In a few years Nintendo will no longer be the handheld gaming king...

[NintendoMan]

Impulsivity said:

     I will admit the average Iphone game isn't great, though, to be fair, most DS games suck PRETTY damn hard too.  After years on the market  ( 1)there are maybe 10 DS games worth a damn and (2) so much shovelware that you could spend a year with a tractor working through it and still not be done. Nintendo and Sony (3)toss crap into their console (4)(that is barely functional outside just basic game playing in Nintendo's case) and ask (5)for 30-40 dollars PER GAME.

    Its a little hidden add on to what people were already buying.  (6)There are far more ipods and iphones in the wild then DSes, and sooner or later the older ipods are turning into newer iphones or ipod touches.  

    Another big bonus for ipod gaming is free gameplay.  I have a number of games like blackjack that are totally free with limited advertising.  That means developers get paid, I get to play for free and everyone wins. (7)That kind of free advertisement model would be absolutely impossible with traditional gaming systems particularly the DS.  

   There are a hell of a lot more (8)middle aged not yet gamers then there are teenagers who love core games (and unlike very expensive cartridges+retail boxes+manuals iphone games are almost pure profit).

   That is right, the ipod family has (9)better graphics capability then either of the dedicated handhelds (especially the rather pathetic DS processor which is under 100 mhz).  With a little experience you can bet the event games will look better then anything the DS OR the PSP has to offer.  For example one see 

1. What you mean is that there are only 10 games that you have an interest in, that you personally see some value in and would be willing to purchase. The DS has more than 10 high quality games. I could list a large number but that would likely fall on deaf ears.

2. All consoles have some shovelware. Some more than others yes, but to single out the DS is rather ignorant in my opnion as the ipod touch/iphone have thier fair share of shovelware too.

3. Would you care to offer some examples to clarify this statement. I do not know of any 'crap' on the DS & PSP. Maybe Skype on the PSP is a gimmick prehaps and that is what you are reffering to.

4. Nintendo has never gone 'all out' for non-gaming functionality. They have always had a stance of games consoles is for gaming. That may have changed somewhat Wii & DSi but not to a large degree and in any case the DSi is now capable of non-gaming functions rendering this point somehwat redundant, woudln't you say?

5. Games have always retailed at this price point. If you look at software sales of the DS (454.63 million as of sep 30 according to Nintendo) and Wii (229.85 million as of sep 30) you will see that this particular price point is not having a detrimental effect on the volume of software sales.

6. This is just an outright lie. The iphone has reached some 13 million in sales (source). The only concrete number I can find for ipod's is 150 million (that could be a year out of date though) a number which accounts for the entire ipod line since their introduction. If we assume the ipod touch acounts for 25% (which is extremely unlikely) of ipod sales overall and assume sales of the entire ipod line at 200 million (again very very generous) that figure that is still only 50 million. That is being very generous indeed. So that's 63 million for the ipod touch/iphone which is as near as makes no difference 30 million behind the DS. DS sales are likely to remain ahead of the iphone/ipod touch combined for some time thanks to DSi launch next year not to mention Nintendo still has massive scope for cutting the price which could give a massive boost as well.

7. This model could change in the future. It is not set in stone.

8. Nintendo has already done a good job of attracting this demographic to the DS & Wii. The casual appeal of the DS is stronger than that of the ipod/iphone.

9.The DS (& Wii) have already shown that graphical prowess are not important factors. They can make a game better but as the NES has shown you don't need power for fun, and fun trumps fast processors anyday.