As the iPhone gains momentum as a handheld gaming device, game hardware manufacturers are struggling for ways to position themselves against Apple without backhandedly boosting Apple's reputation. Nowhere is that more apparent than at Nintendo, the company behind the Wii console and Nintendo DS, a dual-screen device that has taken the portable gaming market by storm. Reggie Fils-Aime, head of Nintendo's North American unit,told the LA Times last week that Nintendo was "intrigued" by the iPhone as a gaming device, but dismissed the App Store model that Apple has built. "We want to give our customers high-quality, innovative and captivating entertainment," he was quoted as saying. "A storefront with 10,000 pieces of content doesn't do that." Prediction: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner resigns by Dec. 2009? Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, also played down the threat of smartphones, telling the Financial Times that mobile phone games had been around for years and Nintendo had still managed to stay on top. Certainly, Nintendo's numbers look impressive. NPD reported that 563,000 DS units were sold in March, more than three times the level of sales for the competing Play Station Portable from Sony, and even more than sales of the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles combined. But the iPhone and iPod Touch have been selling well, too, boosted by a marketing blitz that highlights the App Store and games. People are buying iPhones, and buying games to play on them. Nintendo's response seems to be to pretend the iPhone doesn't exist. When asked whether the company sees the iPhone platform as a competitor, Denise Kaigler, vice president of corporate affairs for Nintendo of America, sent the following response to the Standard: "Nintendo is the interactive entertainment company that knows the hand-held gaming market best. Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi feature ease-of-use, an immense library of games and an affordable price that players of all types find attractive. Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi offer consumers fun and experiences that they simply can’t find on any other system. If you’re looking for fun games and experiences, no one can compare to what Nintendo has to offer. Software always sells hardware, and the key drivers in the history of the hand-held industry have always been Nintendo products. None of those franchises are available to anyone else." When asked about the differentiators between the iPhone and DS, Kaigler responded: "For consumers looking for fun games and experiences, no one can compare to what Nintendo has to offer. Nintendo has the freshest, most disruptive gaming experiences possible. The combination of dual screens, traditional buttons and the stylus on the touch screen provide for a precise, in-depth gaming experience. Nintendo DS also has a library of more than 850 games in every possible genre. Examples include Brain Age, Mario and Zelda games, and even Personal Trainer: Cooking software. No one can match the quality of our offerings." Normally I don't include such huge, boilerplate marketing quotes, but I wanted to draw attention to the fact that Kaigler didn't even mention the iPhone by name. However, analyst Wanda Meloni of M2 Research indicated that both Nintendo and Sony have plenty to worry about. Meloni projects that the iPhone/iPod Touch will have an installed base of 43 million units by the end of this year. That's almost as much as the Sony PSP, and about a third of Nintendo's reach with the DS and DSi. Not only are there a lot of gamers and potential gamers with an iPhone and iPod Touch, but Apple buyers are also the biggest purchasers of mobile apps, Meloni says. The easy iTunes-based payment mechanism gives developers a huge incentive to develop for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Meloni adds that many developers are skilled veterans of the big game design houses who have been laid off in the past year, programmers who can crank out a new game and get it into Apple's App Store in a matter of weeks.
To be sure, Meloni warns that Apple's
platform has some major disadvantages. One is the oft-mentioned complaint that apps are difficult for users to discover, unless Apple highlights the app or it gets lots of sales, which drives it to the top of the App Store rankings. The other potential problem is a recent update to the iPhone OS which enables peer-to-peer play for multiplayer games, in-game purchases, and interoperability with multiple external devices. While those will boost gameplay and lead to some exciting titles, they also carry a drawback to developers.
"What it means for developers is that their development costs will be going up," Meloni told the Standard. "Currently, it can take an iPhone game developer about 2-4 weeks, sometimes less, to get an app out, with development costs being minimal." That could change if additional features have to be built out and tested for each game, diminishing the lure of the iPhone relative to other platforms.
Prediction: iPhone HD or iPod Touch HD announced by Oct. 2009?
For now, though, Nintendo execs would be kidding themselves to ignore the threat the iPhone poses. Nintendo has a strong product with the DS and DSi, but Apple's portable platform has opened up the gaming market in ways that industry heavyweights are only now beginning to appreciate.
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/04/20/nintendo-iphone-no-one-can-compare-what-nintendo-has-offer?page=0,1
Nice read!
UPDATE:
It seems they might make phones their competitor after all...
by offering free talk!
PHONE CONFUSION AT NINTENDO
De-facto leader Miyamoto wants walk-about-town DSi, but Nintendo President Iwata says no monthly or costly bills. Skype says it's possible; this one's hard to call.
Nintendo has repeatedly denied and dissuaded the idea of edging in on the market of iPhone, iPod, cell phone, et al. But reliable chatter has led the videogame world to swirl with news of the DSi used as a mobile phone. The DSi media is not set up to directly compete with other markets, so far a download-and-go element prevails, an argument Nintendo has used to compel their competitors not to worry.
The talk of a DSi phone came as internet phone software Skype confirmed through TechRadar that their VoIP software could run on the DSi. The Skype Rep. said: "Whilst we can't comment on any future plans to bring Skype to Nintendo's DSi, it would technically be possible.
This follows Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto saying he was "interested in [a system with which] when you're walking in town with your DS, you can use various services." This opens the market to direct competition and might prove to skeptics that the DSi is ready to compete. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said phone use by contract is not something he intends for the DSi.
It doesn't seem Skype is Nintendo's answer, but that Nintendo is formulating their own. If the two Nintendo giants join together, we might have free mobile phone communication on the DSi.
http://www.ds-x2.com/news/Phone%2Bconfusion%2Bat%2BNintendo,12672,12672
Skype probably not coming to DSi after all!
There was some speculation yesterday about Skype on DSi after a Skype rep told TechRadar: "Whilst we can't comment on any future plans to bring Skype to Nintendo's DSi, it would technically be possible."
The words 'technically possible' are, in the scrimmage of the blogosphere, a kind of shorthand for 'entirely inevitable', and the so the sun set yesterday on a UK population moderately confident that it would one day be making calls via DSi.
It woke up this morning to less optimistic news. A Nintendo spokeperson has told CVG, "[w]e have no plans to release a Skype application for Nintendo DS or DSi."
However, just as 'technically possible' doesn't constitutes confirmation, 'no plans' doesn't constitute disconfirmation. VOIP on DSi could still happen. Skype just may not be the facilitator.
Or it may.
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/DSi/Nintendo+DSi/news.asp?c=12827
