Pachter - DSi XL won't be a launch success, third parties still don't get Wii
February 25, 2010 by The News Team Wii, Nintendo in general, DSi | View feedback (21) | Show/Hide
A portion of an IndustryGamers interview with Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter...
IG: What is your take on the DSi XL? How do you think it'll sell? Will people really want to pay $20 more just to get a larger handheld?
Pachter: I think that the price point of all DS products are too high, and think that a price increase for the DSi XL is not going to sit well with consumers. The difference in price between the DS Lite and the XL is $60, and I'm not sure that bigger screens provide the value that Nintendo thinks. The difference between the DSi and the XL makes sense, but all three models are due for a cut, the DS to around $99, the DSi to $129, and the XL would then make more sense at $149. I don't think it will be a success at launch, since it costs only $10 less than a Wii.
IG: What will it take for more third parties to succeed on the Wii? Will it improve in 2010? Can Nintendo do anything to help or is this more due to publishers simply putting out crap games?
Pachter: I continue to believe that the Wii audience will buy good games, and think that third parties have done a poor job of making them for the Wii. There are a handful of exceptions (my favorite is Zack and Wiki), but most third party Wii games just plain suck. The third parties don't appear to be giving the Wii owner what he/she wants, which is an approachable, high quality game. The bulk of titles are shovelware, and once a Wii owner has a bad experience with a poorly crafted title from a third party, they are even more likely to return to buying only Nintendo products. This is most definitely NOT Nintendo's fault; they can hardly be blamed for making consistently good games. It's the fault of studios that think it's ok to make a lousy game and put the word "party" in the title.
For some reason my link copy paste does not want to let me do it.
At least on the 2nd part.
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