Nintendo president Iwata: iPhone? What iPhone?

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata denied claims that the company's new DSi handheld is a response to the iPhone, but the similarities are too strong to ignore.

Nintendo's Iwata: iPhone? What iPhone?

For many homebrew fans, this is considered porn

Comparisons between the Nintendo DSi and Apple's iPhone ran rampant Thursday after the portable was unveiled at the company's Japanese fall press event, but president Satoru Iwata said his company's strategy remains as it always has been.

Put simply, it means Nintendo will continue to compete by not competing with those products at all.

And while Iwata's initial reaction to the iPhone comparison was dismissive, additional comments said otherwise.

"We wanted users to have the device on them at all times," he said in remarks translated by Edge Online. "By downloading subway maps and other things, for instance, the DSi can be useful for applications other than playing games. We wanted to create an offering that would fit naturally into people's everyday lives."

Sound familiar? There's more.

As GamePro reported Thursday, the DSi will even have its own application store, or "App Store" as iPhone and iPod touch users have called theirs since Apple launched it earlier this year. With the DSi Shop, slated to launch with the portable in Japan later this year, Nintendo users will have the ability to download free software and paid DLC.

Similarities be damned, Iwata still maintained the DSi is not a play against either the iPhone or the fledgling PSP. The goals of the new online functionality, audio options and camera have nothing to do with those systems platforms, he said.

DSI Shop threatens GameStop

On a related note, the DSi Shop already has analysts talking about the future of game distribution, and the news is anything but good for stores like GameStop and Best Buy. Customers using the service will be able to download games in about 10 minutes using a broadband connection, according to Nintendo press materials.

In a research note fired off in the wake of the DSi reveal, Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew J. Fassler called the store a "tangible early threat" to big box chains and retailers. The future of digital distribution--from services like Steam, PSN, Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and others--has never been stronger, he seemed to imply.

"While content will be limited at first, we believe it will likely ramp very quickly," Fassler wrote.

All but confirming Fassler's prediction were shares of Best Buy stock, which dropped $2 when the DSi was announced.

The DSi is scheduled to launch in Japan later this year. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime told reporters on Thursday that the DSi will launch in the U.S. "well into" 2009, due to healthy DS lite profits in that region.

Comments [28]

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Toneman

Yeah... why not just call it DS+ or DSmedia or simply DS-FU-DSlite-Owners

ChokaDaChicken

Hell no the DSi ain't no stinkin iPhone , but I still gots ta get me mitts on one of those gems!!!! To bad it don't play Advance games anymore though

jeffstreet

So because you can download games on the DSi, it's copying the iPhone's App Store? What about the Virtual Console and Wii Ware? They pre-date the App Store.

Toneman

If they're going to add new functionality (2nd touch screen) for which new games are only compatible with this new DSi... and lose functionality (GBA slot) that renders Guitar Hero and Arkanoid useless.... then why not release a system with more power and call it DS2 or whatever. THIS IS A DUMB MOVE BY NINTENDO!!! Adding functionality is one thing... but the fact that new DSi games won't work with DS or DS lite is retarded.

ESRB_Hater

The only thing that can help Pretendo save face with with the hardcore gaming crowd concerning the new DSi (and its new capabilities) is almost too horrible to speak of.

What if......

Pretendo does a MMO on this new handheld? It has wifi right? SD storage? 2 touch screens? Hmm........

That is almost too revolutionary an idea. But knowing Pretendo they'll just keep rehashing the same old shovelware or ancient game IPs. Seriously it could work as long as the storylinewas a new IP.

A Mario themed MMO would make us all wanna puke, zelda could work but a new IP would be better.

204314
singlePoster

While the iPhone and the DS do share some similaries, I would hardly call them competing devices. The iPhone does something that the DS doesn't do: makes phone calls. With regards to the ds store, it's just the next logical progression for handhelds, as it was for consoles this generation.

As for the supposed features it would add, such as the ability to download subway maps, I have doubts of this ever coming to fruition here in the states. It's almost surely not going to come to where I live, as public transportation just isn't that popular. Traffic maps might be helpful, but getting a wireless connection anywhere using the DS is very difficult for me. Maybe this would work in New York or Chicago?

ZetaZeta

I want Valve's Steam on Nintendo DS. >:D

Actually, that's what the "DSiWare" will probably hope to achieve, but I'd love if I could access my entire library of DSi store games any time I'm in a WiFi hotspot, regardless which console I'm using. That is, like Steam, I think apps should be tied to account. That way when you register a new DSi, you can load all your games without rebuying them, etc. Is this how WiiWare works? I never read the Terms of Service.

eday_2010

ESRB_Hater wrote:

The only thing that can help Pretendo save face with with the hardcore gaming crowd concerning the new DSi (and its new capabilities) is almost too horrible to speak of.

What if......

Pretendo does a MMO on this new handheld? It has wifi right? SD storage? 2 touch screens? Hmm........

That is almost too revolutionary an idea. But knowing Pretendo they'll just keep rehashing the same old shovelware or ancient game IPs. Seriously it could work as long as the storylinewas a new IP.

A Mario themed MMO would make us all wanna puke, zelda could work but a new IP would be better.

Ya know, you "hardcore" gamers are not nearly as important to the industry as you seem to think you are. And what makes someone a "hardcore" gamer? The fact they do nothing with their spare time than play games? That they only play first person shooters or dark games? That they only like games if the graphics are up to a certain standard? That they can't enjoy a game that doesn't involve violence of some sort or overly complicated button configurations?

Nintendo has not paid a whole lot of attention to the so-called "hardcore" gamer, and it hasn't hurt them at all. They're destroying the competition, their systems fly off the shelves, and they are making piles of money. There are a lot of crappy shovelware and just plain lame games for the Wii and to an extent the DS because people are buying them. And chances are that you "hardcore" gamers are a minority to these other gamers who like the more casual games.

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