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Iwata: Nintendo Is Not 'Losing Its Edge' To iPhone, Rival Tech
by Leigh Alexander
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November 6, 2009
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As Nintendo gets ready to report its first profit decline in years, analysts are getting demanding about the future of the Wii and DS creator.
Facing questions about the company losing its edge as its competitors adopt motion-sensing tech and the iPhone proliferates as a mobile gaming platform in the West, president Satoru Iwata fired back in a Japanese investor briefing.
"I cannot understand at all why some people come to think that Nintendo has lost its edge as soon as they hear such news that other companies are newly applying for motion sensing technology," Iwata says.
"If fun and interesting software to take advantage of the technology could be created that easily, a number of other titles which are more fun than Wii Sports must have been already launched for Wii. Why in real life are not so many?"
The company's DS is not, Iwata asserts, facing a significant threat from iPhone and other mobile platforms, either. "It is true that the current Nintendo DS business is not that heated up as it used to be some time ago, when no one could tell how far ahead Nintendo DS might be able to grow," he concedes.
"On the other hand, the data also showed that Nintendo DS has not lost its footing at all. Actually, it has been even increasing its footing all around the world," he adds. "Under such a circumstance, I do not know why some people make such a remark."
Launch timing played a major role in the success of the iPhone, coming on the heels of the iPod business' major growth, Iwata says, and as such the iPhone was "already grown up" as opposed to having to battle its way into the marketplace.
"However, the customers are confined to rather affluent ones who can afford to pay several thousands yen every month," he says. "Realistically, Nintendo does not try to reach out only to those who can afford to pay several thousands yen monthly."
The Nintendo head concluded: "We are making entertainment commodities. The business model which requires our customers to promise to pay several thousands yen every month for the next two years does not suit well for the entertainment commodities."
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Good question which applies equally to Nintendo and it's rivals: why are there so few Wii games which take genuine advantage of the technology (as opposed to making players waggle the wiimote instead of pressing a button) to provide a fun, immersive experience?
After all, Nintendo is expecting to bank 2.5 billion dollars in profit this year alone: what are they actually doing with this money? There's very little evidence of it being ploughed into research or new franchises.
Admittedly, they've done more than well enough out of this, but the results from this quarter imply that the milk may be running dry on the hardware front and Nintendo have done very little to bolster things on the software front.
[*] Feel free to point out stuff like WiiFit, MotionPlus and the DSi/DS LL. They're all interesting in their own way and have sold well, but they're extrapolations/add-ons for existing hardware, not new technology. The iPhone is a major threat to the DS market: apart from the range and low price of games on the App Store, there's the fact that mobile phone technology is marching at a pace far quicker than Nintendo could ever hope to match - for instance, the iPhone 3GS has 256mb of ram, a 600mhz processor (downclocked from 833mhz) and a DX10 capable GPU. Meanwhile, the iPod Touch is price equivalent with the DSi, comes with a minimum of 8GB storage and does a much better job of being a media player...
I don't think Apple is threatening Nintendo, simply because Nintendo never focused on digital downloading. Gaming in iPhone is only a quarter of its market, the other represents phone calling, messaging, browsing and other services.
No ties to AT&T.; Excellent Email/Browser. Excellent Hardware. Excellent APIs.
Oh @ Fabio
I don't pay $2000 a year for an ATT plan. it at least 500 dollars cheaper than that ;P.
@ Christopher: agreed, the iPod could do that. They just have to add some buttons to it (a d-pad and 4 buttons would do it). No physical buttons means less feedback to your actions, so I believe they are still fundamental. Some games may do well without them, but other still require it.
It's definitely a threat in some very serious ways, and a convergence is likely in the next 10 years....
...but in the short term these are separate markets with a fairly small area of cross over (I'd expect that the number of PSP owners who are likely to have an iPod Touch/iPhone is higher than the number of DS owners based on traditional age demographics of the systems). It's unlikely anyone is replacing Pokemon and a DS with Madden and an iPhone, but Madden on the PSP or Brain Age on the DS are more likely to have some cross-over.
Questions like these are becoming commonplace and the answer is a resounding yes. People are playing the heck out their iPods and iPhones. If you're asking these questions it's simply because you're not in the loop.
However, the main point I was making about the iPhone was the difference in technology. I.e.
2007: Original: 412mhz CPU, 4-16gb storage, basic 3D accelerator, 128mb RAM
2009: 3GS: 600mhz CPU, 8-32gb storate, DX10 GPU, 256mb RAM
Compare this to the DS:
2004: DS: 67 mhz CPU, 4mb ram, no storage
2008: DSi: 133mhz CPU, 16mb ram, 256mb storage
The original Gameboy is proof positive that technology is not always a key factor, and both the DSi and iPhone 3GS are hampered to a degree by the need for backwards compatibility, but still: that's a huge gulf and it's only likely to get bigger.
Moving away from that, the 8GB iPod Touch is the same price as the DSi (150GBP) and offers the same feature set (give or take the ability to make phone calls) as the iPhone. There's also a lot of in-depth games available above and beyond the "casual flash" stuff most people tend to associate with the iPhone.
Perhaps ironically, the main reason why the DS is likely to remain competitive is because the App Store has such a high churn and volume of titles: by comparison, the "walled garden" game approval mechanism on the DS and Nintendo's strong brand recognition helps to provide more consistent (not necessarily higher!) quality and experience. On the other hand, with many games on the App Store being free or less than $3, there's a huge economic incentive to switch to an iDevice.
Admittedly, there's also the control factor: Steve Jobs is unlikely to approve adding a joypad to the iPhone anytime soon!