buzzard on 21 April 2010
| Impulsivity said: http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/03/23/report-iphone-games-poaching-revenue-sony-nintendo Here is an article that makes the exact point that this thread is based around. The future of mobile gaming is not Nintendo and Sony, but Apple and maybe Android (if they can solve the hardware incompatibility issues long term so one game can run on all current android phones). It shows how Apple gaming revenue marketshare has gone from 5% in 2008 to 19% in 2009, or about a 4 fold increase. at the same time the PSP went from 20% to 11% 08-09 (so Apple now has the same marketshare as the PSP at it's peak) with the DS falling from 75% to 70%. This is revenue, which makes it especially significant since iphone and ipod games range from free to under 10 bucks while DS games cost as much as 40 dollars (or 40x most of the most successful iphone games which are often 99 cents). In terms of games sold it is almost certain that the number of ipod/iphone titles sold dwarf the number of DS titles sold. Given that Apple sold over 8 million iphones and 10 million ipods (most of which were ipod touches) in just the last quarter (a non holiday quarter at that) that makes it quite likely that Nintendo dropping below 50% of the marketshare in portable gaming revenue is months not years off. Also, Millenium, you really have no idea what you're talking about quite frankly. There are amazing games on the iphone and ipad. They have the ENTIRE Dragons lair game ported to the platform and it looks amazing, they have the entire chinatown wars DS game but for 9 dollars instead of 29. They have the entire civilization revolutions game for the ipad which has every last feature present in the PS3 and 360 version and then a few extra ones. Need for Speed, mirrors edge, NOVA and many more games have better graphics then anything on the DS platform, and I would content in some cases better gameplay too. This trend away from dedicated platforms will only accelerate as more and more people get smartphones. I mean if the choice is a horrid blackjack game on your crappy Sanyo phone or the DS, people will bring the DS with them. If the choice is chinatown wars on the DS or chinatown wars on the iphone why in the world would people pay 3x more for the DS version, lug around an extra device which is vastly bigger and much heavier then the iphone (despite being markedly less powerful)? I used to bring my DS and/or PSP with me on car trips, now I haven't turned either on in over a year (the DS in at least 2). Within 5 years Nintendo will either be a major software maker for other peoples devices or a niche player in the mobile market if they stubbornly cling to their hardware control model. 3D, which remains a stupid gimmick, will not save them from the future. They made less profit in the entirety of 2009 (and its going down) then Apple made in just january to march of this year (a profit thats up nearly 100% year over year). The trend of the competition getting bigger and more successful and Nintendo getting smaller will only accelerate unless Nintendo accepts the device convergence and digital download paradigm in mobile. |
Lol at your inability to correctly interpet the data on that link, if you had checked the numbers in terms of absolutes and not relatives, Nintendo's profit increased from one year to the other, if the percentage fell down it's because Apple has created a new portion of the gaming market, not because it stole from Nintendo
