I think Nintendo's days as a hardware company are numbered. Handhelds were the last area they had a commanding lead over the opposition, and the PSP has blown that to hell. I have four friends, two of whom have never owned any dedicated video-gaming system, who bought the PSP within a week of release.
This is what concerns me about Nintendo. They're sitting still, keeping to their own ways. Meanwhile, the video game market is evolving. More and more gamers don't WANT innovative and creative games anymore. All they care about is having super duper photo-like graphics and a machine that does everything from play movies to cook chicken. I won't say that Nintendo is serving a niche of the market, but it certainly can be said in a way similar to that.
Marketing is another big thing Nintendo doesn't seem to get. Reggie and the DS commercials were a step in the right direction, but it's still not enough. An example would be the PSP release. Nintendo has the technology to compete with Sony's handheld. I believe it is called Game Boy Player, or something like that. It was released in Japan in February. What does it do? It's a game cartridges with a memory slot that let's the GBA play movies and MP3s. Nintendo could have imported it to the US and run commercials showing it off. Think $150 price for DS plus $50 for the Player and you've got a lot of the PSP's strong features for $50 less. Not only that, but that's not taking into account that it can be used on a $70 GBA.
Instead, Nintendo decides to get into the MP3 player "small size owns" craze. They develop the GB Micro. That's great and all, but who wants to buy a Game Boy when one can get the DS which is better and is backwards compatible? Doesn't make sense to me. But if Nintendo is smart, they can use the GB Player with the Micro and create an ad campaign for that. Say $100 for the Micro, $50 for the GB Player. Now you've got a nice small MP3/movie player. It's not to late to put a plan like this into action. But I have my doubts that Nintendo will do it.
Don't expect AAC support from iPod competitors any time soon. If another company puts support for it in their player, I believe Apple can sue or demand money. Of course, Apple would never give permission to allow use of the file format in other players as it takes away a nice feature of their precious iPod.
Slashdot Mirror
I think Nintendo's days as a hardware company are numbered. Handhelds were the last area they had a commanding lead over the opposition, and the PSP has blown that to hell. I have four friends, two of whom have never owned any dedicated video-gaming system, who bought the PSP within a week of release.
This is what concerns me about Nintendo. They're sitting still, keeping to their own ways. Meanwhile, the video game market is evolving. More and more gamers don't WANT innovative and creative games anymore. All they care about is having super duper photo-like graphics and a machine that does everything from play movies to cook chicken. I won't say that Nintendo is serving a niche of the market, but it certainly can be said in a way similar to that.
Marketing is another big thing Nintendo doesn't seem to get. Reggie and the DS commercials were a step in the right direction, but it's still not enough. An example would be the PSP release. Nintendo has the technology to compete with Sony's handheld. I believe it is called Game Boy Player, or something like that. It was released in Japan in February. What does it do? It's a game cartridges with a memory slot that let's the GBA play movies and MP3s. Nintendo could have imported it to the US and run commercials showing it off. Think $150 price for DS plus $50 for the Player and you've got a lot of the PSP's strong features for $50 less. Not only that, but that's not taking into account that it can be used on a $70 GBA.
Instead, Nintendo decides to get into the MP3 player "small size owns" craze. They develop the GB Micro. That's great and all, but who wants to buy a Game Boy when one can get the DS which is better and is backwards compatible? Doesn't make sense to me. But if Nintendo is smart, they can use the GB Player with the Micro and create an ad campaign for that. Say $100 for the Micro, $50 for the GB Player. Now you've got a nice small MP3/movie player. It's not to late to put a plan like this into action. But I have my doubts that Nintendo will do it.
*Bangs head on table repeatedly* Stupid port 8090. Of course, the link still won't work because the page has already been /.ed
http://www.techjapan.com.nyud.net:8090/modules.php ?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=772
When will posters/editors learn to use Coral P2P cache? Come on guys it's not that hard. All you have to do is add .nyud.net:8090 to the base URL. Look I'll even do it for you:
http://www.techjapan.com.nyud.net/modules.php?op=m odload&name=News&file=article&sid=772
Don't expect AAC support from iPod competitors any time soon. If another company puts support for it in their player, I believe Apple can sue or demand money. Of course, Apple would never give permission to allow use of the file format in other players as it takes away a nice feature of their precious iPod.