| archbrix said: OK, analogy forgotten. However you've now brought up another: Your camera analogy. I don't doubt the info you posted, nor do I deny smartphones' many advantages, but cameras and games are two completely different things. Before smartphones, how many people lined up on launch day to buy the latest Kodak or Polaroid point and shoot camera? And yes, there will always be people who will just spend 1-15 minutes gaming on their phones, just as there will always be people who want to play full-fledged handheld games for a richer experience. As I said in my earlier post, room for both. And no, I can't experience an alternate timeline where PCs and consoles don't coexist to see how well consoles would be doing; I don't have to. I never said they wouldn't be doing even better than they are now, but consoles are doing remarkably despite the presence of PC gaming. Same goes for Apple being Nintendo's competitor. Again, room for both. And finally, they don't have to "click their fingers and catch up" if they were to partner with someone like Google or Amazon, who has already done the network development you mentioned. Did Nintendo click their fingers for the chips used in the GC/Wii? No, they partnered with ATI. And as far as the money needed that you mentioned, if it came to their perseverance, Nintendo definitely has it to spend. |
It wasn't an analogy. I was drawing a parallel between the camera market and the game market. Nintendo is on the lower side of the market, the point and shoot equivalent. Because their games tend to be simpler and because they draw from the wider market, their portion of the market would be the first to be effected by a rise of smart phones for games. If smart phones negatively effect GPS units when they implement similar features, if smart phones negatively effect cameras when they implement decent cameras then smart phones would effect handheld games devices as well when some good software starts to come out to take advantage of it. The whole smart phone market is growing at a rapid rate and the capabilities on average to play games is increasing again at a rapid rate so as a whole their numbers and effectiveness as games machines are increasing precipitously every year.
As far as deals with online makers go, Nintendo doesn't like to lose control. I don't think theres an online network out there which will simply let you 'buy in' without the device maker losing that control. If they did that then some other service provider would control their networking. So whilst they could spend the money they are a relatively small company so at minimum they would be forced to increase their headcount substantially. In any case regardless of all that they would also have to have the drive to create a good online network, it just doesn't seem to fit the culture of Japan at this point to really care about such things. So when they do create their online network if they do, it may be too late to make headway.
Tease.
