Nintendo's Iwata muses about Kindle-like business model for future handheld
By Donald Melanson 
posted Oct 30th 2009 8:30PM
posted Oct 30th 2009 8:30PM
You may simply be able to chalk this one up to some freewheeling speculation and rumination, but Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata went pretty far out on a limb in talking about the future of the company during a recent sit-down with the Financial Times, and indicated that Nintendo may just be looking outside the gaming industry for a little inspiration. Apparently, Iwata is intrigued by the Kindle "because it's a new business model in which the user doesn't bear the communications cost," which he says wouldn't "fit Nintendo customers because we make amusement products." He did go on to note though, that "in reality, if we did this it would increase the cost of the hardware, and customers would complain about Nintendo putting prices up," but said that "it is one option for the future." At the same time, however, Iwata also seemingly downplayed the short-term potential for download-only games, saying that he thinks "it will take quite a long time" for the industry to shift to them -- although he did hedge his bets somewhat by pointing out how unpredictable the games business is. [Via Electronista]
Meanwhile, modelling off the iTunes Store didn't roll over so well did it, Iwata?
Headline should have been "Nintendo's Iwata muses about PSP Go-like business model for future handheld"
Headline should have been "Nintendo's Iwata copies hairstyle of Long Duck Dong"
The only thing I get is he isn't revealing anything they already have planned, or he was drunk from all the champagne baths he takes for making his company a few billions in profits.
I don't think the shift to download-only games will take that long. Only as long as it takes console makers to allow it. If that format takes off, and consoles don't provide that feature, they could end up suffering.
Retailers have the saying, not game companies, many chains are not carrying the PSP Go because they can't sell games As the Wii shows, games and accessories make retailers carry your products and display them over others.
Sneaky sneaky. Well at least you guys put this article back up :)
Hmmmm,
Maybe Iwata needs to search outside in other country game market...
Try http://www.zeebo.com.br, here at Brazil!
its a similar idea yes, but the big problem is that like the Kindle, Zeebo games are a small download, they are mostly cellphone games that take mostly a few megabytes. DS games can be in the hundreds of megabytes and obviously if this was a future system, even more, and eventually you may want WAN multiplayer, so essentially there will be a large data bill that Nintendo would have to foot under this model, especially in the American market where data is slow and expensive compared to Europe and Japan
I'm sure their afraid of console that's less powerful then the zune hd...
Nice haircut.
What about the mobile market?
You are 100% right John!
I was talking about the idea, but obviously that a lot of difficults exist.
I think that, for something like $150 (Zeebos price in Brazil, where the industrial taxes are very high. A Nintendo Wii here is $550) its a good idea and in a specific market, not running with Wii and others.
And you are right about the data bill, here in Brazil its very expensive too!!!
Yeah, like Nintendo cares if the consumer complains about the cost of the hardware. Nintendo is already selling a very expensive console(Wii) taking into account how old the technology is.......
What i got from this is that Iwata is interested in the idea of having a higher MSRP on a product instead of making customers pay for a monthly service. the first thing that came to my mind was a next generation handheld with 3G (or maybe even 4G) without being billed monthly, which would allow for online gaming and connectivity just about anywhere where there is civilization
So is this like the already existing psn store for the Psp\Psp GO! where almost anyone can make psp mini games? why not make the rules for wiiware more lax and alow more devs to get in.
I for one will stay with the psp.
you can't out-Apple Apple. Sadly, these guys are going to be tormented by the 199 iPod touch for a looooooong time....
I think this guy is a complete douche bag
Apple has already showed how well downloadable games are. The tech is here baby! Fuck him. The baddest game I've downloaded from the app store was Hero Of Sparta. That game is freaking awesome. the 3D animation is on par with the psp version of God Of War. Homey is just nervous that his beloved Gameboy(low rent plastic babysitter) is about to get owned and his business model is on the verge of destruction.
Have you got Dungeon Hunter yet? That game is siiiiiiiiiiiiick
The iphone will not replace gameboys anytime soon.
1) Most iphone games are short min-game style games where as gameboy games have much more depth. Sure iphone games tend to be cheaper but the entertainment value per dollar spent is grater with gameboy games.
2) Gameboys can be played for up to 19 hrs straight on one charge, perfect for long trips, the iphone does not even come close to that.
3) You wont get yelled at by flight attendants for whipping out a gameboy, I have been yelled at for turning on a phone even though it was in airplane mode.
4) There are a lot of people who either do not want to go with AT&T or cant go to AT&T. Sure you can get an unlocked iphone but the pricepoint is MUCH higher than what a gameboy would be. If apple starts selling to other carriers they will loose the exclusivity subsidy so the iphone will cost more.
5) Not everyone wants an iphone. Many people use their work cell phones, many others use their phones for texting/emailing and want keyboards, still others like some of the features of the blackberry, android, and even the garmin phone better. Still others just want a phone, not a converged device, and then there are people who do not use cell phones at all.
6) Most people are not going to buy their small children iphones.
7) Nintendo has the strongest lineup of first party games which will never be found on another console/phone.
The last I checked the iphone (all variations combined) has only sold about 5 million units, the DS has sold about 55 million units, and the PSP has sold about 30 million units. Sure it put a dent in nintendos sales but it is not even close to being a serious threat. Even if it was available on every network world wide, they would maybe, sell about 15 million. Even still, that probably wont hurt nintendo much because many people would still buy a gameboy for the reasons mentioned above.
The hair is not real.
STOP BEING AWFUL. MAKE GAMES. NOT MORE BRAIN TRAINING/CASUAL SHIT, GAMES.
Yeah I'd love that. If Nintendo built a pocket e-book reader like for $199 CAN it would sell because:
1) Amazon Kindle storage is too small.
2) Amazon Kindle is too expensive.
3) Nintendo would add a variety of texts.
4) The Nintendo Kindle-killer texts would have multimedia.
5) The Kindle-killer would use electronic voice.
6) You would get more than 1GB of storage on that thing.
7) It would sync with your DS Lite, DSi or Wii.
8) It would likely appeal to Nintendoists.
9) Microsoft would be ashamed that Nintendo has another killer product.
10) Kindle-killers are better than Kindles.
Although I would say that if Nintendo doesn't manufacture such device, I think that all reasons, probably except 6, would apply.
Iwata is smart, Sony was stupid for completely cutting UMD support to the PSP Go without letting them get refunds for their UMDs, or at least some kind of trade-in download deal.