Fils-Aime: Apple more threatening than Microsoft
Nintendo of American boss also sees competition with Zynga, net use and newspapers
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime believes Apple to be the biggest current threat to Nintendo's dominance of console sales.
Fils-Aime felt that the key advantage which Nintendo had over Apple, which sold over 14 million iPhones in the quarter ending September, 2010, is the content which its systems offer. He claimed that although games like Angry Birds offer fun in short bursts, he himself had spent over 150 hours playing Dragon Quest IX.
The key resource which Nintendo is pitching for, Fils-Aime believes, is time. "I compete with Zynga, I compete with surfing the net, I compete with the newspaper."
Recently, THQ's UK marketing director John Rooke told GamesIndustry.biz that he expected there to be a sales run on Wii and DS this Christmas, much as there was in 2009.
"It's one of those challenges that everyone forgets - what's happened before. The Wii is behaving a bit more like a toy - people get it out at Christmas, start playing with it again."
I dont disagree, but thats what people said about Sony entering the Nintendo and Sega dominated space.
Then again, they managed to keep the DS sale price almost the same as the launch price all the way up until the successor. They may just take the drop in sales to keep margins high all the way until their 6th home console launch.
Too much money is wasted as it is with all this "let's try to damn hard to be an Apple/Facebook/whatever the big thing is now hybrid platform" when a dedicated (and yes, powerful) games platform with LESS bells and whistles is really the CORE issue that needs to be focused on. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are foolishly looking over the fence and instead of shrugging their shoulders and saying "cool - but we're doing our own thing", it's just a huge cash burn as they try and figure out how to cram too much stuff into devices that cost too much and end up packed with too many features many won't even use because they ALREADY HAVE A DEVICE THAT DOES THE SAME DAMN THINGS.
grrr.
We REALLY don't need anything new other than for developers to work with what's available (including the 3DS, of course). I keep reading stuff about analysts saying "gamers WANT new consoles!" but in truth, we just want better GAMES, no matter the console. Hell, I'd love to see a games platform where all that extra stuff was optional with a price point that let users decide not only what they wanted to pay for, but when they wanted to add it to the system. I guess we'll see what's next, but the market is too damn overstuffed as it is, especially when folks keep comparing devices to each other.
They better begin to change they behavior, or They will be in the same crisis they felt in the Gamecube generation (or they will become a new Zinga)