“The cut is partly to move the DSi line before it sets a 3DS ship date September 29 but has also come about a month after Nintendo revealed that DS sales had plunged in the past year,” iPodNN reports. “With Sony having much smaller market share and its own declines, the drop has been mostly credited to the iPhone and iPod touch, millions of which ship every quarter.”
iPodNN reports, “A September 12 price drop could help create a much needed price gap that keeps some gamers onboard with Nintendo less than two weeks after Apple’s September 1 music event likely brings a new iPod touch.
Full article here.
Sony’s obvious desperation when faced with both superior technology and business model makes me laugh. Ford had the same flawed price cutting strategy to try and extend the life of the Model T. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now. Sony – a company with a great future behind it…
My bad. I said Sony, and it’s Nintendo. I apologize for my error and will try and do better in the future.
Does every woman in Evony land have freakishly large breasts?
As panic sets in, the FUDing minds are hard at work.
Nintendo (and Sony) better start hedging their bets (like Amazon) and create an iPhone/iPod version of the DS/PSP and/or it’s major titles. I’m betting that the iPod 4 (combined with the current iPad) will wipe the floor with any portable gaming rig out there during the next year and completely suck the life out of any developer interest in those platforms.
And even if Nintendo/Sony hold their own this year, Apple upgrades their hardware significantly every year. Sony and Nintendo simply aren’t used to that kind of rapid hardware development for their gaming machines.
Love Apple products but you can’t top Mario when it comes to games. Guess I’m biased since I grew up on Nintendo, but App Store games really don’t interest me. They’re geared more toward the casual gamer IMO without the depth/number of levels of say The New Super Mario Brothers.
I DO think that Nintendo will continue losing market share to Apple in gaming but that they’ll also have a devoted fan base to buy their games based on characters not for license (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc).
Maybe it will force Nintendo to lower prices to the $15-$20 range for these titles instead of $35 and up.
Different style of game play as well.
I prefer physical buttons for most games with touch/gyroscope/accelerometer features being nice add-ons for functionality and unique game play on occasion.
@Big Als MBP
I sure hope so…
Nintendo’s strength has always been in their games. Whenever Nintendo releases a major new game it is guaranteed to see sales of $100 million to $1 billion, like a new Pixar movie. Whenever Nintendo releases new hardware, it’s made specifically for a number of brilliant new game ideas that will hypnotize the masses and are not possible on other platforms.
Remember Sega? They were in the failing games hardware business too and now it’s just the software. It’s a real possibility Nintendo may have to consider creating games for other portable platorms, in particular Apples, and become mostly a software only company. Prior to the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad we didn’t have portable cell phone/Internet/app devices capable of decent gaming. Its a paradigm Nintendo hasn’t had ’til now to compete against. Especially casual gaming which I think is what most people prefer to the XBox and Playstation variety. The convenient gaming device on you too will usually always get the nod.
Smell the fear.
the old school games like Super Mario won’t disappear. they will just fade into permanent modest sales as a “classic.” like Ms. PacMan did from a generation before, which you can still play on computers and your iPod.
as game technology advances significantly every decade or so a new generaiton of hit games emerges to take advantage of it and the previous gen take on that lesser “classic” status. it’s inevitable.
the comment above was very right. Nintendo and Sony need to port their established games to iOS to stretch out their lifetime. and they will – but not yet. first they will make one more round of futile attempts to update their obsolete platforms – the DSI and the PSP. which will fail.
@John E.
Nintendo has nothing to fear in terms of its flagship name (Mario) losing sales. The day Nintendo puts Mario on a non-Nintendo system is the day they just stop making hardware. Despite iOS doing very well, Nintendo is also doing well and they’re not sitting still either, and Mario is still very hot IP – not to be relegated to the “classic” bin. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was a big success, and Nintendo’s other franchises also cause a big stir whenever something is announced.
Nintendo has the 3DS coming soon, which actually does look pretty cool. (Cue snarky comments about eyestrain. Hint: you can turn the 3D effect off or reduce its strength).
I am thrilled to see Apple doing so well in a market it never intended to occupy, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Nintendo is a behemoth of gaming, and, like Apple, they deserve to be on top in their field, because they got there with innovation and style, not just by muscling up their hardware.
Credit where it’s due, gents. Not everyone who is in competition with Apple is a has-been or wanna-be. This is A GOOD THING.
September 12th? And they are announcing this today?
Can you say, “attempting to freeze the market place”?
I knew you could.
Um, there is a typo in the article title. You’ll see it.
There are a fair amount of Final Fantasy games that should satisfy your RPG lust, as well as a new Sonic RPG. Generally I wouldn’t recommend Sonic to anyone, but it was made by Bioware;
http://acaiberryenergy.net
If sony and apple work together, they could set up the PS3 as a media and gaming center at the heart of the living room. at the moment, it is one of the most versatile home entertainment systems available. It has build in Wifi, BluRay, an online netflix connection, and a slick, reasonably friendly interface. It has web capabilities, and acts almost like an iOS device for the living room. I wonder if this is the direction Apple will take the iTV or Apple TV.