PC World: Nintendo Loses Grip on Handheld Gaming, Drops Into Loss

[Squilliam]

mai said:

Squilliam said:

One issue they have is that you get companies selling what would otherwise be games costing $25-30 on cartridges for $1-15 on direct download on other platforms, especially Apples iOS platforms. Its this competition for the low end customers which is more problematic and that explains their move towards the core gamer with the 3DS.

Well, it's a good thing they've finally introduced DSWare then =)

I was expecting them to sell minor games digitally since 2007 when I bought my first DS. I was forced to shamelessly pirate these games. I don't mind to pay, but most of lesser games extremely lack content, so paying $20 plus was a bit too much for me, not to mention bothering with the carts and waiting when my copy arrives.

The fact that you've got a physical distribution cost, retail costs and a cost for Nintendo royalties as well as higher risk in distribution means that your $5 game has to have a minimum of $15 additional costs tacked onto it. This is the reason why 'serious' games are sold on handhelds and even more so home consoles and frivilous games are sold on the low cost distribution platforms. Its easier to sell $15 worth of game for $35 and $30 worth of game for $60 than it is to sell $5 of game for $20. I would get a handheld except that I struggle with the value equation between the cost of the games and the content I percieve that I am getting.

The funny thing is that once the 2nd generation iPad is out, I will consider buying it as a handheld gaming platform. My friend has one and he has multiple great games for $5-10 each and that is great value to me. The fact that an iPad would also be the laptop I could never justify getting due to the performance of my desktop machine and HTPC would be icing on the cake.