| bdbdbd said: Nintendo have planned the chinese release for this year too. It's going to be busy. Anyway, India is pretty poor country, so it's interesting to see how will they sell. I'd bet the DS would be a better seller due to its price. |
India isn't that poor. I was going to come in here with a "ha ha India. So they'll appeal to all 1% of the people there with electricity, ha ha." But then I remembered that India is more than just an over-populated people zoo. It's also a fairly advanced country. They are, as I recall, one of that exclusive list of Nuclear nations. They're not as well off as, say, maybe China or certainly Europe, but at the same time, they're not as primitive and fucked-up as 95% of Africa. After all, the Xbox360 is in India, as I recall.
Although, last I heard, MS wasn't doing too well over there with the Xbox360. No doubt the Wii will garner a lot more attention. Be interesting what kind of home-grown games appear on the Wii and DS over there given the bizarreness of Bollywood. If Nintendo keeps branching out in new, previously untargeted regions like India and China and the like, they'll have no real problem ensuring that the Wii and DS not only have long lifespans, but they'll get that all-important status as cultural icons the way the NES is viewed in places where it was most popular.
Their whole goal with the Wii and DS was to reach out to new audiences, so this is no big surprise. Appealing directly to India and China will no doubt help them combat piracy while totally dominating the industry in areas where Sony and Microsoft are giving minimal, if any, attention. Hell, China's rampant pirating might end up becoming a boon to Nintendo in the long run as the systems become a popular focus of pirates and modders.
You know, in the long run, this could lead to new companies making consoles again. Besides just Nintendo, MS, and Sony. Historically, there were always more players than just three. No doubt, some industries will form in both China and India that may feel that they can make a better, more inventive, or somewhat improved game machine to put out on the market in their own regions, and potentially, worldwide. The video game industry started in the US and moved to Japan. Who says that major players can't suddenly rise out of other places, like India, China, or Europe?
