Squilliam said:
Nintendo had the same problem as before with PS1 vs N64, I.E. whilst the value of their game development is much higher than any one single company and few approach their ability to rack out hit after hit, the number of developers out there outweigh them through sheer numbers. There are litterally thousands of projects for iOS ongoing and through luck or skill some will rise to the top. Value has a lot of different dimensions, LOL if you've been on this site long enough you'd have seen all the threads saying the PS3 is better value than the Xbox 360 because of X, Y, Z. You have to consider with iOS many different factors such as:
In the end it is complicated and simple at the same time. There are many overlapping dimensions between the products, the enemy of the good in this case is good enough. It is far easier to justify owning a handheld gaming machine when you don't already own something with significant overlapping functionality whether it is a tablet, iTouch or smartphone you own. There is already data suggesting that parents are indeed buying their children iPhones, iTouches and iPads for various reasons and lets not miss one major feature which is that all games bought for one child are immediately and always available to the other so long as they both have iOS devices. |
I just think it's worth pointing these things out.
I agree with everything you've said. I also agree this would have an effect on Nintendo's sales but again my main point was the bolded part in my post. As for the bolded part in your post: Why are you acting like the eShop didn't exist? Of course games on the eShop are still more expensive but not by law. Again if Nintendo actually cared about these customers they would push the eShop more agressively (like make it open to really small developers just as on iOS). And as for other features (internet and learning): Yeah, that's why consoles died in the 80's when computer adoption rates went up.
Here is my main point again: Nintendo doesn't try to appeal to the mass market anymore. They keep talking about core gamers, released their handheld at a high price and didn't put out mass market software. 5 years ago Nintendo's main mission was to grow the market and they succeeded with their handheld sales doubling and their console sales multiplying by a factor of 5. They grew at a speed that rivals Apple's current growth but they were not able to maintain it because they stopped focusing on growth.
Basically put a Nintendo releasing a "2DS" at $149 with a focus on mass market games like Brain Age, Super Mario, social games and e-learning would see way higher sales. Would smartphones eat into those sales? Certainly. Would Nintendo be in trouble right now? Probably not because there was still some potential for growth. I guess sales would've stayed roughly the same (add growth potential, substract smartphones).
