Ngmoco, developer of iPhone games such as Rolando, Eliminate, Godfinger, and We Rule is being purchased by Japan's social gaming giant DeNA for the low, low price of $400 million US:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/technology/13social.html?_r=2

The plans are to merge Ngmoco's Plus network with DeNA's Mobage network (which is on track to pull in roughly $1 billion of revenue from Japanese gamers this year), while expanding onto new mobile platforms such as Android.

The two largest growth sectors in gaming these days are mobile games and social games. DeNA is targeting the junction of these two dynamics, and looks like it will take a leadership position along with Zynga.

Hmm wonder how Nintendo will react, im guessing with the recent downward spiral of Wii and DS sales, the 3DS was priced as high to prove that they are still the champ in the handheld arena.

I would be worried of these phone developer companies if i made a handheld. 

Well its just that the PS3 is dominating Japan and 360 PS3 sales are outlapping overall Wii sales, so maybe Nintendo finally realised that their policy of the last few years wont work.

Yet despite this they put out a system thats far underpowered than most smartphones and yet with a price tag i see almost everyone on this forum quickly buying into.

Regardless, 3DS is looking like a great system, i mean, its not up to par with my 3 year old iPhone 2G, but it has buttons at least!

Looking at the 3DS, I think Nintendo is doing two things:

1. Offer a unique value that smartphones and other mobile computers can't offer. That means 3D, which apparently doesn't work very well with touchscreens.

2. Focus on your core competency. Don't get too distracted by mobile communications and media, just make better games than the phone developers.

The practical result is that Nintendo is moving upmarket right now, serving the customers who want really high quality mobile games. I think the big price tag on the 3DS is there to pay for all the tech they've added to serve those customers, plus a little hedge against underpricing the 3DS at launch. Nintendo probably could have sold the Wii for $299 for two years after launch without seriously impacting sales, but you can't jack up the price on a consumer device after you find out it's a hit.

Nintendo can live quite comfortably in the upmarket, perhaps waiting for a chance to disrupt again.

The new 3DS should of had android built in, Android isn't yet big in gaming like iphone but it will grow since nearly every phone company is making android phones now. I the 3DS had access to an array of minigames which something like an future android market can offer or create there own and sell 1-5 dollar games, it can do well.

but who is going to pay as much money for a hand-held with no phone capabilities when they can get a home console such as a Ps3,360 or a Wii. Or in that case an iphone. 

the DS was big because of its array of games and its cheap price being around half of an home console so it was easy money. but with the rise of gaming on mobiles the 3DS is outdated even tho it has great hardware. 

if the 3DS was a phone as well then it will do well. and an handheld now umm maybe