro costs a lot and is aimed at very serious gamers. What do you think could be the positives and negatives of selling a product that’s more expensive?

• The article says that gaming may be moving away from using specific consoles to playing games online or on different devices. Do you think you would play more or less if games could be played anywhere, like on your phone or computer? Why?

Tim Ranzetta, Next Gen Personal Finance