Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo Co., is a self-proclaimed Apple Inc. fan. He carries an iPhone and uses a Mac laptop. So when Mr. Iwata says Nintendo and Apple aren’t competitors, he should know what he’s talking about.
At its media event in early September, Apple threw down the gauntlet to Nintendo Co. and Sony Corp. Dedicated gaming gadgets like the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable “seemed so cool,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing, but “they don’t stack up against the iPod touch.”
When Nintendo’s top brass gathered in Tokyo to speak to analysts Friday, they admitted they had been caught off-guard by the slowdown in Wii demand.
To the dismay of analysts and fans, they did not announce a new Wii console, as some had hoped, or a revolutionary new game.
Videogame publishers, pushing to expand their businesses, are making games that target girls and women a new industry battleground.
This holiday season, more games than ever are being geared toward female players. Electronic Arts Inc. is releasing the latest installment of its “Littlest Pet Shop” game for young girls and introducing a series of fashion-themed games called “Charm Girls Club” for older girls later this month.
Nintendo’s Wii has outsold rival game consoles. Now a new study says it also outlasts them.
The study by SquareTrade, an independent provider of warranties on electronics, estimates that 2.7 percent of Wiis fail during the first two years of ownership, compared with a 10 percent failure rate over that period for Sony’s PlayStation 3 and a 23.7 percent failure rate for Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
U.S. sales of video game hardware, software and accessories were down 23 percent in May to $863.3 million, according to market research firm NPD. It was the first month with sales under $1 billion since August 2007.
Satoru Iwata is not your typical Japanese company president.
Let’s just admit it: the Nintendo people are total geniuses.
Every year, the annual E3 videogame expo kicks off with media briefings by the three console makers: Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. The trio vie to get the most buzz for their games and products by trying to one-up each other with the most entertaining, star-studded show they can muster up.
Netbooks are hot. Intel estimates that the laptops–which can cost less than $300–sold faster in their first 12 months on the market than Apple’s iPhone or Nintendo’s Wii game console did. Could a similar low-end niche emerge in server systems?
It’s too early to tell, but there are some tantalizing signs–and some big ramifications if the trend takes hold.
Here’s a puzzle: Why does Nintendo expect dramatically fewer software titles to sell for its Wii and DS game machines this year?
This morning, Tokyo time, the company announced results for its fiscal year ended in March that were a little bit better than expected thanks to the strength of the Japanese Yen.
While much of the tech sector has fallen on hard times during the recession, the videogame industry has thrived, as penny-pinching consumers look for lower-cost entertainment. Why go out when a family of four can buy a videogame and get 50 hours of entertainment out of it?
Has Nintendo run out of new levels to play?
Deutsche Bank analyst Satoru Kikuchi this morning launched coverage of the videogame company with a Sell rating, asserting that profits are likely to “peak and decline after growing on the success of the Wii and the DS.” He asserts that earnings could “return to past levels if the company fails to come up with new blockbuster platforms.”
After a decade of experimentation, companies have yet to find a reliable way to burnish their brands online. Former Madison Avenue hotshot Matt Freeman aims to change all that.
The technology sector, already rocked by the credit crunch and slowing global economies, is facing a bleak 2009, the impact of which is going to be felt across the entire ecosystem. From PC makers to chipmakers to chip equipment makers, almost everyone is bracing for a stomach-churning ride.
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