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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo is setting its sights on Apple

Kenology on 10 May 2010
nordlead said:
to me, that quote doesn't sound like it's from Iwata...

Me either.  It's also pretty suspect that it's not a direct quote from him... just hearsay.


It seems pretty fabricated to me.



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Kenology on 10 May 2010
jarrod said:
kingofwale said:
sounds about right.

Nintendo has stopped competing over core gamer with Sony and now focusing on iPhone/iPod touch/iPad gamer who are interested in small scale, flash-like based games.

Did you read the article.  Iwata said they've already beaten Sony, and that Apple is now their competition.

Actually, Iwata didn't say anything.



Kenology on 10 May 2010
.jayderyu said:
what? another thread on the BS piece about Nintendo reading for WAR on Apple?

Seems to me that this piece only exists to get people to believe that Apple is a player in the industry when they really aren't.  The DS and iPhone aren't competitors at all.  The industry wants to frame it as such though. 



Plaupius on 11 May 2010
puffy said:
If the quote was real, Iwata acknowledging that Apple were a possible "enemy of the future" basically means that he sees the possibility for Apple to disrupt Nintendo's handheld business in the future if Apple continue to increase their focus on games. As has been said earlier in the thread, the iPod Touch could very well become "good enough" in terms of the games it offers and then become a direct competitor to the 3DS in the future.

Now I say iPod touch and not iPhone because it's the iPod Touch that really allows Apps to flourish. It's a system built with Apps as one of it's main draws and the advertising for it is all about Apps and more specifically, the games available on the App Store;

iPod Touch: "The funnest iPod ever"

The fact that Apple are playing up the "fun" aspect of the iPod Touch is obviously seen as a threat to Iwata as he has continuously mentioned that Nintendo is in the business of creating "amusement products." One can see how the iPod Touch and the DS and soon to be 3DS are not mutually exclusive, their IS overlap, just as their was with the DS and PSP.

I think the main difference between Apple and Nintendo is that Nintendo had the experience and knowledge to pull off the disruptive strategy in the gaming industry rapidly, whereas Apple are still feeling the waters, they are going about it very slowly and some have commented they are finding themselves in the gaming market "by accident."

Whether the quote was genuinely Iwata's or not, I think he knows that Apple is a possible threat for the future growth of Nintendo. The 3DS and it's features will be telling of what kind of plan Nintendo has of fighting (or not fighting at all) Apple and also disinterest in Nintendo's current offerings.

I, likewise, have doubts that the quote is real, it is phrased in such a vague way that it's bordering on hearsay of hearsay. Anyway, I'm quite certain that Nintendo is closely watching Apple and where that iPhone OS platform is going. In fact, as has been mentioned, the DSiWare can be seen as a direct response to the App Store model of digital distribution though it by no means is the only driving factor behind it.

The real big difference between Nintendo and Apple is just that, the model of distribution. Nintendo has a business model where it seeks to profit both from hardware and software sales, whereas Apple profits from hardware sales only (or close to that anyway). That allows Apple to price the software extremely aggressively which is both good and bad. It is very good for small independent developers who can make small budget games and, if luck has it, make a profit. However, it is extremely hard to justify spending millions to develop a game for the platform when the most you can realistically expect to get from a sale is 7 dollars, and in all likelihood you'll have to lower the price soon so what you get goes down with the price. What this all means is that a multimillion dollar game would have to be a million seller to break even, and even if it went on to sell, say, 3 million copies it would still profit maybe max 10 million dollars. That just is not the same kind of market as traditional consoles or the DS.

However, the big question is: what level of games is good enough for the majority of people? And the answer to that seems to be that people are well willing to pay 3 dollars for a couple hours of entertainment from a game, and then move on to the next title. So, in light of the theory of disruption it might be that the current games for DS are overshooting what a big portion of the potential market wants, or it might be that these very cheap games are sold to a market that is almost entirely separate from the market for DS. It will be very interesting to monitor the sales of the 3DS, I think only then we can see if there is any effect from the iPhone platform or not.



SnesTea on 11 May 2010

Ever heard of an "Apple gamer"? Me neither.