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Forums - Sales Discussion - Nintendo feeling the heat? Apple are about to beat them at their own game

Egghead on 02 February 2010
mai said:

That's way too premature to say that. AppStore is doing great but if we choose to believe last Fade LLC report, it accounts for around $250M of gaming revenue on platform for it's first year (Jul 2008 - Jul 2009). AFAIK whole mobile gaming is worth $4.5B in year 2008, while handhelds software sales revenue topped at least $6B that year (80% of that is Nintendo).

AppStore definitely is going to growth very fast during it's first years, but it has natural barrier. iPhone business isn't doing so great in Asia, the biggest market for mobile gaming. On top of that mobile gaming business is very competitive and highly segmented. Very few distributors have any meaningful marketshare in terms of game sales, not to mention games isn't primary business for them for the time being.

But they could pursue traditional handheld gaming instead, making iTouch it's flagship model. Isn't that easily feasible task either. Peronsally I don't even understand why Apple and gamign became all of a sudden so closely connected in mass media? When Iwata said Apple isn't competitor he really means it, when he said that they need to differentiate themsevles from mobile phones - that's true as well. So we shouldn't talk about Apple threatening Nintendo, we should talk about whole mobile gaming threatening handheld business.

Lets not underestimate Apple, this could be the calm before the storm. Once it gets going, theyll not only dwarf Nintendo, but gaming as a whole.

Both PSone and PS2 sold million sellers like nobody's business, however since the arrival of the Wii, the gaming demographic has been saturated. Whereas on PSone/PS2, casual gamers stayed on the system and over time got a better taste for more hardcore games, the Wii has meant that they stay only on that platform. This means that the HD systems have little people to target, and so software sales have been low and yet development costs have risen through the roof.

Ever wondered why there has been so little variety this generation?



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Galaki on 02 February 2010
Egghead said:
MontanaHatchet said:
Why is it that fans of the HD consoles who hate the Wii seem to also be such big Apple fans all of a sudden? Oh wait, that's obvious.

You can't beat Nintendo at their own game unless they screw up and make it easy for you, and that doesn't look to be happening anytime soon. And by the way, tell me where you can find another console like the Wii with precise motion controls and a variety of established, quality games to support it. That's right, you can't.

I dont know if you mean me, im a gamer, so my time is mostly spent on PC/360/PS3, which also means that i know what hardware offers hence why youll never find an Apple product in my house.

On the other hand, Nintendo has marketed itself through 'innovation,' which to its fan completely over-rides what the hardware can actually output. This is exactly what Apple have been doing, hence why followers of Apple and Nintendo are pretty two sides fo the same coin.

If you own a DS or the Wii, or both, you'll then understand why there's nothing on the market that could topple Nintento atm.



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Egghead on 02 February 2010
Soriku said:
MDMAniac said:
Soriku said:

No matter which way you see it, Apple isn't going to hurt Nintendo in the slightest with their products. People are buying Nintendo products for games, Apple for everything else.

This is very questionable. People buying product for entertainment and games is only a part of it. Lots of people are overshot by DS in gaming aspect and them could end up buying iTouch/iPhone because of it's better entertaining value to them.

What's great for Nintendo though I think is that Apple products are not children-friendly and Nintendo ones do not have stigma of "being glamorous things for trendy ladies".


If they're even hurting Nintendo somehow (and it can't just be them. There's a lot of competition out there.) it can't be by much at all considering how much their products sell. That's what I was getting at.

Plus, I really doubt people are buying an iPhone for games. Games for the iPhone are secondary while the media features aren't. It's the opposite for Nintendo stuff - gaming is primary, media is secondary. Just depends on what you want.

Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus have sold more than 30 million units combined, thats almost have of the Wii userbase who bought the system for a fitness regime. Yet its been enough to cause a tremendous effect on the industry.

Same thing with Apple, only their approach will mean apps will take over from multi-million retail games.



Egghead on 02 February 2010
Soriku said:
MDMAniac said:
Soriku said:

No matter which way you see it, Apple isn't going to hurt Nintendo in the slightest with their products. People are buying Nintendo products for games, Apple for everything else.

This is very questionable. People buying product for entertainment and games is only a part of it. Lots of people are overshot by DS in gaming aspect and them could end up buying iTouch/iPhone because of it's better entertaining value to them.

What's great for Nintendo though I think is that Apple products are not children-friendly and Nintendo ones do not have stigma of "being glamorous things for trendy ladies".


If they're even hurting Nintendo somehow (and it can't just be them. There's a lot of competition out there.) it can't be by much at all considering how much their products sell. That's what I was getting at.

Plus, I really doubt people are buying an iPhone for games. Games for the iPhone are secondary while the media features aren't. It's the opposite for Nintendo stuff - gaming is primary, media is secondary. Just depends on what you want.

Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus have sold more than 30 million units combined, thats almost have of the Wii userbase who bought the system for a fitness regime. Yet its been enough to cause a tremendous effect on the industry.

Same thing with Apple, only their approach will mean apps will take over from multi-million retail games.



mai on 02 February 2010

Egghead said:

Lets not underestimate Apple, this could be the calm before the storm. Once it gets going, theyll not only dwarf Nintendo, but gaming as a whole.

Well, like Pachter said "Tetris is only a Tetris at the end of the day and it's everywhere", no point in buying it for $20 on DS when you can get it for $1 on iPhone. But as long as Nintendo is able to sell it's Nintendogs, Brain Ages, Marios, Pokemons and Mario Karts at price tags way higher than any iPhone app, at the same time generating revenues from one title more than whole AppStore for a year, they are safe for a while. It's called differentiation, they got the upper hand in that. I'm still eager to see someone imitating success of Nintendo that will pay off in comparable sales.



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Lurker on 02 February 2010

I'd rather see Nintendo beat down Apple. Apple doesn't belong in the game industry in any form.



jarrod on 02 February 2010
Egghead said:

On the other hand, Nintendo has marketed itself through 'innovation,' which to its fan completely over-rides what the hardware can actually output. This is exactly what Apple have been doing, hence why followers of Apple and Nintendo are pretty two sides fo the same coin.

Eh, somewhat but that sort of misses the point.  What Nintendo's really marketed themselves on is "fun", and to a lesser extent accessibility and affordability.   Innovation is only a means to an end, and their hardware is only a vehicle for their software.   The real "value" of Nintendo isn't in DS or the Wii remote, it's in Wii Sports, Nintendogs and New Super Mario Bros.



Bamboleo on 02 February 2010

The day Apple announces a home console or portable consoles, Nintendo should be careful.

Iwata comments on mobile phones and tablet PC's are completely unnecessary since Nintendo is about videogame consoles, not that type of devices that Apple is popularizing.

And please, don't tell me that current Apple devices have the chance to become like consoles, because it is already proven by the iPhone that it just can't be.



Egghead on 02 February 2010
jarrod said:
Egghead said:

On the other hand, Nintendo has marketed itself through 'innovation,' which to its fan completely over-rides what the hardware can actually output. This is exactly what Apple have been doing, hence why followers of Apple and Nintendo are pretty two sides fo the same coin.

Eh, somewhat but that sort of misses the point.  What Nintendo's really marketed themselves on is "fun", and to a lesser extent accessibility and affordability.   Innovation is only a means to an end, and their hardware is only a vehicle for their software.   The real "value" of Nintendo isn't in DS or the Wii remote, it's in Wii Sports, Nintendogs and New Super Mario Bros.

I agree with you but Apple marketing is almost identical.

For example, they claim that Macs can do fun stuff like 'make websites' and act as if Windows based PCs cant. Same thing with Nintendo, they are claiming 'fun' but then again so are the publishers of Game Party.



fwap on 02 February 2010

Nintendo must be doing very well right now. Because somebody just created a thread saying that they are doomed.