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Nintendo considering Amazon Kindle-like service for DS
- November 01, 2009 09:11 AM PST
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Nintendo is considering an always-on 3G Internet connection for the Nintendo DS similar to that found on Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader. The initiative would require increasing the retail price of the DS to cover the connection costs. Would you pay more for the convenience?
In an interview with the UK's Financial Times (registration required to read) newspaper Nintendo president Satoru Iwata states that the company is interested in exploring an "Amazon Kindle" like service for the future of the Nintendo DS. "I'm interested because it's a new business model in which the user doesn't bear the communications cost," he said.
Amazon's Kindle portable reader connects to a mobile 3G service to download new books, but the service is included in the device's price and is not billed as a monthly subscription. Iwata's thoughts on the subject could highlight a possible tactic that the company may take to counter Apple's iPhone and Sony's PSP Go with their rapidly expanding online app stores. The future of mobile gaming is quickly revealing itself to be based on always-on connections to vast libraries of available content.
"Only people who can pay thousands of yen a month [in mobile phone subscriptions] can be iPhone customers," Iwata told the FT. "That doesn't fit Nintendo customers because we make amusement products." The Kindle's upfront price would better suit Nintendo's customers, he explained. "In reality, if we did this it would increase the cost of the hardware, and customers would complain about Nintendo putting prices up, but it is one option for the future."
When pressed on when he felt that digital distribution would dominate the games market, Iwata was typically conservative, much as he has been in regard to previous online initiatives. "I think it will take quite a long time," he said. Given the speed at which the concept is evolving on other platforms, and Nintendo's previous reluctance to embrace online initiatives, this perspective may count against him, especially in light of the slowing of Wii and DS sales highlighted in the company's recent financial results.
Would you pay more for an always-on 3G Internet connection in your DS? How much would you be prepared to pay? A Kindle currently costs $259 for the device with it's included service, making it just $10 more than a PSP Go - does that strike you as too much for a connected handheld? Or would you happily pay for the convenience? Let us know in the comments below.
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- Nov 01 2009 at 08:20:25:AM PST
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Sayin how this is Nintendo, people will buy any garbage they release
so i'm guessin all the fools with a Wii or DS wont cry about this
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Damn htown, I was thinking the same thing!!! Except I be buying the garbage for my daughter.
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Sony really missed out by not trying something this bold with the PSP Go - it could have really differentiated the platform, proven just how dedicated they are to their new digital initiative and helped justify the price of the device. Instead they went half way, and seem to be confusing some consumers with what the device is supposed to represent. Sadly, it seems that Nintendo is still hedging on doing something like this. If they want to take on the iPhone/iPod Touch, they need something in the download space that's easy to use and ubiquitous.
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Pretendo needs to focus on making games. Iwata just said that they blew it by not having enough games, so the momentum of the wii cooled.
They need to pull their heads out of their asses and listen to their fans, instead of trying to find new ways to get the fans to buy shit.
Instead of having third parties make a single "core/mature" game, why don't they make a first party "core/mature" game. They need to stop pandering to the casual and for Godsake stop teasing the next Zelda/Mario/Metroid/Ancient IP Cash Cow and effing make a new game.
For a company that claims innovation, Pretendo sure has a huge stable of games based off of franchises that were concieved in the 80s.
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ESRB_Hater wrote:
Pretendo needs to focus on making games. Iwata just said that they blew it by not having enough games, so the momentum of the wii cooled.They need to pull their heads out of their asses and listen to their fans, instead of trying to find new ways to get the fans to buy shit.
Instead of having third parties make a single "core/mature" game, why don't they make a first party "core/mature" game. They need to stop pandering to the casual and for Godsake stop teasing the next Zelda/Mario/Metroid/Ancient IP Cash Cow and effing make a new game.
For a company that claims innovation, Pretendo sure has a huge stable of games based off of franchises that were concieved in the 80s.
Pretendo doesn't make sense. I mean I understand M$ for Microsoft because of the money they have, but Pretendo just sounds like a random word that sounds like Nintendo. It makes as much sense as calling it Extendo, Chickendo.
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ChokaDaChicken wrote:
Damn htown, I was thinking the same thing!!! Except I be buying the garbage for my daughter.
If it was any other company they would be get backlash
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Pretendo doesn't make sense. I mean I understand M$ for Microsoft because of the money they have, but Pretendo just sounds like a random word that sounds like Nintendo. It makes as much sense as calling it Extendo, Chickendo.
I call them pretendo because they pretend to listen to the fans, they pretend to be the next thing. Yes the motion controls are innovative, too bad you have to buy a peripheral to get them to work right.
Aside from wii sports, Pretendo has been a big disappointment.
Pretendo said that next gen graphics were not a must have.......Im calling bullshit.....I am a straight up PC gamer and all 3 of my PCs have DX10 graphics cards, dual core processors and at least 2 gigs of ram. Granted, I don't just game on my PCs all the time but when I do I prefer Dos Eqquis.
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Subscriptions can be annoying, but there's a reason they're so common now... In the short run, they're cheaper for customers and its easier for a company to adjust the price to fit the cost. I wouldn't mind paying a one-time fee to activate a service, but I don't think it'd be fair to include that cost in the price of the hardware.
Pretendo said that next gen graphics were not a must have.......Im calling bullshit.....I am a straight up PC gamer and all 3 of my PCs have DX10 graphics cards, dual core processors and at least 2 gigs of ram. Granted, I don't just game on my PCs all the time but when I do I prefer Dos Eqquis.
Nintendo isn't "pretending" to do anything. They simply have a different perspective of what gamers want because they have a different customer base than Sony or Microsoft... one that doesn't care enough about cutting-edge graphics and sound to pay hundreds of extra dollars on a console.
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